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This article is all about what America is today, and how it compares to the rest of the world. And for centuries there has been this non-stop promotion of the idea that “Americans have a far better life than anyone else in the world”. And Americans believe this. It is at best an exaggeration, and at worst a violent canard. As all the rest of the world is kept hidden from them.
My first exposure to this reality occurred when I started work related international travel back in the late 1980’s.
I was amazed that my colleagues in Australia were doing far, far, FAR better than I was. They had better medical, better housing, lived in a better city, had a better salary, free company car, much, much better employee perks and so on and so forth.
At that time I was living in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I loved it. I loved the deep South, and the local foods were just wonderful.
Mississippi
I was living in a mobile home, as I didn’t have enough money to afford a proper brick and mortar home.
And when I met my colleagues from across the world I was astounded.I was working in Sydney, Australia at the time. And Australia is indeed very beautiful.
Residential Australia.
Not one of them had experienced a layoff, a company restructuring, or a slash and fire “resizing”. They never had to scramble to earn money, only to be unemployed without notice. And so they saved their money. It was easy to do since they weren’t taxed as severely as us Americans were.
Not to mention that they had a kind of lifestyle that I couldn’t even dream about. Like company beer in the office refrigerators. Nude pictures of girlfriends on their desks. Girlie calendars on the walls, the ability to wear tee-shits and jeans to work instead of the shirt and tie ensemble that I had grown accustomed to.
Sydney, Australia.
They could smoke at their desks, drink alcohol during lunch, got free coffee and snacks at their office, and were permitted to speak without having to use politically correct language.
I had to beg to take my yearly one week vacation, and it had to be justified in a form, with approvals from my boss and the group VP. While my equivalent; a project design engineer named Richard got an eight week vacation every year, that accrues over time. He (at that time) now was planning a trip around the world with his five months of accrued vacation.
You know, I would tell my colleagues back in the States about what it was like, and they would give me a “knowing look”, nod their heads politely and tell me “well you know the grass is always greener somewhere else“.
They didn’t “get it”. Things were not just different. They were BETTER. And not just a little bit better, either, but a heck of a lot better.
If an Australian was laid off, something that rarely happened, they got like 80% of their salary for (potentially) years afterwards. Which made a $98 / week Mississippi unemployment allotment for 36 weeks look like “spare change”.
But you would never hear about that in America don’t you know. Everybody “knows” that America is free™, exceptional™, and has democracy™.
Woo woo!
I will tell you that the rest of the world has changed since the 1980's. My understanding of Australia is that during the Bill Clinton and the Barrack Obama years, the Australians embraced American culture. And has since adopted a zero tolerance for cigarettes, a new "woke" society, and all sorts of restrictions on lifestyle and behavior. No where is that more evident than with the current Morrison regime. Australia has turned into a "mini" America.
And since no one is aware of what the world is like outside of America, you end up seeing remarks like this yahoo from my morning feed…
Curious how his job title is “institutional skeptic” instead of “unemployed loser troll”.
Ah. I am so sure that he is doing well, and so very happy to be living in the “land of the free” with all of his delicious and scrumptious democracy™.
What irritates me is his absolute ignorance.
But one day, when he reaches his mid 40’s he’s going to wake up and realize that he’s been living a lie.
There are truths and then there are truths.
The truth about the United States.
The truth is there, but unless you LEAVE the United States you will never see it. Because Americans are trapped in a prison; a cage full of fear of the dark, dark world outside.
And you cannot rely on the internet. All American internet is enraptured with painting the forever picture and image of America is the greatest! And (put the current villainized nation name here) is the absolute worst and they must be destroyed ruthlessly!
(Sigh)
Now for centuries the United States has changed into the corrupted, mess of a monster that it is today. And it is a monster.
When it was first created back in 1776, it was a Republic for freedom! That lasted about 18 years. The wealthy at that time seized control of the nation and changed it into a democracy so that it would be mob rule where their manipulations would be able to control the mobs.
That’s a fact Jack.
And of course, just as Mr. Hamilton, and other other founders warned, it became an oligarchy. Which is the historical norm.
Republics tend to turn into democracies as that the only way that the wealthy can control the society, and it is in the very nature of man to do so.
And America, which somehow managed to pass by the pitchforks and lynching stage became a full-on military empire. It is the largest military empire in history. Not just in destructive ability, but in spending, global reach, technology, active participative wars, and casualty figures.
And as a military empire, it converted the American population into debt serfs to service the oligarchy. As it is the nature of all military empires.
All of them.
Don’t believe me? Name one military empire that didn’t abuse their civilian population in this manner.
The entire structure of the United States was revamped into a zillion tiny, tiny hands in your wallets, zero legal protections, or Rights, and a two tied justice system. One which served the oligarchy and their minions, while the other, a very harsh and fierce one that served their slave serfs.
The oligarchy spent the time and resources necessary to try to expand their influence and their accumulation of wealth. They set up wealth generation activities everywhere, and became near God-like in their fantastic accumulations of power. And they performed scorched earth activities on those that served them.
They addicted the entire nation of China in the start of the last century where everyone was addicted to opium. This persisted until the Boxer rebellion where China put it’s collective feet down and threw the bastards out.
America today now resembles the shambles of what China was once the oligarchy looted, raped and abused it. And what you see in America today is all the evidence that you need to see that CHANGE must occur. Because America is in the toilet right now and it is getting worse.
America needs…
…requires…
…CHANGE.
And here we take a look at the massive decay inside of America today. There is nothing outside of America that resembles this. The closest, perhaps, is 1950’s Calcutta.
You should watch some of the videos on YouTube showing what life is like now in various American cities. It’s really much worse than anything that has ever happened in the entire history of the world.
It’s definitely much worse than anything that is going on in the third world.
Here’s a recent drive through Philadelphia.
It’s a rough scene. Worse than anything we saw in San Francisco, pre-covid.
CharlieBo313 is a black guy on YouTube who goes through various black hoods and projects across the country and talks to people.
Here’s a video compilation of all the blacks that pulled out guns on camera when he was in Chicago.
That one is just short. You watch that video and you get nervous, like them niggas about to jump out the screen at you.
That is some straight up hardcore jungle stuff right there.
Not one of them was worried about being on video, and if you watch these videos, you’ll see a bunch of them shouting out their links. They are not afraid of anything. There is no law that can contain them. No police that they need to answer to. No leaders of government that can restrain them.
This is utter and complete lawlessness, right in the middle of all of our cities, and the media just isn’t talking about any of it.
Here’s a hood in Birmingham, Alabama. Short video. They’re all shouting out their Facebooks and Instagrams.
Just watch these blacks. These blacks are hardcore.
Now, imagine that they were unleashed from these areas onto white-collar suburbia.
Just this week, CharlieBo went to Ohio and posted a video from Toledo. I’m excited to see his videos in Columbus hoods, and maybe I can show some people from where I’m from what is about to be unleashed on them.
This is literally a situation like in The Lord of the Rings, where Sauron gathers his hordes in Mordor and prepares to unleash them. They have taken any restraints off of these urban ethnic blacks, and now they’re pumping them up. Enough of these youths just want to loot and burn and kill and rape that if they get unleashed on the rest of society, there is going to be no ability to contain the mayhem.
(Of course, the military will probably come in and contain it, then you’ll end up permanently occupied by the military.)
Obviously, it’s easy to say something like “Iraq is safer than Chicago,” or some other slogan. But I think people don’t understand really just how bad these American cities are getting, primarily because it isn’t really on the media.
The media sometimes gives statistics about shootings or violent crimes, but they very rarely show the actual footage. This stuff is just unbelievable. Truly.
The really unbelievable part is that most of this has developed since the beginning of the pandemic. Before that, it was mostly isolated to violent areas of Chicago, or drug-riddled areas of California. But with the pandemic taking over the economy and putting many people on drugs, and the cops pulling out of black neighborhoods as a result of BLM, it’s now just completely outrageous all across the country.
No serious country would allow this to happen, and no other country on earth allows this to happen. You can think of third world countries as being poor and dangerous, but the reality is, if you went there, you would mostly feel safe, and you absolutely would not see scenes of drug addicts shooting up and walking around naked on main throughways.
If a third world country had a scene of these blacks with their guns out like this, they would have them isolated by cops, to ensure the safety of the rest of the population.
The United States has already descended into hell, and they are hiding this fact from normal, middle class people by pumping them with fear about leaving their homes, restricting their movement, and refusing to show what is happening on TV.
You literally have no idea how bad things really are.
None.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
It’s everywhere. It’s not confined to the cities. Here’s some of the rural sections of America….
No jobs. No careers. No hope.
Living off drugs, both illegal and prescribed.
Getting by. Some robbing others. Some bartering. Some just making do.
This society is NOT one worth preserving. It needs to be destroyed and replaced with something better. Anything better. And it needs to happen soon.
And yet, some decry… “that’s not MY America. It’s not all THAT bad.”
So for fair balance, here’s some further pictures of what America is for the 85% of the bulk of Americans…
Typical American highway.Closed box stores.
Shut down malls…
More deserted malls…
Malls took over from the downtowns all over America. Then they were left abandoned.
Yes. Many small towns collapsed as the local stores couldn’t compete against the malls. And thus not only did the small towns die, but when the malls died, there was nothing left. People stayed in their homes.
The remains of America’s small towns.
Of course, there would be hope if there was some industry. But industry in America is few and far between. Most left the Untied States and “off shored” for larger profits.
American factory.Donald Trump and Joe Biden both promised to “revise” American industry. But you know, it’s not as easy a flicking a switch.Another great example of American exceptionalism.
The fact is that America; The United States is dying and it is in it’s last death throes. It is collapsing from many many ills, and the leadership are like the band playing happy music as the ship Titanic sinks into the cold wet sea.
It is almost at the point where the death rattles and the death spasms will occur.
That’s the frightening part.
That’s when the urban youth start to get hungry and leave their urban enclaves. That’s when supply lines and retail stores break down. That’s when the military desperately lashes out to other nations. That’s when unpredictable events start to occur with regularity.
That’s when you and yours have best be prepared.
Be part of your community.
Be a helpful understanding Rufus.
Have a skill that makes you useful.
Have a supply of food, a garden, and wood / coal.
Know and be part of a community watch / militia / police.
Have a bicycle.
Take care. Do your affirmations. And control your life.
Do not be afraid of what MIGHT occur. You are in control of what is going on right NOW. Make it worth while, and if you handle your life well now, then any problems that MIGHT occur in the future can be well taken cared for.
Oh, and what do I mean about being a Rufus? I mean this…
For those nations that want to grow and be prosperous, successful and maintain healthy happy families… be like China. Don’t follow the evil, greedy, selfish model that the United States presents. It will take you in, and strangle you until you are just a crusty old hulk.
Be the Rufus.
Make a difference.
Think on your own personal lives, friends, and community. Together we are STRONG.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Lately I have been musing about the mandatory mRNA vaccinations that are now required all over the West. What was considered radical just a few months ago has been normalized by a massive propaganda campaign and mandated by executive order an law.
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While I don’t want to join the fray and armies of the anti-Vaxx people, I do want to throw some of my opinions into this mix.
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As you all know, I live in China and everyone is getting their vaccination injections. It’s free, and no one is raising any concern. The reason is, of course, that [1] everyone trusts the Chinese government, and [2] the vaccine is based on a “dead host” which is the well known, well documented, “tried and true” method of inoculating people from virus strains. And, of course, [3] the Coronavirus is a rapidly mutating bio-weapon thrown at China in 2019 CNY by Trump / Bolton. Being in China, you see how serious all of this is.
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Now, I do not know why America and the rest of the West are so adamant in everyone getting an “experimental” mRNA vaccination instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine. It seems all to “hush hush”. And I have long learned never to trust the United States government. So it is worrisome.
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When the USA government makes a law, drums up a media narrative for it, and then suppresses alternative viewpoints, every alarm bell should be going off in your head.
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I have speculated that all of this is because they want to “piggy back” some other system with the vaccine. Maybe [1] an inoculation about a bio-weapon that the USA has yet to launch. Or perhaps [2], a way of countering radiation from a nuclear war. Or, [3] even such things as mind control and tracking nano-chips are in the list of “anything is possible”. But the truth is I, and no-one else knows.
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But that is not what this article is about. This is about something else.
The need for mRNA booster injections
By most accounts, this mRNA vaccine is part of a system of never-ending yearly or quarterly injections. These injections will suppress whatever mutation of Coronavirus might arise, as well as perhaps other systems that emerge over time. And on paper it might look ok.
[1] The stockholders in big-pharma would be happy to have a captive audience that needs to pay for yearly or quarterly booster injections or suffer government mandated obsolesce.
[2] With everything taking these yearly (or quarterly) boosters, it will become normal and expected. Just like the American Federal Income Tax forms are every April. And once the cattle people become accustomed to it, changes can be made to the ingredients, and alterations can be made for other purposes.
But let me suggest a downside.
The Big Assumptions
There are assumptions made, and these assumption assume a very steady-state non-changing reality. And that simply is not true. History tells us otherwise.
The big assumptions are…
That the (various) government will enforce mandatory booster injections.
That the factories can easily adapt to a changing viral environment and create boosters based on the mRNA models faster and better than the “dead host” model.
That people will comply with getting the boosters.
So far, all of these assumptions are given in every discussion about the benefits of the mRNA vaccination.
That the mRNA boosters, working with mass inoculations will create a herd immunity against any virus strains that the government deems threatening.
That the government can pay for the boosters, the R&D, and all the support systems necessary.
These two points are always assumed, and taken as “givens”. But they shouldn’t really be.
That over time, people will elect to pay for the boosters out of their own pockets.
This assumption is based on the Federal Income Tax model; also known as the “boiling frog technique” to manage sheeple compliance.
That the companies will always have factories to produce these boosters without interruption….
The last point is what I find frightening
No one is talking about this.
And they SHOULD.
Stocks plummeted this week.
Investors are terrified.
And Morgan Stanley just announced that a “20% drop in the S&P 500” could happen any moment.
If you're a student of history, you likely recognize the signs.
And it's time to prepare for a market moment that could define your wealth for the next decade.
A small group of U.S. investors are in line to receive advance notice of the exact day of the next market crash.
Regards,
Keith Kaplan
CEO, TradeSmith
I get these doom and gloom email notices all the time. After a while you shut them off. I mean you can only take the bullshit so long.
But you know…
The USA national debt is fucking enormous. That’s what happens when you make and earn money from nothing. It has become a big mountain of nothing. Yah. It’s hollow inside, but everyone is living off this mountain, and it will pop. It really will. Nothing lasts forever.
But there are other things going on as well.
Suppose that America has finally done “it”. Whether they “false flag” an event, launch a provocation, or just implement a full on nuclear WMD on China,, the results will be the same. They will royally piss off both Russia and China, and a full-scale WMD holocaust will be unleashed in the United States.
It will not be pretty.
A destroyed America.
We will have cites destroyed. Electrical systems destroyed. EMP bursts that render all computers, and internet, not to mentions all vehicles into slag. And in the middle of this, when starvation begins to beset the land, and crime is rampant and it’s every man for himself…
… how in God’s name are the booster injections going to be made, distributed and paid for?
How?
And when those people in a SHTF situation, hiding in their houses, and trying to figure out how get some food…
Food will be difficult to get.
…suddenly find themselves with a really bad chest cold. Not a flu. Not a Coronavirus, but a Covid Zelda variant.
What then?
People!
War is not something that you watch on television or check your news feed over. It’s not going to be fought in a “far away” land like the South China Sea, or Australia. Or Japan, or Korea.
Everyone inside the United States will experience it.
Just like they are experiencing the blow-back from the John Bolton / Donald Trump launch of three bio-weapons WMD on the busiest holiday in China. Who’s fucking laughing now, dipshits?
If the USA instigates a war, whether it is with China or Russia, the battlefield will be on American soil.
Not in Taiwan.
Not in the South China Sea.
Not on Australian soil
It will be in America…
Dog eat dog world.
Oh. Some battles will be on, near and on the territories of the USA proxies, but both Russia and China are not, NOT stupid. They are not going to waste their times and effort on the pawns. They will go after the Kings and Queens and will attempt a very quick checkmate.
How many destroyed cities will it takes before the USA surrenders?
One? Five? ten?
Twenty?
Forty?
Fifty?
I’m betting that it will be around 35.
And with America a blaze in a nuclear winter… So tell me, what’s going to happen to those who need mRNA boosters? Are they going to run off to the local hospitals for a booster?
A crushed America.
And just where are the boosters going to be made with the vast majority of the pharmacy supply sources inside the biggest cities? And even if a city was spared, how are the medicines going to be made without power, electricity and every single computer system fired into slag?
Of course, it’s important (for the oligarchy) that you do not see the entire picture…
Back in 2012, living in China, I was also such a (western) “News” addict.
I then did an experiment:
During > 2 months, I deliberately didn’t watch western TV, didn’t went to any western news website, didn’t listened to western radio stations.
I only watched Chinese TV (various TV stations) only read Chinese newspapers and Chinese online news sources
What a revelation ! What a relief that was ! What a peaceful, healthy life !
-[Redacted]
Right? So there is a major media push to keep the “rabble” (that’s me and you, bub) in line. Don’t question anything. If you do, you will be censored. You know… for “a matter of national security”. And so on and so forth.
Let me tell you a few things about the media…
See below. All credit to the author who shall remain anonymous. You know who you are, don't you? It's a great piece.
Here is a thought- provoking dialogue between the gorgeous Li JingJing & the awesome Vijay Prashad. I would like also to name Michel Collon, a French-speaking Belgian reporter & geopolitical analyst having written on the 5 principles of war propaganda.
Coined by others, not by me, an acronym to remember them easily : M.E.D.I.A.
MONOPOLIZE
“M” as in MONOPOLIZE THE DEBATE.
This can be done by saturating the media landscape (written, cable TV, online) with presstitutes.
Also by restricting the allowed topics and last but not least, by restricting the range of permissible or legit answers (You all know the Overton window) Here some structural factors of the human nature help tremendously the manipulators.
Stages 1 & 2 of the Maslow Pyramid are basic needs (survival) and physical safety.
The third stage being psychological safety or to state things clearly, the need to belong to a group but not only that, to a group perceived as shining, desirable & prestigious…
To free oneself relatively from this emotional need, at least to the extent to be capable to have a space between that need and the awareness of other’ people own gratifying images of themselves, if I still want to use Maslow’s concept, it would be the work on one’s one mind called self-realization, a quite unpopular task.
Most people believe what they want (consciously/subconsciously/unconsciously) to believe to preserve their belonging to a prestigious group (or so they think…)
So in the West, it’s always much much easier for the governments to promote a narrative with at its core the key message being ” it’s China/Russia/Iran/the Other’s fault ”
The bigger (China/Russia/Iran) the boogeyman is, the better…
ENSNARE
“E” as in ENSNARE.
ENSNARE the people’s minds with irrelevant fantasies, thus avoiding to tackle seriously what is at stake economically, diplomatically, militarily or geopolitically in a given event or situation, at home or abroad.
The dumbing down process going on during the last 50 years and keeping on is facilitating this diversion tactic (red herrings galore).
You are most probably familiar with Charlotte Yserbit’s work.
For me, the uber Structural Red Herring in the West the last 50 years has been the displacement of the focus from socio-economic struggles to so-called woke issues (what in French is called the opposition between the two concepts of “social”,understand real socio-economic struggles and “sociétal”, understand woke)
One amusing survey that can be done is to ask 100 French citizens what they think of ” Mai 68″ first and then ask what is their understanding of a color revolution and last what about “Mai 68” as a color revolution ?
I bet most of them would be flabbergasted to learn that “Mai 68” was a color revolution set to get rid of Charles de Gaulle and to strengthen the Anglo-American Establishment’s grip on France. “Mai 68” & “June 89″ (2 decades later in Beijing) were essentially of the same nature if the ” color revolution ” concept is used, Ho! Ho! Ho !…
Let”s remind that the US ambassador to France was in the streets with the students in 1968 as James Lilley, US ambassador to China & CIA agent, was in the streets with the students in 1989…
The vital difference is that “Mai 68” succeeded beyond expectations & “June 89″ failed miserably on the essential goal of regime change but is successful as a smearing operation against China, as we are reminded on June 4 each year with the China-bashing in relation to the so-called ” Tian An Men Massacre ”
Concerning the process of dumbing down, another name to remember is Eugene Michael Jones, alive & in his seventies.
His 1992 book is a masterpiece of philosophy, psychology and politics : Modern degenerates, modernity as rationalization for sexual misbehavior.
His 2000 book is the natural completion of the 1992’s one : Libido Dominandi, sexual liberation & political control.
His intellectual adventure began when he lost his teaching position in the 70s because he stated at work that he is against abortion, he was utterly flummoxed since he taught in a Catholic school for girls…
This personal mishap has awaken his curiosity, investigative endeavor & meditation since then.
DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE.
“D” as in DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE.
DEHUMANIZE/DEMONIZE the Other in all dimensions : ugly physical appearance, defective psychological construct, spiritual emptiness is the norm obviously, rigid or primitive social organization, twisted historical development, warped anthropological foundations, evil religious practices…
The Other cannot be motivated by good intentions, all words uttered must be scrutinized because ignorance or perfidy must be expected.
All actions are driven by greed and fear, needless to say since Truth, Goodness and Beauty are not granted to the Other.
Some people definitely need a mirror, not only for the Body but also for the Mind & the Soul.
INVERSION
“I” as in INVERSION.
INVERSION of identity between the aggressor & the victim of the. aggression. Examples are numerous but I simply mention the category of false flag operations, an egregious chapter by itself.
ABSENCE
“A” as in ABSENCE.
ABSENCE of a quality historical understanding offered to the public in order to truly contextualize the event or the situation, at home or abroad.
A sound chronology of the events is either absent or the chronology presented is biased, oriented by a specific agenda.
Conclusion
The trouble is, in Australia, i listen to news while driving, listen to radio news while custom made frames, and I have no alternative news sources beyond Australian fake news.
whenever I internet search China development news, even in Chinese language, the news that appear at the first page are usually BBC Chinese, CNN Chinese, DW Chinese, Epoch Times Chinese....
Dam!
(All the Western propaganda outlets printed in the Chinese language.)
Yes, CCTV news focus on China developments and policies, full of positive energy. They make me happy.
The Chinese Gov don't talk about poor people as lazy, they talk about how to give them a vision, incentive, conditions, and motivate them to work hard to help themselves out of poverty.
The Hong Kong TVB recently visited 10 poorest region across China, and was touched by how much the government quietly doing so much for those remote region residents.
The title of the documentary series is 无穷之路，the road to no poverty. Below is chapter 1:
https://youtu.be/dcF_WB--P0U
You no need to know the language, just see how remote these villages located, and what the government did to improve their lives and you will understand they are wealthier than the working poor in America who can afford to pay rent and become homeless.
-[Redacted]
Sometimes I hate being right.
If you have something that works (the traditional “dead host” vaccination methodology) but instead [1] elect to move forward with untested, unproved, unestablished technology.
Then [2] you mandate forced compliance.
Coupled with [3] forbidding anyone from using the traditional methods for vaccination, that should set off every alert in you head.
And knowing what I do about China and Russia, they already probably know the TRUE and REAL reason why the mRNA vaccination is being so aggressively promoted inside the USA today. And if I were them, and I knew that the United States is building up towards a massive world war against us, I would figure out a way to use this mRNA system against the aggressors.
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It’s called logic.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I have written about this many times before, and I tire of rehashing the basics to people who have been kept in the dark living like mushrooms for most of their lives. But this article, and in this article, I want to discuss the differences between the political nincompoops that are driving America towards war, and the generals that will have to fight it for them. Followed by the sitrep realities of fucking around with China.
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It’s a battle between the “pinky in the air” political neocon moron-coops…
Bloomberg OWNS most Americans and has a zillion little mechanisms to extract your wealth.
… and the tanned-leather, chew on nails, or die, military.
Shortly afterwards, he turned to his other generals and asked them point blank if they would obey his orders if he asked them to provoke China, or Russia. And there’s all sort of articles about that. Just look up the controversy regarding General Miley.
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Firstly, Let’s talk about what the differences are between a political neocon and a career general.
A political neocon
Neoconservatism is a political movement born in the United States during the 1960s among “war-hawks” who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party.
They were also upset with the “New Left” and counterculture of the 1960s, particularly the Vietnam protests.
Some also began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society.
Neoconservatives advocate the promotion of American-style democracy and forced American interventionism in international affairs.
This includes such buzz words as “peace through strength”. They are known for their rabid hatred of anything regarding Socialism, Marxism or Communism, and many believe that the creation of wars are necessary to maintain American global leadership.
In short, they believe that they are the best, and that their systems are the best, and that they have the right to destroy anyone else who challenges their systems, no matter what or who they are.
The Military
The military is a merit driven hierarchical organization. This is true in every nation, and in every country. In America they are subservient and report to the President of the United States. Who is, I should remind you all, a political figurehead.
But the military, are not political tools. No matter what the politicians believe. They are a merit driven organization, and they are the ones putting their lives on the line.
And every day things are closer and closer, nose to nose, neocon to the actual generals. Such as this…
“US has already lost #AI fight to China, says ex-Pentagon software chief”
An astounding headline as cracks appear in the façade of America’s AI supremacy. Nicolas Chaillan, the Pentagon’s first chief software officer says things may not be as rosy as reported.
Mr. Chaillan recently resigned from his job at the Pentagon in protest to the slow pace of technological change in the Pentagon and his statement is a shocker:
“We have no competing fighting chance against China in 15 to 20 years. Right now, it’s already a done deal; it is already over in my opinion,” he said, adding there was “good reason to be angry”.
Just to ensure that you don’t consider Mr. Chaillan a malcontent, here’s what the US National Security Commission on AI headed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in March:
“China is already an AI peer, and it is more technically advanced in some applications. Within the next decade, China could surpass the US as the world’s AI superpower.”
The sky is not falling and AI will not be the sole determining factor in the fate of nations. So there’s no need to be upset.
What you must take away from this is that those who tell you that “everything is fine and that there is nothing to worry about” are perhaps less forthcoming than you may think.
This pertains not just to AI, but to automated ports, smart cities, chip development, #5G and a host of other technologies. And as I have warned repeatedly, #CBDCs. Each of these technologies represents a slow imperceptible dripping away of the US's technological lead.
For each of these technologies, we have all read articles by pundits who simply shrug their shoulders and say that it doesn’t matter and that the US’s technological supremacy is secure. Smug in a belief that the US’s open society has a natural advantage and that it is inconceivable that China might overtake the US.
A mere three days ago I used this astounding quote from an article by David P. Goldman who had this to say to these pundits:
"These are self-consoling illusions of a lazy elite that has allowed America’s manufacturing, technological and education advantages to erode over the past 20 years – an elite that has nothing to say about reversing the decline."
To which my comments from a mere three days ago seems prophetic and worthy of repeat:
And the problem is that he’s right. The elites that are telling you not to worry because the US is miles ahead in Chips and AI, or that China is going to fail are flat out wrong.
They are falling back on prejudices about China from another era, or are so caught up in loathing of China’s political system that they fail to see what’s happening.
When it comes to tech the US is bringing a knife to a gunfight.
-Richard Turrin
1 October 1990 – Air Force General and VP candidate Curtis E. LeMay died at March Air Force Base, California, at age 83. General Curtis Emerson Lemay was the “Father of the Strategic Air Command.” When he took over as its commander in 1948, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed and untrained B-29 groups left over from World War II.
Less than half its aircraft were operational and the crews were next to worthless. He ordered a mock bombing raid on Dayton, Ohio, and most of the bombers missed their targets by one to two miles.
That was unacceptable.
He subjected his men to vigorous training and long hours of hard work, but fought for additional pay and better housing to make their demanding lives more tolerable. He obtained vast fleets of new bombers, established a vast aerial refueling system, started many new units and bases, began missile development, and established a strict command and control system. When he left the command in 1957 to assume his new job as Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, SAC was the most powerful military force the world had ever seen.
But that was only one of his many accomplishments. He was the outstanding air combat leader of World War II. He developed the bombardment tactics and strategies that left Nazi Germany in rubble. He was transferred to the Pacific theater, where he took over command of the B-29’s and led the air war against Japan.
He incinerated every major Japanese city and oversaw the dropping of the atomic bombs. He believed that, “if you are going to use military force, then you ought to use overwhelming military force.
Use too much and deliberately use too much.. you’ll save lives, not only your own, but the enemy’s too". But he could be a humanitarian, and after the war he organized he famous Berlin Air Lift.
He often demonstrated his courage by personally leading his bombers on the dangerous missions, including what many regard as the most dangerous mission ever flown – the attack on Regensberg, Germany. The Army Air Forces lost half of the 1,000 planes launched that day, which has gone down in Air Force history as “Black Thursday.”
If his crews weren’t flying missions, then they were subjected to his relentless training.They called him “Iron Ass” because he demanded so much, but they respected him immensely. A popular story that was widely circulated in SAC is that he approached a fully-fueled bomber with his ever-present cigar stuck firmly between his lips. A guard asked him to put it out, as it might blow up the aircraft. Lemay replied, “It wouldn’t dare.”
He is buried in the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Air Force General and VP candidate Curtis E. LeMay
Generals who are up front and who will have THEIR ASS on the front lines take a far different world view than the coddled wealthy political appointees who think that they are better than everyone else.’
General – I’d die for my Country, but this leader is a moron. My job is to protect the country. War is an avenue of last resort. But this is not a last resort situation.
Political Neocon – I have a plan, and since I am smarter, wealthier, and better than everyone else, and I have God, history, and “greatness” on my side, I just cannot possibly be wrong. It’s inconceivable!
Never the less, the political elite in America are sleepwalking towards Armageddon.
The following is brilliant, and the author is so in tune with my feelings and beliefs on this issue that I must reprint these entire two articles. Just brilliant! The author is Chris Faure. He is exceptional.
China will not be conquered again, even if every last Chinese has to join the fight.
In the past four days, China has sent first 28, then 29 fighters and bombers near Taiwan. (Taiwan itself reports different numbers). Then, the US announced on Sunday that this is provocative. So, China called the statement irresponsible and sent a massive number of 59 fighters and bombers near Taiwan in a ‘take that!’ move.
But first, why would China militarily get involved in Taiwan, as it is their own territory under the 1992 Consensus for “one-China”? Taiwan is clearly China’s internal affair. What are their red lines?
Taiwan declaring a flash independence (they cannot really because they are umbilically connected to the mainland)
Internal turmoil inside Taiwan as we saw in Hong Kong
Taiwan may make a non-legal military alliance with another country
And any violation of the 1992 consensus.
None of these conditions are currently present, but we will need expert advice on the 1992 consensus. I do not know de jure how close Taiwan is to that red line. De facto the Taiwan announcement that they are preparing for war is completely provocative.
Currently China is not threatening.
She is using her air force to deliver very strong warnings that the conditions are approaching red lines.
Lets look at Global Times. Bear in mind that the Global Times is not a bullhorn for Chinese people. It is for the dissemination of information to western people. That is its function. ‘
– Time to warn Taiwan secessionists and their fomenters: war is real:
“The secessionist forces on the island will never be allowed to secede Taiwan from China under whatever names or by whatever means...... and, the island will not be allowed to act as an outpost of the US’ strategic containment against China. “
“The strategic collusion between the US and Japan and the DPP authorities is becoming more audacious...... and the situation across the Taiwan Straits has almost lost any room for maneuver teetering on the edge of a face-off, creating a sense of urgency that the war maybe triggered at any time.”
Sunday, further Global times writing appeared, by a GT voice, warning the EU (GT voice should indicate to us that this is unified among the Chinese people).
EU warned not to play with fire on Taiwan question.
– China will reconsider the European trade agreement.
“If the EU simply wants to develop normal economic and trade relations with the Taiwan island, its unusual emphasis on the latter’s role in its Indo-Pacific strategy should be viewed with suspicion.
Some European politicians may think that playing the “Taiwan card” will draw more attention and could help pressure the mainland to make more concessions.
But confusing the right and the wrong on China’s bottom line is a dead end.The Chinese mainland’s position on the Taiwan question remains clear and resolute.
All exchanges with the island must be handled in strict accordance with the one-China principle. They cannot exceed the scope of normal nonofficial cooperation and exchange.”
So, this is where we stand in this face-off and more analysis will follow.
Escalation? Continuation of “Sitrep : China. Is. Dead. Serious.”
Continuation of “Sitrep : China. Is. Dead. Serious.”
Let’s take a look at what China overcame in our near history.
The NED and similar organizations’ sponsored “Color Revolutions” in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang all collapsed. We can also be sure that this escalation that we see now is not really about Taiwan. Taiwan is playing its role, like the dissidents in Hong Kong did.
The Trump Trade War collapsed and his focus on tariffs is now taking a tremendous toll on the US West Coast Ports.
The western propaganda war on China is collapsing because of the efforts of blogs like The Saker Blog and many others that took up writing about this.
The economic war is collapsing. For this, we have to follow Michael Hudson who details the butt-hurt Soros types who cannot make China dance to their tune. China has done massive work so that they do not have monopolies and internal destabilization by ‘too big to fail types’.
The return of Meng Wanzhou as a figure of national pride, which was a very delicate operation if one follows all of the plane routes during the sensitive exchange. Meng was exchanged for two worthless Canadian spies. There is another theory and this is that Canada tumbled to pay back the US for not including them in AUKUS.
The idea that the Chinese are not soldiers. They are that now because they have to be. * More about this following.
Let’s see what China gained in our near history
The pride, persistence, and trust of the citizens.
Major developments in space, like their own space station (slated to be a launching platform for? For what really? I do not know but the west has declared space a warfighting domain.) Most nations are welcome to come and hook up their own module, but the western world is not. This is a little payback for not allowing Chinese astronauts on the international space station.
A top US general, Milley, is so fearful of China that he called his counterpart in the late days of the Trump administration and told them that the US will not attack. (General Miley called to deliver a madman message–we have a madman at the helm and he may send nukes your way, so don’t do anything to give him an excuse. The poor general also had to deliver a contradicting message–at the same time, America is not falling apart; everything is hunky-dory and the well-oiled machine is running smoothly. ) (I know this has been taken out of perspective by almost everyone, but I am thankful, no matter that he may be a sniveling idiot. He did the rest of the world a favor).
China is in the process of destroying the dollar hegemony slowly but surely with Russia already having done its part and divesting from the dollar in their sovereign wealth fund. This deserves an analysis all by itself. Needless to say, China is launching its digital Renminbi, or Digital Currency Electronic Payment, commonly referred to as E-CNY, a central bank digital currency issued by China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China. It is the first digital currency to be issued by a major economy. The digital RMB is legal tender and has equivalent value with other forms of CNY, such as bills and coins.
The fight against a virus called Covid.
China is now exceeding the US in almost all economic metrics, although they still refer to themselves as the 2nd major economy.
And at this stage, China makes major military flights near Taiwan.
A few statements:
China has no interest in military action against Taiwan
Taiwan has no real desire for military action against China (it would be somewhat like swatting a fly for China and will be over in an hour whichever method China chooses).
Here is Taiwanese Foreign Minister warning that his country is preparing for war with China. He asks Australia for help and Australia’s 60 minutes distributes the war propaganda.
Is the US interested in a war against China over Taiwan? We simply do not know.
What do we know?
Taiwan is a smaller copy of the economic miracle of China and there is no question of its economic success and high tech ability. But China mainland purchases over 40% of Taiwan’s production in both high-tech and agricultural products.
By studying Taiwan’s financial reports, MintPress has ascertained that the semi-autonomous island of 23 million people has, in recent years, given out millions of dollars to many of the largest and most influential think tanks in the United States.
It is then easy to conclude that with this revolving door, the US decided that Taiwan is an easy ingress to their hope for regime change in China itself (stated publicly by Mike Pompeo) and the AUKUS deal started the new range of increased provocations: It looks like any of the old color revolution tactics or initiatives, just now with an added threat.
This one, could end up in a hot war with both Russia and China.
Taiwan will not have a referendum for independence, because independence is not a done deal for the Taiwanese people. The ruling class fears that such a referendum will not be successful.
We all know the ‘call to democracy’ and we all know that this is invoked over and over by hegemonic powers to justify their own excesses. Well today, Taiwan’s Tsai is invoking ‘a call to democracy’ via an article in Foreign Affairs Magazine.
China is not impressed as she knows as well as you and I, what that really means.
China’s interest is peace and security in the region, which is now being called Indo-Pacific. Martyanov says this terminology is hegemon speak, and I’m inclined to agree with him.
It used to be Asia Pacific.
I so hope someone can draw me the borders (even a dash line) where the Indo pacific and the Asia Pacific exists. Wikipedia, instead of being obscurantist as usual, this time gives the plot away.
The term first appeared in academic use in oceanography and geopolitics. Scholarship has shown that the “Indo-Pacific” concept circulated in Weimar Germany, and spread to interwar Japan. German political oceanographers envisioned an “Indo-Pacific” comprising anticolonial India and republican China, as German allies, against “Euro-America”.
[2] Since 2010s, the term “Indo-Pacific” has been increasingly used in geopolitical discourse. It also has “symbiotic link” with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or “Quad”, an informal grouping of in the region, comprising Australia, Japan, India, and the United States. It has been argued that the concept may lead to a change in popular “mental maps” of how the world is understood in strategic terms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pacific
Martyanov says that the US has clear dominance in submarine capability and he also says that escalation is something that is very hard to predict. Here we see escalation toward war, with the US using probably the only card that they have to play, trying to kick off an ocean-wide domination conflict on the shipping lanes of communications, with probably the only weapon that they have left, submarines to try and consolidate at least something of US economy and influence across the world.
Right here the issue of escalation becomes complex.
Russia will not stand out of this and what happens when the Zircons start flying? How soon until Japan, Australia and Taiwan are demolished? We will leave this here for professional analysts to opine.
With that as a backdrop, let’s return to China, specifically the general belief that the Chinese are not born soldiers.
That is true, yet the difference is that they prefer to solve problems non-kinetically. (Which is 100% fine with me!) But, they have other abilities, one of which is that they do not give up. The Saker has often said that morale is the greatest weapon of a military force. In this case, I would add to that: preparedness. Again Martyanov said that this thinking on the dominance of sea-lanes is not new. Well, China knows that as well, and they have prepared.
Every school child and university student in China now goes through military training. For the school kids, it is part of the initiative by the Chinese leaders to relieve the school kids from absurd requirements for STEM learning and to get them outside to take part in healthy play and strengthen them physically.
Every city has a local militia and they are armed to the teeth and drill and practice continually. This alone is estimated at 1 million feet on the ground (from Chinese sources).
If kinetic action breaks out in their own backyard, they have the numbers and home team advantage.
Following are some comments from our China correspondents. I don’t have the necessary 2 sources plus another for these, but I put them here to give you an idea of the chat.
China is known to be able to set together production lines very quickly. In these comments, this one is comical and says that…
China is mass producing nuclear warheads like they crank out paper lanterns. The only thing on earth that is faster is the US money machine.
It may be a comical comment, but the underlying issue here is that the average Chinese person has no doubt that China will, and is able to build whatever is necessary, any war materiel of any kind, to withstand kinetic action.
Is this meaningful in discussing this escalation? I would say yes.
More comments:
If you think a war against China (and Russia – we have to call in Russia at this stage) will be a perpetual war, kindly think again. This is not a win or a lose – it is total destruction of the one that fires the first shot or shoots the first missile or positions the first submarine to destabilize sea-lanes.
Here's a hint; Destabilization of the sea shipping lanes will, by it's self create a near (if not total) collapse of the economies of the Western nations. Which, is, by the way, why the United States cannot fight a war with China.
This represents the average Chinese and their chat and it is not the type of barroom soldier chat. These are ordinary people.
China is a merit nation and very serious.
One can expect precision and ruthlessness.
You may want to believe that the Chinese are not born warriors or you may want to believe that they cannot innovate. You can believe what you want, but take a look at these comments:
They do not believe in surgical strikes should anyone attack them. They believe in pounding the source of the attack and whatever is around it, into oblivion. They have their own history as a template.
This is a point that I have been trying to pound into the brain-dead West for years now. So many article praising American precision munitions and "surgical strikes" are meaningless.
China does not play.
They will see an guy running in a field and cluster nuke that field into radioactive glass. They just don't give a fuck. Caprice?
Btw, does this remind you of the Russians, who said that any strike on Russia will not only take out the strike, but also the platform where the strike comes from? The interaction between Russia and China militarily has grown tremendously as well, but again, this is another analysis.
I expect full-on military readiness as the Chinese military has been on a readiness footing for about a year now.
An outstanding question is how unified Asia is around China. Again we come up against Martyanov’s principle of escalation and this is really difficult to predict.
There is the old saying that goes like this:
Do not march on Moscow!.
We need to add one.
Do not militarily threaten Baba Beijing!.
It does not matter how for how long, they do not count their own possible dead, but they will stay the course.
Can we hope for level heads in Washington DC? Realism tells us that we have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
China is doing that.
Oh, but what about Russia; the bear?
You all think that Russia will sit this one out? Are you fucking delusional? Maybe you haven’t noticed by the Chinese and Russian military cross-trains together. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but both military’s have their leadership in both HQ command centers. Maybe you haven’t’ noticed but immediately after the Australian submarine nuclear basing deal, the Russians and the Chinese held very long and serious “emergency” meetings of their top military leaders.
You haven’t noticed.
I’ll bet that you watch FOX “news”. CNN “news” or The Drudge Report “news”.
China and Russia are the pissed off nerds that are building “death rays” in their basements. China and Russia are the shunned, betrayed, and kicked upon wimps that stood tall while they were abused year after year. China and Russia are not going to play “ball”. No sure-ee. They are going to fucking devastate the playing field and what ever remains will be turned into mulch and used to fertilize their septic tanks.
Do you fucking think that Japan doesn’t know this? You should study some God damn history. Japan tries anything, anything, and it’ll be a radioactive series of ocean filled craters. Craters, mind you, that will have navigation warnings (in Chinese) for future shipping hazards.
Taiwan (and Japan) are islands.
Islands.
Islands, with densely populated zones and densely concentrated industrial zones.
Which means that if China or Russia are ever attacked by, or from, these islands all they need to do is lob just a few well aimed missiles at a few critical nodes to create not only total chaos, but also cripple the WORLD high tech industry (this is also true for the ROK, by the way, were one specific facility can be easily destroyed and create total chaos worldwide.
Which means that those who in the Anglosphere think of their Japanese or Taiwanese “allies” as canon fodder are kidding themselves. Just 24 hours after any attack on the DPRK, the PRC or Russia the world economy will violently crash just from the sheer panic induced by such missile strikes.
As for the people living on Taiwan, the ROK or Japan, they will deal with such industrial pollution and chaos that warfighting will be the last thing on their minds.
And, if they don’t fully surrender at that point, both Russia and China can turn their small islands into wastelands.
By the way, the US force planners all know that.
This was first taught to me by a *very* experienced US force planner in a class he called “why Japan cannot fight any war”. I am just adding the ROK and Taiwan to the list.
Finally, I think that most people in the region, at least in the ROK and Taiwan are aware of that.
-Anonymous
Do you have any idea how quickly South Korea will exit any alliance with the United States? Or haven’t you looked at a God damn map lately?
Korea is an a very, VERY bad location if it wants to support anti-China and anti-Russia activities.
America, Britain, and Australia has never experienced the receiving end of conquest. And it will be fucking nasty. Nasty.
China and Russia are going to go ‘Bronze age on your asses.”.
How about being forbidden to speak English. Being forbidden to have children. How about being forbidden to drive a car, ride a bicycle or suffer the penalty of death? How about being forbidden to wear shoes. How about slave markets, and not being able to use currency or have access to a bank?
Yeah. Conquest is like that.
What? You think that it can’t happen?
YOU ALL HAVE IDIOTS IN CHARGE OF YOUR WESTERN NATIONS. Get God-damn serious (for a change) and face the reality.
American “leaders”.
You, yes you, need to start changing things before all Hell breaks out.
China forgives, but never forgets. You all better stop kicking Asia, or it is going to unleash bloody fucking fury on your asses. Just remember you DO NOT WANT TO BE ON PAYBACK side…
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I have often commented that American (today) is a land of a million tiny hands in your wallet. Being an American you don’t realize just how bad it is until you step outside of America and see what other nations are like. And there you see that there is something seriously wrong when the basic necessities of life, many which are basically pretty cheap, are taxed, regulated, and siphoned from by others who use it as a model to extract money.
Indeed, today, everything in America is a money-generating mechanism.
From removing public water fountains, and replacing it with water / soda vending machines, to requiring a person register with the county (or city) to be able to cut someone’s hair. To updating your driver license, to updating your vehicle license, to getting a pet license, to paying a fee to use an ATM. It’s all, every bit of it, a money-generating mechanism for the top 0.001% in society.
Why do you need to pay for a fishing license? Why do you need to renew your license plate? Why do you need to pay for a study on the lifestyles of migrant sparrows in your county?
Why? Why? Why?
Why? Because it is a way to generate money.
Not for you. Not for your family. Not even for your community. It’s for others, in far away towns, cities, and communities to get wealthy from.
Bloomberg OWNS most Americans and has a zillion little mechanisms to extract your wealth.
Which is why I, and many others, refer to Americans as “debit serfs”.
Well, actually the serfs from the Middle ages had it much, much better than American do today. At a top tax of 10%. No fees. Nor regulations. No laws except those regarding a victim. And a full 100 days off a year in holidays, and a four day work week. A six hour long work day. Yeah. They had it much better than Americans do today.
Anyways, today we have two worlds;
A uni-polar worldwhere the United States 0.001% oligarchy rules.
A multi-polar world where individual nations manage either societies as they see fit.
The United States is having a complete fit, and is literally fit to be tied, and is willing to destroy the rest of the world if that is what it takes to be the massive God-over-all. Have your read the George Soros tantrum articles? The Bloomberg articles? Jeeze!
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is moving on regardless.
Here is a most fantastic article that describes my vision of “America being the land of a million tiny hands in your wallet”. It’s brilliant. I only with that I was as good of a word-smith as these folk. I do hope that you enjoy it.
The article is below. All credit, yada, yada, yada.
Ross Welcome to Renegade Inc. With China’s increasing wealth, Western investors want some of the action. One of those investors is a bullish gentleman called George Soros. However, the Chinese are acutely aware that with Western investment comes inequality. So as Beijing begins to rethink how to do proper economic growth, we ask, will China learn from Western mistakes?
Ross Michael Hudson, always great to have you back on Renegade Inc.
Michael Hudson It’s good to be back here. Thanks for having me.
Ross Michael, we join you at a time where a lot of people think the unipolar world could have maintained its supremacy. Turns out it hasn’t. Multipolar world is here to stay. You of late have been quite vocal about George Soros, no less. Mr. Soros has been casting aspersions about various things, but one of them is talking about the Chinese economy and why Black Rock, amongst others, should be allowed to invest there, because ultimately it’s going to undo American interests. Can you unpack that for us because it seems very complicated?
Michael Hudson Well, George Soros’ dream is that China would do what Yeltsin did to Russia – that it would privatise the economy, really carve it up and let US investors buy control of the most profitable heights. In that way, the foreign investors would be able to sort of get the profits of Chinese industry, Chinese labour, and it would become the darling stock market of the world, just like Russia’s stock market was the leading booming stock market of 1994-96. China would be run to benefit US investment bankers. Soros is furious that China is not following the neoliberal policy that the United States is following. It’s following a socialist policy wanting to keep its economic surplus at home to benefit its own citizens, not American financial investors. For Soros, this is a clash of civilisations. His proposed strategy is to stifle the Chinese economy by putting sanctions against it, to stop investing in it so as to force it to do to itself what Yeltsin did to Russia.
Ross Let’s hear it in his words. He says: ‘The BlackRock initiative imperils the national security interests of the US and other democracies because the money invested in China will help prop up President Xi’s regime, which is repressive at home and aggressive abroad. Congress should pass legislation empowering the Securities and Exchange Commission to limit the flow of funds to China. The effort ought to enjoy bipartisan support’. He’s not mincing his words, is he?
Michael Hudson He thinks that China actually needs American dollars to build its factories and invest. He thinks that somehow China’s balance of payments is going to fall apart without the US market, without US investors telling President Xi what to do. The Chinese government won’t have a clue as to what to invest in and how to let the ‘free market’, meaning George Soros and BlackRock and other companies, operate. So he’s living in a dream world where other people need us. It’s like a guy who doesn’t realise his girlfriend doesn’t need him anymore.
Ross There seems to me to be a distinction here that the Chinese are acutely aware of, and it’s between the classical economists and the neoclassical economists. The classical economists have understood the idea of unearned wealth, unearned income. The neoclassical economists actively chase unearned wealth, unearned income, because that is central to their playbook. Can you just expand on those two ideas? And is it the case that that’s why you talk about a clash of civilisations?
Michael Hudson Well, you put your finger on it, Ross. People think that China’s advantage is its abundant, low priced labour force, or the government building infrastructure. But what’s guiding this is an understanding of the kind of economics that goes back even beyond Marx, to Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill and the other classical economists. They realise that there’s a difference between earning income and creating wealth by employing labour to produce goods, to sell at a profit and then reinvest these profits and more capital formation, in contrast to simply buying a rent-yielding property, buying land and letting it rise in price without the landlord doing anything, buying a monopoly and just raising the price – charging monopoly prices like the US pharmaceutical companies are doing. China understands the difference between earned income and unearned income, between productive investment and unproductive investment.
In the United States, if they do recognise this difference, they realise that via unearned income you can make wealth by parasitically much quicker than you can actually create real wealth. It’s cheaper to be a parasite than a host. And so most of the financial strategy of Wall Street involves how to get something for nothing. How can we get a free lunch? Well, to do that as a major policy, we have to begin by telling people what Milton Friedman said: There is no such thing as a free lunch. But the whole of Wall Street is looking for a free lunch. They’re looking to grab Chinese assets on the cheap, like Soros has grabbed post-Soviet assets. They’re looking for monopoly rights. They’re looking for lending money and letting China do the work, to pay the interest to the Americans that are going to be providing it with money that the Federal Reserve ends up creating on its computers, or that George Soros already has saved largely by how he got the free lunch from the Bank of England betting against that and driving Sterling down.
Ross Some people call it the free world. Others call it a democracy. Others, for America, call it an advanced oligarchy. Do you think that the Chinese have looked at America and the wider West, understood that privatising all that rent has ultimately led to societal decline?
Michael Hudson They’re beginning to look at it that way. Most Chinese Marxists focused on Volume 1 of Capital, which is about employers hiring workers and putting them to work and making a profit off the mark-up. Only in the last couple of years have Volumes 2 and Volume 3 of Capital moved into central discussion in China. And it’s Volumes 2 and 3 that talk about economic rent. And so China has come to realise tha the United States is not an industrial economy. We’re not going to understand what’s happening in the United States, in England or Europe by looking only at what Marx wrote in Volume 1 of Capital, because they’re not making money industrially anymore. They’re making money by being a rentier economy, by landlordism, by monopolies and by bank credit, which Marx discussed in Volume 2 and 3.
So they’re now broadening the discussion. For the first time, you’re having, especially in the last month, China asking, “Do we want to let Chinese investors make money, financially, by buying housing, becoming absentee landlords and hoping that there is going to be a housing price inflation like you have in the United States? Or, do we want to keep housing low priced and not to bid it up by credit creation and finance?” They’re now realising that to keep China’s cost of living low, you have to keep the price of housing low. That means that you don’t want housing to become a commodity, an investment vehicle for absentee owners and landlords to make money. You want housing to be for Chinese people to live in. That means low-priced housing, not debt-leveraged housing as they’re seeing in the United States.
Ross I know somebody who works on the life boat on the Thames and they get a view each night that no one else would ever get. And they go up and down the Thames and they see all these high rises, which are oversupply of property, real estate. And there isn’t one light on in any of them. The reason, foreign investors, predominately the Chinese, have come bought them, clingfilmed the whole place, locked the door and then they chip off back to China – sit and wait, basically allow that land value to go up and cash out 10 years later. You can see what that does to local communities, schools, shops, infrastructure, services and all the rest of it – this absenteeism. Do you think that those foreign investors, the leadership in Beijing, has seen this model around the world and thought, yep, fine, we can do it over there, and yet we need to repatriate some money because of some of the liquidity issues that we’ve got over here. But we’re not having that as a central business model or a central economic model to our economies? Do you think that that light has gone on?
Michael Hudson Well, they’ve been discussing this regarding Hong Kong for the last 10 years. Hong Kong is the typical example of multi, multi-billionaires in real estate. They think that a socialist economy is not one that gets rich by creating absentee landlords. There’s been a large outflow of Chinese investment to the West. You have it in New York City on the west side, all very dark apartments with no lights on at night because they’re absentee-owned. Thorstein Veblen in 1923 wrote a book, Absentee Ownership, saying that housing should really be for living, not a speculative vehicle. But in America, real estate is all about civic development. It’s about how to increase real estate prices and create a bubble for speculators to find someone to flip the property to. I’m not sure it’s going to happen much longer and in London now that Brexit has occurred. But I think that what China is trying to do is asking how to create a domestic economy where Chinese people make money productively. They can not only afford a house of their own, but if they invest, they can invest in making China richer, not in buying income-yielding, rent-yielding, assets in America, England or Europe.
Ross Do you think that the pictures that we’ve recently seen on social media of the huge tower blocks that haven’t been finished, residential, that haven’t been finished for eight years and now they’ve just put semtex under them and raised the whole thing to the ground? Do you think that’s a real world example of the scar tissue, if you like, that private debt creates and in another sense, a Minsky moment? Blowing all these things up means that you get rid of all of that oversupply, which means that that inventory isn’t in the market and isn’t their to be flipped and speculated on.
Michael Hudson These are buildings where they wanted to pre-plan for what they thought was going to be a rural exodus, but the rural exodus didn’t occur into these cities. Right now, China is focusing, I think for the first time in quite a few years, much more on rural development. China is primarily a still a rural economy, a village economy. Most people don’t realise that. When you think of China, you think of Shanghai and Shenzhen and Beijing and even Wuhan. But the fact is that much of China’s rural and there can’t really be a rural exodus to the cities because you have a kind of passport plan in China. In order to live in Beijing, you have to have a permit to live in Beijing so the city won’t become even more overcrowded than it is now. They’re having to re-focus development much more on the rural areas that have not kept pace with the heavy industrial factory areas that have occurred. So they wanted to do a lot of building, not only to employ labour and to do construction, but to think just in case they needed this housing for the rural exodus, they needed it in place. Now they realise, OK, we’re not following that particular central planning idea.
Central planning really is very hard. It’s very hard to build whole small cities in advance with nobody there. It’s much easier to wait until they’re actually economic forces leading you to develop. So in that sense, China’s becoming more market oriented in its planning. But at the same time, it shapes the market, increasingly, to create domestic prosperity and earning opportunities, not unearned rent-extracting opportunities, but productive earning opportunities. This is an ongoing process of re-evaluating, restructuring, fixing up and improving the economy.
Ross Michael Hudson, welcome back. Great to have you for the second half.
Michael Hudson Thanks.
Ross Michael, we said right at the top of this programme that there is, let’s say, a tug of war between the unipolar and the multipolar. China have looked at the West and they must conclude now, the Russians also, must conclude, that the Western economic model is fatally flawed. In many ways, what you’ve got in America is an advanced oligarchy. Across Europe, you’ve got a zombie banking system. And basically the model for the last certainly 30, 40 years has been to extract as much rent as possible and pass it off as an economic miracle. To avoid all that, this fork in the road has crystallised. What do you think will be the decisions coming out of Beijing when they look at the economy in a more holistic way and they realise that they want to better the lot of the average Chinese citizen?
Michael Hudson Well, as I pointed out, their concept of the economy realises the distinction between earned income and unearned income, between rent and profits. It wants to make profits, not economic rents. And it also sees that the United States is trying to prevent it from going along this socialist road, and that’s really the new Cold War. You mentioned unipolar versus multipolar. It’s actually not so much that China, Russia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, along with Kazakhstan and Iran and now the other groups are pulling away. It’s the United States that’s trying to force them to follow the US neoliberal model by imposing sanctions and special penalties and military threats, not to mention ISIS terrorism. The United States is driving Europe, Asia and now Africa as well, into a unified, consolidated unit outside of itself. It’s very self-destructive. It thinks like George Soros, that if we stop investing in Asia and other countries, that will force them to knuckle under to the US. But what it’s doing is it’s driving them altogether into the Belt and Road Initiative.
What China’s doing is creating a precondition for a profitable industrial economy over a large area to benefit from. It’s participants are going to need transportation. You’re going to need ports. You’re going to need roads. You’re going to need pipelines and is focusing on the interconnections, on the infrastructure.
America doesn’t build infrastructure these days unless it’s monopolised. This is the political fight going on in the United States now. President Biden has a infrastructure plan that he’s scaled down from six and a half trillion to three and a half trillion. And essentially the bulk of the Democratic and Republican Party said if we can’t privatise infrastructure and make it a rent-extracting monopoly, we’re not going to do it, and we’re going to block the government from doing it.
So in the United States, they’re going to have high priced infrastructure, high-priced health care and high-priced education while China is going to have low-priced transportation, low-cost infrastructure, free education, public health care.
And you’re going to have a very high-cost United States unable to compete with the rest of the world.
All it can do is make military threats or financial threats. If it tries to impose sanctions as it’s imposed on Russia, China and other countries, these are going to serve as protective tariffs for foreign countries.
When President Trump put sanctions on agricultural exports to Russia, it was a windfall for Russia. They developed their own agriculture and Russia is now the largest grain exporter in the world. Senator McCain characterised Russia as a gas station of atom bombs, but it’s a gas station with the largest farm sector in the world, and is developing an industrial integration with China and the rest of Asia. It’s a Eurasian world island as Mackinder called it a century ago, and it is becoming the economic focus of the world, leaving the United States as the high cost economy with no visible means of support, because we’re not doing our own industry anymore. We’re not competing with China. We’re letting China do all of the industry, and all of a sudden we’re dependent on it. This does not bode good for prosperity in the United States or Europe and other areas that are satellites of the US economy.
Ross What is the probability of the West going, hang on, we have taken a detour here, we need to do something differently?
Michael Hudson I’d say maybe between one and two percent. In order to understand that you’re taking a wrong detour, you have to understand what the right path is, and why China’s doing it right. They can’t acknowledge that, because that’s called socialism. And when everyone points out that instead of having health care absorbing 18 percent of the American GDP, you could provide public health care and lower the cost of living in the United States. That’s a precondition for making labour more competitive.
Well, the employers are going to argue that if you make health care public, then you’re going to lose the ability to lock-in labour to its employers. Right now in the United States, especially during the pandemic, if you work for an employer for a living, you’re afraid of being fired because you lose your health insurance and that is a threat of bankruptcy.
If you complain about your job, you might be fired. That’s a danger. So having private health care paid for by the employers locks labour into dependency. They’re afraid to ask for higher wages. They’re afraid to ask for pensions. Privatized employer-based health care has become part of the class war here, and it is succeeding in impoverishing labour. Same thing with privatized education costs financed on credit at fairly high interest rates, without any bankruptcy recourse to wipe them out..
President Biden promised that he was going to wipe out student debt. If you have students paying 40 to 50 thousand dollars a year to have a college education and a college diploma is a precondition for getting a job like a union card used to be, then you’re going to have that added to the cost of living. When you have all of these privatised – education, health care, not to mention housing and other factors – when you have all these rent-extracting exploitative sectors you cannot be a competitive economy. You can only get money by conquering and exploiting other countries, by owning their own rent-extracting sectors and monopoly-profit sectors.
But there’s no one to conquer anymore. America couldn’t even conquer Afghanistan. Every economy for the last 5,000 years has two parts. There’s the real economy of producing and consuming and paying taxes and government services. And then there’s the debt and financial overhead.
All economies operate on credit. The problem is that credit cost money, and creditor claims accumulate at compound interest. if you look at the compound interest for anybody’s savings – take the wealth of the One Percent and all the trillions of dollars they have – if you leave your money to accumulate compound interest, it grows exponentially. But economies don’t grow exponentially.
They grow in an S-curve, and sometimes there’s an interruption. Sometimes there’s a disease like Covid. Sometimes there’s bad weather and a environmental disaster or there’s a war. And once there’s an interruption, what do you do with the fact that the finance sector grows faster?
Well, this goes way back to Babylonia. It occurred in Greece and Rome. Ultimately the tendency is for the financial sector to take over and to use the financial returns to take over real estate. And so there’s a symbiosis between real estate and finance. That’s occurred in every economy for the last 2,000 years since Greece and Rome.
It certainly characterises where most money and most wealth is made today.
In the universities, you take a course and they say, well, you accumulate wealth by saving up the wages and saving up the profits you made. But that’s not how the wealthy classes got money. That’s not how the One Percent have made money. They have made money either by taking property from the public domain by privatisation, or it’s made today by the central banks, lowering interest rates, flooding the market with credit, enough credit to push up real estate prices 20 percent in the United States in the last year. Housing prices have gone way up to unaffordable levels, pushing up education prices – and education is priced at whatever a bank or the government will lend you to pay with a student loan. It’s all financialization.
It turns out that what people thought was industrial capitalism has turned out to be finance capitalism instead.
So what China is doing is saying that it’s not going to let our industrial capitalism evolve into finance capitalism. It’s going to evolve into socialism, because they’re a socialist government.
Ross Just say the Chinese, the penny’s dropped and they’ve understood how badly wrong the West got it. What does the Chinese economy, and as importantly, society look like 10, 20 years from today?
Michael Hudson It’ll be a more balanced, less polarised economy. It will still let people make fortunes, but not gigantic fortunes large enough for an independent oligarchy to develop, to become a rival to government and try to replace government. In the West, you’ve had a financial oligarchy evolve and take over planning from elected government. So we don’t have democracy now.
It means a free market where you leave everything to Wall Street as your central planner.
So China is going to leave its planning spontaneously to individuals to innovate, to develop, where America is becoming, and England, are centrally planned economies planned by Wall Street, not to create prosperity, but to create rent-extracting opportunities for Wall Street stocks and bonds and absentee real estate.
So you’re going to have a rentier economy – let’s call it neofeudalism – while the rest of the world goes forward into what industrial capitalism was meant to be a century ago before it was sidetracked in the West.
Much of Eurasia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will evolve into socialism, as most expected would happen in the West a century ago.
Ross You talk about Super Decadence. Is the irony lost on you that one of your politicians recently attended a 35,000 dollar gala event dressed in an expensive dress with the words ‘tax the rich’ embroidered all over the back of it?
Michael Hudson That perception of inequality has become so popular that you can almost make fun of it. There’s something called neurolinguistic programming, that says that if you have a problem, a headache or something, if you can imagine your headache or your problem being very far away and then expanding and expanding and finally, poof, it all dissolves and goes away.
They think that they can say “Tax the rich” and just make it into a phrase that’s so popular, it doesn’t really mean tax the rich any more.
It means that you accept inequality, but realize that it’s just become part of the system – and wouldn’t it be nice if there were a parallel universe in which we could indeed tax the rich. But of course, that’s just a nice fantasy.
Ross Michael, always entertaining. Always a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time.
Michael Hudson It’s wonderful to be here, Ross. Thanks for having me on your show.
POSTSCRIPT:
Right after this interview, China did on its own just what George Soros was asking U.S. money managers to do: Stop lending money to China. So China itself made an about-face and turned down the BlackRock’s plans to buy a large Chinese real estate company, and it did not pay foreign holders of its Evergrande bonds on September 23.
Diplomatically, China had expected Wall Street firms to lobby to stop America’s anti-China policy. And indeed, many Wall Street executives did point out to the U.S. government that China offered many opportunities for America to make money, and urged not to treat it as an enemy. But the military-industrial complex (MIC) has its own agenda, along with the neocon and neoliberal advocates of unique U.S. unilateralism.
I think that ever since China’s officials met in Alaska with Mr. Blinken earlier this year, they see the handwriting on the wall, as have Russia and other SCO members. The’ve accepted that the world economy is fracturing between the U.S.-centered “free world” (central planning by Wall Street and unilateral diplomacy from Washington) and the multilateralizing rest of the world.
MH
Conclusions
Cut out the different terms, and you discover that these fellows are talking about something that I have noticed for a long, long time. And this is one of the primary reasons why you feel so free once you step outside of the American gulag-state.
Granted, the way that I speak and talk will just be considered too “colonial” for these kinds of people, but the fact still remains, no matter what you call it.
America is a nation that does not make anything.
Instead, it is a nation of the oligarchy that act as leeches, feeding of the most basic needs of the American people.
And as the people get sick and tired of this situation, and they start to revolt and fight back, the oligarchy has but one remaining trick… distraction. And the distraction is a major war with a major power.
They chose China.
Way back in 2004 – 2005 as they believed that it was the weaker of the two (China and Russia) And they are still playing that game, still following though the plans, even though things have changed substantially in China since then.
The one to tame this monster of a beast, my gut feeling is, will not be China. It will be Russia. And that is for another discussion at another time.
…
For all that talk about how great America is, just pales in comparison to China. And that is simply because NOW (at this time… subject to change, of course) that the Chinese government serves the people. And the United States does not.
And, rather than go one and on about it, and angering my American friends, here’s a comparison…
If you go down the list you can easy see how true it is.
Regulations. Well, in America you had best comply with a EPA study to see if your local spangled wombat spider isn’t going to be affected when you add a pool to your back yard. That will cost money. Who will get the money? Well, it’s “the regulators”. How do you become a state regulator? Come on, boys and girls, you know that you can apply all you want but only the select few get state jobs.They are the friends of those already in power. Don’t believe me? Apply for a state job that pays a decent wage.
Laws. Oh, yeah. Tell me about it. There’s two sets in America. One for us, and one for the wealthy. That’s it. Argument over.
Domestic Policy. In America nothing is done domestically unless some oligarch can profit from it. That’s the way it is Jack, and the 7 trillion dollars that President Biden is proposing isn’t going anywhere except into the wallets of the wealthy.
This is the difference between a people’s government and a billionaires democracy.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
I have been thinking a lot of the Deagel Forecast for 2025 lately. More so, much more so than before. The reason being the new Australia-USA nuclear “submarine” agreement forged earlier this month. And you know, of course I am thinking about this. This singular deal does many, many dangerous things. But perhaps the most dangerous is makes it far easier for a major nuclear conflict with China. And since I live in China, that pisses the Hell out of me.
It’s a major assertive military aggression on the part of the United States.
As well as pointing out the obvious; that Australia is not a “democracy”. After all, a democracy would have the legislature making those decisions, not the Head of State. So in truth, Australia is but a “tin horn” dictatorship, bought sold, and owned by the United States. It’s pretty brazen, but then again, these fucking jokers don’t really give a damn any longer about what people think.
And to confirm how brain-dead the Australian citizenry is, they are not even noticing that the decisions on tariffs, embargoes, trade with China, military alignments with the United States are not going through the proper channels. It’s all being done in “smoky” back-rooms with “shadowy figures”, and the only time that any citizen finds out about it is after the fact.
Yup.
Third-world, banana republic, dictatorship. That’s Australia today.
For those of you who are unaware, Australia has agreed to build bases, staffed by American military, to service American (and British) nuclear submarines until (or well past) 2040 when the Australian versions of those submarines will be manufactured.
The reason is the same old, same old, “secure international maritime law”, “uphold human rights”, and secure “global democratic values”, maintain the American “rules based order”. (As opposed to the UN maritime law.)
Bla. Bla. Bla.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
The thing is ALL American nuclear submarines carry nuclear missiles. Both the SLBM’s for targeted destruction of cities, and nuclear torpedoes for the destruction of submarines and entire fleets.
Though, any thinking person might stop and wonder what does placing nuclear ICBM’s off the Chinese coast have to do with “upholding human rights”, “free navigational passage” or “democratic values”.
And the reason is, that it doesn’t.
Bla. Bla. Bla.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
It’s placing very serious offensive weapons off the coast of China.
And the real reason is…?
…
…
So that the fishing rights of Vietnamese fishermen next to Indonesian waters will be policed, and secured? Is that what we are supposed to believe?
…
…
Bla. Bla. Bla.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
This move has shocked the world. Though not so much the dumbed-down Americans who say…
"Oh, well. It's way off somewhere at the other end of the world. Who cares. We have more important things to worry about like Trans injecting booster Vaxx. And being forced to wear masks! 'Merica! 'Merica! 'Merica!"
But don’t worry. The Chinese Leadership got the telegraphed message loud and clear.
The global appeal for peace comes as a top Chinese diplomat warned his country to re-examine their promise to only use nukes in retaliation, in response to the new alliances forming in the region.
Beijing’s former ambassador to the UN, Sha Zukang said China must make the first nuclear strike against the US if Joe Biden continues to defend Taiwan.
He said:
"The unconditional no first use is not suitable . . .
...unless China-US negotiations agree that neither side would use [nuclear weapons] first...
..., or the US will no longer take any passive measures to undermine the effectiveness of China’s strategic forces.
The strategic pressure on China is intensifying as (the US) has built new military alliances and as it increases its military presence in our neighborhood."
The threat came ahead of a meeting between the US, India, Japan and Australia – dubbed the Quad, in Washington, host by Joe Biden.
During a meeting of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association in Beijing last week he said:
"The policy not to be the first to use nuclear weapons unconditionally has given China the moral high ground internationally.
But for some time in the future, the US will see China as its main competitor and even its enemy.
Can this policy be re- examined and fine-tuned?"
It has already happened.
Right after the announcement, all the SEO generals met in Russia for “discussions”.
First off, SEO stands for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And it is the de facto unified Asia. And yes. Right after the announcement about the new ICBM submarine deal, all the SEO military chiefs called a meeting to discuss things.
And right now, this is what it looks like…
(The big news, not well reported in “the West”, is how Iran just joined the SCO (this month). This is big news. This is a unified Asia.)
SCO chiefs of general staff meeting held in Russia
General Li Zuocheng (2nd L, front), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, attends the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
ORENBURG, Russia, Sept. 24 — The Chiefs of General Staff of the armed forces of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states held a meeting at the Donguz training range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23. General Li Zuocheng, member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, attended the meeting.
The Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise held by the armed forces of the SCO member states is also going on at the Donguz training range.
Chiefs of General Staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states including General Li Zuocheng (3rd L, front), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, observe the Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
Since its establishment in 2001, by upholding the banner of “Shanghai spirit” of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development, the SCO has played an important role in promoting regional development, security and stability in the past two decades.
Participants of the meeting exchanged views on the current international and regional situations, security challenges and further cooperation of military security.
General Valery Gerasimov, chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, awards the medal of “Friendship and Cooperation” to representatives of the Chinese participating troops with outstanding performance in the SCO Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise at the Donguz training range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
They also expressed concern about the new risks in the situation of Afghanistan posed by the hasty withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, and signed jointly the minutes of the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the SCO member states.
In addition, participants of the meeting observed the Peace Mission-2021 joint anti-terrorist military exercise and all agreed that this exercise has improved the coordination capacity of the militaries of the SCO members in fighting against the international terrorist forces.
On the same day, Chinese General Li Zuocheng met with Russia’s Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov in a separate closed door meeting. Photo below…
General Li Zuocheng (3rd L), member of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of the Joint Staff Department under the CMC, meets with General Valery Gerasimov (3rd R), chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Orenburg Oblast, Russia on September 23, 2021. General Li is in Orenburg to attend the meeting of chiefs of general staff of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states. (Photo by Li Xiaowei)
You all think that this is nothing and that it is going to “blow over”?
Hardly. But there’s not a peep in the Western press about any of this.
Drudge Report 28SEP21.
But like I’ve been saying all along, the cattle don’t need to know what the farmer is planning on having for dinner.
Let’s get into some details why the Russians and Chinese are mobilizing their military forces.
American Nuclear Submarines to be serviced in Australia
The United States submarine force consists of four operational classes – Ohio, Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Virginia – all of which are nuclear-powered.
[1] The 14 Ohio-class SSBNs serve as the sea-based leg of the U.S. strategic triad. [2] An additional four Ohio-class submarines are configured as SSGNs that possess both strike and Special Forces insertion capabilities. The three classes of U.S. attack submarines — Virginia, Seawolf and Los Angeles – are tasked with engaging and destroying enemy vessels; supporting on-shore operations and carrier groups; and carrying out surveillance.
Capabilities at a Glance
Total Submarines in Fleet: 70
Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBNs): 14
Special forces / Black Ops Submarines (SSGNs): 4
Nuclear-Powered attack submarines (SSNs): 52
British Submarines to be serviced in Australia
The UK have four nuclear powered submarines that will be cruising off the Chinese coast. They will be the four Vanguard-class submarines: Vanguard (commissioned in 1993), Victorious (1995), Vigilant (1996) and Vengeance (1999).
All carry American nuclear SLBMs.
The United Kingdom has deployed Vanguard-class submarines with American manufactured Trident II nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) leased from the United States under arrangements negotiated with the Reagan administration in 1982.
So what?
Imagine if Russia started parking it’s nuclear submarines in Cuba, and if China started parking it’s nuclear submarines in Vancouver, BC. What if China started placing nuclear armed ICBM’s in Indonesia and Tasmania targeting “freedom of maritime passage” in Australia?
It’s a BIG FUCKING DEAL.
Which makes me want to take another look at the Deagel Report.
Boiler-plate Introduction
Who is the Deagel Report, what is it?
The Deagel corporation is a minor branch of US military intelligence, one of the many secretive organizations which collects data for high-level decision-making purposes and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
Deagel Report.
It is known, for example, to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.
If so, then it must be assumed that its population predictions for 2025, as well as its industrial output predictions on a nation-by-nation basis, are based on strategic assumptions which are shared and well understood by other players in the intelligence community.
Until the start of the Covid ‘pandemic’ many commentators were perplexed by the Deagel spreadsheets.
Perhaps they were part of a psychological operation?
However, in light of recent events, we are obliged to consider a possible connection between the projected massive reduction in the population of certain countries, forecast by Deagel, and other trends going on right now.
Trends?
What trends?
Devaluation of the Dollar with an out of control American Congress.
A fake American GDP.
Strange insistence in using a mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine.
A global pandemic that America is just fucking up royally.
Desire for a war with China.
Desire for a war with Russia.
Desire for a war with Iran.
China, Russia and Iran forming a unified Asian block.
Race war in the United States.
Progressive onslaught and control of all electronic media.
Looming bubbles in just about every facet of American life.
But mostly the latest decisions by the Untied States to create a QUAD alliance, armed with nuclear weapons, and threaten China, or if that fails, to launch a “first strike” nuclear salvo against China to destroy it once and for all.
For “democracy” and “freedom“.
Don’t you know.
The Deagel scenario
The Deagel corporation was asked to explain the thinking behind its strange set of population and output figures. While we cannot take its response at face value, it nonetheless paints a picture that is very similar to the world we now see. And this is not an exaggeration at all.
World-wide bio-weapon pandemic
Massive domestic discord
Financial collapse preceded by inflation
Broken American government systems on all levels.
The United States trying to distract domestic discord through war
They updated their report last year (exactly last year 25SEP20) to compensate for the changes in the Geo-political environment since President Obama in 2012. This is what they said…
Deagel 2020 revision to the original 2012 Deagel Forecast
BlueNarwhal:
Forecast disclaimer revision in 2020:
In 2014 we published a disclaimer about the forecast. In six years the scenario has changed dramatically. This new disclaimer is meant to single out the situation from 2020 on-wards.
Talking about the United States and the European Union as separated entities no longer makes sense. Both are the Western block, keep printing money and will share the same fate.
After COVID we can draw two major conclusions:
The Western world (success model) has been built over societies with no resilience. They can barely withstand any hardship, even a low intensity one. It was assumed but now we’ve got the full hard confirmation beyond any doubt. They are weak to the point of a decapitated cripple.
The COVID crisis will be used to extend the life of this dying economic system through the so called “Great Reset.”
The Great Reset; like the climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, shale oil (…) hoaxes promoted by the system; is another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.
It can be effective for awhile but finally won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable. The core ruling elites hope to stay in power which is in effect the only thing that really worries them.
Collapse of the USD Financial Banking System
The collapse of the Western financial system – and ultimately the Western civilization – has been the major driver in the 2012 forecast along with a confluence of crisis with a devastating outcome.
Progressive Multiculturalism failures
As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship.
Coronavirus Pandemic
The Spanish flu one century ago represented the death of 40-50 million people. Today the world’s population is four times greater with air travel in full swing which is by definition a super spreader. The death casualties in today’s World would represent 160 to 200 million in relative terms but more likely 300-400 million taking into consideration the air travel factor that did not exist one century ago. So far, COVID death toll is roughly 1 million people.
Economic crisis due to forced lock-downs
It is quite likely that the economic crisis due to the lock-downs will cause more deaths than the virus worldwide. The Soviet system was less able to deliver goodies to the people than the Western one. Nevertheless Soviet society was more compact and resilient under an authoritarian regime. That in mind, the collapse of the Soviet system wiped out 10 percent of the population.
The stark reality of diverse and multicultural Western societies is that a collapse will have a toll of 50 to 80 percent depending on several factors. But in general terms the most diverse, multicultural, indebted and wealthy (highest standard of living) will suffer the highest toll.
Life-Support Systems
The only glue that keeps united such aberrant collage from falling apart is over-consumption with heavy doses of bottomless degeneracy disguised as virtue. Nevertheless the widespread censorship, hate laws and contradictory signals mean that even that glue is not working any more.
The Predictions
Not everybody has to die. Migration (out from America, the West, etc.) can also play a positive role in this.
Second and Third World Nations
The formerly (known as) second and third world nations are an unknown at this point. Their fate will depend upon the decisions they take in the future.
Western powers are not going to take over them as they did in the past because these (Western) countries won’t be able to control their very own cities let alone those countries that are far away.
If they remain tied to the former World Order they will go down along with the Western powers. However, they won’t experience the same kind of brutal decline that the Western powers will experience so brazenly. This is partially because they are poorer and (obviously) not diverse enough. Instead they are stronger than the Western powers because they are actually quite homogeneous. This is their advantage. And that they are used to deal with some sort of hardship. Though, not precisely the one that is coming.
If they switch to China they can get a chance to stabilize but will need to depend upon the management of their own resources. We expected this situation to unfold and actually is unfolding right now.
American Election Consequences
With the November election triggering a major bomb if Trump is re-elected. (Did not happen.) If Biden is elected there will very bad consequences as well.
There is a lot of bad blood in the Western societies and the protests, demonstrations, rioting and looting are only the first symptoms of what is coming.
Geo-Political Changes
However a new trend is taking place overshadowing this one. The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.
The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.
Russia and China are a united Asia.
Right now the potential partnership between Russia and the European Union (EU) is dead with Russia turning definitively towards China. That was from the beginning the most likely outcome.
The European Union is on it’s own.
Airbus never tried to establish a real partnership but rather a strategy to fade away the Russian aerospace industry. Actually Russia and China have formed a new alliance to build a long haul airliner.
Western Europe (not to mention the United States) was never interested in the development of Russia or forming anything other than a master slave relationship with Russia providing raw materials and toeing the line of the West.
It was clear then and today is a fact.
Preparations for war
Russia has been preparing for a major war since 2008 and China has been increasing her military capabilities for the last 20 years. Today China is not a second tier power compared with the United States. Both in military and economic terms China is at the same level and in some specific areas are far ahead.
Chinese Technology is state of the art.
In the domain of high-tech 5G has been a success in the commercial realm but the Type 055 destroyer is also another breakthrough with the US gaining a similar capability (DDG 51 Flight IIII) by mid of this decade (more likely by 2030).
Nanchang, the lead ship of the Type 055 class, was commissioned amid the pandemic and lock down in China.
Potential for open war hostilities
Six years ago the likelihood of a major war was tiny.
Since then it has grown steadily and dramatically and today is by far the most likely major event in the 2020s.
The ultimate conflict can come from two ways.
[1] A conventional conflict involving at least two major powers that escalates into an open nuclear war. Most likely initiated by the United States, with a nuclear retaliatory salvo of impressive destructive magnitude.
[2] A second scenario is possible in the 2025-2030 time-frame. A Russian (with possibly China) sneak first strike against the United States and its allies with the new S-500, strategic missile defenses, Yasen-M submarines, INF Zircon and Kalibr missiles and some new space asset playing the key role.
The sneaky first strike would involve all Russian missile strategic forces branches (bombers and ground-based missiles) at the different stages of such attack that would be strategic translation of what was seen in Syria in November 2015.
Massive failures in Western Intelligence Agencies
There was no report that the Russian had such a capability of launching a high precision, multiple, combined arms attack at targets 2,000+ kilometers away.
Western intelligence had no clue.
Brainwashed Moral Superiority
The irony is that since the end of the Cold War the United States has been maneuvering through NATO to achieve a position to be able to execute a first strike (nuclear) over Russia and now it seems that the first strike may still occur but the country finished would be the United States.
Another particularity of the Western system is that its individuals have been brainwashed to the point that the majority accept their moral high ground and technological edge as a given. This has given the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones which are ignored or deprecated.
That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.
At least in the Soviet system the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed up.
We can see the United States claims about 5G being stolen from them by China or hypersonic technology being stolen by Russia as the evidence that the Western elites are also infected by that hubris. Over the next decade it will become obvious that the West is falling behind the Russia-China block and the malaise might grow into desperation.
Why go to war?
Going to war might seem a quick and easy solution to restore the lost hegemony to finally find them into a France 1940 moment. Back then France did not have nuclear weapons to turn a defeat into a victory. The West might try that swap because the unpleasant prospect of not being Mars and Venus but rather a bully and his dirty bitch running away in fear while the rest of the world is laughing at them.
If there is not a dramatic change of course the world is going to witness the first nuclear war.
The Western block collapse may come before, during or after the war. It does not matter. The West will completely collapse. It is fragile. It will be unable to recover from even the slightest societal disruption.
A nuclear war is a game with billions of casualties and the collapse plays in the hundreds of millions.
He Concludes…
This website is non-profit, built on spare time and we provide our information and services AS IS without further explanations and/or guarantees. We are not linked to any government. Take into account that the forecast is nothing more than a game of numbers whether flawed or correct based upon some speculative assumptions. - Friday, September 25th, 2020
So much for the introductory portion. Now the meat of this article…
Realize the following truths, before we proceed.
China possesses skilled leadership.
Russia and China are aligned militarily.
The United States government is a cluster fuck.
America is balkanized, isolated, and it’s every man for himself.
Handguns, and weapons are all over America.
COVID is raging inside of America.
If you think it is bad now, imagine what happens when a roll of toilet paper costs $20, A hamburger cost $100, no one is getting cost-of-living increases, there’s hardly any gasoline. And a new round of COVID is forcing everyone into lock-downs again. And the police start to selectively deploy.
The shootings will not be televised.
And in the midst of all this unreported turmoil will be the grand American military strategy. That is to “suppress China”, that far-away nation. To “project” a American rules “based order” on the Chinese coast. So that the miserable ‘Mericans can blame their frustration on those evil vile Communists. Instead of on their government.
The Good News
The good news is that the war will be short lived. Over very quickly. In fact, it might as well happen, million of people die, and then be over before anything is actually reported. Countries might break up after a few short meetings and that will be that.
With banks gone, communication down, any balkanized nations will go tribal in hours. And people, the USA is very balkanized. Or haven’t you been watching the videos out of America today? Crime is open and brazen. Shootings are the norm.
The bad news…
…well.
People are going to die. Entire societies will be disrupted. nation-states will collapse, restructure and reform. There will be internal discord, and SHTF on a local level will emerge in the worst hit areas.
Most Western nations will become a Hellish fiasco of “zombie movie” proportions.
The countries that will suffer the greatest reduction in population, according to Deagel (as per 2014), are:
Worst hit nations.
That’s pretty darn specific. Don’t you know. And the top nations are the most “Western” nations in society, governance, and banking.
So what is driving this entire event sequence?
The AUKUS
Thenew security alliance of Australia, Great Britain and the USA, namedAUKUS, is now about which arms companies can expand their business. Britain’snuclear submarines are being built under the direction of Europe’s largestarmscompany, BAE Systems, with Rolls-Royce providing the propulsion.
-Archyde
The sole purpose of the AUKUS is to…
Unite the military systems of the USA, the UK and Australia.
Provide bases, fuel depots and maintenance facilities for nuclear submarines.
Provide nuclear basing and deployment options for second-strike nuclear SLBM systems.
The members of the AUKUS and their Deagel casualty figures.
Here’s the 2025 Deagel casualty figures for the three “mighty” members of AUKUS.
Keep in mind that the American Civil War which devastated the Southern States had a 6-8% of the population killed.
Since the casualty figures include Australia, which has been (up until four years ago) neutral, we can assume that China would be involved.
And, since Great Britain (UK) would be so seriously destroyed, we must assume that Russia would be involved.
These two facts point to the realization that both Russia and China would fight in a World War III scenario, and that given the current Geo-political alignments at this time that they would fight on the same side for the same interests.
Changes in South America
Population will increase in many nations in South America. Which is very strange. Deagel predicts that this might be due to migration way from the heavily populated Northern American nations Southward. With Brazil being one of the target destinations…
Brazil 2025.
But then…
We have Argentina that also has a decrease in population. The decrease is around 7%.
Argentina 2025.
The Members of the unified ShanghaiCooperationOrganization and their Deagel Casualty figures…
From what I can gather, most of the SEO nations fare pretty well, all things considered.
All have projected population decreases under 2%, with both India and Pakistan having growth in population.
My guess is that Asia doesn’t play.
A complete breakdown
The data was taken down from Deagel when the website hit the blogosphere, and that is the kind of publicity that no one wants. Like MM, they do not host advertisements or anything like that. The site is a grey-web site like MM. It is not a for-profit venue.
Never the less, here is the complete tabulated data in a nice convenient PDF for you to download. You all can thank me later.
A look on the bright side?
How can there be a “bright side” to any of this? Well, you see, perhaps we are all looking at this wrong. We are making the assumption that the nations themselves will not geographically change.
What if, in 2025, the United States says (after the elections of 2024) to Hell with the Federal government and the nation crumbles apart. It could very well resemble something like this…
In this scenario, the United States breaks up into four separate nation-states. An only one of them remains “The United States”. That simple Geo-political change produces the exact same results as described above.
The four new nation states…
Map
Here’s a map showing the predictions made in the forecast. You see that Asia is unscathed, while America and the West suffer horribly.
Japan will lose 1/5th of it’s population!
Australia will lose a full 1/3rd of it’s population!
Canada will lose 1/4th of it’s population!
The United States will lose almost 3/4ths of it’s population!
An American centered fiasco
Keep in mind that the largest drop in population are in “Western nations”, and those that have adopted American governance suffered the worst causality figures.
Based on historical precedents, and the Deagel predictions, these kinds of numbers and figures can only be associated with an American centered disaster. Not really a global one. Because if it was a global disaster, then the causality figures would be more uniform.
.
For instance, here is Israel…
The closer the nation is aligned with the United States, the more damage or death toll that is has.
What’s the gig?
There are all sorts of people slicing and dicing these figures. Here’s one that claims that 2025 will be a war on Christians. That it’s the Vaxx that’s going to kill all the Christians off, and that it is a master plan by those devious Chinese to steal our precious freedoms and liberties all for Communism!
(sigh)
That it must be due to religion, as that is what the Book of Revelation says, and therefore the “Four horsemen” are going to spring out from deep inside of China and unleash their terrors to the world.
I exaggerate. Sure. But it’s not that far off.
Well, if that is so, then if you read the book of revelation, then you know that the real believers will be spared, and the condemned will be the ones who will end up suffering. There will be this thing called the rapture and the unworthy will perish in what will become Hell on Earth. Where will that Hell be?
The United States.
Let’s look at the unified Asia…
The charts truly show that it is the Chinese and the Russians that will be spared. Not those in the West. So please give me a break.
What ever your personal beliefs, I do not think that any of this has anything to do with religion, philosophy or social behavior. It has to do with the collapse of the United States Empire, and the desire of the ruling oligarchy to hold on while it goes down the tubes.
(Sigh)
Never the less…
They do point out something interesting. That there is a direct correlation between the nations that are giving mRNA vaccinations, and those that do not.
The ones that insist on mRNA vaccinations…
The ones that give “dead host” traditional vaccinations…
And this is their conclusion…
That the Deagel projections have a strategic military purpose and should be taken seriously;
That the sharp division between Table A+B and Table C has a strategic military purpose;
That the worldwide Covid vaccine program is a cover to deliver a fatal or harmful vaccine to the population of a selected list of countries (those in Table A+B);
That the countries in Table C will become the new axis of the world economy, centered on the Belt & Road Initiative, which has been under development for at least 20 years;
That the vaccines produced by the Big Four are especially dangerous and should be avoided. (We are not suggesting that the other 17 are safe.)
So maybe they are making a good POINT.
Comment from Memory Loss
This came in this morning just before I published this article…
MM, looks like there is starting to be speculation about the mRNA vaccines. And you got the military aspect correct.
20% of the pfizer vaccine contains material which is redacted on the list of ingredients. The redactions fall under b(4) which appears to be code for state of the art military stuff.
So it looks like the ungodly haste is to complete the installation of a state of the art military system into the general population. The US is getting ready for use of nuclear weapons in a strike against China it would seem. Your theory of genetic modifications for subjects to survive a nuclear war is looks really plausible.
The US is getting ready for use of nuclear weapons in a strike against China it would seem. Now why would they do that?
(P.S: I am speculating that the thoughts you have been having recently may actually be glimpses into possible future time lines. If you understand my references to Swedenborg previously, you might get my drift. So it looks like we may have to enlist as irregulars ASAP lol, )
As leaders from Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States unveiled their new trilateral security partnership for advanced defense-tech sharing on Wednesday, it was also revealed that the first initiative of the endeavor would be the delivery of Australia’s first nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison returned to his Canberra podium Thursday afternoon to divulge that the country should expect more than just a costly nuclear submarine fleet within the next several years.
"[W]e will be enhancing our long-range strike capability including hawk and tomahawk cruise missiles and extended missile range for our capabilities," Morrison said, highlighting the goal of a "stable and secure region."
The acquisition of Australia’s new capabilities will come as part of the country’s 2024 structure plan, and the missiles will be fitted on Australia’s Collins-class submarine fleet.
.
As for the nuclear submarine fleet, Morrison projected that the country should have a portion of the submarines “in the water” before 2030.
.
“When it comes to the delivery of this program, I indicated that we anticipate being able to commence build this year and the first of those submarines would be in the water, we believe, before the end of next decade and all partners will be working to ensure that that is achieved at a date as soon as is possible to achieve,” he said.
.
Morrison rejected claims that Australia “wasted” some $2.4 billion that was already funneled to France’s Naval Group as part of a $90 billion submarine contract — a deal that was rendered defunct following Wednesday’s announcement.
.
"We’ve invested $2.4 billion in the attack class program and I say all of that investment, I believe, has further built our capability," he proclaimed, "and that is consistent with the decision that was taken back in 2016 for all the right reasons to protect Australia’s national security interests and has served that purpose."
The Australian prime minister went on to issue a public apology to Naval Group, the French government and French President Emmanuel Macron.
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President Biden delivers remark on National Security at the White House
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"There is few if any other country around the world that understands the importance of the Pacific and has been as committed to the Pacific as France," he said.
.
"We share a deep passion for our Pacific family and a deep commitment to them, and I look forward and I hope to see us continue once we move past what is obviously a very difficult and disappointing decision for France."
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China also took issue with the AUKUS announcement, which was viewed as another example of the participating nations’ “Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice,” according to a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
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"There’s an open invitation for President Xi to discuss other matters," Morrison said to a reporter asking about potential economic trade sanctions from China. "That has always been there. Australia is open to discuss issues important to the Indo-Pacific."
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Morrison also stressed to the global community that Australia is not looking to become a nuclear power, or superpower, through AUKUS.
.
“This is about propulsion. This is not about acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said, pledging continued adherence to obligations under the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
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US President Joe Biden previously clarified that Australia’s submarine fleet would be powered by nuclear reactors, but “conventionally-armed” when it comes to weaponry.
.
Comments from the article…
It’s not just that…
The United States is on a buying ordering spree of large conventional weapons and munitions designed to borrow deep into the earth and destroy things, huge systems to take out entire cities, and a massive construction program for missiles.
But the USA only wants peace…
US Air Force Orders GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators Through 2026
The Boeing Corp., St. Louis, Missouri, has been awarded a $70,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. This contract provides for the procurement via delivery order of GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator carriage and release equipment. The location of performance is Saint Charles, Missouri, and work is expected to be completed by April 30, 2026. This award is the result of a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2019 3011 (production) funds in the amount of $18,025,770 are being obligated at the time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity (FA8681-19-D-0008).
US Air Force to Repair Minuteman III nuclear ICBM Missiles Guidance System Through 2039
The Boeing Co., Newark, Ohio, has been awarded a $1,620,707,490 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for missile guidance repair. This contract will repair the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) missile guidance set. Work will be performed in Newark, Ohio, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 27, 2039. This award is the result of a sole-source acquisition. Fiscal 2021 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $32,486,160 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (FA821421D0003).
Etc. Etc. Etc.
The Deagel Forecast is removed from the website.
On 4/20/21, Deagel.com, a military intelligence agency, has deleted their mysterious 2025 forecast spreadsheet that predicted a major collapse of the western countries.
The forecast used to exist at [link to deagel.com (secure)] and now that page just redirects to the home page. This forecast was on their website since 2014.
The spreadsheet predicted a major drop in the US population from 332 million in 2019 to only 99 million in 2025 (-70%).
I find it an interesting coincidence that this deletion was made within 24 hours of every American over the age of 16 qualifying for their mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
You all do know what I think about coincidences...
-MM
Do not get caught up.
The world seems to be going into a tail spin. But it is just an illusion. It’s not. It’s just that the potential futures are frightening. Do not get caught up. VIDEO.
Video
Some final thoughts
I really hope that this does not come to pass. I really want all this nonsense to go away and not happen. Seriously I really do.
Those that predict the future are often wrong. Sometimes frighteningly so.
However, if the Deagel forecast is based on remote viewed data with an extrapolation of current events, it really does look like it’s going to happen.
Keep in mind that the Deagel remote viewed the future correctly. They printed their results in 2012.
They PREDICTED a bio-warfare induced pandemic.
They PREDICTED an Australian alliance with the United States.
They PREDICTED that America would start entering a period of "popping" of the various economic bubbles.
All of which came true by 2020.
Deagel did NOT change their forecast for 2025. It still stands. They just changed their thinking on how it would come about.
They remote viewed 2025 in great detail.
There will be [1] a massive die off of people in America, and Australia. The rest of the world will fare much better. And, most importantly, a [2] bio-weapon or pandemic figured predominantly in their calculus.
In 2012, they believed that there would be some kind of bio-weapon or pandemic that would kill off so many Americans. But they couldn’t (for the life of them) answer why Australia of all places would also have a large die off. At that time they never could of imagined the QUAD set up by Mike Pompeo, and that the Morrison government would wholeheartedly want to declare war on China. Instead, they figured that it must be a very serious pandemic with some other mystery event that complicated things in a negative manner.
In 2020, in the midst of the (three agent) bio-weapon attacks on China, and the absolute failure of America in securing it’s homeland, as well as the strong alignment of the Australian Morrison government to the war-loving neocons in Washington DC, the revised reasoning became one of nuclear war. Thus they reasoned that since the 2020 pandemic wasn’t that bad, and the drums of war were beating so loudly, that it must be nuclear war and bio-weapons used simultaneously.
Whether there is a nuclear event, or a bio-weapon event, no matter who caused it, or who instigated it, America will be absolutely and totally devastated. A 70% kill off implies that America would indeed be thrown back to the bronze age.
My advice?
Take your loved ones out for a nice meal. Right now. Enjoy the time that you have with them. Whether or not this will happen, the fact is that it’s not happening right now.
You are.
And what ever your situation, rich, poor, work tomorrow, day off, tired, or bored, do something special now. Live life, and don’t live in fear of an uncertain future.
Just call up your grandparent.
Or call your mom. Say hi.
Too much work, eh?
I dare you. I double-dog dare you. Call them right now.
Just say “Hi. I was thinking of you and just wanted to call. I hope that it is not a bad time.”
You will make their day.
And…
…if you are old (like me) and your parents and grandparents are gone, then call up a brother, sister or cousin. Talk about a television show you used to watch, a movie, a music band, a shared memory and say that you were thinking about them.
It will be a trip down “memory lane”.
But…
…if you have no family, and you don’t want to call up a friend or two to go out and grab a beer…just because. Then take your loved one to a movie. It doesn’t matter what the movie is. Just go.
Go. Let them choose the movie. It doesn’t matter what it is. Don’t quibble. Their choice. Their night out. You just make it happen.
You will be a better person for it.
So enjoy the moment now.
If you watched the movie Idiocracity, you’d get the joke.
Spend time with your loved ones.
Time will pass you by… do something TODAY.
Make a difference.
Be the best you that YOU can be.
And always, be the Rufus.
Be the Rufus.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
How’s that for a “mouth full” headline. Nah. Not the kind of stuff that you were expecting from ol’ MM was it. But (I am so sorry) I am being “pestered” to draft this up. And it truly is “pestering”, and I don’t like it ok? And don’t bother asking why I am publishing this article now, of all times. I haven’t a clue.
And that’s the way it works, don’t you know. So just enjoy the read, and if this article resonates with you, then great for you! Otherwise, just get some wine, a fine companion, and eat some delicious tasty food… stuff that you can savor and smell.
Oh, and one more thing.
In this analysis we are going to entertain a professional Remote Viewer for his comments on the Deagel Forecast. And given that I am being so insanely driven to push this article out (for God know what reason), I am including the entire conversation with him.
And it goes everywhere.
So buckle up. Some of it might be important to some people, and some of it might not be to others. So just relax and take from this article what is important to you, and ignore the rest.
OK?
Introduction
The Deagel corporation is a minor branch of US military intelligence, one of the many secretive organizations which collects data for high-level decision-making purposes and prepares confidential briefing documents for agencies like the National Security Agency, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
It’s a work of “love” from some retired intelligence assets, and like most of us ex-spooks, it’s hosted outside of the United States. Just like MM here. We have VERY good reasons to do so. Reasons that are far too complex to get involved in right this moment. But we DO KNOW what we are doing. Never doubt that.
Deagel is known, for example, to have contributed to a Stratfor report on North Korea. With this kind of pedigree, Deagel should be seen as a legitimate player in the intelligence community and not merely a disinformation asset.
If so, then it must be assumed that its population predictions for 2025, as well as its industrial output predictions on a nation-by-nation basis, are based on strategic assumptions which are shared and well understood by other players in the intelligence community.
Deagel predictions.
Until the start of the Covid ‘pandemic’ many commentators were perplexed by the Deagel spreadsheets.
Perhaps they were part of a psychological operation?
However, in light of recent events, we are obliged to consider a possible connection between the projected massive reduction in the population of certain countries, forecast by Deagel, and other trends going on right now.
Trends?
What trends?
Devaluation of the Dollar with an out of control American Congress.
Strange insistence in using a mRNA vaccine instead of a traditional “dead host” vaccine.
A global pandemic that America is just fucking up royally.
Desire for a war with China.
Desire for a war with Russia.
Desire for a war with Iran.
China, Russia and Iran forming a unified Asian block.
Race war in the United States.
Progressive onslaught and control of all electronic media.
Looming bubbles in just about every facet of American life.
And so on and so forth…
The Deagel scenario
The Deagel corporation was asked to explain the thinking behind its strange set of population and output figures. While we cannot take its response at face value, it nonetheless paints a picture that is very similar to the world we now see. And this is not an exaggeration at all.
Consider…
[1] A fake American GDP
In short, they argued that the US government has greatly over-stated the real level of US GDP. This means the country will be fatally exposed when the next economic crisis strikes.
They also take into account a “pandemic scenario” – their term – caused by Ebola or a similar pathogen. This, they say, would cause an exceptionally high death rate, placing extreme pressure on healthcare providers across America and greatly reducing economic output.
[3] A financial crisis with the US Dollar
This pandemic could quickly spiral out of control and create an international financial crisis:
“The collapse of the Western financial system will wipe out the standard of living of its population while ending Ponzi schemes such as the Stock Exchange and the pension funds.”
Trying to figure it out…
They try to explain the predicted dramatic fall in the population of the US by reference to a massive outward migration of millions of Americans seeking economic relief in other countries, but this is unconvincing.
They seem to concede this themselves when they add a further explanatory factor – widespread suicide in response to economic distress. But this too is unsatisfactory.
Their primary reason for predicting a colossal drop in the population of the US by 2025 – a fall of up to 70 percent – is the scale and severity of the alleged pandemic.
As they put it,
“the death toll will be horrible.”
Map
Here’s a map showing the predictions made in the forecast. You see that Asia is unscathed, while America and the West suffer horribly.
Japan will lose 1/5th of it’s population!
Australia will lose a full 1/3rd of it’s population!
Canada will lose 1/4th of it’s population!
The United States will lose almost 3/4ths of it’s population!
Timing
By all accounts, historically, the massive drop in population at this time is validated by the “Fourth Turning” predictions. The date and timing all agree with the Strauss and Howe model for America.
This model is United States centrist, and acknowledges that different societies and different cultures have different “turnings” and generational changes.
Casualty Figures
The casualty figures are gargantuan. They are over and above what one would associate with such things as…
Civil War = 2% to 10%.
Genocide = from 25% to 99% of the population.
For example; 77.0% of the Tutsi population of Rwanda. 85 percent of the population in the Hutu ethnic group. In Cambodia, 70% of the total Cham population, were exterminated.
World War = 6% to 9% of the population (World War II).
Global Military Empire = 11%
GenghisKhan’slegacyisoneofaruthless warrior who dominated unimaginable amounts of territory. He slaughtered about 40 million people and reduced the populationofEarthby 11 percent.
Pandemic = 15% to 60%
The Bubonic plague was a deadly pandemic that wiped out a massive chunk of population in the World during the mid-1300s. In Europe alone the plague wiped out nearly 50% of Europe’s population.
Nuclear War = 30% to 85%
Economic Collapse = 1% to 30%
An American centered fiasco
Based on historical precedents, and the Deagel predictions, these kinds of numbers and figures can only be associated with an American centered disaster. Not really a global one. Because if it was a global disaster, then the causality figures would be more uniform.
.
The most likely candidate is a combination of two (or possibly more) contributors listed above. Which are…
Candidate disaster combinations
Here are some of my suggested candidate combinations that allow us to better understand how those enormous population causality figures could be reached…
Global pandemic, AND genocide.
Global pandemic, AND civil war WITH genocide.
Global pandemic, AND collapsing Military Empire, WITH war.
Global Military Empire AND Nuclear War WITH Global pandemic.
So, in my mind, as I understand things, the ONLY way that the kinds of predictions (as determined by the forecast) can manifest is through a combination of some very horrific events that happens in one centered geographic area.
So how did they come up with these numbers?
Indeed, these are truly shocking numbers and values. So shocking, that it’s simply not an extrapolation of trends. As an extrapolation of trends show things either moving towards “infinity” or falling into a “black hole”. But there is no way to be able to quantify that data into numbers.
So, how the heck did they come up with these values that they are using? And they have come up with specific values and specific data. And it is all very, highly specific. Such as this…
Specific Data and values
Here’s some of the very specific data that they have come up with…
The countries that will suffer the greatest reduction in population, according to Deagel (as per 2014), are:
That’s pretty darn specific. Don’t you know.
Remote Viewing
Remote viewing is defined as the ability to acquire accurate information about a distant or non-local place, person or event without using your physical senses or any other obvious means.
It’s associated with the idea of clairvoyance, seemingly being able to spontaneously know something without actually knowing how you got the information.
It is also sometimes called “anomalous cognition” or “second sight.”
Many of us experience this from time to time as an intuitive flash of insight that turns out to be correct.
Many well-known entrepreneurs and business people, like George Soros, Conrad Hilton, Thomas Alva Edison and Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony, have attributed their business success to this ability.
Remote Viewing Sketch.
And (of course) we’ve all seen natural psychics perform seemingly amazing feats of mental skill on TV.
The difference between natural psychic receptivity and remote viewing is that the latter is a trained skill, a controlled process, that the average person can learn to do, to some degree or another.
History of the Remote Viewing Program
Remote viewing in modern times originates from the U.S. Government’s interests in psychic espionage during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Back during World War II, the Soviets had heard rumors that the U.S. Military were using psychic communications at sea.
While it’s not clear now whether this was really true, the Soviets believed it. And that is, after all, all that matters.
They started their own psychic training within their military and intelligence agencies many decades ago.
The U.S. Government learned of this program and, in the early 1970’s, decided to create their own remote viewing CIA training program.
Stanford Research Institute Remote Viewing Tests
Money and resources (from the Federal government, and buried in the R&D section of the government) were given by the Central Intelligence Agency to Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
That that time, they were located on the campus of Stanford University. And their charter was to test the possibility of remote viewing.
The goal was to disprove that psychic functioning was real.
No one wanted it to exist.
It was the last thing that the military establishment wanted to worry about, especially if it was a new Soviet threat.
Physicists Russell Targ and Hal Putoff working at SRI were tasked with determining whether Extrasensory Perception (ESP) and related phenomena were real or not.
Physicists Russell Targ and Hal Putoff.
So they set about to locate some natural psychics and test them.
Their first subject was artist, psychic and scientist Ingo Swann of New York City. He had demonstrated an ability to accurately “remote view” weather in various American cities.
Ingo Swann.
He had published some articles about ESP and psychokinesis (the ability to mentally affect distant objects) when he worked with researcher Gertrude Schmeidler of City College, New York (and the American Society for Psychical Research.)
Working with Schmeidler, Swann had demonstrated that he could affect the temperature of thermistors sealed in insulated thermos canisters twenty-five feet away from him. Which (of course) was an amazing feat.
At a friend’s request, Swann sent his published findings to Putoff.
Upon reviewing them, Putoff asked Swann to come to SRI and demonstrate his abilities.
The first thing they had Swann do was to see if he could affect a super sensitive, (electromagnetically shielded) quark-detector buried five feet underground in a cement floor.
Every time Putoff asked Swann to think about the detector (used to detect subatomic particles), the readings from the device would noticeably deviate from the baseline readings.
Putoff was convinced that Swann had special abilities and so the program to test and develop remote viewing began.
Expanded Scope
At first they had Swann view objects in a box: this was a practice he was good at but quickly became bored with.
Swann said to them:
“I can view anything in the universe, this is a trivialization of my abilities.”
A few days later he came up with a new way to do remote viewing: viewing map coordinates.
Targ and Putoff went out and bought the biggest atlas they could find at the local book store.And so they started taking coordinates from the map, putting the coordinates in individual blank envelopes, and had Swann image the places at those coordinates at random.
Global Atlas.
Swann’s coordinate map viewing turned out to be a big success.
But, of course, critics were everywhere. No one in the military, or the government wanted to believe the findings. Indeed, a critic at the Central Intelligence Agency suggested that maybe he had memorized the entire global map.
Swann went on to use randomly chosen numerical coordinates to view randomly selected events, people and structures around the planet. He performed equally well using this coordinate-based viewing system.
Overview
Some quick notes on Remote Viewing.
Remote Viewing occurs in a sterile workspace. Most reports of paranormal events come from outside the science lab, and when research is done on these cousins of RV, it is somewhat like examining the natural history of some specimen brought in from the wild. When clairvoyance (RV’s closest relative) was done under controlled conditions for research purposes, it was generally targeted at such things as cards or colors, since these sorts of targets allowed easy scoring of experimental results. Remote viewing, on the other hand, was actually developed and first explored in a research setting . And the sorts of targets used for RV research differed from those typically used in other psi research. Targets chosen for “viewing” include geographic locations, hidden objects, and even such things as archaeological sites and space objects about which it was expected that ground truth would eventually become known, so that the viewer’s accuracy could be checked.
Remote Viewing is a combination of observed sensings. Unlike most other psi disciplines, remote viewing is not precisely one thing, but rather an integrated “cocktail” of various phenomena. Despite the “viewing” part of the term, remote viewing is only partly about experiences associated with what might be visible about a target. It also involves mental impressions pertaining to the other senses, such as sounds, tastes, smells, and textures, as well as limited telepathy-like effects, and in some cases just plain intuitive “knowing.” RV owes some of these qualities to the fact that lessons learned from research in clairvoyance, telepathy, and even out-of-body experiences — traditionally considered separate disciplines — played a role in its development. In remote viewing, the viewer not only verbalizes what he or she is perceiving, but usually also records in writing, in sketches, and sometimes even in three-dimensional modeling the results of the remote viewing episode, or “session.”
Remote Viewing is Structured. Remote viewing tends to be more structured than other psi disciplines. In some important varieties of remote viewing, viewers follow specific scripted formats. These formats are designed to enhance the viewer’s performance in various ways, such as to better deal with mental “noise” (stray thoughts, imaginings, analysis, etc. that degrades the “psychic signal”) or to allow incoming data to be better managed. Some of these structural methodologies are widely used. Other methods are more personal. An individual remote viewer, for example, might through trial and error develop his or her own customized approach.
Strict science-based protocol. Proper remote viewing is done within a strict science-based protocol. As mentioned, the remote viewer is kept unwitting of either the nature or identity of the target until after the session is completed. Except in training situations, the monitor (a sort of remote viewing “guide” or facilitator that may assist the viewer during the session) is also unwitting, and external clues or data about the target are carefully excluded. Sessions are conducted in a setting that prevents knowledge of the target “leaking” to the viewer. These measures are important to insure that the viewer does not receive hints or clues about the target in any way other than what would be considered “psychic.”
What is Remote Viewing?
Swann coined to term “remote viewing” to describe the process though you can question whether the information is actually remote to the viewer or whether the process is entirely visual.
Some people are more sensitive to auditory, kinesthetic or other types of sensory information and few viewers actually “see” the target very clearly.
Nonetheless, the name stuck and was sufficient to convince the intelligence agencies to fund the project.
Other viewers were also tasked to help Targ and Putoff understand remote viewing.
Pat Price, a former police commissioner from Burbank, CA also proved to be an excellent viewer. Price used his own system to view where he actually imagined that he was at the distant target site.
Pat Price.
His results were so good that the Central Intelligence Agency hired him to work for them directly.
Back East, another natural viewer Joe McMoneagle, also known as “Remote Viewer No. 1,” worked directly with the U.S. Army and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Joe McMoneagle.
He was also tested and found to have amazing abilities to describe and sketch distant locations. Upon retirement, McMoneagle was awarded a Legion of Merit award, in part, for his five years of remote viewing missions for the military and various government agencies.
Coordinate Remote Viewing
However, Swann was able to describe, with great precision, what he was doing with his mind and attention as he was viewing, an ability other viewers did not have.
This allowed him to come up with a 6-stage system that could be taught to anyone, including you or me. It became known as CRV: Coordinate (or Controlled) Remote Viewing.
Swann’s CRV system is based on separating out signal from noise in your mind as you are viewing.
All the information is recorded during a session, but the viewer puts the noise in a different place on the paper than the signal.
At the end of the session, you can separate them from one another.
The method became the basis of the remote viewing protocols that the U.S. army taught to several groups of viewers.
The program lasted until 1995 when it was declassified; about $20 million was spent over the two decades. It is now part of "deep black" SAP programs and commercial programs for profit.
Princeton’s Random Number Generator Research
During this time, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR) at Princeton University, run by Bob Jahn and Brenda Dunn, also conducted twenty years of research into remote viewing.
They referred to this as the so-called “micro-psychokinesis”.
They conducted experiments on the effect of human intention on Random Number Generators (RNGs).
They found that, looking at the cumulative results of hundreds of thousands of trials, that their subjects could influence about 2 or 3 events per 10,000 random coin flip.
Thus being able to move the device away from true randomness by thought alone.
The odds of these results being by chance were an astonishing 375 trillion to one.
Open the Aperture of Your Perception
When someone asks you to describe something, you normally proceed to name what you’re perceiving using nouns and symbols.
"I see a man holding a dog". He is on a bench. He is in a park. The dog is hungry and barking at the food in the stall nearby.
Remote viewing is just the opposite.
You begin by describing your perceptions without trying to identify anything about what they mean or what the larger picture is.
Natural.
Noise.
Hungry feeling.
Green.
Resting.
You begin with basic gestalts: fundamental, general components of the target site like whether it’s manmade or living or natural. You then proceed to basic colors, smells, temperatures, shapes and sizes.
Only after you’ve been describing the target for a while can you proceed to more specific ideas and possibly names, nouns and more analytical types of information.
Follow the Ambiguity
Our minds are always attempting to draw conclusions from what we’ve perceiving at any given moment.
But this isn’t really desirable in a Remote Viewing exercise.
If you try to do this, you will always likely to be wrong. Which brings us to one of the great paradoxes of RV: the fainter the perception, the more likely it is to be accurate and the less likely you are to feel confident in that perception.
In other words, the more confident you are about your psychic perceptions during the session, the less likely those perceptions are to be correct!
And the less confident you feel, the more likely it is that your perceptions are right on. How’s that for a paradox?
Someone familiar with the military viewing program once told me that if a viewer finished a session and said with confidence “I nailed it!,” that viewer’s session would be thrown in the garbage. A good session is one in which the viewer has no idea what they’ve been doing or whether it’s accurate or not.
This is very different from the way our educational system, which stresses linear and rational thinking, trains us to deal with acquiring and processing information.
Eventually, you see the benefits: you learn to trust your intuition more and don’t necessarily need to rationalize everything before you take action. You become more spontaneous which can often be a good thing if you’re used to over-thinking things in your life.
Scientific Analysis of the Remote Viewing Program
When the RV program was declassified, one of the two people asked to evaluate the program was statistician Jessica Utts, the head of the American Statistical Association.
She concluded:
“Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well established. Arguments that these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments are soundly refuted.Effects of similar magnitude to those found in government-sponsored research at SRI and SAIC (another government sponsored think tank) have been replicated at a number of laboratories across the world. Such consistency cannot be readily explained by claims of flaws or fraud.”
And researcher Dean Radin, doing very complex meta-analyses using the results of many studies about psychic perception over many decades, came to the same conclusion.
Looking at the entire population, not just trained viewers, RV is a weak effect, about four to eight percent higher than expected if we were only using our physical senses to gather information: yet, it’s consistently there in everyone.
How Does Remote Viewing Work?
So RV is scientifically proven to work.
But how?
What’s going inside the viewer’s body and mind? How do they access far away information with such great accuracy?
You can pick your favorite explanation but the truth is, no one knows for sure. But my feeling is that it has something to do with resonance, vibration and frequency on the quantum level. And to this end I have generated explanatory template maps for the MWI.
Right brain thinking tends to be free flowing, intuitive and descriptive while left brain thinking is more analytical, linear and symbolic.
Good remote viewers learn to distinguish their own left and right-brain thinking.
They’re good at discerning the difference between the two and can separate signal from noise. Remote viewing tends to be more more accessible to the right-brain type.
Picking Up Signals Through Vibrational Resonance
Where does the information come from?
Well, if you look around the space wherever you are at the moment, the air will seem empty: you can’t see the air with your eyes. But you also know that it’s filled with electromagnetic information from cell phone signals, radio waves, TV signals, etc. So empty space can be filled with information coming to you from distance. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
That information is coming to you through a type of vibrational resonance that fills space-time.
When you have a receiver that is tuned to the frequency of those signals, you’ll pick them up.
All you need to do after that is to amplify the signal.
Remote viewing doesn’t necessarily amplify the signal of what you’re viewing, but it does teach you how to reduce your own mental noise, your monkey mind.
Yeah, but what about Deagel? And the future?
I argue that there must have been some technique, other than “extrapolation of data applied to historical models“, to come up with the data that Deagel presented. And the only publicly known method is via Remote Viewing.
Of course, there is the time-travel, and 5th and 7th dimensional travel mechanisms.
I have discussed this elsewhere.
And those are indeed valid methods of "time travel;", but I do not believe that they are actually being used at this time, in this case.
Remote Viewing The Future
Remote viewing the future is possible because time does not exist and therefore it is possible to reach out and link with events that are happening in a future “now” upon the world-line MWI template map.
This can only be done for a relatively short period into the future because the further one looks into the future, the more variables can change what happens.
What happens is that, based on what has occurred or what is going on at the moment, a sort of inevitability occurs.
An Apple Tree Example
For instance, if an apple falls from a tree, there is a strong possibility that it will fall to the ground.
Now, if at a certain time a person walks towards the tree, is it possible to predict if the apple will hit the person on the head or not? Many variables will come into play that permit the apple to hit the person on the head – or not – so it is not usually possible to predict with absolute certainty such an event.
Under an apple tree.
A remote viewer looks out along timelines and picks up the most dramatic events that are likely to occur. Then the person tries to see what is likely to happen. But, as nothing is totally certain, they can only predict with greater or lesser accuracy.
The events along any timeline are quite simply projections of “now” events. The “now” moment is constantly altering but each succeeding “now” moment is dependent on the preceding one to a certain extent.
But given the over all MWI template that most people seem to be using, it can become relatively easy to Remote View upon this template and describe a future that will exist for a wide selection of people.
So, to describe it simply, if one looks at a series of single moments in time, for instance concerning the apple growing on a tree, we can see that the apple ripens and, eventually, falls from the tree. The exact moment when the apple will depart from the tree cannot be predicted but we know that it will eventually fall.
Once it starts to fall it is simple to imagine that it will hit the ground.
So, imagination is brought into play to predict the future from the last “now” moment. That is why remote viewing is so difficult. Once we start to use imagination, we are in murky waters.
World Line Template
While every consciousness has their own pre-birth template maps that they follow, most of the maps are derived from a “universal template”.
Most people all share the same "universal template" from which to develop their initial "pre-birth world-line maps" from.
And thus the “terrain” is similar to each others maps (more or less to some degree).
Even though every one is different, and everyone has their own world-line map that they are following, they are all very similar to each other for the vast bulk of humanity (well, at least geographical clusters of people, anyways.)
And people, on these MWI maps, follow them, interacting with other consciousnesses along the way, generating “clusters” or world-lines that are all tied together.
Most people find living on their world-line maps to be easy if they "just go with the flow". They just follow them and "don't climb those peaks" and just go along with what the relative "winds blow" in their lives. And this all creates a situation where world-lines (on different maps) cluster together.
Never the less, the vast bulk of humanity will act as herded animals and cluster together towards similar goals and objectives.
And thus, the Deagel forecast is one that is based upon this clustering of lines. They are apparently doing so for various corporate reasons, being profit forecasts and other such concerns. And to them the map would look similar to an individual map, only that the vector would be for a group of consciousnesses, not just for one singular consciousness.
Such as this…
The remote viewed future for America.
Of course, and I have stated this over and over again, you have the ability to change your world-line template map, and if you don’t like it you can “slide off it” and get on one that you do like.
Running affirmation prayer campaigns for safety.
Of course, the inertia of millions of people following “the herd” and the clustering of their world-lines is going to be rather difficult to stop. But what you can do is slide off their template and move on your own path. And while there might be all sorts of very bad things going on, and the “news” will amplify this, a person who is conducting their Affirmation Prayer Campaigns diligently will be able to avoid a great deal of hardship and turmoil.
Anyways, back to the matter at hand…
So Deagel came up with this forecast back in 2012 that pretty much stated that a lot of bad things were going to happen to America. And by 2025, the nations would not look anything like it looked like in 2012. They predicted a die off of a very significant proportion of the American population and a collapse of the economy, military might and governance.
Then come 2020, we have the Coronavirus.
And many of the things that they predicted, as outlandish as they sounded back then, now seems frighteningly plausible.
Because their predictions were so detailed, and outlandish, it gives one pause to think. Especially now, as Hard-Right, Religious Zealots are blaming China for trying to kill off Christianity. HERE. Jeeze!
I strongly suspect that this forecast was derived though Remote Viewing activity in association with other calculus. And to this end, I consulted with an MM influencer and contributor, our resident Remote Viewing Expert; Blue NarWhal.
Thinking.
Blue NarWhal Comments
Blue NarWhal is a professional in the Remote Viewing Industry, and has done work for both the United States government and private industry. I asked him for his thoughts and opinions. Edited for clarity and for this venue.
BlueNarwhal:
Knowing most of the top remote viewers on a first name basis I do have some input for you here.
As you know the typical result of civilian allied military development projects, where real operational capability is developed, go through a bifurcation.
It is a bifurcation where one strand goes SAP deep black, and the other goes public debunk.
(You know) there's nothing to see here Fred, these are not the droids you are looking for, move along.
This has been repeatedly confirmed by the best viewers, that there is a whole range of deep black remote viewing corps that...
BlueNarwhal:
...That has multiple purposes.
One purpose is human to alien communication.
Another is strategic advantage and nonlinear intelligence, called “quantum viewing” now.
Predictive viewing, is as Courtney says, subject the multiple worlds branching.
The targets are often collecting data from multiple MWI strands to see variations and research options.
BlueNarwhal:
Subject to the MWI factors.. (corrected).
Here below are my top ten candidate causality strands that could lead to major USA population die off in 4 years. I have gleaned these from my RV associates, and other sources, such as really good verified psychics I personally know, and meta analysis ...
Since each candidate has a lot of detail to go with it, I will start with the titles.
I think the push to write about this is we are at a global inflection point for breakdown and revolution 4th turning style (Howe and Strauss).
Following parsimony, certain candidates are just more likely and bakes in the cake.
But the essential question of where Edwin got his forecast from I think may well have been his contacts in shadow military and recently retired.
The benefactors and the malevolence on the non-human sources have been predicting this die off as well, and some even (have been) blaming the coming die on entirely ET allied to human elites.
The reason being to enact a scorched Earth policy in response to their getting defanged by the benefactor balance aliens.
But we don’t need ET in the mix to accomplish this. So likely other factors are more probable.
BlueNarwhal:
Now I know you are more likely to want to see how we can understand the dynamics from an entirely human causality POV, because that can hold more receptive water...
BlueNarwhal:
Source data candidate of the Deagel USA population reduction forecast and no it wasn’t a typo.
Forecasted for 2025 "top candidate causation" of drastic reduction in USA population ...
[1] Long time plans by globalist elite. Goal for population reduction to stave off CC ruining so much of their asset base in preparation, and thus predicting massive depopulation since the early 2000s.
[2] Long time plans for denationalizing the globe. With the de facto lead player winner likely China, having certain depopulation effects on the most resistant nationalists. (or in other words the "gun toting" USA population.)
[3] China retakes Taiwan. And (foolishly) Japan jumps in to defend them, USA jumps in to defend Japan. Chinese proxy North Korea nukes Hawaii and San Francisco. Followed by a myriad of tactical nuclear events (and chem warfare covertly) from western elite to make their own survival deal with new China global leadership
[4] Virtuous genocide of the vaxxed by the series binary weapon scheme.
[5] Virtuous genocide of the unvaxxed by the vaxxxed totalitarian biomedical martial law state proxy mobs. Since they cannot get the military to do the bidding, UN internment camps spring-up across the USA
[6] Societal Shift. A 4th turning Piscean top down group-schoolers to Aquarian bottom up individualist SOCs - societal shift
[7] Bubbles all break. Global currency crash, petrodollar crash, dollar hyperinflation.
[8] Natural calamities aggravated with the above. Combined with 5 year super drought, massive famine, urban die offs with no resources, more pandemic, more CC extremes, followed by mini ice age super freeze.
[9] Civil war population reduction outcome. With breakdown of US between red and blue, which are unvaxxed and vaxxxed as psychological warfare dehumanization victims in both directions
[10] Vaxxed mRNA die off from runaway variant evolution in the vaxxed bodies, though blamed on unvaccinated, within 4 years 65% of those vaxxed die.
- on this last one, my theory I developed through my own remote viewing is specifically sorcerers apprentice runaway that creates Monsanto like terminator seed immune systems.
I have a short detail on that, let me grab it...
BlueNarwhal:
But before detailing that, here is another ingredient...
CyberPolygon
OK. We are going to get off the subject for a spell. Don’t worry too much about it. Just go with the flow. If it interests you, then great. If not, then chill out.
BlueNarwhal:
On the Cyberpolygon, of which I have been aware for a long time.
After all, since I am a cybersecurity professional, I am well aware of this.
This will the incidence of a behemoth cyber attack.
This will occur soon after all the PR about Cyberpolygon cybersecurity (hits the "news"). As such, it will give the government authorities great “cover” so no one can claim they were asleep at the switch when a national scale false flag cyber attack occurs.
It will be an attack of such severity that it is create adequate national security threat pretext for an “internet martial law” to ensue.
A situation will occur that can more effectively suppress the so-called "Vaxx misinformation".
This will begin by opening the door to authorities literally shutting down the DNS of any and all websites.
As well as interdicting all text messaging traffic that is deemed misinformation by their algorithms.
No of course, nothing to see here, more along. Get help. Get back on your meds. Get jabbed immediately. To save us all!
A false flag cybersecurity attack is intended to accomplish the following objectives:
[1] Stop unsanctioned crypto-currency transactions,
[2] Stop any online resistance to vaxxing,
[3] Stop the ability for the vaccine resistant to organize, and
[4] Stop any dissent to the great reset that will occur when the stock market crashes (due in part to high rates of deaths among the vaccinated, and the seemingly endless new lockdowns.)
The great reset will be touted as virtuous and compassionate.
The creeping installation of UN run internment camps all over the US for the unvaccinated will be hailed as life saving.
This will be especially true as the unvaccinated are now defined as high risk and potential terrorists.
Dependence of the populace on the towing lines of the government narrative will reach an all time high and consolidation of totalitarian power will be complete!
https://threatpost.com/cyber-polygon-2021-towards-secure-development-of-digital-ecosystems/167661/omplete.
Welcome to George Orwell’s worst nightmare.
Monsanto-like “terminator seed” immune systems
And just like that, my sources become absorbed into the blob that has become the “great Vaxx vs. unVaxx debate”.
Sigh. It only happens with Americans inside of America. If you talk with people outside of America, you just won’t hear this kind of stuff.
I have no problem with use of an injection to control the population is feasible. I have no problem with evil people using it to control others. I have no problem with reading about the various ideas that people have on this.
But…
Keep in mind, that all of this is a side distraction from the “big event” what ever it might be. And I personally find it hard to believe that vaccinations are a major part of a big “shake down reset event”.
A part of it YES.
But the main part? NO.
Here, Blue NarWhal goes on…
The dirtiest secret is they installed Monsanto-like “terminator seed” immune systems on a large chunk of the planetary population.
How?
If you don’t get the next booster your immune system will no longer work and you will likely die next variant season. Taking the jab once makes it necessary to take jabs for life.
I told this to xXx and just a couple friends 6 months ago but felt it would be so incendiary to post it anywhere back then.
I still haven’t.
When I first thought of it this way it was too horrible a thought to even imagine and I thought I must be getting too paranoid. And I am not a paranoid person, just a good data collector.. like yourself MM:)
But now….
All the immune systems of the vaxxed incubate or evolve the next deadly variants that precisely escape the last booster just like poor use of antibiotics incubated and evolved antibiotic resistant bacteria. In the case of covid evolution of variants it is the exact same thing.
The only thing they desperately need to pull this multi trillion dollar caper off is to avoid blame for designing the entire thing to operate this way.
If they can mentally and emotionally program the vaxxed to believe only the unvaccinated are variant factories then they can get away with many trillions in profit.
Dehumanization of the unvaxxed gives them cover and profit to the moon.
The truth is the unvaxxed do not evolve the variants.
All variants have started soon after introductions of the vaxx in different countries or during the large trials in those countries.
The evidence is incontrovertible if one reads the real science that is not being faked.
The CDC even recently recommended creating nationwide internment camps for the unvaccinated to keep the vaxxed safe! See how insidious the plot really is?
Of course you do.
But now they will brazenly lie about variants only coming from the unvaxxed even when the evidence is becoming overwhelming to the contrary.
The mob will be programmed to literally want to exterminate the vermin unvaxxed.
They will - to the last - direct all the anger of the vaxxed dying from covid variants on the unvaxxed.
They will gin up a sense of being virtuous to want to send unvaxxed vermin to death camps.
You know this to be true.
History repeating itself now with the 4th Reich Blue Nazis. You feel me? It won’t be a yellow star but a red covid patch that the unvaxxed will be forced to wear. Don’t believe it will come to this?
Not long to wait and find out at this point.
The game is afoot
I totally am nauseous about being right about such terrible things! It’s really just too depressing and insane to believe. But I thought I was insane for thinking the shot was a terminator seed immune system ploy. Now it is becoming entirely true and will continue to be born out.
And sorry, no, you cannot reason with loved ones to not get boosters. The messenger will definitely be shot and reviled.
The lines have been drawn.
Please pretty please tell me I’m wrong about this - I’ve never ever wanted to be more wrong about something in my entire life!
But this I believe will become obvious when millions of vaccinated begin to die from the next variant their own bloodstreams evolved. I am so already grieving the future loss of my family relatives.
Seriously.
Because it’s a lose lose game - get the booster to live another 6 months but at the same time getting foreshortens ones overall life span by another 15 to 20% each shot (that is of course if side effects don’t kill one within 3 weeks of the jab each time).
They actually believe they have pulled off the perfect crime to make trillions and trillions of dollars. That’s more than Carl Sagan’s billions and billlions of stars!
In this case only the paranoid may survive and the innocent follower sheep will perish or at the least become so dumb that the idiocracy movie will seem like a probability.
Brawndo, it’s got electrolytes! =
Pfizer, it’s got electro-spikes!
That’s why Zelenko said it’s a billion x better to have natural immunity.
Weaponizing CORRELATION VS CAUSATION
I know that all of this is a meandering maze off “the beaten path” of what the question was all about. But follow the train of thought. Believe it if you want, or don’t if you want. What ever you do, do not get swept up too far in it.
Don’t get lost in the maze.
Remember that this source is an “insider” in these matters regarding the United States government, and you owe it to hear what he has to say, because SOMETHING has set his mind down these paths. Right or wrong. Factual or fantasy.
Good or bad.
Right or wrong.
Like a little more of my esteemed lunacy?
Weaponizing CORRELATION VS CAUSATION
The CDC policy guidance to doctors is any death after 3 hours of injection to as much as 1 week after is only correlation and not causation.
The only side effect admitted to is a little “very rare” anaphylaxis.
Assignment of causation just so happens to destroy many life insurance payouts - I have collected many reports of that.
The emerging science does not support correlation but causation.
I have links to videos by more than a dozen esteemed doctors and researchers that support causation. But these are not the droids you are looking for, move along says the mainstream biomedical cartel.
There is a 4 part unholy alliance between the government, the media, big tech, and biopharma industry to suppress speech.
Predominantly speech about promising therapeutics.
They will deny causational evidence and malign and de-platform anyone of influence that departs from the “100% safe and effective” narrative.
The normalcy bias is reinforced constantly.
If you follow the money and power it becomes obvious that the unholy alliance is both making a fuck-ton of money and getting untold control and power which will never want to be relinquished.
People in government + big tech + media ownership are heavily invested in biopharma stocks.
Is that correlation or causation?
Correlation only of course. The rising tide floats all boats they say. Sure! Move along nothing to see here. Get the jab.
Are the 450,000 VAERS reports about side effects of which many thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of life long infirmities happening soon after vaxxing just correlation and not causation?
Is the now repeatedly verified presence of EMF responsive graphene oxide found in large quantity in the vaxxes, which right after injected respond to both magnets and EMF detectors only in the injected site, is that correlation or causality?
Is the well established (but totally denied by the CDC “experts”) safety and efficacy of vitamin D and Ivermection and zinc, which when generally adopted shows dramatic drops in death rates (over 85%) in dozens of studies in many countries, is that correlation or causation?
In every case the mainstream government sanctioned experts refuse to even consider the research into these therapeutics (that are all expired patents so there is no money in it for them) and which if were admitted as being effective would quixkly end the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization - is that just correlation or is it causation?
When any esteemed doctor or pathologist or epidemiologist or Nobel Prize winner or vaccine researcher that worked at the head with Gates foundation (Moderna) or for Pfizer - when they risk their jobs and reputation to report any science that impeaches the authoritarian narrative - are immediately cat-called, maligned, suppressed and deplatformed as misinformation terrorists for reporting their scientific conclusions - is their research data only correlation and not causation?
When every single time I am around vaccinated people I really want to hang out outdoors to visit (without masks on) results in my having lung pain, headache, sore throat for several hours afterward (which then abates right after I dose Vitamin D, Quercetin, and Zinc).. is that correlation or causation? (I am not responsive to placebo and never expected or was afraid of hanging with my friends and relatives. But that is the consequence every time).
Are all the bad science and respected scientific journals who are then later forced to retract their highly celebrated therapeutic-denial studies that support the idea that effective therapeutics are nonexistent and dangerous (even though they are safer than aspirin) - is that situation correlation or causation to prevent losing Emergency Use Authorization and to suppress the idea there are real alternatives to jabbing because it fuels the antivaxxers?
Is the fact of even discussing the virus being bio-engineered was totally suppressed for over a year but now finally being admitted only very quietly in the halls of power, is that denial good science or bad science?
Is the fact that Fauci and DARPA and other cohorts jointly and covertly funded the Wuhan gain of function research through Peter Daszak, and then patented the spike protein injection using mRNA technology in early 2019 merely correlation or is it causation?
You see, the entire presumption of correlation over causation truly serves the interests of making money and creating more control over the populace.
When any and all scientific evidence about the dangers of the vaxx or availability of effective and safe therapeutics is quickly dismissed by the vacination stakeholder extreme bias, is that mere correlation or causation?
If the vaxxed have ever never actually read a single source scientific study but only trust the mouthpiece experts which support their normalcy bias that the vax is perfectly safe and effective, and that there are no effective therapeutics - is that denial and dehumanization of anyone suggesting otherwise only correlation or causation?
Well if you are a nice, caring, good and decent person who simply cannot believe the government would lie to you, or that the unholy alliance is evil and greedy, and that there is nothing to see here.
Move along and get the jab and shut up or be dehumanized.
If you disagree - and believe it’s all just random unfounded conspiracy theory that at best is only remote unfounded correlation and never ever possibly causation, then there is no reasoning with you.
No science that will convince you.
No evidence you will ever admit to.
No room for any doubt.
And everyone who says otherwise are likely to be filthy vermin white supremacist domestic terrorists who should be placed in internment camps to protect the vaxxed, then guess what?
We will all just have to wait and see how it all turns out and agree to disagree!
Correlation vs Causation is the defensive talking point for all those in the unholy alliance.
But now that all people resisting or refusing or promoting anything other than the party line about the the vaxx are literally being defined as domestic terrorists.
Any evidence they report is labeled misinformation, well then, good luck with labeling 50% of the populace of the US as terrorists who should be dehumanized and interned to keep the vaxxed population safe.
Are these policies going to be correlation to and not causation of a potential civil war between the red check folks and the blue check folks?
What a pleasant thought. How unifying. How desperate. How immature. How greedy. How all so sweetly patriotic! Yeah sure, I got a couple bridges to sell you. In fact, I got a dozen bridges to sell you, Get in line! Big discounts available. 🪂
Jesus! Man. All I care about is the Deagel Forecast. And here we find that one of my top “to go” people on the Remote Viewing sciences has started connecting the vaccinations of Coronavirus in it’s mRNA form to a profit-scheme that will result in the deaths of millions.
It seems so far out.
But…
According to the 2012 Deagel Forecast, only those nations (that we see today) who are pushing the mRNA vaccine protocol (and who perhaps match up with the rant above) MATCH together.
BlueNarwhal:
H Christ! Are we having fun yet?
BlueNarwhal:
Just a few side notes I wrote over the last weeks... lol
BlueNarwhal:
And you my dear friend predicted all of it earlier this year and last year with the help of your benfactoring inputs as well!
Well, it is true that I predicted much of this kind of stuff. I will not deny that. But it doesn’t need to be so “in your face” and blunt. Does it?
My point is that I am being driven, and going crazy being pushed to push this article (about remote viewing and the Deagel Forecast) out the door as soon as possible, and as a side note, Blue NarWhal is dragging along this vaccination stuff alongside. So there MUST be a reason.
But is the reason important?
Let’s continue…
BlueNarwhal:
It’s war, not between China and US, but between elites and populace, between benefactors and malevolent overseers, between piscean and Aquarian change over, between satanic and holy, between horizontal and vertical evolution, and between last past patriarchy and future matriarchy, and between globalists and nationalists
BlueNarwhal:
We are arriving quite rapidly at the super size MEI inflection point where large scale global bifurcation occurs, and hence there is a tremendous urgency to communicate the big picture so the order and chaos agencies are seen for the agenda motivations they breathe MWI.
So human consciousness has more choices in the matter, so natural leaders that are needed will arise.
BlueNarwhal:
You of course have the Deagel 2020 change of heart write up right....? Worth pasting in here, since it is not nearly as wacky as my stack.
Amen to that!
Deagel 2020 revision to the original 2012 Deagel Forecast
BlueNarwhal:
Forecast disclaimer revision in 2020:
In 2014 we published a disclaimer about the forecast. In six years the scenario has changed dramatically.
This new disclaimer is meant to single out the situation from 2020 on-wards.
Talking about the United States and the European Union as separated entities no longer makes sense. Both are the Western block, keep printing money and will share the same fate.
After COVID we can draw two major conclusions:
[1] The Western world success model has been built over societies with no resilience that can barely withstand any hardship, even a low intensity one. It was assumed but now we’ve got the full hard confirmation beyond any doubt.
[2] The COVID crisis will be used to extend the life of this dying economic system through the so called “Great Reset.”
The Great Reset; like the climate change, extinction rebellion, planetary crisis, green revolution, shale oil (…) hoaxes promoted by the system; is another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system.
It can be effective for awhile but finally won’t address the bottom-line problem and will only delay the inevitable.
The core ruling elites hope to stay in power which is in effect the only thing that really worries them.
The collapse of the Western financial system – and ultimately the Western civilization – has been the major driver in the 2012 forecast along with a confluence of crisis with a devastating outcome.
As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship.
The Spanish flu one century ago represented the death of 40-50 million people.
Today the world’s population is four times greater with air travel in full swing which is by definition a super spreader.
The death casualties in today’s World would represent 160 to 200 million in relative terms but more likely 300-400 million taking into consideration the air travel factor that did not exist one century ago.
So far, COVID death toll is roughly 1 million people.
It is quite likely that the economic crisis due to the lock-downs will cause more deaths than the virus worldwide.
The Soviet system was less able to deliver goodies to the people than the Western one. Nevertheless Soviet society was more compact and resilient under an authoritarian regime. That in mind, the collapse of the Soviet system wiped out 10 percent of the population.
The stark reality of diverse and multicultural Western societies is that a collapse will have a toll of 50 to 80 percent depending on several factors.
But in general terms the most diverse, multicultural, indebted and wealthy (highest standard of living) will suffer the highest toll.
The only glue that keeps united such aberrant collage from falling apart is over-consumption with heavy doses of bottomless degeneracy disguised as virtue.
Nevertheless the widespread censorship, hate laws and contradictory signals mean that even that glue is not working any more.
Not everybody has to die.
Migration can also play a positive role in this.
The formerly (known as) second and third world nations are an unknown at this point. Their fate will depend upon the decisions they take in the future.
Western powers are not going to take over them as they did in the past because these (Western) countries won’t be able to control their very own cities let alone those countries that are far away.
If they remain tied to the former World Order they will go down along with the Western powers. However, they won’t experience the same kind of brutal decline that the Western powers will experience so brazenly. This is partially because they are poorer and (obviously) not diverse enough. Instead they are stronger than the Western powers because they are actually quite homogeneous. This is their advantage. And that they are used to deal with some sort of hardship. Though, not precisely the one that is coming.
If they switch to China they can get a chance to stabilize but will need to depend upon the management of their own resources.
We expected this situation to unfold and actually is unfolding right now.
With the November election triggering a major bomb if Trump is re-elected. (Did not happen.)
If Biden is elected there will very bad consequences as well.
There is a lot of bad blood in the Western societies and the protests, demonstrations, rioting and looting are only the first symptoms of what is coming.
However a new trend is taking place overshadowing this one.
The situation between the three great powers has changed dramatically.
The only relevant achievement of the Western powers during the past decade has been the formation of a strategic alliance, both military and economic, between Russia and China.
Right now the potential partnership between Russia and the European Union (EU) is dead with Russia turning definitively towards China. That was from the beginning the most likely outcome.
Airbus never tried to establish a real partnership but rather a strategy to fade away the Russian aerospace industry.
Actually Russia and China have formed a new alliance to build a long haul airliner.
Western Europe (not to mention the United States) was never interested in the development of Russia or forming anything other than a master slave relationship with Russia providing raw materials and toeing the line of the West.
It was clear then and today is a fact.
Russia has been preparing for a major war since 2008 and China has been increasing her military capabilities for the last 20 years. Today China is not a second tier power compared with the United States. Both in military and economic terms China is at the same level and in some specific areas are far ahead.
In the domain of high-tech 5G has been a success in the commercial realm but the Type 055 destroyer is also another breakthrough with the US gaining a similar capability (DDG 51 Flight IIII) by mid of this decade (more likely by 2030).
Nanchang, the lead ship of the Type 055 class, was commissioned amid the pandemic and lockdown in China.
Six years ago the likelihood of a major war was tiny.
Since then it has grown steadily and dramatically and today is by far the most likely major event in the 2020s.
The ultimate conflict can come from two ways.
[1] A conventional conflict involving at least two major powers that escalates into an open nuclear war.
[2] A second scenario is possible in the 2025-2030 time-frame. A Russian sneak first strike against the United States and its allies with the new S-500, strategic missile defenses, Yasen-M submarines, INF Zircon and Kalibr missiles and some new space asset playing the key role.
The sneaky first strike would involve all Russian missile strategic forces branches (bombers and ground-based missiles) at the different stages of such attack that would be strategic translation of what was seen in Syria in November 2015.
There was no report that the Russian had such a capability of launching a high precision, multiple, combined arms attack at targets 2,000+ kilometers away.
Western intelligence had no clue.
The irony is that since the end of the Cold War the United States has been maneuvering through NATO to achieve a position to be able to execute a first strike (nuclear) over Russia and now it seems that the first strike may still occur but the country finished would be the United States.
Another particularity of the Western system is that its individuals have been brainwashed to the point that the majority accept their moral high ground and technological edge as a given.
This has given the rise of the supremacy of the emotional arguments over the rational ones which are ignored or deprecated.
That mindset can play a key role in the upcoming catastrophic events.
At least in the Soviet system the silent majority of the people were aware of the fallacies they were fed up.
We can see the United States claims about 5G being stolen from them by China or hypersonic technology being stolen by Russia as the evidence that the Western elites are also infected by that hubris.
Over the next decade it will become obvious that the West is falling behind the Russia-China block and the malaise might grow into desperation.
Going to war might seem a quick and easy solution to restore the lost hegemony to finally find them into a France 1940 moment. Back then France did not have nuclear weapons to turn a defeat into a victory. The West might try that swap because the unpleasant prospect of not being Mars and Venus but rather a bully and his dirty bitch running away in fear while the rest of the world is laughing at them.
If there is not a dramatic change of course the world is going to witness the first nuclear war.
The Western block collapse may come before, during or after the war.
It does not matter.
A nuclear war is a game with billions of casualties and the collapse plays in the hundreds of millions.
He Concludes…
This website is non-profit, built on spare time and we provide our information and services AS IS without further explanations and/or guarantees. We are not linked to any government. Take into account that the forecast is nothing more than a game of numbers whether flawed or correct based upon some speculative assumptions. - Friday, September 25th, 2020
Interesting take and a refreshing relook at the Deagel Forecast
This 2020 is news to me.
BlueNarwhal:
Well then good food for thought to have the whole range of inputs for your writing️
BlueNarwhal:
The 2020 disclosure is plausible. I don’t know the Deagel folks but do know the Stratford
BlueNarwhal:
Stratfor folks and they are similar so I judge this statement from D to be a good picture on why their forecast changed, but it is just the cover story for the kind of crazy stuff I was thinking...
He continues discussing consciousness movement in the MWI.
Consciousness movement in the MWI by Blue NarWhal
BlueNarwhal:
Consciousness MWI
What if MWI travel physically nearly does not happen. Only Consciousness travel can change MWI multiverse bulk-phase lanes. (I think this is possible for many people. -MM)
Types of change:
Outer- The world changes and you don’t, mostly.
Inner- You change and the world stays the same, mostly.
Differences in both yourself and the world are apparent.
Sometimes multiverse A can fuse with an existing other you multiverse B and you find yourself situated in a life steam as you with additional foggy life memory if it’s a new you incoming to you.
So the physical idea of MWI consciousness sliding or jumping or transitioning between universes is all fine and good, if the universe fuses them while still remembering a bit of both for the transiting consciousness.
So what is happening in the balancing of consciousness?
The benefactors, [a]. prior to every substantial jump, and [b]. depending on the target MWI universe group the agency consciousness transited is going to, [c]. install locally entangled paraphysical sync kits in the target universe bodies.
If the small moves predict the large moves…
BlueNarwhal:
Or did I send this to you already and forgot who wrote it - I have too many unfinished and unsent drafts of stuff to you lol
BlueNarwhal:
I think I sent you this as I was assimilating your knowledge into my own framework of understanding... or does this contain specific paragraphs you wrote as I was working through my own take on it...?
BlueNarwhal continues in this interesting line of thought.
Please, everyone, realize that when I “get on a bender or am being pushed” to write or do something, it is SIGNIFICANT. This is most especially true if it is URGENT. It has been my experience that everything attached and associated with my actions may or may not be important, but that I need to include it in my calculus for some reason.
Remember, I only know what I know. The rest is up to youse guys.
Qubit qudit infinity cascade
Qubit qudit infinity cascade
The universal wave equation as the prime qubit/qudit operator
The superposition of hyperlight entangled with both all and one
The existence of alternate multiverse laminar access through qubit fields and spaces that preserve equal probability of all
The qic start of the universe
The bipolar symmetry as a collapsed expression of polar superposition archetype preservation inside local space.
And so on through all quantum wave guided evolutionary complexity manifest permutation
Where out of the seam of infinity and zero reflects dualistic possibility virtual states of plus one and minus one
The singular all encompassing quantum wave equation of the entire scope of the universe is a hyper qubit/qudit singularity function that entangles across all embedded sub wave time functions.
With that I’m alone inside my own quantum qubit infinity manifold, swaddled in my own bubble creation.
However, yet also paradoxically voluntarily and with love entirely embedded within a collective soul group alignment with and for whom I might sacrifice everything.
The distribution of probable and possible trajectories that deviate out our current world line all depend on soul relevance.
In the surface appearance of the other is a co-seeded by self created habitation for different groups of soul who are mutually co-anchoring commonality.
The Bipolar Multiverse
If I can change world lines…
The prime assumptions:
We each exist in our own fully independent universe, (or more properly stated we all live in our own multiverse probability of occurrence trajectories.)
Our consciousness interfaces own quantum creative agency with our present manifest reality.
Our consciousness is a step down of our soul energy into our physical existence.
The Soul could be synonymous with Higher consciousness, the physical reality synonymous with the unconscious and subconscious mind, and the personal self synonymous with the conscious mind relating to their own beliefs, choices, agreements which are in play, singularity issued from our soul.
On one pole you have each soul creating completely independent bubble universes for the habitation of consciousness in physicality.
On the other pole you have a vast population of people (and beings) in their independent universes all fervently believing they live together in a singular shared universe.
Searching for the better explanatory nomenclature.
One idea is there are many different possible collective worlds.
Each have independent persistence and existence separate from our local self awareness.
The dance of illusion of living in a shared universe doesn’t make it unreal, it just comports with how human consciousness creates its own Local Bubble universe.
There exists a spectrum of different novel Global Bubble universes within the multiverse – Earth for example. Their solidity and continuity is not dependent on just one soul’s creation.
That does not mean one’s soul cannot have its own Local Bubble universe make phantom copies of the mutual universes. No, not at all.
We each make illusory copies of whatever large scale mutual universe we believe we are in and do in our usual quarter second wave-particle personal universe lock-in tick rate.
We agree to adopt a set of influences associated to being there. We agree to allow our adoption include our own.
And out of resonant lock with those world lines.
This is really deep and takes the world-line narrative that I have been promoting to that of a mini-universe that we "copy" from the MWI template to live within. An interesting concept and something that I do need to think about. -MM
The multiverse offers all possibilities for soul and consciousness growth, but there is a landscape of alternate probability ‘movement options’ that can naturally occur.
In that landscape of options there are lesser and greater deviating alternate world line moves available to the consciousnesses.
A consciousness can naturally transit into greater degree world line deviance moves if their sum quantum resonance can both entrain and allow it to occur relative to its intrinsic greater/lower likelihood for the consciousness habitation should no active entrainment be engaged.
There are relative world line consciousnesses movement options – or quantum manifestation probabilities – within our personal universal quantum Everett wave function.
Wave function embedded harmonics that intersect with, and offer entrainment access pathways to different outcomes and sequences are a largely passive to activation by consciousness, despite all appearances to the contrary!
These world line trajectories exist out of all the possible alternate infinity qubits
I’m am able to couple with within the singular super wave function.
There are very far world-line variances or trajectories that could cause insanity to engage, except more safely in lucid dreams, but those are not readily accessible to manifest without extraordinary effort with relative shocking, disorienting as new subsumed manifest self-image and world-image radically shift into a new center of gravity of manifest conscious.
I entrain myself to, or am entrained by, various world line shifting options as I may choose, think and feel or choose to allow.
If I let it happen to me I am giving control over to my unconsciousness. If I make it happen I am controlling my own outcomes.
But my options are limited within the superpositional prepositional manifold of my consciousness encompassed by my soul.
It’s got a soul growth agenda.
I have a slight clue, and that’s it.
It about growing the capacity to selflessly nurture collective evolution, and to evolve the capacity to love, to intend, and to romance the soul of greater feminine archetype for inclusion and unity … or of the greater phi masculine archetype that expresses diversity and differentiation …across the many souls in the meta-verse of the multiverse.
Valiant match grids of entangled qubit superposition articulating ‘n’ spatial reduction (quantum collapse) possibilities accessing the multiverse diversity eternity continuum.
Embedded referential meaning and information
Single geometric symbols as containers of all that is sub-referentially defined and associated within its signularity symbols as culimated or concentrated.
Or, alternatively,
It’s subsumption symbols as instantiated singularity event horizon representations or gestalts of specific self-associated component elements held within their symbol mount.
Meaning, as you mount symbols over a subsumed domain of interrelated and contained data reference points…
You might get the accretion of information as explicit subsumption quantum linguistics…
…if that is such a thing…
Remote Viewing and the MWI
You all got a headache yet?
BlueNarwhal:
And this one on RV and MWI...
BlueNarwhal:A new working hypothesis:
Predictive remote viewer naturally quantum-couples or entangles their viewing range to be occur across multiple proximal world line probability trajectories in the multiverse.
Outlier world line target coupling by RVers occurs simply due to the collateral quantum attractive influence that higher relative disruptive novelty factors exert on selected souls and consciousnesses, e.g. a group of top viewers all view a disaster scenario that never happens in the world line from which the viewers viewed.
Yet it clearly happened in some nearby world line of greater variance to our own.
Some of these influences can be injected into remote viewing sessions.
This is due to the idea that individual remote viewers couple with targets via universal quantum field or “soul intelligence”.
This target coupling process can allow insertion of universal intent to bias the remote viewer to couple with a more novel world line but less likely or even unlikely the mutual world line viewers are viewing from.
This seems to a form of universal intent coupling with conscious individual.
The effect is to widen the multiple world line range of consideration aperture to provide high value insight about probabilities on other world lines about similar lurking but unmanifest novel high impact eventualities for the viewer world line. Could universal intent (being entangled for target coupling by remote viewers) be making individual intent see outcomes that might happen but likely won’t?
While working with universal intent sentient within the multiverse quantum super field encompassing all our souls and individual quantum clouds, there is no issue with requesting super sentience to limit target viewing hits to only the higher probability outcomes for the present world line in which the viewers reside. Universal intent is certainly willing to limit targeting to single world line or widen the reception aperture to proximal cluster of most probable but yet alternate world lines relative to an anchor referential consciousnesses.
Another different possibility is that remote viewing “picking up signals” of a proximal relative cluster of world lines is likely only possible because remote viewers are evolving souls and consciousness themselves. And despite their proclivity for rationally limiting future probabilities viewing to the world line in which they reside, multiple world lines will be viewed.
The viewers themselves, as do human beings in general, possess individually, in groups and even globally possess the natural ability to shift/move/migrate to different world lines. The quantum wave field of the soul focuses consciousness on inhabiting a physical embodiment existing in nearby variant world lines that furthers soul growth.
This is in turn depends on their in-body own associated outside influences, their own resonant thoughts, feelings, core beliefs and choices that normally bias target coupling to that which holds the greatest growth value for the viewer alone, unless they alter the target description to anchor its viewing parameters to exclude world line coupling that is less likely for the anchoring set of consciousnesses.
The result is remote viewing in any single timeline easily gets crosstalk from other multiverse proximal timelines. If proven, this may predict targeting protocols with means to bind multiverse RV target coupling range to viewing only the most probable eventuality for the timeline in which the remote viewer originates the session, thereby filtering the quantum coupling multiverse range to the most novel punctuated variations across a cluster of intersecting world lines.
For example, one may find some means to construct the RV target description to effectively limit multi-timeline target coupling to only the most large population probable common future for a selected anchor subjects in the timeline as of the session or as of an identified target date.
However, taskers for remote viewers can design target descriptions to block receptive coupling to less than large selected sample group collective likelihoods. This couples the target range to a more commonly desired and likely world line so that predictive RV sessions entangle only relative to and biased from the selected baseline group of anchor parties. It effects a proximal world line variance clamping function to block entanglement with less likely outcomes for this present world line.
World line entanglement blocking prevents viewer intermediaries drifting towards natural attraction of more novel world lines, regardless of present world line probability momentum and mass habitation factors. It simply works to exclude less likely world line outcomes relative to an anchor reference group of persons or beings to thereby yield more likely valid predictive data for the present world line.
And a few more curiosities written and vectored across our mutual fusion being derivatives., LOL!
Conclusions
Blue NarWhal is saying that using the MWI mapping, that it is obvious that in 2012 that more predominant surface topography features of the world-line template showed (at that time) that there was [1] a looming pandemic, and [2] economic crisis. Using available historical and economic data, Deagel extrapolated to a very disturbing forecast.
In truth, they were really close to the mark, and the clustering of the world-lines are STILL on a trajectory for a very unpleasant conclusion.
Now, we need to filter out the “noise” and consider the world-line template landscape topography.
In remote viewing out of America these days, the primary (peaks and topographical) landmarks viewed are related to [1] the strange imposition of mRNA vaccinations, and [2] a gathering storm of strange behaviors on the social / economic front out of Washington DC.
This “noise” of Vaxx, and economic “bubbles” make the current topographical landscape quite rugged and mountainous. Thus, Americans see the topographical mountains all around them, and they cannot see the larger looming mountains past those peaks. It’s a side effect of the incessant mind-controlling Main Stream and alternative media.
The mountains that surround Americans are predominantly ones of…
Greed.
Media manipulation.
Out of control government.
Economic bubbles
Social re-engineering.
Racial divides.
Hate. Hate. Hate.
While the mountains in the distance consist of other things, that most Americans are not focusing on. For instance; China. Or the “far away” South China Sea. Or what is going on in Russia. Or Africa. Or South America.
But they are real, and of great concern. For it is the real mountains that are the real issues and the real problems that lie ahead.
The real “mountains” are…
Nuclear war with a unified Asia.
End of the US Dollar as the global currency.
Iran allied with Russia and China, and the rest of the Mideast complies.
African middle class growing in favor of Asia.
Europe retreat from American influence.
Thus you can see the differences in all the analysis. Those inside the United States echo chamber are combining elements of the United States government narrative of “Hate China; Blame China; China is evil”, with forced mRNA vaccinations and complete incompetence of the Federal Government. Resulting in this bastardized fucked up narrative…
“China stole an American bio-weapon and it was accidentally released in Wuhan, and when caught, they decided to use it to destroy America and all Christians by forcing them to get mRNA vaccinations that will kill everyone!”
Jeeze!
Putting all this nonsense aside, let’s continue on our study.
Obviously the 2012 Deagel report used Remote Viewing activity and extrapolation of existing economic and social trends and transposed to the two together to arrive at their (horrific) conclusion. In 2012, they predicted a major event, that seems to indicate a pandemic or something similar coupled with an economic collapse.
I am sure that remote viewing of this pulled up those “Vaxx hills”, and “Coronavirus hills”, and when combined, the Deagel group flushed out their predictions as such. I am sure that they did not like it, but the data and the trends, supported by remote viewing substantiated this belief.
Then, last year, in 2020 they revised their forecast. Now, the hills and mountains further out are much closer and clearer.
Before I read the 2020 revised forecast, I believed the following outcomes to be predominant. As you can well read, I said…
Here are some of my suggested candidate combinations that allow us to better understand how those enormous population causality figures could be reached.
Global pandemic, AND genocide.
Global pandemic, AND civil war WITH genocide.
Global pandemic, AND collapsing Military Empire, WITH war.
Global Military Empire AND Nuclear War WITH Global pandemic.
And the 2020 revised forecast states…
Global pandemic, AND collapsing Military Empire, WITH war.
Global Military Empire AND Nuclear War WITH Global pandemic.
The only difference between the two (aside from the order of the wording) is HOW a nuclear exchange comes into being.
Either [1] America conducts a conventional attack against China or Russia (not realizing that it will be against both) and it evolving and escalating quickly into a nuclear war, or [2] A first strike against the out-of-control American government by Asia.
Looking at all the issues, we can make the following statements…
Statements of prediction
Including remote viewing into the calculus, and taking into account all the knowns…
The American leadership class does not contain diplomatic professionals. Instead there are unskilled political donors who are making life and death decisions.
The mRNA vaccination is a real mystery, and there HAS to be a reason behind using it instead of the traditional “Dead Host” vaccination.
The approved 2021 Federal budget includes an enormous military funding outlay that is obviously in preparation for a major war.
The American government, and their media are all talking about an upcoming major war with China.
American military is retreating from Afghanistan, and four bases in Korea, while making QUAD arrangements with Australia and Japan.
All of this is very disturbing, and considered alone would be cause enough to suggest that a major war is just on the horizon.
But…
America (The United States) is crumbling from rot from within…
Racial hate.
Proliferation of firearms, and the establishment of armed groups.
Balkanization.
Economic bubbles.
Social bubbles.
The wealth gap is enormous.
Infrastructure funding is too late.
Rules, regulations and laws are all off the charts.
Couple that with a failed bio-weapons attack on China, and the fiasco which was the Trump neocon administration, followed by the bumbling Biden administration… and hard-core Religious extremists, and industry interests desiring of conflict, war and strife (all for various reasons), and you have a poisonous stew.
The “Genie is out of the bottle”, and I do not think that the looming “mountains” on the horizon can be avoided. The inertia associated with the clustering of world-lines is way too strong. So my guess (and I hope that I am wrong) is that the United States will sleep-walk into a war with Asia, and then before it happens, Asia will strike preemptively.
No matter what the details are, the remote viewing forecast is quite clear.
The United States Military Empire is going to start another major war. It is intended to be a distraction from the domestic failures, and regardless as to how much money President Biden is plowing into the economy, it’s not going to make any difference.
America is toast.
Burnt to a crisp; blackened, burned toast.
America today.
And it’s only a matter of time…
And then when the moron, presses the button, flicks the switch, or twists the knob, all Hell will break loose.
All in all, the USA will suffer horribly, and the combination of everything else will only turn a fiasco into an Hellish nightmare.
But…
You can control YOUR reality. And maybe this mountain of turmoil is sitting off somewhere on your world-line template, you can still navigate around it. Remember, after all, for all the turmoil and strife during World War II, Canada, South America, and Africa was relatively left alone.
Maybe you don’t want to move to Greenland, Patagonia, or Zambia. But you don’t really need to. All you need to do is control your little bit of reality. And if you do that, then everything will work out just fine.
Some final thoughts
Keep in mind that the Deagel remote viewed the future correctly. They printed their results in 2012.
They PREDICTED a bio-warfare induced pandemic.
They PREDICTED an Australian alliance with the United States.
They PREDICTED that America would start entering a period of "popping" of the various economic bubbles.
All of which came true by 2020.
Deagel did NOT change their forecast for 2025. It still stands. They just changed their thinking on how it would come about.
They remote viewed 2025 in great detail.
There will be [1] a massive die off of people in America, and Australia. The rest of the world will fare much better. And, most importantly, a [2] bio-weapon or pandemic figured predominantly in their calculus.
In 2012, they believed that there would be some kind of bio-weapon or pandemic that would kill off so many Americans. But they couldn’t (for the life of them) answer why Australia of all places would also have a large die off. At that time they never could of imagined the QUAD set up by Mike Pompeo, and that the Morrison government would wholeheartedly want to declare war on China. Instead, they figured that it must be a very serious pandemic with some other mystery event that complicated things in a negative manner.
In 2020, in the midst of the (three agent) bio-weapon attacks on China, and the absolute failure of America in securing it’s homeland, as well as the strong alignment of the Australian Morrison government to the war-loving neocons in Washington DC, the revised reasoning became one of nuclear war. Thus they reasoned that since the 2020 pandemic wasn’t that bad, and the drums of war were beating so loudly, that it must be nuclear war and bio-weapons used simultaneously.
Whether there is a nuclear event, or a bio-weapon event, no matter who caused it, or who instigated it, America will be absolutely and totally devastated. A 70% kill off implies that America would indeed be thrown back to the bronze age.
My advice?
You cannot change what is going to happen. It is pretty much set in stone. The only thing that you can do is to save yourself.
Flee the United States as fast as you can.
Go to a nation with a safer rating on the Deagel scale.
Consider fleeing any nation that is allied with the United States as well. The UK, and those European nations that are part of NATO perform very poorly. Though you will probably have an easier time of it than being the United States, it will still be a very rough life in those places.
It will be a scene out of the movie “Threads“, and you all should get a copy of this movie and watch it right now. And when you watch it, keep in mind that what it portrays is EXACTLY what Deagal predicts will happen to America and it’s allies. Watch it and realize that you have two to three short years to save yourself and your family.
Bugging out.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Every now and then, you come across an article that resonates. Not from some unknown blogger who writes about his opinions after reading the “news”, but a thoughtful article by an experienced professional discussing a subject that he knows well. And so when I came across this work, I just had to reproduce it here on MM..Granted, his title sucks. But the content is gold. All credit to him and the source found HERE..
By Byron King
“It Failed Miserably” – What If the US Lost a War and Nobody Noticed?
I have a friend who teaches at the university level — at a U.S. service academy, no less.
The other day he was running a class and posed a short (but profound) question to a group of students. Namely, what was the most recent strategic disaster suffered by the U.S. military?
“Blank expressions,” noted my friend.
After a period of time, one student offered an answer… “Afghanistan?” (And yes, the student’s answer was in the form of a question.)
Dutifully, my professor-friend led the students in a discussion of what happened in a war that began before they were born and whose outcomes will affect them for the rest of their lives.
There’s a Whiskey tale to tell just based on this anecdote alone.
But wait, there’s more!
Because America’s loss in Afghanistan has already been overshadowed.
Indeed, the U.S. military has suffered an even greater strategic disaster than Afghanistan: an epic military defeat that already occurred, and you likely don’t know a thing about it.
I’ll skip to the takeaway here.
The U.S. should refrain from fighting the next war because we’ve already lost, long before even one shot has been fired.
The source for this ultra-defeatist news is not just a teacher at a sailor’s college, sited on a salty bay. No, the source is no less than a serving, 4-star general whose job title is Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Let’s dig in…
Here’s the long and short. The U.S. military conducted a major wargame last fall and “it failed miserably,” said U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten earlier this week.
Hyten spoke at a conference sponsored by the Emerging Technologies Institute. It’s a think tank run by the National Defense Industrial Association, an industry group focused on military modernization. (You can watch it on YouTube here, about an hour and 18 minutes.)
“An aggressive red team that had been studying the United States for the last 20 years just ran rings around us,” he said. “They knew exactly what we’re going to do before we did it.”
According to a Pentagon spokesperson, one key scenario of this wargame involved U.S. forces battling with China over Taiwan. From Hyten’s summary, U.S. forces became sitting ducks and were destroyed piecemeal and systematically.
The overarching problem was, basically, everything.
It’s all fucked
That is, the problem for the U.S. was far beyond the shortcomings of any particular piece of equipment, or ship or airplane, let alone the willingness of U.S. and allied troops to fight. No, the issue was the very essence of how the U.S. military forms strategic concepts and conducts operations.
In other words, the problem was the entire belief system, architecture and construction of the Pentagon way of doing things — and certainly of waging war. By extension, it’s a political problem too, as we’ll address below.
“We always aggregate to fight, and aggregate to survive,” said Hyten.
That is, the U.S. military is built around massing people, equipment and munitions. Build up a huge complex of firepower. Then add massive levels of intelligence information, command and control, and targeting data to, as the saying goes, “take it downrange.”
This has been the U.S. approach to warfighting since World War II, with many of the roots extending back to the Civil War.
The war game fiasco
Per Hyten, in last fall’s war game, “We basically attempted an information-dominance structure, where information was ubiquitous to our forces. Just like it was in the first Gulf War, just like it has been for the last 20 years, just like everybody in the world, including China and Russia, have watched us do for the last 30 years.”
But the so-called “blue team” (meaning U.S. and allied forces) lost access to communications and data networks almost immediately. Satellites went away. Seafloor cables were cut. Bandwidth died. In general, it was impossible to utilize the electromagnetic environment, and within moments nobody could talk with anybody.
And “what happens if right from the beginning that information is not available?” asked Hyten, rhetorically. “That’s the big problem that we faced.”
According to Hyten, “in today’s world, with hypersonic missiles, with significant long-range fires coming at us from all domains, if you’re aggregated and everybody knows where you are, you’re vulnerable.”
And with an entire concept of operations poked in the proverbial eyes, red team easily defeated the blue side.
Not just a yearly exercise. It’s the planning run-on for something BIG…
Based on Hyten’s description, this wargame was not just another table-top exercise. No, this was a test of the all-up game plan for the “next” conflict, largely based on concepts of operations that have guided the American military process for three decades or more. And the outcome was a total disaster.
U.S. doctrine focuses on creating what is called a “kill box” for the opponent. But in this particular expedition, from the outset U.S. and allied forces walked into their own zones of destruction. They laid down in their own coffins, so to speak.
Opposing forces wrecked the entire complex of U.S. logistics. Rear bases came under fire, while aircraft and ships at sea were targeted by long-range missiles. There’s just no hiding anymore from people with sufficient technology to find you.
Even worse, most U.S. weapons were outranged by new systems recently deployed by China, much of it based on advanced Russian designs. It’s a long-term U.S. failure in research, development and procurement.
When the balloon went up, most U.S. forces near-immediately lost the ability to coordinate attacks and/or return fire. Much of the targeting data was worthless in any event, while systems used for aiming and guiding munitions also failed.
To the extent that communications worked at all, much of the data were corrupted or hacked.
It’s not overstating to say that, in this one wargame, far from home the U.S. lost vast numbers of people and equipment. In real world terms, think of casualty numbers in the tens of thousands. Of entire bases obliterated. Of hundreds of airplanes lost. Of dozens of ships sunk. And that’s just in the first few days.
The wargame ended with American forces defeated and devastated. U.S. allies were similarly shredded. And U.S. interests in the Western Pacific and Asia were annihilated.
Analysis
To mix a couple of metaphors, the U.S. suffered defeats in a nature that mirror a modern version of Pearl Harbor, the fall of Singapore and a saltwater Stalingrad.
And it gets worse. Because the devil is in the details, many of which have little or nothing to do with purely military matters. The downfall of American power begins at home, not far overseas.
Return to Gen. Hyten’s comment that potential adversaries have spent 30 years watching and learning from U.S. operations. Well, yes. Obviously.
Any reasonably intelligent counterparty — anyone, any country, anywhere on the face of this planet — would pay attention to what the U.S. has been doing and then figure out what to expect and how to deal with it.
Over three decades, people everywhere watched, learned, and totally went to school on the U.S. military. And it’s all because the America made a foolish political and economic choice, namely, to engage in so-called “long wars.”
And that has never been a good idea, going back to the days of Sun Tzu and before.
“Wars cost much silver,” wrote Sun Tzu in his classic book, “On War.” And of course, he meant money. But the subtleties of Sun Tzu’s writing also delve into how war affects both people and culture. Wars drive a certain negative ethic within a political system, and the longer any war lasts, the more negative is the tendency.
Meanwhile, it’s not as if America’s 30 years of war were battles of necessity. Certainly, it’s not as if the country was being invaded and overrun.
No, the three decades of war (Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Trump-Biden) were an era of forward presence coupled with routine military belligerence, oft to the ring of political trumpets at home.
The named wars (Afghanistan and Iraq) speak for themselves. Then there are other levels of warfare, like with Serbia, Libya and Syria, where the gunslinging showed up in a different manner, but still as destructive to entire societies.
In this sense — that sense of reaching out to bomb people far from U.S. shores — America’s long wars are not just a military issue, easily dismissed by civilians as some sort of niche problem for the Pentagon.
No, because closer to home, the long wars reveal seismic flaws in the very nature and character of U.S. governance. The long wars reveal a deep weakness in the American form of government itself.
Indeed, we’re a long way from the sage advice of President John Quincy Adams, that “Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy.”
And look at it this way. It’s not as if the U.S. ever had a series of national referenda on 30 years of continuous warfare. In fact, the past three decades of war overseas were based on the geopolitical ideas of a relatively small, self-perpetuating cabal of elite elected players and policy wonks, in Washington and various brain-tanks. Many familiar names, to be sure.
Abysmal strategic ignorance and lack of conscience.
Through it all, as well, Congress (and the courts too) showed abysmal strategic ignorance and lack of conscience. Because evidently, the country’s voters place many truly wrong people into important positions.
Consider one key episode, the 9/11 attacks and attendant national outrage.
No doubt, for America 9/11 was the source of a widespread, limbic-level sense of wanting to go somewhere and totally smash things up. That’s entirely understandable. And in that sense, America’s attacks on Afghanistan in late 2001 should have been, at most, a punitive expedition concerning Osama bin Laden.
Instead, Afghanistan alone morphed and mission-crept into a foolish effort of so-called “nation building.” And not even the Chinese method of Belt-and-Road nation-building, with highways and power lines, etc.
No, America in Afghanistan was more of a Vietnam-redux. The idea was somehow to pacify people who didn’t want us to be there, and if that didn’t work then destroy the place in order to rebuild it. Meanwhile, one can almost hear the echoes of at least one old bromide from the 1960s, that, “If we don’t fight ‘em over there, we’ll have to fight ‘em here.”
Through it all, and again in a Vietnam-like manner, Afghanistan was not so much a 20-year war for America, as a one-year war fought 20 times by a corps of officers, senior non-commissioned officers and civilian government personnel and contractors who made careers out of it.
At the end of the day, is anyone really surprised that smart, well-resourced adversaries paid attention and came up with an entire spectrum of methods to confront U.S. warfighting?
The Next War…
Come the next real war, U.S. forces won’t own space or the skies. Won’t run the electromagnetic spectrum. Won’t have unfettered communications. Won’t control logistics. Won’t have good targeting data. Won’t have air supremacy, let alone sea supremacy or undersea dominance. And many of the expensive weapon systems simply won’t work in the degraded environment.
Apparently though, it took an internal wargame in the Department of Defense to drive home the point.
Or at least, to illustrate the problem such that no less than one of the most senior generals in the military came out of the closet to admit that America’s super-expensive military complex can’t win the next big war.
On the bright side, perhaps it’s a true wakeup call that translates to progress.
On that note, I rest my case.
That’s all for now… Thank you for subscribing and reading.
This article is saying what I have been saying for years now. America is not going to just lose a battle here, or a battle there. The entire military excursion will be a Waterloo event.
It will be the Stalingrad of all Pacific military forces.
And then, it will move to America.
China will not act alone. Russia will assist.
Then with total dominance of the air by the victorious Asian combined forces will turn all of America into a modern-day Syria. While I do not expect that China will give any mercy, they however, will realistically set up conditions where starving, armed Americans, will kill each other for moldy turnip rinds.
DF-41
And that’s only with conventional weapons.
Right now we are watching as the Pentagon experts and generals are telling the evil neocons in Washington DC to shut up.
Now, I don’t know if they will be successful…
…after all those evil psychopaths in Washington are crafty, deluded, and living in some kind of insanity (possibly drug induced) that gives this illusion of unaccountability.
Xu Guangyu, a retired major general and now a strategy researcher, said that DF-16 has a strike range of more than 1,000 kilometers, filling the gap that previously existed with the absence of a medium-range ballistic missile in the PLA’s arsenal. He said the missile also is able to reach Okinawa, a Japanese island about 400 km from China’s Diaoyu Islands. Shi Hong, executive editor of Shipborne Weapons, said the DF-16 was developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp based on the DF-11 short-range ballistic missile and can carry a warhead of at least 500 kg. The missile has a strike accuracy as good as that of a cruise missile, Shi said. It is also able to maneuver in its final stage to penetrate enemy defensive firepower, he said.
Regardless to what those evil psychopathic war-monsters want, I can well imagine that a repeat of what happened last year in 2020.
This was when Trump ordered the Naval Armada to the South China Sea. Eight assault carrier steamed to China. They were intended to seize some outlying Chinese held islands in the inner island defensive chain.
But you know, nothing happened.
The commanders refused. They steamed home, and President Trump fired the leadership.
Again, we can expect, that reasonable leadership will refuse to engage either China or Russia or both.
They will refuse.
Just like late Summer 2020. And the sitting American President will fire his military staff for refusing to die.
The Chinese are subtle.
They speak softly and kindly and carefully.
During the “heat” of the anti Uighur Muslim “issue”, China responded with a video. It is below. Pay attention to the array of messages that are subtly embedded within it.
The video below is an Army unit located in Xingjiang to defend against insurgency movements by the United States to block the BRI.
If you note, those are not SCUD missiles. Aside from a host of Medium Range ballistic missiles (DF-21 and DF-26), and if you look carefully, the DF-5C, additionally there are also DF-31A and DF-41 weapons presented as part of the defensive force.
What is China trying to say?
Along with the destruction of nearby military bases, will be the simultaneous destruction of major American cities. These missiles are long range city-flatteners.
Look at the MESSAGE that China is telegraphing.
Those are nuclear (and neutron bomb) MIRV, hyper-velocity, (with artificial intelligence), long-range, ICBMs. the DF-31A is capable of hitting every major American city on the West Coast. These are latest generation, decades ahead of America, nuclear missiles that America has no defense against.
If you start moving military against China, China will devastate the American heartland. Any surviving leadership will have to hide in the impoverished American ghettos to avoid the nuclear carpet bombing that will result.
The Chinese do not play.
A final comment
Chinese media has announced (last month), ever since the US pulled that aircraft landing stunt in Taiwan, that not only are military units fully armed with real munitions, and everything (EVERYTHING!) is out of storage, but they fly and run “HOT”.
There’s a high probably the next US / UK provocation will result in “accidental” deaths.
Nothing quite ruins your day like global thermonuclear war. Especially when you are on the losing side.
In America, it’s no longer an issue of “one day the common many will rise up against the evil leadership”.
Ai! It has become something else.
It has become “we need to hang these Washington DC bastards before they get everyone killed.”
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
If you read any of the Western press (most UK or American) you will get a really distorted view about Hong Kong, and China. You will read things, so many things, that you will just “take in” as truth, and without a secondary source of information, you will start to believe it. And that’s how the “West” works. You keep people stupid and ignorant, and manipulate them in such a way that they “dance” to whatever tune you play.
I have been (by chance) reading some articles out of Hong Kong ( I mean, after all, I live next door to it.) and they (the articles) are very interesting in how illustrative they are to the amazing levels of disinformation pumped out of America and Britain over the last few decades.
All lies. All disinformation. All manipulation.
All the time.
We start with Billionaire Tycoon Jimmy Lai. And if you read the American (and British press) you might picture him as a freedom lover for democracy, and a fighter for justice and the “American way of life”.
Not even remotely true. He’s actually sort of like a Chinese version of Larry Flint, with the behavior of Harvey Weinstein , and the scruples of Hillary Clinton.
Here is a great article. Found HERE. It discusses Jimmy Lai’s “operation” in Hong Kong…
Fun fact:
For a newspaper with only 86,000 subscribers. He was mysteriously making HK$95 million every month (12.23 million US Dollars).
Every time the HK government tried to audit him, a massive onslaught of anti-HK government protests, media, and assaults from both the USA and the UK stopped the effort. On numerous occasions, the UK and US government "stepped in" and put pressure on HK to free him and stop the investigations.
But when HK passed the insurrection law in 2020, his "operations" were investigated and it turns out that he was laundering enormous sums of cash directly out of the United States government for undisclosed purposes.
FIRST, LET’S LOOK AT the numbers which are being omitted in reports about the closure of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper.
NOT BREAKFAST READING
1) Apple Daily printed 86,000 copies a day, which meant that 98.5 PER CENT of Hong Kong’s 6,500,000 adults did NOT buy it with their breakfast noodles.
SIMPLE DECEPTION
2) The Western media is reporting that it was “Hong Kong’s biggest newspaper”. No. Not remotely true. Hong Kong’s most popular newspaper is free tabloid Headline Daily (1,012,000 a day, or more than ten times Apple’s circulation), and in the paid broadsheet category, leaders include Oriental Daily News (530,000 a day), and Sing Tao Daily (253,000 a day).
Hong Kong has always had a hunger for newspapers, and the mainstream voice has always been far, far more popular than Jimmy Lai’s one. That was true in the British era, and is true today, with the same newspaper groups at the top of the pile.
THE BIG STORY IN MEDIA
3) Maybe Jimmy Lai’s paper was top of the web charts? No. Alexa rankings for Hong Kong show HK01.com, Bastillepost and other online media far ahead of Apple Daily (and the fact that Hong Kongers visit mainland China shopping site Taobao significantly more than any local media site should tell us something).
HK01, in particular, has come from nowhere to dominate the local media scene. Lively, up-to-the-minute and often critical of the government, its existence and popularity gives the lie to the “press freedom is dead” trope of the Western media, and is the big story in media that foreign correspondents have all missed.
WHO CLOSED APPLE?
4) Apple Daily was not closed down by the Hong Kong government, but by its own board, comprising local people hostile to China, plus Americans.
The HK$18 million that the government froze was a small sum for a paper for a company with HK$95 million in revenues every month, financial analysts say. The paper itself boasted of having cash accounts of HK$531 million, enough to last 18 months.
In fact, the entire financial picture of the media group is an under-reported, under-studied mystery.
THE INFAMOUS NARRATIVE
5) So why did they close their own paper? As a PR coup, because they were absolutely confident that the international media, which means the Western media, would not tell the real story, but one which fits their anti-China narrative.
Oh, and also, it saves them money.
Apple Daily’s stunning lack of popularity among the good, honest, people of Hong Kong, was only eclipsed by its stunning lack of popularity among advertisers. The group has been losing more than HK$1 million a day, yes, A DAY, (which is more than US$1 million a week), amounting to several billion Hong Kong dollars over the past few years.
The paper clearly did not function commercially as a media company, so any healthily skeptical person would ask themselves: what was it for?
PRO-DEMOCRACY?
Oh, and another thing. Apple Daily wasn’t “pro-democracy” either.
But more about that later. Let’s start from the very beginning, a very good place to start, as the great poet Oscar Hammerstein II said.
This headline from a UK newspaper called ‘i’ (for “Independent”) shows the typically false reporting characteristic of coverage of this story
CHAPTER 1) BRUNCH AND PORNOGRAPHY
I FIRST MET Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, founder of Apple Daily, at a politician-packed brunch party in 1995. It was at the luxurious Hong Kong apartment of L. Gordon Crovitz, a senior executive for the Wall Street Journal group. His wife Minky was the perfect hostess.
Garment tycoon Lai wasn’t how I expected him to be, but I liked him. Behind his sad puppy eyes was toughness. He was in the process of launching an oppositional, China-baiting newspaper.
We all congratulated him for taking a step that was clearly brave and very likely foolhardy: he would inevitably get into trouble.
It was only after I had left that brunch party that something occurred to me: the hosts were all right wing United States people, and the invited politicians were all from the Hong Kong opposition. It was like a convention of people who didn’t like China.
MISOGYNY RULES
Over the next few years, Apple Daily carved its place in the city’s media scene over the next few years, and this reporter, like most Hong Kong people, were shocked and horrified.
Lai’s publications made a niche for themselves by taking the lowest of the low paths. There was sex and sensationalism, outrage and scandal, allegations and celebrity gossip of the tawdriest kind, and worse, pornographic stories and reviews/ critiques of sex workers and massage parlours.
This headline from a UK newspaper called ‘i’ (for “Independent”) shows the typically false reporting characteristic of coverage of this story
The Hong Kong community is a rather gentle, low-crime, conservative, majority female society, and the present portrayal of Apple Daily as the natural voice of the community was and is deeply misleading.
The paper, crude, brutal and sexist, was for men. Jimmy Lai, in a 1995 interview with the South China Morning Post, said: “Our porn page is not very well done, but we have to have it because man has basic needs.”
LOWERED STANDARDS
Other publications lowered their standards to compete, and the Hong Kong newsstands became embarrassing to walk past. Remember the “downblouse” photo of schoolgirl Alice Patten on the front page with the headline: “The peaches are ripening”?
The misogyny and cruelty to women and children were shocking, with people being hurt constantly – and discovering that the newspaper simply didn’t care.
After a few years, it felt like most people knew individuals who had been hurt by Apple Daily. The Hong Kong public preferred its traditional newspaper voice, and Jimmy Lai’s newspaper could never rise above being a minority interest, thank God.
Another Western media group gets it wrong: the information above was distributed by AFP, one of the biggest news agencies in the world.
One 1998 story, sadly typical of the paper, stuck in my mind: Apple Daily published a feature about an unbelievably crass man who apparently sought out prostitutes soon after his wife had thrown their children out of a window to their deaths before jumping after them.
The paper later admitted paying the man to pose in bed with the sex workers for the photographs, knowing that it would be the most talked-about story of the week.
The paper was in trouble with the law, usually because of contravening the rules against obscene publications, every two or three months.
FLOUTED ETHICS
It also flouted basic journalistic ethics. Chequebook journalism was the norm. In 2000, an Apple reporter received a 10-month jail sentence for bribing police officers to reveal information. In 2019, the paper was widely reported to have given HK$1.5 million to a taxi driver for video footage of a married celebrity canoodling with a woman who wasn’t his wife.
Next Digital’s Taiwan operation has been a financial disaster: picture by Solomon203/ Wikicommons
Yes, it also did some positive work, like attacking civil servants for doing their jobs badly, but those few tales became over-politicized to an extent that they were not journalism, but political campaigning for its endless pro-America, anti-China message.
Then one day, I got a call. Apple Daily senior executive Mark Simon wanted to meet me and would like to me to give them some help.
CHAPTER TWO) THE MONEY PIT
MARK SIMON, now there’s an interesting character. People were already wondering if Jimmy Lai’s right-hand man was a CIA agent, given the newspaper’s anti-China stance.
I found the notion unlikely, and not just because we were friends. He was enormous and unhealthy looking, and would be unlikely to pass the most basic fitness tests. Also, he liked the limelight too much to be an agent, although there is a sub-group of agents who do their work in the spotlight.
In a discussion on that topic, someone asked me a related question: If not an agent, was Mark Simon a CIA asset, witting or unwitting?
I gave her a reply that my father’s experiences taught me: “Sweetheart, almost every journalist in the world is a CIA asset, witting or unwitting. That’s how the Western press works.”
Another Western media group gets it wrong: the information above was distributed by AFP, one of the biggest news agencies in the world.
ANIMATED NEWS
I met Mark at a coffee shop in Kowloon’s Ho Man Tin district where he introduced me to Marina Shifrin, an American woman who had been hired to write scripts for a new “3D animated news” venture for Next Digital, the parent company of the newspaper. The operation was based in Taiwan, where the group was doing very badly.
The animations were unfunny, getting few hits and were not being widely shared. Mark wanted me to give her the key storytelling points to creating viral media. It was hard to boil down decades of experience into a short lecture, but to sum up, I told her to be authentic, funny, detached and offbeat. We swapped contact details.
I left the meeting pondering how long a principled American woman could stay at such an unprincipled company.
BIGOTRY
For Hong Kong’s majority population a significant problem was Apple Daily’s undisguised bigotry. Apple popularized the term “locusts” for people from mainland China coming to Hong Kong.
This was a horrific mistake in the eyes of this community, where many people had mainland cousins, and recognized that the city’s businesses were reliant on mainland Chinese customers.
But here was the puzzle. Despite the repulsive content, there was a rock-solid partnership between the Apple Daily crowd and American media people—and on particular, the most hawkish and right wing of people in that country.
Gordon Crovitz remained closely in the loop. Crovitz’s wife, Minky Worden, was “media advisor” to the Hong Kong opposition for several years. Mark Simon had a US Naval Intelligence background and became president of Republicans Abroad in Hong Kong.
Other media highlighted the fact that Apple-style muckraking made ordinary people feel unsafe
Other media highlighted the fact that Apple-style muckraking made ordinary people feel unsafe
HK PEOPLE GENEROUS
To combat its bad reputation for bigotry, Apple sometimes accused others of the same thing. In 2013, it ran a front-page anti-government “scoop” reporting that Executive Council member Franklin Lam, said: “I utterly discriminate against new immigrants.”
Unfortunately for the reporters, the meeting had been recorded and the tape showed that what he actually said was: “I utterly do not discriminate against new immigrants. On arrival in Hong Kong, they are legally Hong Kong citizens. They are also first-class citizens.”
The truth is that Hong Kong people are generous, and the city has an extensive program to help mainland immigrants settle in.
Jimmy Lai meets Mike Pence: picture from Mike Pence’s office
Jimmy Lai meets Mike Pence: picture from Mike Pence’s office
CHAPTER 3) UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
The world is being told that Apple Daily is a pro-democracy paper. Let’s talk about that. In 2013 and 2014, Hong Kong civil servants announced the results of a years-long process to introduce a one-person-one-vote system to this city.
A Chinese University survey of the public showed that some 55 percent of people were in favor of proceeding with the government’s universal suffrage plan, providing that satisfaction could be achieved on the composition of the “broadly representative nominating committee”.
But Apple Daily and the more strident members of the opposition called for the whole universal suffrage package to be jettisoned, as not being sufficiently close to Western liberal democracy. (In fact, the Hong Kong system allowed direct voting for the leader, unlike UK and US systems, where you vote for parties, and the party or the electoral college appoint a leader.)
FAUX OUTRAGE
The Western media, including this reporter, who was writing op-eds for the New York Times at the time, got caught up in the faux outrage, and the path to democratic self-government that Hong Kong civil servants had taken literally years to build was demolished in a single day.
Many academics and journalists (including the present writer), later realized that we’d made a huge error, denying Hong Kong people an important chance to take the first steps towards a more democratic system.
GETTING IT RIGHT AT LAST
In Taiwan, Marina Shifrin worked until 3 o’clock in the morning and then made a video of herself holding an “I quit” sign and dancing at multiple locations in the Next Media offices.
It went viral on the internet, winning her 19 million views, plus a job offer of working in televison in the United States. She left Taiwan as fast as she could.
REVOLUTION CONSULTANTS
In late 2014, Western “revolution consultants” revealed that they had been working with Hong Kong anti-China campaigners for almost two years before the “Occupy Central” campaign shut down much of the business center.
Leaked documents revealed that Jimmy Lai was secretly handling the finances for those protests: more than HK$40 million (US$5.2 million) came from unknown sources and went to hostile groups in Hong Kong.
In one of the emails, Lai spoke scathingly about the protest leaders, saying they “could accomplish nothing if there was no help”.
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
Hong Kong was swept by rumors, later confirmed, that the US State Department had a budget of millions to destabilize China by poisoning minds against the country in its outlying areas – Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia.
Piece by piece, stories of unexplained payments popped up. It became clear that the cash coming through the National Endowment for Democracy was peanuts compared to money from other American sources. But it was hard to find the links between the odd bits of news that popped up.
For example, in May 2016 the Independent Commission Against Corruption highlighted an undeclared payment of HK$250,000 from Mark Simon to an opposition politician. It was not clear where the cash originated.
But by that time, observers of the Hong Kong scene noted that we very often saw the same factors coming together: Americans, mystery money, Jimmy Lai, and anti-China politicians.
AIMLESS VIOLENCE
In 2019, civil unrest again broke out and Apple Daily strongly backed the pro-independence protesters calling for Hong Kong to be “freed” from China, despite the fact that between 80 and 93 percent of Hong Kong people strongly oppose independence.
The protesters wanted Donald Trump to take Hong Kong from China, possibly the worst idea in history.
Bizarrely, Apple Daily gave the biggest encouragement to the aimlessly violent people who had no plan other than to destroy Hong Kong’s economy, close the airport, and generally cause mayhem. There was no conceivable way that the endless destruction of public facilities would lead to more democracy, as Hong Kong people pointed out repeatedly in talk shows and on social media.
Indeed, it was obvious that the process Apple Daily was encouraging could have no possible outcome except to cause Beijing to intervene – which was, of course, the whole point. Accusations that this city was just a pawn in a bigger game in which Jimmy Lai was serving the United States became impossible to dismiss.
THE US RIGHT WING
Also clear was that Jimmy Lai strongly favored the right wing of the United States, since they were more actively anti-China. In May, 2020, Jimmy Lai launched a #TrumpSavesHK campaign on its front page. “Trump is a statesman,” Lai wrote in the newspaper in October.
Throughout this period, the paper called for international sanctions on Hong Kong, even though the city was being hammered for reasons mired in disinformation. I don’t think anyone taking a genuinely detached look at the paper’s actions over the past few years could possibly call it pro-democracy, or even pro-Hong Kong. It worked instead to actively harm this community.
Behind the scenes, Apple Daily dug into its coffers to commission a fake report “revealing” that Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden had secret dealings with China. Managed by Mark Simon, the project was a direct bid to interfere in the US elections, and ensure a Trump win.
Again, we saw creative, out-of-the-box thinking, but also an appetite for deliberate deception of the public – the journalist credited with writing the dossier didn’t exist, but was a fake name with a computer-generated face.
Throughout this period, the paper called for international sanctions on Hong Kong, even though the city was being hammered for reasons mired in disinformation. I don’t think anyone taking a genuinely detached look at the paper’s actions over the past few years could possibly call it pro-democracy, or even pro-Hong Kong. It worked instead to actively harm this community.
Oh, and the misogynistic harm to women and children has continued. Earlier this month, Hong Kong saw the end of a court case involving Apple Daily staff pretending to be related to a female celebrity in order to get a birth certificate for her child, which they then published.
ON BOARD
This month, the board of Apple Daily, not the Hong Kong government, closed the newspaper.
Who is on the board? There’s American journalist Mark Clifford. There’s L. Gordon Crovitz, the charming but staunchly right wing former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, who invited me to that brunch party at his home 26 years ago.
His wife Minky Worden has become a key voice in the US campaign against the 2022 Winter Olympics in China.
Ms Worden is a senior staff member at Human Rights Watch, a group which has been criticized by more than 100 cultural figures, including Nobel Peace Laureates, for its “close ties to the government of the United States”.
Since Olympic activities in mainland China always involve Hong Kong city too, the success of her campaign would further harm the long-suffering people of this city.
LEFT SUDDENLY
Meanwhile, Mark Simon, who told journalists he was in Hong Kong to stay, left the city suddenly to move to Taiwan shortly before the promulgation of a US-style security law, which among other things, targets people who take overseas money to interfere in local politics.
But of course none of this will be covered in the international media. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
The Western media will repeatedly report that Beijing is to blame for Apple Daily’s problems in Hong Kong, hoping and praying that no one will point out the key fact that demolishes the argument: The newspaper group has been even more of a disaster in Taiwan, where it has stopped all its print publications, despite the island allegedly having glorious USA-Style True Democracy. USA! USA!
TALK TO HONG KONG PEOPLE
If you want the real story of this newspaper, perhaps speak to the 98.5 per cent of Hong Kong adults who did not buy a copy of Apple Daily with their breakfast every day.
And perhaps spend a moment reflecting on Jimmy Lai’s connections with the right wing of the United States, and what the jailed publisher thinks of Hong Kong’s anti-China movement – that they “could accomplish nothing if there was no help”.
[2] And now to Cuba
Here’s what the Hong Kong folk feel about Cuba. After all, America now has it’s sights on invading it, or starting a war there… oh, you know… for the usual reasons.
Destabilization process is now farcically predictable
THE WORLD’S WEALTHIEST, most militaristic country (The United States) wants to deliver “freedom” to Cuba, a tiny community which has committed the unforgivable sin of doing things in a more socialist way. But whatever your politics, the extraordinary re-purposing of the word “freedom” as a tool to amplify unrest and distort discussions should concern us all.
Hong Kong people, in particular, have seen this entire process before. In fact, we could pretty much write the script for what’s happening in Cuba ourselves. Ten things to consider:
1.) Turn on the anti-Cuba social media
Yes, there are social and economic problems in Cuba. That’s how it works. The destabilization process ALWAYS piggybacks itself on genuine grievances. These are amplified with a disinformation campaign.
At least 1,500 of the social media accounts that participated in the #SOSCuba operation were created in a 48-hour period: July 10 and 11, said Julian Macias Tovar, social media analyst.
2.) Turn on the fake tweets.
Cuban internet investigators found the majority of the fake tweets came from the United States.
The tweets focused on the narrative key word “freedom” and pointedly instructed readers to dismiss any suggestion that the US embargo had any relevance to what was happening.
One of the main pro-US social media voices talking to Cubans was a notorious anti-government source called Yusnaby.
Yusnaby, Cubans wryly noted, is pronounced like “U.S. Navy” said with an accent.
3.) Engage the ‘Bots.
Many of the messages came from random “pretty” faces and were bot-signed up so quickly that they didn’t have time to delete the automatically generated numbers after their fake names.
So “Rachel” (see below), who looks like a supermodel, apparently likes to be known as Rachel76039947.
4.) Fire-hose of messages floods the internet.
The entire, huge torrent of messages took a pro-US and anti-government stance, and many said the exact same thing in the exact same words. They were clearly fake but Twitter did not delete them.
Many of the pro-US, anti-government voices on social media joined recently, have no friends or followers, and somewhat unusual names!
5.) Heavy coverage of tiny protests.
The early Cuban protests were small (a few hundred people) but received far more coverage than much, much larger events elsewhere. Independent media outlet BT News noted that more than 100,000 people marched for Palestine, such as in the demonstration pictured below, at the same time, but got far less coverage.
6.) Freedom™ and democracy™
When Hong Kongers see something like this happening, we wait. We wait for the mainstream media to give the protesters/ pro-US side full ownership of words like “freedom” and “democracy”. At the same time, they will unfairly label the home team/ government as the enemies of freedom and democracy.
Here’s the New York Times doing precisely that in a hilariously blatant manner: “Shouting ‘freedom’ and other anti-government slogans. . . ”!
7.) Lie using fake photos
The small size of many of the Cuba demonstrations was a problem for the pro-NATO narrative.
CNN misleading people into thinking the picture it is using comes from Cuba when it’s actually from Miami, as the street sign shows. TYT repeatedly did the same thing.
8.) American President reads THE script.
By Sunday night, some Hong Kongers watching the process were already waiting for US President Joseph Biden to perform his part in the script, saying something that associates one side with “freedom” and the other with the words “authoritarian regime.”
On Monday, he did just that.
9.) Switch and confuse the videos and images
Below is a widely reprinted NYT report which misled countless millions of readers into thinking this AP picture of a reasonably well-attended gathering was of a pro-US, anti-govt protest, when it was actually a pro-government rally.
Fox News and the Financial Times did the same thing with the same picture. This picture actually showed a pro-government rally. (Spotter: Alan MacLeod)
10.) Amnesty International performs their role
By Tuesday, newswatchers in Hong Kong were waiting for the next standard element in the destabilization script — which would be for the comically biased Amnesty International to do its normal trick.
Amnesty works hard to produce reports making the home team look like faceless killing machines, and the pro-US, anti-govt side look like young, cool human beings with glorious US flags calling for, yes, “freedom” (libertad).
On Wednesday Amnesty International did precisely that, as you can see from the lead elements on the front page of the UK organization’s Cuba report, below.
Amnesty International is “comically biased”
NEXT IN THE SCRIPT
In fact, the Cuba protests have been so predictable that Hong Kong people can even tell you the next steps coming up.
There will be demands for US troops to come and “solve” the problem.
There will be complaints of police brutality.
The UK and the US will say they “stand with” one side, as if they know for a fact that group of protesters represents everyone.
And we’ll all see the same words repeated over and over again — “freedom” on the pro-US side and “authoritarian regime” on the other.
IGNORING THE WORLD
By claiming “freedom” as a sacred principle it owns, the United States has given itself license to ignore the global community.
Just last month, the United Nations overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution to demand the end of the US economic blockade on Cuba, for the 29th year in a row.
The United States ignored it, as did the media.
NO SELF-AWARENESS
This week, a US politician used the word “freedom” four times in a single tweet about Cuba. “America stands for freedom,” said the unintentionally hilarious declamation by Val Demings of Florida.
I’m assuming that staff at the New York Times have enough self-awareness to know that the word “freedom” used in the American way is seen by people outside the US as a joke – but I may be wrong.
Perhaps some US citizens have a more sophisticated understanding of the situation than journalists: the humorous meme at the top of this post is widely shared in various forms and appears to originate in the United States. Here’s another version:
But some journalists don’t get the joke. One of the New York Times write-ups about the Cuba protests included a starry-eye quote from a protester: “What I saw today was people seeing freedom for the first time.”
HOWEVER VIOLENT
For more than 40 years, the world has watched the CIA travelling the globe to rebrand pro-US groups, however violent they are, as the voices of “freedom”, and home teams as the enemies of freedom, however well they feed and serve their populace.
Few people know this better than the Hong Kong people. During the US-backed riots of 2019, a Hong Kong friend posted terrifying images of black-clad thugs, radicalized by endless Apple Daily reports, storming into a spotless train station and using iron rods to terrorize staff and smash everything in sight.
His caption: “Freedom is coming.”
And the reason why I started to read some of the HK news…
yeah. I wanted to do a follow up on who these jackasses were who was attacking my videos of bus rides, sizzling Hunan beer, and cheap wine. I wanted to know!
[3] Rich outlet tries to savage citizen journalists
IN A HILARIOUS BOTCH-UP, the BBC yesterday inserted numerous links to anti-China features into an article defending itself from claims that it was anti-China.Here’s what happened.BBC journalists wrote an article attacking China-based “citizen journalists”. The bloggers defended themselves by saying the BBC and other Western media had a clearly biased, negative attitude to the Asian developing nation.The BBC’s editors yesterday printed the article (above) — but sprinkled it with links (see picture below) which powerfully proved the critics’ point that the BBC is biased against China.In effect, the BBC said “we’re not anti-China — by the way, here’s a link to an article showing how China is a dystopian hellscape! And another one. And another one. And another one. And . . “.It’s hard not to laugh.
It gets better. In fact, yesterday’s BBC article should go down in history as a textbook example of self-defeating journalism for at least four reasons.
First, you cannot argue against the allegation that you present a strongly one-sided view by including a list of article links that prove conclusively that you present a one-sided view.
Lee and Oli Barrett, residents of China, have become popular bloggers
SENSE OF IRONY
Second, the article attacks ordinary individual bloggers in China (like those in the picture above) by implying, with no hard evidence, that they receive government cash to do what they do, which is to show China in a positive light.
Yet we all know for a fact that the BBC journalists making the accusation receive government cash month after month to do what they do, which is to present China in a negative light.
(The BBC’s annual budget is GBP3.5 billion.)
Staff in the BBC newsroom appear to have had their senses of irony surgically removed.
Outrageous! A government sponsored media outlet in China offers money to stringers, the BBC said
THEY PAY STRINGERS
Third, the BBC report reveals, shock horror, that CGTN, a government-financed news outlet, now offers CASH PAYMENTS to STRINGERS!
OMG!
The BBC writers mysteriously forgot to mention that the BBC, also a government-financed news outlet, also offers cash payments to stringers (much larger sums). They’ve been doing this for decades.
I know this for a fact because I was a stringer for the BBC for years.
At this point, I became seriously worried about the toddler-level lack of self-awareness in the BBC newsroom.
Jason Lightfoot is another independent blogger attacked for giving another side of the story
MOTIVATION MYSTERY
Fourth, the BBC writers say: “It’s unclear what drives the foreign vloggers – whether they believe in China’s messaging or are motivated by the lure of local fame and fortune instead.”
It’s only unclear what motivates them if you haven’t watched a single one of their videos. If you do, you can see they are ordinary people doing their best to provide desperately needed balance to the reports put out by dedicated Sinophobes like, well, BBC Newsroom staff, to pick a random example out of the air.
LET’S TALK ABOUT MONEY
Actually, let’s talk about money, something BBC journalists HATE to discuss.
The BBC’s hatchet job presents no evidence whatsoever that the Barretts, Barrie Jones, or Jason Lightfoot are paid a single yuan for having the opinions they have, or for choosing to show the positive side of life in China.
In contrast, BBC journalists have very good salaries for showing the negative side of life in China. I hope the bloggers attacked by BBC journalists Kerrie Allen and Sophie Williams realize they have the moral right to ask them how much the BBC pays them.
OVERPAID JOURNALISTS
I’ve worked at the BBC on and off for decades and I can tell you that some BBC journalists get paid A LOT. When BBC newsroom head James Harding left in 2018, his salary was GBP340,000 a year. Election specialist Jeremy Vine gets more than GBP600,000 a year.
Of course most people in the newsrooms get less than that, but at least 40 BBC journalists are paid more than the British Prime Minister’s GBP150,000 salary, a Press Gazette study showed in 2017. Political editor Laura Kuenssberg gets GBP200,000 to GBP250,000 a year, for example.
Barrie Jones upsets Western journalists by refusing the parrot the US State Department narrative.
FACTUAL INACCURACIES
The ultimate irony is that the unpaid amateurs in China regularly do a better job of covering China than the salaried professionals.
The same BBC article gives a good example of how history changes when that all-important nuance goes missing.
The BBC reporters say “Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan was jailed for four years after making a number of vlogs during Wuhan’s coronavirus outbreak.”
That’s not what really happened. Zhang Zhan was an anti-lockdown campaigner jailed for repeatedly trying to disrupt anti-covid measures. She herself said that she was not a journalist. Her own videos show clearly that she was the Chinese equivalent of the US anti-vaxxer brigade, refusing to follow health guidelines and creating deliberate public confrontations with people trying to follow the rules.
But that’s a nuanced version of her case, which you can only get if you live in this country and talk to people here — rather than attack from the other side of the planet.
THE 50-CENT ARMY
The BBC reporters also dredge up the old chestnut about the “50-cent army”, apparently unaware that most Chinese government clickers have been retired, simply because they are no longer needed. They’ve been replaced by real voices who speak out without pay.
An SCMP report about the rise of young people in China defending their community by commenting on social media, making the civil service pro-China “wumao” unnecessary
The so-called “wumao” are no longer necessary now that young people who are sick and tired of their community being misrepresented (groups like the Diba and the fangirls) are providing a robust defense of the country, far more creatively and without the need for payment.
They even create quite stylish memes (see below).
Above is a Diba meme from Weibo
The BBC report also omits the fact that it’s actually US intelligence groups such as the SR (military intelligence) and the CIA which flood social media columns with politically charged fake comments, often easy to spot.
There’s something creepy in the article too.
The “expert” quoted at length in the BBC report is Robert Potter, described as a “cybersecurity researcher”. The BBC omits a key fact that commentator Daniel Dumbrill yesterday highlighted. The top two names on Potter’s organization’s funding list are the State Department of the United States and the United States Department of Defence.
Yes. Exactly.
Think Mike Pompeo, CIA, Anthony Blinken.
The US State Department
So, to sum it up, honest, ordinary people who spend their own time and money offering useful additional views of life in China, from within China, are accused of receiving government cash by distant people who actually ARE receiving government salaries working for a government news outlet and showcasing the views of people paid by the US government.
NEED FOR INTEGRITY
This is why we need UNBIASED journalists covering China and it doesn’t matter if you have qualifications or not — what matters is that you have enough moral integrity to tell the truth: which is that the community we call China is really not that different from the other major communities around the world.
One last thing: From a professional journalistic point of view, there’s another issue with the BBC article.
Very similar articles have already appeared in other British news outlets. Here is an example below from the Times of London.
Same victims, same news angle, similar headlines, similar allegations, similar quotes.
Copying? Or co-ordination? Journalists don’t normally regurgitate their rivals’ old stories in this way.
There’s something very wrong going on here.
This reporter’s father was one of the first investigative journalists in Asia. He had a saying: “Everything is about something else.”
[4]Switching China for the US is a huge mistake
Australia has put itself at a stark disadvantage by casting its lot with the US instead of the trading partner that has underwritten its growth over decadesUS WRITER AND FORMER military analyst Daniel Ellsberg recently revealed that the Pentagon Papers, most of which were released in 1971, also confirmed that the United States contemplated using nuclear weapons against the Chinese mainland in 1958, to “defend” Jinmen, also known as Kinmen, an island about 10 kilometers from the mainland city of Xiamen, on behalf of the Kuomintang in Taiwan.We need to recall that China had no nuclear weapons at that time－only the US and the Soviet Union did.Ellsberg also said the administration of former US president Lyndon B. Johnson had covertly engaged in a range of extremely destructive attacks against the North Vietnamese forces and their supporters during the Vietnam War.‘NUKING’ A DEVELOPING COUNTRYSo the US, at least from a planning point of view, saw nothing fundamentally immoral about launching a nuclear attack on a huge developing country that possessed no such arms.This was a little over 10 years after seeing the horrific nuclear devastation in Japan. Fortunately, the plan was not implemented.
Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia: picture by Simon Rae/ Unsplash
AUSTRALIA AS COURIER
Even more startling, from an Australian point of view, is the recent disclosure that Australia, was, in 1964, given an extraordinary US-courier task.
Gregory Clark, a former Australian diplomat, has just revealed that in that year, Australian foreign minister Paul Hasluck demanded that the Australian Embassy in Moscow (where Clark worked) arrange a meeting with the new Soviet leadership.
In a meeting with premier Alexei Kosygin at which Clark was present, Hasluck carried a message from Washington, requesting that the USSR join the US in Vietnam to stop the “bad communists” in Beijing and North Vietnam to expand southwards.
Kosygin’s response was blunt. Moscow would do all it could to support the Vietnamese people in their struggle against US imperialism – and he wished the Chinese would do more to help.
After the commencement of China’s reform and opening-up policy in 1978, however, the US generally welcomed the rise of China.
‘a popular, genial understanding of China as a vast, poor, peasant-based country’
The US relationship with China has gone through a striking transformation over the past century.
Once, compassion was dominant. The Nobel Prize-winning novelist Pearl S. Buck wrote The Good Earth over 90 years ago while living in Nanjing. The book helped shape a popular, genial understanding of China as a vast, poor, peasant-based country with a remarkable history.
TRADE BOOMED
During the period when the US welcomed the rise of China, immense business opportunities were recognized and trade boomed, generating academic, intellectual and general interest in China.
Now that China’s economy is around 70 percent of the size of the US economy in raw US dollar GDP terms, the US has made clear its huge vested interest in seeing the rise of China strikingly reduced and contained.
Thus the US mood has gone from being sorry for China, then helpful to China, to being stridently hostile to China.
‘China does not purposefully threaten Australia in any serious way’
Examined rationally, the strategic position for Australia is clear. It has a huge vested interest in seeing the rise of China maintained and enhanced.
China is now Australia’s largest trading partner. Before the recent intense downturn in the Australia-China relationship, trade figures show that Australia’s annual trade surplus with China had topped A$50 billion (US$36.9 billion).
From 1991 until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Australia maintained the longest period of sustained economic growth ever seen within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. China, above all, has underwritten this outcome.
China does not (viewed outside of hawklike think tanks) purposefully threaten Australia in any serious way.
GUSTO AND NAIVETE
The US, on the other hand, does threaten Australia at a more menacing level: first, by encouraging intensified antipathy toward the trading partner who has done more to remake Australia in the last several decades than any other; and second, due to the serious hazard of being drawn into yet more US military adventures－possibly involving certain levels of forceful confrontation with China.
Australia’s relationship with China is very different from that of the US. The acute difficulty for Australia, however, is that Washington has been highly insistent that Australia join in the US-led Sino-containment project. Australia has taken up this damaging new brief with uncommon gusto and naivete.
Collaboration has been beneficial to both sides: Picture by Mimi Thian/ Unsplash
DEEP, LONG-TERM COST
Research by the Perth US-Asia Centre recently listed major income drops in trade with China, to Australia’s stark disadvantage, in areas including travel, education, coal, beef, wine, cotton and barley. In a number of cases, US exports to China have replaced those from Australia.
In 1964, Australia carried messages, like a tributary State, for the US. Then the dark clouds lifted from Sino-US relations for several decades and Australia prospered, independently, like never before.
The dark clouds had lifted from Sino-US relations for several decades, and Australia prospered, independently, like never before. Now those angry clouds are back, and Australia is once again being told, by its best geopolitical friend, what it must do. It must stand up for US interests, which are called shared values, and never mind the deep, long-term cost to Australia’s national interest.
It is an extraordinary state of affairs that calls for deep reflection and review.
MY DAUGHTER ONCE asked me if we were “pro-China”.“Sweetheart,” I replied. “We’re pro-everyone. We’re pro-China, pro-Hong Kong, pro-West, pro-East, pro-South and pro-space aliens, especially the latter.”Why would you be not pro any community or nationality? This is the age of diversity.My immediate family includes Americans, Chinese, Brits, and South Asians, and I have several friends whose bizarre behaviour strongly suggests off-planet origins—and the same surely goes for you too, dear reader.This is the age of diversity; picture by Naassom Azevedo/ UnsplashAt this point, someone will always lean into this type of conversation and say: “Ah, but are you pro-Beijing?”To realize how ridiculous this is, look a Swede in the eye and ask: “Are you pro-Stockholm?” Ask a Honduran: “What do you think of Tegucigalpa?” Or grab a passing Bolivian and ask: “Are youin favor of La Paz?”People around the world don’t generally ask that question.
What the pro-Beijing question really means is: “Do you support the Western media’s demonization of China?”
Now THAT I can instantly answer. Actually, no, I don’t. Criticising others can be okay, if done sensitively and with positive intentions. Demonizing people is not.
Many Hong Kong people are stunned at how so much of the world’s media has ended up like US Republican lawyer Gordon C. Chang, following a Western-penned hyper-critical narrative of China, and blithely dismissing any criticism of his constant de-humanizing of Chinese people. “Demons just hate being demonized,” he explains.
(Chang authored the 2001 book “The Coming Collapse of China”, possibly the worst-timed publication in literary history, coming on the eve of China’s steepest rise into accelerated development and increased community pride.)
But Chang’s hostile angle permeates too much of the international coverage of Hong Kong and mainland China today.
I’ve lost count of the number of Hong Kong people who have looked at the ultra-hostile BBC coverage of Hong Kong and said to me: “What happened to the BBC?” (I usually reply: “Maybe Gordon C. Chang is now chief news editor” and they sadly nod, finding it totally believable.)
Journalists shape their stories to reinforce a narrative: picture by Jorge Maya/ UnsplashMaybe it’s not the journalists’ fault. Andrew Cline, a professor who studies this subject, once said: “Once a master narrative has been set, it is very difficult to get journalists to see that their narrative is simply one way, and not necessarily the correct or best way, of viewing people and events.”
Cline is right. We need to break free from that the narrow groupthink and let a little diversity into discussions.
People are thinking for themselves; picture by Jimmy Chan/ Pexels
What if. . . China wasn’t a giant gulag at all, but a low-crime society which is thriving at astonishing rates?
What if. . . Hong Kong’s security laws were demonstrably less draconian than those of the countries criticizing them?
What if. . . the hundreds of millions of dollars that America spends to try to impose its system of governance on Asia is actually money that would be better spent on other things?
What if. . . China was communist in name, but actually demonstrated a really interesting mixture of good bits of capitalism and socialism in practice?
I have discovered, to my delight, that the vast majority of ordinary people are completely open to such notions. But Western journalists less so. How can a tiny group of Hong Kong people battle global media behemoths?
Clearly we can’t. But I’m not sure we have to fight them. Journalists are not bad people. There are many good ones among us. I expect. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. Surely!
And those of us who live in China can gently, perhaps, encourage them to see the other side of the story, by sharing stories of Chinese culture, Chinese business and just personal stories of Chinese people being human.
…
In directly related news, the Friday project has been running for a couple of weeks and response has been fantastic. More than a million people tuned into our conference, and the vast majority of people who responded to our articles have been positive. Only a small portion made a response which can be summed up in four words: “Run! Get the Labels!”
To people who throw the label “pro-China” at us as if it was an accusation, I’ll simply give the same answer I gave my daughter.
Yes, we are pro-China. We are pro-humans, sweetheart. And the people of China are humans too, whatever Gordon C. Chang says.
* * *
Conclusion
Just five stories out of Hong Kong. While you might not be getting any daily news reports about this regions except for the “evil communists of China”, the tone of the articles and the over all attitude of their views of America, the UK and Australia should tell you volumes. Please keep this in mind was the next six months advance and “play out”.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Traffic on Interstate 95 is diverted in the area of an hours long standoff with a group of armed men that partially shut down the highway, Saturday, July 3, 2021, in Wakefield, Mass. Massachusetts state police say nine suspects have been taken into custody. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
It’s one day after the fourth of July, 2021.
I woke up this morning and scanned my news feeds. I often just look at the titles. Taking the time to read the content is useless, as most have zero content of worth.
And when I read the content, it was clear that they were avoiding the fact that these were all urban African-american militants who are traipsing in the Massachusetts countryside far from their homes. In fact, they were “practicing maneuvers” around white-dominated communities and villages.
I wonder why?
Why would they do that?
When interviewed and interrogated by the police, they claimed that they were “Moors”.
At least some of the suspects were clad in military-style gear with long guns and pistols, Mass State Police Col. Christopher Mason said. He added that they were headed to Maine from Rhode Island for “training.”
“You can imagine 11 armed individuals standing with long guns slung on an interstate highway at 2 in the morning certainly raises concerns and is not consistent with the firearms laws that we have in Massachusetts,” Mason said.
In a video posted to social media Saturday morning, a man who did not give his name, but said he was from a group called Rise of the Moors, broadcast from Interstate 95 in Wakefield near exit 57.
“We are not anti-government. We are not anti-police, we are not sovereign citizens, we’re not Black identity extremists,” said the man who appeared to be wearing military-style equipment. “As specified multiple times to the police that we are abiding by the peaceful journey laws of the United States.”
The website for the group says they are “Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.”
Police work on in the area of an hours long standoff with a group of armed men that partially shut down interstate 95, Saturday, July 3, 2021, in Wakefield, Mass. Massachusetts state police say nine suspects have been taken into custody. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
The interesting aspects about this entire event are what is not well reported…
These ethnic individuals are not from the region that they were found.
The region where they targeted was disarmed by very strict anti-gun and anti-weapon legislation, thus leaving most residents unable to defend themselves.
The “long arms” were (what would otherwise be reported as) “assault weapons”.
Everyone wore either camouflage clothing, military attire, or black colored garb.
Curious.
I wonder what this means…
…hum?
What were these people doing outside of the quiet rural community of Wakefield, Massachusetts?
Well,
We know that this is not a “new” event.
Coming to rural America.
Meanwhile, let’s see what some of the more learned people on the planet has to say about the current state of American politics and the changes going on in America. And this is a pretty good write up…
Silicon Valley has a monopoly of social capital now. Every call, every text message, and every email is theirs to use as they see fit. This allows them to derive information about the public and use it for financial and political advantage. Tucker Carlson worries about the NSA when he volunteers to carry around a tracking device that records his every movement for the benefit of the Silicon Valley oligarchs.
The great class struggle among white people has also stopped making sense. The old left-right conflict of the prior era manifested itself as a battle between the working and upper classes. The white middle class in America, for example, operated as a ballast and referee. Both sides of the political class courted them in elections, while making promises to their base in the other classes.
The great divide in this age is demographics. America is increasingly nonwhite and headed for majority-minority status. The politics reflected the old demographics, which was 80% white. Fretting over minority rights, for example, makes no sense in a world where everyone is a minority. It makes even less sense when a unique minority is the ruling elite and has total control of the institutions.
The ruling elite has evolved a colonial mentality in response to the crisis, but white people are increasingly embracing demographic reality. The uproar over critical race theory is an omen of what is to come. This intermediate conflict is between a ruling class that thinks it can keep feeding the alligator, hoping to be eaten last, and a public that has no desire to be erased from the book of life. Demographic reality is the new class struggle.
This July 4th, America finds itself in the middle of a great interregnum, a transition period between the old order and the new order. The reason the buildings that symbolize the political institutions of America remain behind layers of razor-wire fencing and armed guards is not a fear of insurrectionist soccer moms. Those barriers exist as a bulwark against the inevitable, protecting an ossified and obsolete political elite along with the political system that maintains them.
Predicting the future is always a mug’s game. Just as our frozen lefty would be stunned to see how history unfolded, we will be shocked to see what comes after this great interregnum. Therein lies the reason to celebrate. The current crisis environment is a transitory state. It cannot last and everything that cannot last eventually comes to an end, usually sooner than anyone expects.
Well everyone is trying to understand
The USA is in a mess, and everyone is trying to grasp aspects of it in handfuls that they can understand. All the time they failure to see the big picture. Things do not happen in isolation. An event here, or an event there, are aspects of a much larger plan. Whether intended or not.
Intellectuals try to intellectualize it. Patriots try to look at it from a revolutionary angle, and socialists try to analysis the functional vectors of group behaviors.
Hey!
Wake up folks. The dinner is almost ready. The bridge is wobbling and the cables are about to snap. The cattle are restless and the fence is about to go down.
An easily ignored aspect of the Tucker Carlson spying story is just how ham-fisted this caper was executed, regardless of the reason. Carlson is a relentless critic of the regime, but his audience is relative tiny. His average total audience is roughly 3 million people per night. Even if every night is a new crowd, that is an audience of 15 million in a country of 330 million people. He may be the biggest name in cable news, but the reality is, cable news is a low impact medium.
This was always the lesson of the Trump phenomenon. The entirety of the mass media, including the so-called conservatives, aligned against Trump but he was able to win the nomination and the general election. These are people who were sure they were the king makers in national politics. This TV carny comes along and walks right through their lines as if they were not there. Then he turned them into objects of ridicule and mockery by calling them childish names.
If the intelligence agencies were what they imagine themselves to be, they would see that Tucker is never going to be much of a problem. They could just ignore him, like most everyone does, or they could use him. Carlson is one of the few serious people on television, but he is still on TV. He wants ratings, so a shrewd intel operative could feed him some juicy tidbits that serve the interests of the regime. Instead, they are in a petty spat and making him the sympathetic victim.
These sorts of thumbless capers raise an important issue. Our managerial elite is rapidly getting dumber. This is plainly obvious in the military side. Sure, rural peasants armed with Russian surplus were able to defeat the US army in the 1960’s, but that theater negated the primary American advantage at the time. Armor and advanced transport are useless in a jungle. Air dominance is not terribly effective against guerilla tactics in urban and jungle conditions.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military could exploit every technological advantage against a poorly equipped and trained opponent. In Afghanistan, the US faced off against a Bronze Age opponent. After two decades the white flag has gone up and the Taliban will take over this autumn. In Iraq, a ragtag force of insurgents led by a cleric came close to defeating the US army. The final peace looked more like a concession by the US, as Iraq is now an Iranian client.
The gross incompetency of the military is not unique. The entire managerial class is suffering from a rapid decline in intelligence. The truth is the system evolved for an adult population of the last century. It reflected the demographics of the population as a whole, but also the demographics of the ruling class. Over the last couple of generations, the people taking up positions in the system are significantly dumber, reflecting the changing demographics of the country.
This IQ decline will only become more acute in the next decade. The great Baby Boomer retirement will hit the civil service harder than the dreaded private sector, because the civil service is much older. The average age of the private workforce is roughly 35, depending upon who is doing the measuring. Similarly, the average age of the government workforce is 50. The leadership class is even older. In other words, the people running the system are geezers, not long for the world.
This is most stark in politics. Joe Biden is so old he has been in office longer than most people have been alive. The leadership of both parties is close behind. Pelosi, Schumer, McCarthy, Hoyer and McConnel reflect the sensibilities and the mating decisions of the disappearing past. Their replacements, Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Tim Scott, and so on, reflect the rapidly approaching future. Repeat this throughout the civil service and you can see the problem. The kakistocracy is real.
This decline in IQ is evident in the current upheaval. The great Progressive awakening of the 1950’s and 1960’s was driven by idealism. They really thought they were going to create a better world. It was also driven by the big change in the ruling class. Jews had taken up positions in the post-war ruling elite. They were making their mark by leading many of the cultural revolutions, like civil rights. Self-interest played a role, but social justice has always been a part of the Jewish cultural outlook.
Today, the revolts we see look like a cargo cult. They are reenactors playing parts they heard about in school. They think if they can replay the events of the past, the past will come alive and the great do-over begins. They are led by a carnival of simpletons and lunatics who mostly like smashing things and making noise. Antifa and BLM are the short bus passengers in the story of street activism. None of what we are seeing makes any sense or has any point. It is just mayhem for the sake of it.
The institutions of a society are the tools of the people running the society, designed for their use over the course of time. The institutions of America were made for people a full standard deviation smarter than today’s rulers. Those tools were also created with certain cultural assumptions missing from the current class. The next generation of rulers are the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey compared to the men who created the tools used to run the empire.
It will not end well.
Conclusion
Obviously some “Moors” are emboldened to reconnoiter the defenselessness communities of wealthy Massachusetts, while the intellectual class are busy trying to intellectualize the turmoil inside of the United States fiasco.
Why?
What gave them the idea that they could do this?
What the FUCK is going on?
I can tell you all ONE THING. This kind of activity would NEVER be tolerated in China, and it would be taken cared of immediately and absolutely. The fact that the United States is unable to do anything… shows exactly what a huge, colossal, and absolute failure the nation it; the leadership is; and the system is. There is only one solution remaining…
Allow it to collapse.
Let the rot fester, then purge it completely.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The Russians are an interesting people. They are hardy, tough, rough-around-the-edges, and a hoot! to be around.
The Chinese consider them to be similar to Chinese, only a bit rough-and-tumble. You know, like your drunk crazy uncle, when he was caught having sex with the milk-maid inside the outhouse.
Russians are a tough hardy folk.
Here’s an interesting article that I pulled from a Russian resource.
On the internet is a lot of bullshit. many of State sponsored, and much of it just biases and opinions that you read and either agree to, or are repelled by.
What I want to do is throw this article out to the MM readership. And knowing that the likelihood of the article being false, or misleading is high, let’s consider instead the audience reactions to the article. Because this article is very, very anti-American.
Yet, this is a very popular article in both Russia and (apparently now) in China. Remember and keep in mind that Russia is a land of hardy and tough people. They do not tolerate weakness.
Russian women are a force to be reckoned with.
Perhaps we can learn something from the audience reactions to it.
Key points
Congress would never permit American government agencies outside of the State Department to collaborate with China in any way. This is codified into law. Not just one law, but a host of laws, and executive orders. So this article is just wishful thinking from our Russian friends.
Bilateralcooperation between NASA and Chinese organizations is currently restrictedbytheso-called Wolf Amendment, a provision first added to a NASAspendingbillin 2011 by then-U. S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) that requires NASA to seek congressional approval for any bilateral collaboration with Chineseentities.NASA’s China exclusion could mean missed opportunity for Mars InSight
Well, that being said, there is a chance.
So maybe, just maybe, there is some truth to this article.
Interested American scientists and State Department officials might want to be able to get up front and close to the Chinese to observe what they are doing first hand. What better way to do this then to participate jointly in scientific activities.
While collaboration with China is not entirely prohibited, NASA would need to notify Congress in advance and provide certification that there are no risks for a specific engagement. NASA and China were able to discuss the potential for the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to monitor the landing of China’s Chang’e-4on the lunar far side in early 2019. The two sides also occasionally meet for the U.S.-China Civil Space Dialogue. A third and most recent such meeting washeld in Beijing in 2017 while a fourth was delayed partly by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is involved in Tianwen-1 science payloads and spacecraft integration, had not responded by press time to a request for comment on the possibility of coordination or release of information.
The effective ban of bilateral activities applies only to NASA, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Space Council. Scientists at other U.S. institutions can, for example, request access to China’s newly acquired lunar samples by following procedures announced in January by the China National Space Administration, a month after Chang’e-5 delivered the goods to Earth. There is no platform yet for sharing Tianwen-1 mission data, but conversations between Chinese and non-NASA scientists could take place, though passing along sensitive information relating to missions may not be straightforward.
NASA’s China exclusion could mean missed opportunity for Mars InSight
Do these Russians look like they are open to new trans-gender policies?
Found here, and all credit to the author, and the same usual disclaimers. Translated from Russian. If you can read Cyrillicscriptyou might be best served to read the article in it’s original form.
If it is true…
.
The Chinese didn’t let the Yankees into their space station? Not a fact. But-the truth
The Chinese have declared Americans undesirable elements on board their orbiting space station. But this news is too … juicy to give her complete confidence. What’s the real deal?
Now, if only you could also read it, so to speak, in the original source…
Unfortunately, my mother did not say to me as a child: “Learn Chinese, my son.” And that’s why I can’t check out the great news that ran all over the Internet today.
But the news is worth posting without checking it.
A hieroglyphic print on a yankee’s ass
Here’s the news. An American application to participate in scientific work on board the new Chinese Tiangong space station was rejected by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA).
The core module.
A special flavor of this information is given by the addition that
"invitations to scientific cooperation on the Chinese orbital station were received by 17 countries, including Russia," and "an official request from the United States was refused due to non-compliance with standards in terms of scientific value and technology."
If there is not enough color, then the kind authors of the message added more:
"[Russia] has been granted the right to occupy a separate compartment or attach its own module to the Chinese station."
Cool, classic work!
If everything is not so in life, then it is still the same in the current information war as launching an Iskander missile at an enemy military airfield. You can still see the classic caricature of a Yankee, wiry as a crane, falling screaming out of the open hatch of the Tiangong station. And on the most elongated part of his uniform trousers of olive color – a print of the sole with the inscription开开开.
Why do you doubt that the news is consistent with the facts? First of all, it’s too pretty to be true. The truth is usually angular and unfriendly, like a subway passenger at 6 am. So you always have to fight for it. And here it appears in this form, even if you cancel the war – you will not force anyone to go to a military trick.
The Chinese Space Station.
Secondly, the Chinese resource Baijiahao published this information. And this is not some traditional media with traditional ideas about the limits of what is allowed in the handling of information, but just a free Internet platform. Something like the Chinese Yandex.Zen. Because we know that our Yandex.Zen is charming for its variety of topics and their freedom, but at the same time for the freedom of their interpretation by the authors, and in the Chinese version it would be worth going deeper into the links.
But my mother sent me to a German school…
No confirmations…
Life is usually more cruel than our mothers, so at her behest, the minted perfection of German had to be supplemented with the sour porridge of English. And the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) just have a website in English.
But even here, an ambush was waiting: the last message mentioning the American aerospace agency NASA was dated there on November 14, 2014. And it said only that Director Wang Zhaoyao had a conversation with NASA Chief Charles Bolden.
A search for the word USA gave generally mocking results: the second space power of the planet was last mentioned in 2011, and the latest news, where these three letters would stand, fell on January 2020. And then there it was said about the thousand-year dream of the Chinese people about flying into space – thousand-year, etc.
The US agency NASA also did not post anything fresh about its Chinese colleagues on its website. Well, they’re shy, maybe…
I went through the websites of news agencies around the world. The most reliable – TASS-about the described demarche of the Chinese was silent. RIA Novosti published the news that China plans to launch a probe in 2030 to collect samples from Mars. That’s all.
Omniscient English Reuters as top news issues a howl that
Russian forces reportedly fire warning shots at British destroyer in Black Sea.
Well, of course: a peaceful British destroyer (aka fighter, aka, politely, destroyer) entered Russian waters in the Black Sea, and then it was preemptively fired at by evil Russians from a warship, and the plane dropped four high-explosive fragmentation bombs as a warning on the path of the British Royal Navy destroyer. And what right did they have? – after all, the West still insists that the Crimean Peninsula is Ukrainian territory.
The Americans are also silent about their fiasco with the Chinese, as if it’s not written on their trousers in fiery letters: 离开开.
The Chinese really don’t need Americans
So what? Let’s assume that nothing happened? Someone posted unverified information, or even joked at all, threw a fake on the Network-and the province went to write! Our province. Because it’s nice?
It’s not that simple.
The Chinese really don’t expect Americans as partners in space exploration. First, because the Yankees are too much for them, and the Han Chinese can’t give them anything more than what Russia has already given them. Secondly, because the Americans still do not know how to build space stations, and the entire ISS, including the American segment, is still a cast of Russian modules. The ISS, we recall, began with the Russian module, which was bought by the Americans and called its own.
The competencies of manned cosmonautics are much more complex than the technologies of automatic cosmonautics. And if in the latter the Americans still have no equal (although the same Chinese are catching up with them at a gallop), then in the first only three countries were able to achieve something on their own equipment-Russia (in the incarnation of the USSR and in the current one), the United States (orbital ships) and China. Which builds its space technology on the platform of Russian space technology. Sometimes on a platform so close that tears of emotion drop by themselves.
The Chinese Space Station.
And third, the Chinese don’t need the Americans in space because China (thank Confucius) has enough money for its own space programs.
And they don’t need to” give ” the Yankees their modules and their technologies, their medical developments and even bathrooms to finance their projects and their research.
They don’t even need to take Americans to the ISS to use this two-kopeck cab to pay for a place on the station for their cosmonaut.
So the Chinese can afford to leave the тав开开 brand on the American ass. But the Russian letters WENT OVER there do not have to wait…
A typical Russian party.
Some thoughts
The worst kind of propaganda, or the worst kind of echo chamber, are those that reference what we want to believe. Certainly America is hated all over the world, and if you thought that the nation was despised after eight years under the Bush Military Campaigns, you haven’t seen anything yet. Obama started to change that perception, and then Trump drove the perception right into the ground.
Pretty much, the rest of the world considers the United States to be a “laughing stock”.
So, I don’t want anyone reading this to believe it. I don’t. I think that it is a “wet dream” by some folk in Russia.
The Russians have ZERO respect for Americans, and most certainly what American culture is. Maybe I’ll go as far to say that they consider it to be evil. And you can see this disrespect in their responses to news articles. Much like this one.
Yet, both China and Russia have similar cultures.
Both China and Russia have a “bride price” if you want to marry a girl. Bride price, also known as bride wealth, bride token, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom. This tradition is followed by many cultures.
This is a very interesting subject.
Though I must admit that “Bride Price” varies from region to region in China. In Wenzhou, where I met my wife, the bride price was to buy a house for her parents. Most others throw in a high-end luxury automobile, and a full set of furniture as well. But since I am a foreigner, they pretty much accepted the fact that I was an outsider that did not understand the rules. (Phew!)
There are regions, such as Guangzhou that has no bride price at all. Lucky them. But there are also other tradeoffs that you have to contend with.
Russian “Bride Prices” are much more reasonable. As this lady here suggests…
Gilyana Bugurova, 23 years old. Presently a student of the Academy of Law, Ketchenery village, Kalmykia. She comes from a rural village, and a modest family.Bride wealth: six boxes of vodka, one box of cognac, two pieces of chintz, a set of headscarves, a box of sweets, a box of cookies, a box of sweet pastry, a boiled sheep, a living sheep with a ribbon.
Comparisons
Both Russia and China are very similar to each other. America and the West seem to be the outliers.
Just by looking at the most basic and crude comparison above, you can see the Resentment and disgust that the Russians must have for the new progressive America. China, on the other hand, is like the little boy (or girl) who discovers that the Easter Bunny was a made up fantasy.
Russia is a tough land. A cold land. A rugged land, and the people show it.
Russians having fun.
China is a land full of hard working folk that study hard. They, work hard, play hard and strive, and strive to become better and better.
The Chinese work insanely hard, but when it is all done and finished, they party like it’s 1999!
America is a land, that has grown fat and dumb. The leaders have become so isolated from the “rabble” that they no longer resemble humans, but have become something else entirely.
America is an affluent nation. Most Americans do not need to work. So they can pursue what ever lifestyle they desire.
And so the Russians tend to make fun of Americans.
But back to the Space Station…
Even if the American government gave the “A-Ok” to work with the Chinese Space Exploration Agencies, it’s unlikely that China would consider it. They consider America to be a very bad, spoiled child, very unreliable, dangerous, and simply not within the core desires, or needs for the Chinese people.
Keep in mind what I stated earlier…
Congress would never permit American government agencies outside of the State Department to collaborate with China in any way. This is codified into law. Not just one law, but a host of laws, and executive orders. So this article is just wishful thinking from our Russian friends.
I love space, and space exploration, and all sorts of things related to extraterrestrials and so on and so forth. But the entire United States today is just a massive, colossal fuck-up that’s it’s really not worth bothering commenting on.
Consider this…
NASA shifts goal from space exploration to space diversity
NASA has been a driving force of scientific innovation and advancement ever since its creation in the 1950s.
After more than six decades of space exploration, you’d think NASA would be an organization free of petty politics and idiotic logic.
As an agency dedicated to the future, for example, one might imagine that NASA’s top priority would be hiring the brightest, most talented people they can find, irrespective of irrelevant characteristics like skin color, gender, or sexual orientation.
Sadly this is not the case.
Science is once again taking a back seat with the agency’s “Artemis Project,” whose goal is “to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.”
Again, it seems like NASA wouldn’t notice or care what’s swinging (or not swinging) between someone’s legs.
If the entire crew of the next voyage happens to consist exclusively of people who identify as seedless watermelons, because those are the most qualified individuals for the mission, then it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t even make the news.
But instead they’re going to spend $86 billion of taxpayer money to show the world how woke they are.
Click here to read the full story.
And somehow, I am supposed to believe that America is serious about space, technology and space exploration?
Now, couple that with the on-going “any day now the American government is going to release the truth about UFO’s”. Oh, brother!
Well…
The narrative began, and then got hijacked by the neocon military-industrial mafia and got twisted to “the Chinese have advanced military technology! We need billions of dollars to catch up!”.
Well, let’s just kind of sit back and turn off the “news”. Both from the USA, and from Russia.
America is Bat-Shit Crazy!
I am absolutely convinced that the United States today is bat-shit crazy and I really don’t need any further confirmation of it. They are, and while there are many, many, MANY good and decent folk in the United States, the entire system si so broken and such a mess that it’s just a useless pursuit trying to sort it all out. It’s like trying to clean an apartment occupied by a slob.
Notice the lack of ashtrays, the amazing dependence on soda pop, and the poor computer monitor discipline.
Messy Apartment 3
Yuuuuck! This bathroom is horrid.
But at least they have a cat.
But the poor thing doesn’t have a place to go when it needs to take a litter-box break. Ugh!
Living room.
A tenant in a north Houston apartment complex has an overdue payment for more than a month.
No one can get in touch with her.
Eventually the bookkeeper goes inside to leave a note. And finds . . .
Mistreatment of the computer.
The photographer wrote:
We cannot get ahold of her, there is still 20% of the residents out from the hurricane. My manager is FREAKING out.
The pictures don’t show the amount of FLEAS inside I’m STILL scratching
Terrible keyboard discipline.
The tenant’s two cats have been found, safe with a neighbor.
Living room sofa. Why no ashtrays?
Is it just a horrible mess?
Or something . . . more?
Lou Minatti decides:
I am so proud that a Houstonian has created such a masterpiece! The way the cigarette butts are arranged… it’s almost like performance art.
Hey! Well at least the gal used one of my products. Yup! MM designed that clothes iron. Right there on the ironing board. Designed in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and manufactured in the tiny Town of Coushatta – Louisiana.
Anyways…
You get the idea.
In my mind, I think that this person who lives in this apartment, or who did. I would imagine that they were evicted, were representative of the kinds of people (citizens) that the United States government nurtures.
And thus…
…they are the true and real face of the United States today.
And boy, oh, boy. In my mind this snapshot of a Houston, Texas apartment is what the United States government has honestly become. I just wish that Americans can see what I see, and what the rest of the world sees. I almost wish that there was a set of eyeglasses that you could put on and where you could see the American oligarchy for what it actually is.
They Live.
And while they might appear on the surface to resemble polished, handsome and attractive people, with sensible demeanor, polite mannerisms, and a calm wisdom, they are truthfully, anything but that.
They are not what they appear to be.
The real leadership behind the smiles and masks; they are humans who have evolved into something else. And their actual appearance is recognizable to anyone WHO IS NOT READING THE AMERICAN MEDIA.
I need a drink.
Do you want proof?
This just came on my desk.
Congressman: Can we alter the moon’s orbit for climate change?
In a recent webcam Congressional hearing, Texas Rep Louie Gohmert asked an associate deputy chief of the Forest Service if her agency could alter the moon’s orbit to address climate change.
Gohmert said:
"I was informed by the immediate past director of NASA that they've found that the moon's orbit is changing slightly and so is the Earth's orbit around the sun... [I]s there anything that the National Forest Service or [Bureau of Land Management] can do to change the course of the moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the sun?"
She smiled and politely said, “I would have to follow up with you on that one Mr. Gohmert.”
She was holding back laughter, but Gohmert was dead serious. He responded, “Well, if you figure out a way that you in the Forest Service could make that change, I'd like to know.”
Click here to see the video.
Like I said.
“Bat-shit crazy”.
Here he is.
Texas Rep Louie Gohmert.
Conclusion
The future of the world will not be determined by America, the West, or the G7 nations. They are “has beens”, and are incapable of reason. It will be determined by Asia.
The only way that American can alter this vector is to engage in a full-scale nuclear war against Asia, and perhaps that’s exactly what they are trying to do. But it will not succeed.
So do not worry about it.
The future is becoming more and more clear with each passing day. Continue to protect your personal life. Make sure that you run your affirmation prayers, and make sure that they protect you and your loved ones from any strange behaviors on the part of the out of control American empire.
There’s a future ahead. By being aware of what’s going on the the rest of the world we can determine what our part in that world will be.
Keep focused.
Be the Rufus.
Our relationships with others will make our affirmations manifest. Nurture them. Protect them. become a meaningful person in your small group of friends and family.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
One of the things that I have been musing about lately is blueberry muffins. You see, muffins just aren’t all that common in China, and when you find them, they are really over priced and part of a dessert menu that is part of a Starbucks franchise, or similar venue. I miss them. I miss the hot piping interior, the explosion of blueberry flavor when you bit into them, and that nice pad of salted butter that melts on the top of them.
They used to be quite common in diners. Almost as common as pies.
Blueberry muffins in automats
But my best memories about muffins come from those automats that my family used to frequent when I was a boy. (Of course in those world-lines automats were much more common than what you find here. Apparently, on this world-line path, automats died out in the 1940’s.) Anyways, my father would give me a quarter and I would get up from the table and go to the little window with a muffin in it. I’d plop the quarter in the slot, and the door would spring open, and out I would take the muffin on the heavy white ceramic plate.
My memories of this are all very clear. And I well remember us eating as a family at the tables. Of course my father would be having a coffee and reading a newspaper. My mother was always fussing over us kids, and generally attending to my younger brother and sisters. I, being the oldest, was supposed to be more mature and more responsible.
Meh.
Blueberry muffins in Salem, Massachusetts
And while those memories are true treasures for me, they are a little dated in that my best muffin experience that I ever had did not occur in an automat. It occurred in a wharf coffee house in Salem, Massachusetts. It was a dark and stormy night and I was riding my motorcycle with a girl, and we pulled into the complex. It was the late 1970’s, and I was still in university.
The world outside was but sheets of rain, dull blues and greys, a howling wind and drops of rain that stung when they hit you.
But through the windows of the coffee house was inviting warmth, a pleasant and cozy atmosphere, and a calming shelter against the storm. When the waitress brought out the blueberry muffin, it was fresh, hot and toasty, and had two pads of butter on the plate that I dutifully added on top. You could see the whiffs of steam rising up off the muffin, and they formed strings next to the the hot steamy fragrant coffee that sat besides it.
A blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee.
Personally, I don’t think that many people appreciate blueberry muffins. It’s sort of the “bad boy” of the muffin family, and is great overshadowed by it’s more popular cousins; the chocolate and the cranberry muffins.
But the point behind this is the little coffee house was a unique moment, a unique place, in a unique time, while a raging storm crashed and banged outside. And while we, my girlfriend and myself, were grateful for the shelter from the storm, the workers were oblivious to it. They had spent all day inside. Sure they knew that there was a storm outside, but they were detached from it. It was remote from their direct and personal experience. They knew about it, but they didn’t appreciate the environment like we outsiders did.
It was almost like they were in their own little protective bubble; a safe world, where they could live, work and exist free of the tumult outside.
Like a hot house.
Hot Houses
A hot house is a conservatory where flowers and plants are grown under controlled conditions. The plants live their entire lives inside that environment. They are comfortable there and there is no reason to be concerned about what happens outside of the walls of the conservatory.
I once visited the oldest conservatory in Connecticut, and it was awesome. It was over 200 years old and had many common plants that we consider to be weeds and plants of no consequence in it. But those “weeds” once they turn 200 years old become these amazing tangled plants with thick and interesting trunks, cool branches, and amazing clusters of leaves.
It was awesome. Absolutely awesome.
There’s a conservatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is enormous and beautiful as well. But it isn’t nearly as old. And so while it is a pleasure to go from room to room and experience the different kinds of plants and flowers, it’s really the very ancient hot houses that are amazing. It’s really something else to see what happens when plants live within these stable and sheltered environments for really long periods of time.
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens …
What I remember the most about my trip to the conservatory in Connecticut, was not simply the cool plants, and the nooks and crannies filled with the most curious of antiquated Bric-a-brac. But it was the very cool diner that we visited on the trip back home.
A very cool diner
Long time MM readers will appreciate my love of diners and local regional stories.
I will never forget that diner. Though I have forgotten it’s name, and location. They had a “blue plate special”. And you know, I am always one for a good “blue plate special”. You know, is it just me, or I’ve never had a “blue plate special” on a blue plate. It’s one of those head scratchers.
Anyways, I had a “blue plate special”. It was a hot pastrami sandwich with cheese, fully “dressed” with a side of coleslaw and a side of “longhorn” fires covered (smothered) in beef gravy. Now, I don’t know why they called the fries “longhorn fries. Basically, they were huge thick french fries. Perhaps three times the width of a regular french fry. Oh, with a iced tea or Coke.
And I, of course enjoyed every morsel of it.
It looked a little bit like this…
A thickly piled sandwich of meat (whether beef or pastrami) with fries all slathered in gravy.
I do believe that one of the lest appreciated characteristics of America is it’s diners. A diner is the lunch counter for the American work force. And in the days when American worked in factories, often they would get a “home cooked” (style) of meal at a diner. This was always preferable to the latest in fast food fare.
Diners are great.
A typical diner interior.
And while I was a munching on my meal, I contemplated the conservatory; the “hot house” that I had just visited. For the plants were unlike anything outside. These plants were not only gorgeous, but huge.
Without the need to deal with weather changes, the encroachment of man, pesticides, and strip mining, they were able to thrive and grow in ways that was impossible in the real, actual environment.
Echo Chambers
We often talk about people being in an “echo chamber”. That is that they surround themselves with like-minded people who echo each other’s points of view. And then, over time, without getting any new ideas, their points of view become stale and more outlandish over time. To a person outside that “echo chamber” they seem crazy, odd, distorted, and mentally deranged.
Indiscussions of news media, an echo chamber refers to situations in which beliefs are amplified or reinforced by communication and repetition inside a closed system and insulated from rebuttal.
By participating in an echo chamber, people are able to seek out information that reinforces their existing views without encountering opposing views, potentially resulting in an unintended exercise in confirmation bias.
Echo chambers may increase social and political polarization and extremism.
The term is a metaphor based on an acoustic echo chamber, in which sounds reverberate in a hollow enclosure.
Another emerging term for this echoing and homogenizing effect within social media communities on the Internet is cultural tribalism.
Many scholars note the effects that echo chambers can have on citizens' stances and viewpoints, and specifically implications has for politics.
-Echo Chamber Wikipedia
I would imagine that were the plants to chat with each other inside the “Hot House”, that they would be unaware that they were within an “echo chamber”. And as long as the walls of the conservatory were solid and maintained, they were safe, secure, and could live their lives and prosper. They would grow to become huge, beautiful and magnificent.
The following is a reasonably decent article.
Of course all credit to the author, note that it was reprinted as found, but with slight editing to fit this venue.
While you are reading it, maybe you might want to fix yourself a “Dagwood sandwich” and munch while absorbing the content.
The sales pitch for the American political system is that it is a robust debate between two distinct political parties. The Republicans and Democrats are coalitions of interests opposed to one another. The groups that make up each party are held together by a shared ideological outlook. The Republicans are the conservative party, and the Democrats are the liberal party. The political process adjudicates the disputes between the parties over public policy and the result is a compromise.
In reality, America is a one party system.
It has been since Gettysburg.
The differences between the two parties are miniscule. This is why public policy never changes when the party in charge changes.
The mild reforms of the Reagan years were followed by a consensus that remains in place to this day. There is some tinkering around the edges to keep up appearances, but otherwise the results of each election have no impact on public policy or the priorities of government.
As for those two ideologies, they are just two faces of a single ruling class ideology that is something like a religion now.
There is left-liberalism and there is right-liberalism held together by a common moral framework.
Like the old Bolsheviks, the left side of the American ideology is maximalist and radical. It wants to usher in the promises of the revolution right now.
The right side is more cautious, preferring an evolutionary approach to ushering in the promised utopia.
Unlike the old communists, the American ideology has always existed in a popular political system, so it is built to sell itself to the public.
The main role of the right-liberals is to protect the left-liberals from themselves. They function as barrier between the tenets of the one true faith and any questioning of the faith. The left side is the heart of the beast, driving the agenda and pushing society along from one fad to the next, always chasing the avatar of egalitarian paradise.
This arrangement has worked amazingly well.
Perhaps too well.
It has been over a century since there has been a threat to the system. Anarchists and communists at the start of the last century started to get some traction, but they were never really a threat to the basic arrangements. Otherwise, it has been smooth sailing for the uniparty system for generations.
The left-liberals are free to dream up new social innovations without being disturbed and the right stands quietly at guard.
The trouble is the party is looking like a freak show inside a hot house.
For example, the Air Force now has drag shows to boost morale. To normal people, this is completely nuts (pun intended), but to the people in charge it is perfectly normal. In fact, they think it is bizarre that anyone would question it. They are not entirely wrong, as the people who arranged it will never be pressed on it. The politicians all agree that drag queens are who we are now, and the press echoes the sentiment.
Where the ruling orthodoxy finds itself is in a place where there is never a need to explain themselves and defend their positions.
The right-liberals never challenge the left-liberals on orthodoxy.
Both sides just put on shows where they pretend to disagree, but then kick back together after the show to laugh about it. The right-liberals have insulated themselves from defending their position. They tell themselves that they are simply too good to discuss these things with their critics.
The folks at the Daily Wire are supposed to be the smart kids of conservatism, but they spend their days making sure the hothouse is airtight.
Ben Shapiro’s one venture outside the tightly controlled environment of his life ended in disaster. Ever since that public relations debacle his people have made sure that no one can utter a discouraging word in his presence. In fact, that whole scene has become a closed shop, never interacting with anyone outside their hive.
It is not just the pundits who have become hot house flowers.
Look at what happens to the military leaders when they go before Congress. This guy went before Congress and told one whopper after another. To outsiders, he looks like a complete fool, but inside that room he is just par for the course. Anyone reading this could have wrecked him with a few simple questions, but no one in the room has the intelligence or the temperament to question anything.
This is the motivation behind the mass censorship and de-platforming.
The people inside the political system are incapable of defending or even discussing their positions and they live in fear of having to do it. It is not so much that the critics have great arguments or have superior debating skills. That is a silly conceit. It is simply that the people outside the system, the dissidents, are comfortable defending their positions and discussing them in public. They can take a punch.
This underlying sense of weakness is probably what lies behind the persecution of the January protestors. January 6th, from the perspective of the ruling class, was an emperor has no clothes moment. The torture and torment of the protestors is as much about reassuring themselves that they are tough and in charge as it is about sending a message to the Dirt People. The ruling class revealed themselves to be cowards and now they are lashing out in a fit of petty spite.
All ruling elites have an abundance of sissies and ridiculous people.
They are the entertainment and decoration for the serious men who run things. Those serious men are made serious by regular contact with reality. Remove that contact and those serious men become as silly and ridiculous as their retainers.
That is where the empire finds itself now, ruled by fops and popinjays living in a hothouse. They live in fear of someone opening the door and letting in reality.
Conclusion
And it was well stated.
The American Empire is being ruled by people who have been in the “hot house” for way too long. They have grown large, powerful, and (even) beautiful in a way. We look at them in amazement. We watch their brazen actions, and their odd statements like we would a monkey in a zoo. Curious. Mischievous. Maybe even a little dangerous.
But not one of us.
They, like their ilk in Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, in the Soviet Union, in the Palace of Versailles, the leadership behind their tall walls are slowly losing their collective minds. They are no longer part of society. And some may even question if they are part of the human race.
Such as MM here.
All empires fall, but the rot crumbles from within the top tiers of the leadership.
We are watching this today, in real time. And it’s slow. Really slow. Like a sloooow motion train wreck.
We need not worry too much about their madness, that is unless they start making crazed laws, rules, pronouncements or engage in wars that can affect you. Because that is the great concern.
Truthfully, most Americans realize that everything in America today is a farce. Elections are a farce. Political parties are a farce. American “greatness” is a farce, and “freedom, liberty, and justice for all” is a sad, sad farce.
That instead, America is a out-of-control military empire, and the the much touted “democracy” model is a complete and abject failure.
But you know, that shouldn’t, and needn’t be your concern.
What should be your concern is how you, and your community will be able to weather out their madness.
And yes. It is frustrating, angering, and frightening.
But it is beyond your control. You can either leave the United States of Insanity, or you an stay. Both choices have their good and bad points. I left. But my situation was intolerable and I manufactured a ratty-old tattered “parachute”. No “golden parachute” for MM.
You make the best with what you have.
You make the best with what you have available.
So, guys and gals, enjoy the ride.
It will eventually settle out and over. One way or the other.
In the meantime, make sure that [1] your larder is well stocked, and that [2] you are surrounded by a community that appreciates and likes you. [3] Perform your prayer affirmations. This is the MOST important thing that you can do. By FAR.
Make sure that you are [4] healthy; mentally, emotionally, socially, physically, and in every other way possible. These times are taking it’s toll. Focus on your well being.
Lay out a “spread”. Invite some friends. If you have no friends, then invite some strangers. Just start.
With the basics taken cared for, then enjoy some time in quiet relaxation. That means companionship (whether it is the opposite sex, friends, family or pets) and enjoy some food.
Everyone loves food.
Well, almost everyone. I once met a fellow in a mental institution that hated food. But then again, he hated everything.
This is June moving towards July.
That could very well mean watermelon, corn on the cob, hotdogs, hamburgers, and all manner of fruits and vegetables.
All that calls for a major smunch!
A delicious Cuban sandwich.
Have a beer.
Call a friend.
Share a beer with a friend.
Make up a spread of cold cuts, vegetables, some potato salad, chips, and plan on some chatting. Even if you have nothing to talk about. Come up with an excuse. Have fun.
You make the best with what you have available.
You are never too old for fun.
Make up a sandwich, Or two. Or heck, a whole bunch of them. Put some beer in a chest full of ice. Or, make up some sangria. Or heck! Just have a bar and everyone can make their own cocktails.
Don’t let life pass your by simply because your government is run by idiots.
Make a sandwich. You make the best with what you have available.
Make it fun.
Maybe use some sweet grandmother pickles. Or, use turkey, ham, pickle loaf, and all sorts of deli cheeses on your “spread”. Allow everyone to experiment.
Like this…
Sorry about the “activate windows 10” overlay in the lower right corner. Windows crowbar opened up and updated without permission and now demands that I activate it by providing my personal information on their servers. Not going to happen. So I will need to endure this overlaid message until HarmonyOS is available.
Ah.
Life is too short not to eat good food. Drink good beverages. Spend good time with friends. Whether they are family, animals, associates, or members of the opposite sex.
Just have a good time.
Maybe take a trip to explore a museum, a state park, a pool, a historical society, a small town restaurant, an animal shelter, a fishing hole, or a walk on a trail. Dust off your old bicycle sitting in the garage and give it a spin.
Do something fun.
Ignore the madness in the hothouse.
You make the best with what you have available.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Lately, there has been all this talk and speculation about how the USA is going to “counter” China. All made with the best of intentions by nationalists with little experience, poor or fraudulent Intel, and a lack of awareness at how incompetent the United States actually is today. Yet they own the MSM; the media mouthpiece and everyone desires to go ahead and pick a fight for “freedom™” and “democracy™”.
I have argued over and over and over again that America is very, very fragile. It is more than balkanized, it is tottering on the edge of chaos. And all it would take to send it over the side is China or Russia doing what the US Military is vocally planning to do.
One strike on a city.
It doesn’t even need to be a nuclear strike.
This strike completely collapse “the house of cards”, and all the people in the city will be forced to deal with a very bad situation. Will they come together? Will they work together? Will they [1] obey the advisement’s on the Emergency Broadcast System? Or will they [2] all go their own way, do their own thing, and take advantage of the situation for their own personal benefit?
The answer should be obvious to all Americans.
But somehow, and it’s unfathomable to me, that Americans separate a “war with China over Taiwan”, from “America urban enclaves erupting in an orgy of hate, rapes and killings”.
Because both will happen simultaneously.
China and Russia will make sure that it occurs.
Fifteen years ago we were able to watch what happens when a local disaster hits a city. And it isn’t pretty. I argue that this will become commonplace throughout the United States once the tipping point has been reached.
Are you ready?
The following is titled “Africa in our midst“. It reports on what happened in an American city New Orleans when a natural disaster struck. It is absolutely horrifying. All credit to the MM influencer that turned me on to it. Reprinted as found, all credit to the author, edited to fit this venue.
Africa in our Midst
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which blasted the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005 the entire world saw images that left no doubt that what is repeatedly called the sole remaining superpower can be reduced to squalor and chaos nearly as gruesome as anything found in the Third World. The weather — a Category 4 hurricane — certainly had something to do with it, but the most serious damage was done not by nature but by man.
Much has been and will be written about why the levees that are supposed to keep the water out of below-sea-level New Orleans failed. There will be bitter recrimination about whether the federal rescue effort could have been launched sooner. Commissions will ask questions and lessons will be learned. But there was another human failing that was far more ominous. No commission will study it, and official America will refuse to learn from it. In the orgy of finger-pointing it will be all but forgotten. That human failing — vastly more significant than the ones the commissions will investigate — is the barbaric behavior of the people of New Orleans.
New Orleans is 67 percent black, and about half the blacks are poor. Of the city’s 480,000 people, all but an estimated 80 to 100 thousand left before the hurricane struck. This meant that aside from patients in hospitals and eccentrics in the French Quarter, most of the people who stayed behind were not just blacks, but lower-class blacks without the means or foresight to leave.
Katrina hit on the morning of Monday, Aug. 29. The levees broke on Tuesday and the city began to flood. Before long, 80 percent of New Orleans was under as much as 20 feet of water.
The city’s 70,000-seat football stadium, known as the Superdome, had been officially designated as a public shelter before the hurricane, and several thousand people were already there the night before the storm. It had some food and medical supplies, but when the waters began to rise, people poured in from all directions, swelling its numbers to an estimated 25,000.
People came because their houses were under water, but also because New Orleans very quickly collapsed into banditry. Looting began even while the storm was still blowing. At first there was sympathetic clucking about the need for food and medicine, but news clips of blacks wading happily through waist-deep water with television sets over their heads dispelled that view.
The day after the hurricane, a reporter caught the atmosphere of high-spirited chaos at a Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. People were grabbing things as quickly as they could, smashing open jewelry cabinets and scooping up double-handfuls. One man packed his van so full of electronic equipment he could not close the rear doors. A teenage girl passed out, face down, and people stepped on her. A man stopped to roll her onto her back, and she vomited pink liquid. “This is f***ed up,” he said, and rolled her back on her stomach. An NBC correspondent filmed black, uniformed police officers strolling through the aisles, filling shopping carts.
At one store, a policeman broke the glass on the DVD case so civilians would not cut themselves trying to break it, but one man was ungrateful. “The police got all the best stuff,” he said. “They’re crookeder than us.” One woman stocking up on makeup was glad to see the officers. “It must be legal,” she said. “The police are here taking stuff, too.”
Violence of all kinds quickly spread through the paralyzed city, where robbery, rape, and even murder became routine. There were still thousands of people trapped on rooftops and in attics, but on Sept. 1, Mayor Ray Nagin called the entire police force off of rescue work and ordered it to secure the city. The response from the force? An estimated 200 officers just walked off the job. “They indicated that they had lost everything and didn’t feel that it was worth them going back to take fire from looters and losing their lives,” explained Henry Whitehorn, chief of the Louisiana State Police. Many disappeared without a word. Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans also said his men were deserting. “They want to be with their families,” he said. “Well, I want to be with my family too, but you don’t quit in the middle of a crisis.”
Two police officers, including the department’s official spokesman Paul Accardo, committed suicide by shooting themselves in the head. The London Times estimated that one in five officers refused to work, and some of those who stayed on the job were useless. When Debbie Durso, a tourist from Washington, Michigan, asked a policeman for help he told her, “Go to hell — it’s every man for himself.”
Ged Scott, 36, of Liverpool, told BBC News what happened when a group of stranded British women shouted to police for help from the rooftop of a flooded hotel: “They [the officers] said to them, ‘Well, show us what you’ve got’ — doing signs for them to lift their T-shirts up. The girls said no, and they said ‘well fine,’ and motored off down the road in their motorboat. That’s the sort of help we had from the authorities.”
“No one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans,” explained Lieutenant General Steven Blum of the National Guard. He said the city was operating on only one third of its pre-storm strength of 1,500 officers, and that the guard suddenly had to switch from rescue to law enforcement: “And that’s when we started flowing military police into the theater.”
New Orleans has had only black mayors since 1978, and has spent decades making the police force as black as possible. It established a city-residency requirement for officers to keep suburban whites from applying for jobs, and lowered recruitment standards so blacks could pass them. Katrina blew away any pretence that the force was competent.
(On September 5, exactly a week after the hurricane, Mayor Ray Nagin offered to pay for the entire police force, firefighters, and city emergency workers to go on five-day vacations — with their families — to Las Vegas or some other destination. He said there were enough National Guard in the city to maintain order, and that his men “have been through a lot.” He brushed off suggestions that this was dereliction of duty. He even asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to pay for the vacations, but FEMA refused. “We haven’t turned over control of the city,” a city spokesman explained. “We’re going to leave a skeleton force — about 20 percent of the department — for leadership and liaison with the troops while we get some rest.”)
New Orleans has a high crime rate at the best of times — it is usually in top contention for the American city with the highest murder rate — and looted firearms spilled into the street. Some blacks fired on any symbol of authority, blazing away at rescue helicopters and Coast Guard vessels. Several days after the hurricane, with desperate people still huddled on rooftops, FEMA said it was too dangerous to attempt rescues.
On Wednesday, along one stretch of Highway 10, hundreds of volunteer firefighters, auxiliary coastguardmsmen and citizens with small boats were eager to reach people, but could not set out because of sniper fire. “We are trying to do our job here but we can’t if they are shooting at us,” explained Major Joey Broussard of the Louisiana State Fisheries and Wildlife Division. “We don’t know who and we don’t know why, but we don’t want to get in a situation of having to return fire out there,” he said.
Perhaps the most chilling accounts were from hospitals, where staff desperately tried to move patients up stairs as the water rose, while blacks looted the floors below. Most hospitals had emergency generators, but these began to give out. Two days after the hurricane, the city had no running water, and as food ran out, doctors and nurses gave themselves intravenous feedings to keep going.
Just outside New Orleans, gunmen held up a supply truck carrying food, water, and medical supplies that were on their way to a 203-bed hospital. Patients all across the city eventually had to be taken out, but rescuers met resistance. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan told reporters at an emergency headquarters: “Hospitals are trying to evacuate. At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them, saying, ‘You better come get my family.’” An effort to evacuate patients and staff from Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans was stopped by sniper fire. Other hospitals reported gangs of looters attacking and overturning ambulances.
Chris Lawrence, a reporter with CNN, filed a report from the roof of a police station: “Right now it’s the only safe place to be in the city. We were on the street earlier but the police said under no circumstances would you be safe on the street. They said anybody walking in the streets of New Orleans is basically taking their life in their hands. . . . They directed some of the young women to get off the street immediately.”
What may have been the most shocking headline of the entire crisis was in the September 2 issue of Army Times: “Troops Begin Combat Operations in New Orleans.” The article was about the Louisiana National Guard massing near the Superdome in preparation for a citywide security mission. “This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones explained. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.” The amphibious assault ship Bataan was in the area, but kept its helicopters on board after pilots reported sniper fire.
Many soldiers came under gunfire from civilians. “I never thought that as a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.” Cliff Ferguson of the same battalion added: “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”
Michael Brown, head of FEMA, said: “We are working under conditions of urban warfare.” General Blum of the National Guard said half of the 7,000 guardsmen under his command had just returned from overseas assignments and were “highly proficient in the use of lethal force.” He promised to deal with thugs “in a quick and efficient manner.”
Shoot-to-kill orders were supposed to have gone out, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco boasted that battle-hardened veterans would put down the violence in no time. However, there were few accounts of soldiers firing their weapons. The London Times reported that a New Orleans policeman explained through tears that he had seen bodies riddled with bullets, and one man with the top of his head shot off. He said looters were armed with stolen AK-47 rifles, and that the police were outgunned just like in Somalia. “It’s a war-zone, and they’re [the federal government] not treating it like one,” he said.
We will never know the full extent of the mayhem blacks loosed on their own city. Many victims will not be found for weeks or even months, rotted beyond recognition, their killers never found. Drowned or murdered, the bloated, stinking bodies that turn up by the hundreds will look much the same. In their haste to get cadavers off the streets, the authorities may not worry much about cause of death.
From Hurricane to Jungle
In the two main refugee centers, however — the Superdome and the Convention Center — too many people witnessed the degeneracy for it to be ignored. The first refugees had arrived at the Superdome the day before the hurricane, on Sunday, August 28. The last finally left the stadium on Saturday, Sept, 3, so some people may have spent nearly a week in what, after the toilets began to overflow, became known as the “Sewerdome.”
Preparation for refugees was pitifully inadequate. By day, as many as 25,000 people sweltered in temperatures that rose into the 100s. Whatever order had been established soon melted away, and the stadium reverted to the jungle. Young men robbed and raped with impunity. Occasional gunshots panicked the crowd. At least one man committed suicide by throwing himself off a high deck and splattering onto the playing field. Bodies of the murdered, and of infants and the elderly who died of heat exhaustion began to accumulate. Six babies were born in the stadium. Charles Womack, a 30-year-old roofer, said he saw one man beaten to death, and was, himself beaten with a pipe. Crack addicts — who had brought their most valuable possession with them — smoked openly and fought over drugs.
A group of about 30 British students were among the very small number of whites in the stadium, where they spent four harrowing days. Jamie Trout, 22, an economics major, wrote that the scene “was like something out of Lord of the Flies,” with “people shouting racial abuse about us being white.” One night, word came that the power was failing, and that there was only ten minutes’ worth of gas for the generators. Zoe Smith, 21, from Hull, said they all feared for their lives: “All us girls sat in the middle while the boys sat on the outside, with chairs as protection,” she said. “We were absolutely terrified, the situation had descended into chaos, people were very hostile and the living conditions were horrendous.” She said that even during the day, “when we offered to help with the cleaning, the locals gave us abuse.”
Mr. Trout said the National Guard finally recognized how dangerous the threat was from blacks, and moved the British under guard to the basketball area, which was safer. “The army warned us to keep our bags close to us and to grip them tight,” he said, as they were escorted out. Twenty-year-old Jane Wheeldon credited one man in particular, Sgt. Garland Ogden, with getting the Britons safely out. “He went against a lot of rules to get us moved,” she said.
Australian tourists stuck in the Superdome had the same experience. Bud Hopes, a 32-year-old man from Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, took control and may have saved many lives. As the stadium reverted to anarchy, he realized whites were in danger, and gathered tourists together for safety. “There were 65 of us altogether so we were able to look after each other, especially the girls who were being grabbed and threatened,” said Mr. Hopes. They organized escorts for women who had to go to the toilet or for food, and set up a roster of men to stand guard while others slept. “We sat through the night just watching each other, not knowing if we would be alive in the morning,” Mr. Hopes said. “Ninety-eight percent of the people around the world are good,” he said; “in that place 98 per cent of the people were bad.”
John McNeil of Coorparoo in Brisbane tells what happened when their group, too, heard the lights were about to go out: “I looked at Bud [Hopes] and said, ‘That will be the end of us.’ The gangs had already eyed us off. If the lights had gone out we would have been in deep trouble. We were sitting there praying for a miracle and the lights stayed on.” Mr. Hopes said the Australians owed their lives to a National Guardsman who broke the rules and got whites out to a medical center past seething crowds of blacks.
Peter McNeil of Brisbane told the Australian AP that his son John was one of the 65 who managed to get out. The blacks were reportedly so hostile “they would stab you as soon as look at you.” “He’s never been so scared in his life,” explained Mr. McNeil. “He just said they had to get out of the dark. Otherwise, another night, he said, they would have been gone.” No American newspaper wrote about what these white tourists went through.
When guardsmen began to show up in force on Sept. 1 and take control, some blacks met them with cheers, but others shouted obscenities. Capt. John Pollard of the Texas Air National Guard said 20,000 people were in the dome when the evacuation began, but thousands more appeared from surrounding areas when word got out that there were buses leaving town. Soldiers held their M-16s and grenade-launchers at the ready, and kept a sharp eye out for snipers.
That same day, when it was time to board buses for Houston, soldiers had trouble controlling the crowd. People at the back of the mob crushed the people in front against barricades soldiers put up to control the flow. Many people continued to yell obscenities whenever a patrol went by. Some were afraid of losing their place in line and defecated where they stood. The Army Times reported that Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon of the Oklahoma National Guard, who had recently come home from Afghanistan, said he was struck by the fact Afghanis wanted to help themselves, but that the people of New Orleans only wanted others to help them.
By the evening of Sept. 3, the Superdome was finally evacuated, but the state-of-the-art stadium was a reeking cavern of filth, human waste, and an unknown number of corpses. It, too, had been looted of everything not bolted down. Janice Singleton was working at the stadium when the storm hit. She said she was robbed of everything, even her shoes. As for the building: “They tore that dome apart,” she said sadly. “They tore it down. They taking everything out of there they can take.”
Only afterwards did the public learn there were 50 police officers assigned to the Superdome, but they appear to have been completely ineffectual. Toni Blanco, a 24-year veteran, said police could not arrest anyone because there was no place to hold suspects, and they were afraid to use their guns for fear of the crowd. “You felt helpless in the sense there was absolutely nothing we could do for the city,” she said. What did she do at night, when conditions were worst? She and another officer, Alecia Wright, would slip out to a patrol car and have a good cry. “Many times we laid in the car and tears just rolled,” said Miss Blanco. Some officers simply abandoned their posts and fled the Superdome.
Conditions were even worse at the Convention Center. Although on high ground not far from the stadium, it had not been designated as a shelter. It was, however, beyond reach of the high water, and soon some 20,000 people were huddled in its cavernous halls. There were no supplies or staff, and for several days neither FEMA nor the National Guard seems to have known anyone was there.
Armed gangs took control, and occasional gunshots caused panic. There was no power, and at night the center was plunged into complete darkness. Degeneracy struck almost immediately, with rapes, robbery, and murder. Terrible shrieking tore through the night, but no one could see, or dared to move. When Police Chief Eddie Compass heard what was happening, he sent a squad of 88 officers to investigate. They were overwhelmed by superior forces and retreated, leaving thousands to the mercy of criminals.
It was not until Sept. 2 — four days after the hurricane — that a force of 1,000 National Guardsmen finally took over from the armed gangs. “Had we gone in with a lesser force we may have been challenged, [and] innocents may have been caught in a fight,” explained Gen. Blum.
Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, told a reporter that men had wandered the center at night raping and murdering children. She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 a.m. on Friday morning, four hours after the girl went missing. “She was raped for four hours until she was dead,” Miss Joseph said through tears. “Another child, a seven-year old boy, was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night.”
Africa Brumfield, 32, explained that women were in particular fear: “There is rapes going on here. Women cannot go to the bathroom without men. They are raping them and slitting their throats.” Donald Anderson, 43, was at the convention center with his wife, who was six months pregnant: “We circled the chairs like wagons because at night there are stampedes,” he said. “We had to survive.”
The very few whites in the crowd were terrified. Eighty-year-old Selma Valenti, who was with her husband, said blacks threatened to kill them on Thursday, Sept. 1. “They hated us. Four young black men told us the buses were going to come last night and pick up the elderly so they were going to kill us,” she said, sobbing. Presumably, the blacks wanted to take their places on the buses.
The center was not entirely without a form of rough justice. A National Guardsman reported that a man who had raped and killed a young girl in the bathroom was caught by the crowd — which beat him to death.
At one time there were as many as seven or eight corpses in front of the center, some of them with blood streaming from bullet wounds. Inside, there was an emergency morgue, but a National Guardsman refused to let a Reuters photographer take pictures. “We’re not letting anyone in there anymore,” he said. “If you want to take pictures of dead bodies, go to Iraq.” By Saturday, Sept. 3, the center was mostly cleared of the living. Refugees pulled shirts over their noses trying to block out the smell as they walked past rotting bodies.
Later it would be learned there were 30 to 40 bodies piled into the convention center’s freezer, almost all of them murder victims. Arkansas National Guardsman Mikel Brooks showed a reporter the charnel house: “I ain’t got the stomach for it, even after what I saw in Iraq. In Iraq, it’s one-on-one. It’s war. It’s fair. Here, it’s just crazy. It’s anarchy. . . . And this is America. This is just 300 miles south of where I live.”
For the city as a whole, not even 50,000 soldiers and federal rescue workers could bring calm. On Sunday, Sept. 4, contractors working for the US Army Corps of Engineers came under fire. Their police escort returned fire and killed four attackers.
On Monday, Sept, 5, a week after the hurricane and after virtually everyone who wanted to get out was gone, there was still widespread banditry. “We’re having some pretty intense gun battles breaking out around the city,” said Capt. Jeff Winn of the New Orleans SWAT team. “Armed gangs of from eight to 15 young men are riding around in pickup trucks, looting and raping.”
Brian McKay was one of 300 Arkansas guardsmen just back from Iraq. He was in full battle gear, including body armor, putting down insurgents. “It’s like Baghdad on a bad day,” he said. Another Arkansan veteran under fire agreed: “It’s just so much like Iraq, it’s not funny, except for all the water, and they speak English.”
Since the old jail was flooded, police set up a holding pen at the Greyhound bus terminal. State Attorney General Charles Foti said there were plans for a temporary court system, but no one knew how they were going to assemble juries or call witnesses. The grim business began of combing the drowning city for corpses and the remaining survivors.
Reactions
The world reacted with astonishment to sights it never expected to see in America. “Anarchy in the USA,” read the headline in Britain’s best-selling newspaper, The Sun. “Apocalypse Now,” said Handelsblatt in Germany. Mario de Carvalho, a veteran Portuguese cameraman, who covers the world’s trouble spots, said he saw the bodies of babies and old people along the highways leading out of New Orleans. “It’s a chaotic situation. It’s terrible. It’s a situation we generally see in other countries, in the Third World,” he said.
Some Third-Worlders would have been insulted. “I am absolutely disgusted,” said Sajeewa Chinthaka, 36, of the looters. The Sri Lanka native added: “After the tsunami our people, even the ones who lost everything, wanted to help the others who were suffering. Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. Now with all this happening in the U.S. we can easily see where the civilized part of the world’s population is.”
In the United States, the stark contrast between endless scenes of appalling behavior by blacks and rescue personnel who were almost all white was greeted with the standard foolishness. Some people accused the “biased” media of suppressing footage of rampaging whites and heroic black helicopter pilots.
Many blacks made excuses for looters. “Desperate people do desperate things,” said US Rep. Diane Watson of California. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. from Illinois, said we must not judge harshly: “Who are we to say what law and order should be in this unspeakable environment?” Rep. Melvin Watt, North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was perhaps the greatest ass of all: “Whatever is being taken could not be used by anyone else anyway,” he said.
Many blacks took it for granted that federal relief was slow because the victims were black. Rep. Elijah Cummings said “poverty, age and skin color” determined who lived and who died. Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau, blasted “disparate treatment” of Katrina victims. “Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response,” explained Jesse Jackson, Sr. He said the rubbish outside the Convention Center made the place look “like the hull of a slave ship.” Black activist and reparations-booster Randall Robinson said the relief effort was the “defining watershed moment in America’s racial history.” He said he had “finally come to see my country for what it really is. A monstrous fraud.”
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick of Michigan said she was “ashamed of America and . . . of our government.” The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin — the man who gave city workers a vacation when the feds arrived — shouted and wept on local radio, demanding of federal officials: “Get off your asses, and let’s do something.” There was an undercurrent of fury at a meeting of black leaders in Detroit. One audience member wanted to know whether the slow federal response was “black genocide.” Another shouted, “African Americans built this nation. Descendants of slaves are being allowed to die.”
One black man, observing the chaos from abroad, took a different view. Leighton Levy wrote in the Sept. 2 Jamaica Star: “I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic predisposition to steal, murder, and create mayhem.” He wanted to know why there was no footage of white looters: “Is it that the media are not showing pictures of them looting and robbing? Or is it that they are too busy trying to stay alive, waiting to be rescued, and hiding from the blacks?”
Most blacks and many whites fell into the usual assumptions about omnipotent white government and helpless Negroes. If black people were suffering it was because whites had not done enough for them. It did not occur to them that it was the responsibility of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana — not the federal government — to prepare for hurricanes. Before the storm, Mayor Nagin issued a mandatory evacuation only under pressure from the Bush administration. The mayor then did nothing to enforce the order, leaving hundreds of city buses and school buses to drown, rather than use them to offer transportation to people without cars.
Something of the mood of black New Orleans was caught by Fox News film crews as late as Sunday, Sept. 4. White volunteers were trying to persuade a black woman and her small children to leave her flooded house. “You’ve got to get out,” they explained. “The water isn’t going away.” A black man at the top of a multi-story building told a helicopter crew he didn’t need to leave. All he needed was some supplies.
These people could not understand something that was obvious to the whole world: New Orleans had no electricity, no plumbing, no transport, and no food. Blacks refused to leave their flooded homes, even though to stay meant near-certain death.
Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff noted how crazy it was to stay in the wreckage. “That is not a reasonable alternative,” he said. “We are not going to be able to have people sitting in houses in the city of New Orleans for weeks and months while we de-water and clean this city.”
FEMA reported that it had pulled three Carnival Cruise Lines ships from commercial duty to shelter the blacks of New Orleans. Maybe the chance of berth on the Ecstasy, the Sensation or the Holiday would be enough to drag them out of the muck.
Lessons
Ninety-nine percent of the white people left New Orleans when the evacuation order went out. Some 80,000 blacks could not or would not leave. Whites did not “leave them behind,” as the editorial writers keep telling us. No one could have gotten some of them to leave — a number of men cheerfully admitted they stayed in town to loot — but if it was anyone’s job to give them the option, it was that of the black-run city government. Of the blacks who stayed, probably only a minority committed crimes, but they were enough to turn the city into a hell hole. Some did unspeakable things: loot hospitals, fire on rescue teams, destroy ambulances. No amount of excuse-making and finger-pointing can paper over degeneracy like that. Black people — and only black people — did these things.
The Superdome and the Convention Center were certainly unpleasant places to spend three or four days, but 50,000 whites would have behaved completely differently. They would have established rules, organized supplies, cared for the sick and dying. They would have organized games for children. The papers would be full of stories of selflessness and community spirit.
Natural disasters usually bring out the best in people, who help neighbors and strangers alike. For blacks — at least the lower-class blacks of New Orleans — disaster was an excuse to loot, rob, rape and kill.
Our rulers and media executives will try to turn the story of Hurricane Katrina into yet another morality tale of downtrodden blacks and heartless whites, but pandering of this kind fools fewer and fewer people.
Many whites will realize — some for the first time — that we have Africa in our midst, that utterly alien Africa of road-side corpses, cruelty, and anarchy that they thought could never wash up on these shores.
To be sure, the story of Hurricane Katrina does have a moral for anyone not deliberately blind. The races are different. Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western Civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears.
And in a crisis, Western Civilization disappears overnight.
Conclusion
America is fragile.
What happens when an EMP wipes out all communication, vehicular traffic, internet, and batteries? Who will come out of the balkanized enclaves? And what will they do?
The writing has been on the wall for some time, and now hate has been institutionalized, and the social structure is gone. It is in tatters. America is a wreck, and the ruling oligarchy really isn’t aware at the actual fragility of America.
If they were (aware) they would be conducting emergency domestic rebuilding, and hiring.
They would NOT be constructing trillion-dollar spending campaigns on the military “to counter” anyone.
And they most certainly wouldn’t be giving away trillion-dollars to any other nations for a counter program for the BRI.
Instead, they would be spending money and time dealing with the festering problems that exists right now. That means all sorts of restructuring of local and state and federal governments, wholesale readjustments of federal agencies, and many, many rebuilding programs at the LOCAL LEVEL. Not throwing away money at the FEDERAL LEVEL.
But they are not.
Instead we see the nation gearing up for a major war with either China or Russia. And trust me, it will be against both simultaneously.
What will happen after the missiles fly is anyone’s guess. But I am leaning strongly on a short-war, with both Russia and China being victorious. And America absolutely, completely and utterly, devastated; broken and destroyed in every single conceivable way.
Are you all ready for a devastated America?
Do you have any idea what that means? Do you have any idea what it will be like for the people inside of America? A balkanized racist America?
Guess.
Coming to your neighborhood soon.
Now, a word about whether this might come about…
I wrote this back over a year ago. And the events of the last few months put everything in a stunning new light…
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
A lot of interesting articles out lately concerning Geo-Politics. Most of which are unavailable on Google or in the states. As they are “shadow banned”. I want to chat about some of the stuff that’s “out there”. And in this post I am going to throw a lot of the banned stuff out for you all to absorb.
But first, let me take a sip of tea.
You know, I have come to enjoy Earl Grey Tea. It’s got this lovely aroma, a nice soothing feel, and is wholly enjoyable to drink. But I do not drink it every day. Sometimes I drink roasted Oolong tea. And I have become a fan of green tea. It’s healthier for you, don’t you know.
Earl Grey Tea.
With the Earl Grey Tea, I like to drink it UK / Australian style. Nicely seeped in a pot, poured into a a nice cup sitting on a saucer, and I add some sugar and milk. Though it’s not all that proper. I do enjoy it that way.
This is how a “real” (an authentic) British person (man, or woman, or “thing”) makes a cup of tea.
How to Make a “Proper” Cup of Tea (British Tea, that is)
Tea is an institution in the UK. Its fibers are woven into the British culture in such a way that it is difficult to describe to a “non-Brit.” I came across this video a while ago and was so awed by the impact a beverage can have on a country.
FYI to Americans, Eastenders is a popular soap-opera type show in the UK. When the show finishes, most viewers turn the kettle on for a cup of tea resulting in a huge surge for electricity! Who’d figure?
The British love their tea. I wonder if people in Singapore drink tea properly like the British do?
I put “proper” in quotation marks because this is my version of how to make a proper cup of tea. It’s not the “proper-proper” tea made with loose leaf tea, of course. That’s more for a leisurely afternoon tea, but this is an everyday process with tea bags which is less time consuming.
In the UK they say to put one teabag per person and “one for the pot.” However, in my opinion that’s too strong for most people in the US and Canada who are used to a weaker tea.
If you are using a British brand of tea, which is already much stronger and has a lot more flavor than most US tea brands, you might just want to use a teabag per person.
Three teabags for a 32 ounce pot, not completely filled to the rim (about 4 cups of tea) is perfect for a fine British family, but you can just adjust accordingly.
First of all, a proper-proper cup of tea is made with loose leaf tea, but most of us don’t have time for that on a daily basis, two or three times a day.
So this is mostly aimed at US households who are used to a Lipton teabag in hot water in a mug. This will be a big change in flavor for those of you.
1.Boil the water.
First, bring water to a boil, but do not let it keep boiling. Remove it as soon as it comes to a boil. This is critical. This is important.
As soon as the tea comes to a boil, remove it from the stove.
Hot water will not do.
We want the tea leaves to infuse the flavor of the tea into the water, and tepid or hot water will not do this nearly as well as boiling water. I use an electric kettle because we use it all the time.
You will also need a good teapot, preferably one made in the UK (they know their tea there).
2.Warm the teapot for the perfect cup of tea.
So, when the kettle is almost boiling, put some water in the pot, just to warm up the teapot. Return the kettle to its base (or stovetop) to make it come to a full boil. Swirl the hot water around the teapot and then drain it out. Make sure to have your teabags ready.
A proper teapot.
3.Add the teabags and water to the pot.
When the water just comes to a boil, put the teabags in the teapot and immediately pour the water into the pot.
You do not place them in the cup.
You place the teabags in the kettle. That is it’s purpose.
4.Use a tea cosy (if you have one).
Next, if you have a tea cosy, cover the pot. If not, use a heavy tea towel or something to keep the pot warm. You’ll discover that this also makes a big difference in the outcome of the flavor of the tea.
A tea cosy.
5.Steep the tea.
Let the tea steep for about 3 to 5 minutes; the longer you leave it, the stronger it will be. (Three minutes in a tea pot is pretty weak.)
6.Pour the tea and add the milk (and sugar, if desired).
Now it’s time to pour the perfectly steeped tea.
If you’re going to add sugar, add it before the milk so that it has a chance to start melting before adding the cold milk. Regarding the whole “milk, or tea first” debate, it used to be that milk went in first to protect the china from cracking, so that’s no longer a reason.
I think it’s a personal preference. I like to add the milk after so I can better control the ratio of milk to tea, and you may think I’m crazy, but I say it tastes better, too. I also prefer whole milk. 2% milk is passable, but don’t offer me 1% or even talk to me about skim milk. Although you should NEVER add cream to a cup of tea, the natural cream that’s in whole milk adds a lot to the flavor of a proper cup of tea.
Now enjoy with a crumpet or a biscuit.
British (or Hong Kong) style crumpet. Toasted with well-salted butter.
Now…
With a cup of tea in one hand, and a fine hot buttered crumpet nearby. Let’s adjust our monocle to look at the editorial sections of the paper. Shall we?
Ah. A fine Rugby match. It’s all Crickets, don’t you know.
Oh, here’s something from the colonies…
It seems that President Biden is trying to incentivize Russia to stop dealing with China. It’s what he has been doing with the G7 folk in Europe. But, you know, Russia is “not biting”.
MOSCOW (Xinhua): Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced actions aimed at driving a wedge between Moscow and Beijing, stressing that China is a strategic partner, not a threat.
"We can see attempts to destroy the relationship between Russia and China. We can see that those attempts are being made in practical policies,"
Putin said in an interview with US television network NBC published on Monday (June 14).
"We are pleased with the unprecedentedly high level of our relationship as it has evolved over the last few decades. We cherish it just like our Chinese friends do, which we can see,"
He said.
Putin praised…
"a high level of trust and cooperation in all areas"
…between the two countries, from politics and economy to technology and military.
"We do not believe that China is a threat to us. China is a friendly nation. It has not declared us an enemy as the United States has done,"
He said.
A huge and powerful country, China has been developing with its great economy and a tremendous volume of foreign trade,
He added.
"We have been working and will continue to work with China, which applies to all kinds of programs, including exploring deep space,"
The Russian leader concluded.
Meanwhile, exactly what’s up with the Western G7 nations?
Popular WhatsApp forwarded message:
I never saw this until now. But that’s probably because I don’t have WhatsApp. I don’t want it, and there’s a bunch of chicks that want to hook up with me because they see my LinkedIN account and mistakenly believe that I have lots of money that they can somehow extract via their sultry means…
LOL.
Anyways I got this jammed in my proton mail account from a reliable source, and it makes for a great read. I enjoyed it. Maybe you will too.
*A Lesson In History…*
1. Which countries invaded and occupied Indonesia?
*Netherlands for 350 years and Japan for 3.5 years*.
2. Which country was once the colony master of Malaya & India?
*Britain*.
3. Which countries invaded and occupied Vietnam?
*France 1857-1940 & 1946-1954, Japan 1940-1945 and USA (in Southern Vietnam) 1955-1975*.
4. Which countries were responsible for colonization of the African continent?
*Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy*.
5. Which 8 countries were responsible for the occupation of China in early 20th century?
*Britain, US, Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Italy & Austria-Hungary*.
6. Which countries are responsible for colonizing and almost annihilating the Red Indians in northern America?
*France & Britain*.
7. Which country colonized and almost annihilated Aborigines in Australia and New Zealand?
*Britain* .
8. Which are the member countries of G7?
*United Kingdom/Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan & USA*.
And now the million dollar question…
9. Why are the G7 members see China as a threat even though China is the only major nation on earth that has never invaded or occupied another country?
*Ego or fear of retribution* ?
America today is so many ways from being Right, that it’s easy to pick it’s imperfections. Here’s another article by a Pentagon worker who is alarmed at what is going on inside of the Washington DC beltway for war (with either or Russia and / or China)…
Horrified by the actual discussions going on inside of the Pentagon today.
Merriam Webster dictionary defines the word "othering" as an act wherein a race or culture is made to appear as "a large, uniform mass, rather than a diverse group of individuals… treating people from another group as less human than one's own group."
Historically, "othering" has served as a conditioning mechanism to dehumanize US adversaries, preparing normally empathetic men and women to act with less discrimination and greater brutality in war.
During WWII, US othering of the Japanese involved weaponizing disinformation and propagating racist stereotypes. It was considered as effective at setting the necessary psychological conditions for the controversial internment of Japanese Americans, firebombing of Tokyo, and dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese cities merely to deter the Soviet Union. Conceivably, left unmodified, a soldier's empathy for non-combatant human beings otherwise could have placed those ruthless American operations and their objectives at risk.
Othering of the Chinese people is evident in recent US news media in the form of a mix of unverified rumors, disinformation, and selective exclusion of contradictory facts. It has been reported that China-averse special interests have even paid US journalists to publish stories biased against China's policies, to include encouraging a US-China confrontation. Meanwhile, the island of Taiwan's secession champions in the US Congress have nurtured the absurd public perception that the US-emulating people aboard the island of Taiwan are "non-Chinese" in ethnic identity.
The apparent sophistication and coordination of Chinese othering are indications that some in the US are working to desensitize Americans to the certain horrors of a war with China over Taiwan. Its effects are already being witnessed in American society. Despite a presidential-level denouncement, racially motivated assaults on Chinese and Asians generally are sharply increasing. The dehumanization of our future foe is in full swing to the delight of China-averse special interests.
Some argue that a US war with China over Taiwan would be a just war, claiming the "non-Chinese" island citizenry deserves our protection, not just ideological support. Others will go further and assert that the US nuclear umbrella needs to be extended to encompass the island. They try to make the desperate case that the island of Taiwan is the last bastion of American values in Southeast Asia, and the final barricade that contains China.
The nuclear weapons theme deserves a closer look. Senior US military leaders at different times in the 20th century glibly suggested the employment of nuclear weapons to regain initiative in conventional conflicts with non-nuclear Asian nations. In addition to the island of Taiwan, these included conflicts in and with Vietnam, Korea, and China. Similarly, the employment of firebombing and nuclear weapons against a densely populated Japan was rationalized without significant opposition.
This was not so in the European theater. The firebombings of Dresden, Hamburg and elsewhere were emotionally contested even at the time of their planning, although the fanaticism and atrocious behavior of Imperial Japan was on a par with that of Nazi Germany. In fact, Winston Churchill went so far as to write: the destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing. Tokyo, Nagasaki and Hiroshima did not benefit from such a distinguished Western advocate, and evidently neither does China.
Today hawkish members of Congress, most of whom have not served their country in uniform, casually resurrect such options as it pertains to supporting the island of Taiwan's split from China. It is easy for them to talk tough on the matter as most don't know the sacrifices of Service, and perhaps because of lacking ethnic identification with Chinese and other Asian races and cultures. This thoughtless devaluation of Asian casualties to mere nuclear attrition statistics results from the same sort of American othering seen in the 20th century.
In a war, the small island of Taiwan would erupt into a battleground with an intensity unknown since the world wars. All parties have known that the island's citizenry would be devastated far beyond the value of attempting to secede from China. Since this is known by the US Congress in advance, it illuminates the reality that the Chinese aboard the island of Taiwan are expendable. The issue of the island province is not and never was about protecting its people. Instead, it is all about the US striving to maintain its hegemonic reach during a period of decline in global influence.
This difference in the US perspectives on Asian and European lives is nothing new to any overseas or indigenous Asian citizen. To contort the present American devaluation and othering into a dubious justification for violating China's internal affairs and sovereignty is futile and transparent. It also portends that a fight over the island of Taiwan will rapidly devolve into a primitive, brutal, unrestricted war that has every appearance of, and is at its core an imperial US expedition.
As an American, my priority is US national interest. Attempting to support the renegade island of Taiwan's secession is directly contrary to the US national interest as we know in advance we will lose. Even in defeat many politicians, conservative ideologues, financially incentivized journalists, and special interests such as the US defense industry would benefit, just as a similar cabal did after Vietnam. But Taiwan secession is a transparently shallow cause with no path to victory. In fact, historical precedent shows that the US will lose primarily because the American public will see through the fraudulent deadly farce, but only after the unspeakable tragedy unfolds.
In the end, China' Province of Taiwan will always mean more to the physically proximate, ethnically identical, and nationalistically fueled China of over 1.4 billion, than it will to the distant, over-extended, and above all falsely incentivized US of 350 million. The heaviest burden of the tragedy of war will fall on the young, patriotic men and women who volunteered to serve in the US military in the faith that an assigned cause is legitimate and worthy of their sacrifice. Unfortunately, a war between the US and China over the island of Taiwan would be a complete betrayal of their good faith.
The author is a retired Marine Corps infantry officer who now serves as a US civil servant in the Pentagon. Opinions are of the author and do not represent the US government obviously.
So when a Pentagon insider is seeing things starting to turn in one direction and is willing to risk his life and his career over it, maybe we all should shit up and take notice.
This all makes me hungry because it reminds me of Po-Boy sandwiches
Well it does.
You see, this near religious fervor towards war reminds me of the “Bible thumping” ministers of the deep, deep American South. Like Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. As much as I love Louisiana, and I do love it in so many, many ways, the “Bible Thumpers” are just plain obnoxious.
They really are.
Louisiana and Mississippi are just beautiful, and I consider my days in Hattiesburgh and Pervis to be very special ones.
This picture reminds me of my home in Hattiesburgh Mississippi. This is sort of what the front yard looked like. I can tell you that my cats just loved the place. Behind my house was a wooded bog / swamp and they would spend all the time exploring it and doing cat things.
Anyways…
This reminds me of Louisiana because of the assholes pushing for war. They are of the same type; a belief that they have been issued by GOD to be the “cleansers of the world” to remove all impurities that does not embrace the righteous nature of “democracy’!
Now getting to my point.
They remind me of food.
Why?
I do not know.
Girls remind me of food too. But I know why. I always picture myself eating with them and chatting with them, and telling stories, and drinking wine over delicious food. So it’s really understandable that I would associate women with food.
But sicko egomaniacs?
Let me continue….
…and try to explain. First, let’s discuss what a “Po’boy” is…
A Po-Boy is a traditional sandwich from Louisiana. It almost always consists of meat, which is usually roast beef or fried seafood, often shrimp, crawfish, fish, oysters or crab. The meat is served on New Orleans French bread, known for its crisp crust and fluffy center.
Fried catfish po’boy sandwich.
When I read about how America is going to “save the Taiwanese” for “democracy” and “freedom” I am reminded of the Southern Baptist minister in the deep South of Louisiana. The local folk were all pretty darn decent, and I served some time with them in prison, but the local government was so very corrupt, and the Baptist Ministers were the worst kind of “fire and brimstone” evangelicals.
You know like Tom Cotton is. Yeah, I know he’s from Arkansas. But it’s not that far away from Louisiana. Maybe one or two inches.
One inch.
Tom Cotton.
What a fella.
He’s (you know) one of the jack-asses pushing for World War III.
I associate him with his environment. As we should all associate people so that we can best understand them, their motivations, and why they do the crazy things that they do.
So it makes me think of what it was like, and how can I omit the wonderful Po’boy sandwiches and fine CajunCooking?
Cajun Cooking. Um um good em’ yah. You betya.
Well…
There are no easy answers.
Corrupt people in America push to become leaders and live in the enclave of the psychopaths; Washington DC. And he is one of them.
Personally, I cannot imagine him eating delicious food.
Instead, I picture him (somehow) eating food like this…
Here’s a pretty decent article by another ex-military working inside the Pentagon who is, justifiably horrified at all the talk about war, war, war! He wrote this and subsequently had his secret clearances revoked. He was then fired.
It would seem to some that a US war with China over the island of Taiwan appears imminent.
Considering the congestion of hostile forces in, above, and below the Taiwan Straits and South China Sea, conflict could explode by accident or design. Once blood is drawn, the US will have few options. If the US elects to fight China over the island of Taiwan, then it will lose.
Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) independence hubris is fueled by US cabinet-level China hawks and Congress' bipartisan, bicameral Taiwan Caucus. The DPP has rejected political reunification in one China and dismissed the "one country, two systems" model under which both Taiwan and Hong Kong have gotten rich. Encouraged by US trivialization of the three joint communiqués, the DPP parades a sense of entitlement, taking for granted an umbrella of protection with full knowledge of the dire consequences for the US
The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) may not have been intended to give birth to Taiwan's renegade secessionists, but it has done exactly that.
The DPP's champions in the US Congress dismiss omens of fanatical China grit on the topic of Taiwan. China-bashing and Taiwan-coveting rhetoric forms an echo chamber reminiscent of the groupthink-led American Friends of Vietnam (AFV) lobby that pressured the US to commit to the Vietnam War killing 60,000 American patriots before the US disgracefully abandoned its ally.
But the Chinese are different.
China's history of the whole-of-society commitment to core national security priorities is legendary. The rebellions and unrests in the 19th century cost millions of Chinese lives. Twentieth century Chinese civil war losses ranged between 5 and 8 million, and 360,000 Chinese died in Korea, while routing and humiliating US and UN forces. In each case, the dynasties emerged stronger.
The US Congress' interests in Taiwan are deeply conflicted, better said corrupt.
The reciprocal relationship between defense lobbyists, industry contributions, and a Caucus Member's reelectability is well documented. The bipartisan support for increasing arms sales to Taiwan and even larger defense expenditures on the US Indo-Pacific Command are logical and transparent as all parties profit from the tension and war.
Many Americans assume China's citizenry longs for a liberal democracy like that on the island of Taiwan, and that war will trigger popular revolt.
But the Taiwan question is not an ideological dispute.
Rather it is a raw and painful open wound in China's civilizational identity. Today, US othering of Chinese only fuels a fierce nationalism in its 1.4 billion citizens. China has a traditional self-narrative wherein the preservation of face and enforcement of sovereignty are inseparable.
All the while the balance of power has shifted fundamentally. The US would be wise to regard China as a peer superpower, if only due to her casualty-tolerance - China's decisive advantage in any fight with the US. China also shares a binding mutual defense treaty with North Korea, and the depths of its friendship and security bonds with Russia should never be underestimated.
The US can think whatever it wants about China's ideology, culture, Xinjiang and Hong Kong policies, and sovereign claims to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and surrounding seas. But, whether the US likes it or not, those are ultimately China's internal affairs.
As for DPP claims of the Province of Taiwan's non-Chinese identity, they are historical fiction.
Fate made them Chinese just as fate made us Americans. We also know that the free will choice to carve out a territory and people from an existing nation incurs a steep price, one the Confederacy paid not long ago.
The US has never paid an existential price for violating another nation's sovereignty, leading to our smug sense of military invincibility.
However, with Taiwan being a core Chinese priority, that would be a fatal miscalculation.
Still, the US counts on regional allies to share the pain. Yet some will have blood debts to pay if they engage in China's civil war. For example, India was bloodied badly in the 1960s for testing China's territorial resolve. Japan's humiliating 50-year occupation of Taiwan and the Rape of Nanjing also remain fresh, unforgettable wounds for China. The US allies will definitely think twice before militarily intervening in China's unresolved civil war and internal affairs.
The US could advise Taiwan's secessionists to peaceably accept "one country, two systems" and cease its "independence" ambitions. If they don't stop their rhetoric, the US president could rescind the TRA, as baiting China to force reunification is of the DPP's own choosing. If Congress obstructs TRA recension, the US president could order all national security agencies to stand down in cross-Straits conflicts, keeping our powder dry for actual existential threats in the future.
In the end, the prosperous Taiwan people will make every effort to wag the American dog. But Taiwan's fate poses no existential threat to the US, and the US should not fall into the trap of paying for their hubris with American blood. However, in view of the violent political polarization of the US at home, an ill-advised foreign war with no path to victory would only serve to accelerate America's decline.
But he’s right. Don’t you know.
But the United States is absolutely out-of-control right now and no one wants to hear that “the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes”.
About as important as any band playing Jazz Fest is a bowl of Crawfish Monica, best enjoyed while festin’. Creamy, rich pasta (usually corkscrew rotini) is blended with lump crawfish meat and plenty of butter, heavy cream and spices. It’s kind of like mac and cheese took a wrong turn and ended up in Cajun country. The creators of Crawfish Monica, the folks at Kajun Kettle Foods, have crazy lines each year at Jazz Fest, and unfortunately they aren’t restaurateurs, so they don’t have a location you can visit. Could there be a better excuse to book your Jazz Fest tickets today?
The story “the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes”
Is everyone, or anyone, aware of this children’s story written by Hans Christian Anderson. You know the one. It was first published in April of 1873?
Well, then, here is a short summary.
The story is about a vain emperor whose favorite thing was buying and wearing the latest style of clothes. The story points out how the emperor cared nothing about reviewing his troops, going to the theater or going for carriage rides (Unless the rides were to show off his newest clothes). “He had a different coat for every hour of the day,” the story continues. When the emperor was late for a meeting or other event the excuse was usually, “The emperor is in his dressing room.”
The kingdom is described as a festive place with many visitors.
The story continues that on one day two “swindlers” came to the emperor’s town. The swindlers claimed to be weavers and bragged to anyone who would listen how they, “Could weave the most magnificent of clothes.” The swindler’s story continued that, “Not only were the colors uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.”
Word of the “weavers” reached the emperor and he thought this was great, he felt it would be the ideal product for him so he could determine who was not worthy of their position!
“He paid a large sum of money to the swindlers to start at once.” “They set up two looms and pretended to weave, though there was nothing on the looms. All the finest silk and purest old thread which they demanded went into their travel bags, while they worked the empty looms well into the night.”
The emperor was anxious to check on the progress and, while he was a very confident person, he was concerned that he might not see the material and asked a trusted old minister to check on the progress.
The swindlers, pretending to be weaving the material, greeted the minister when he arrived and said, “Don’t hesitate a moment to tell us what you think.” The minister was embarrassed and did not want anyone to suspect he was not worthy of his post, or stupid. “It’s beautiful.” was his reply.
The swindlers thanked him and then recited a list of all the colors and explained the intricacies of the weave. The minister listened intently as he feared everyone else would see the clothes. The swindlers then asked the emperor for more money, silk and thread.
The Emperor asked another trusted advisor to check on the progress. That advisor looked at the empty looms and said to himself, “Well I know that I am not stupid, so I must be unfit for my position. I can’t let anyone know.” He reported that the material was coming along splendidly.
When the emperor then viewed his new clothes, with all of his noblemen present, the swindlers pretended to hold up the finished product. The emperor did not see anything, but pretended he did because all of the noblemen said they saw it, and he did not want them to think that he was not fit for his position. The noblemen suggested the emperor wear his new clothes to the procession later that day. All in attendance agreed, afraid to be the only one to admit they could not see the clothes.
The swindlers then “dressed” the emperor in his new outfit and the entourage went off to the procession.
At the procession the townspeople, all aware of the special quality of the material, pretended the emperor was dressed magnificently until a child said, “He has no clothes!” The crowd started to repeat what had been said and finally cried out as one, “He has no clothes on.”
The story ends saying, “The emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, ‘This procession has to go on.’ So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”
Another French word picked up by the Cajuns, étouffée means “smothered,” and it’s the smothering technique that gives this stewlike dish its thick, near-gravy texture. For locals, etouffee is one of those dishes where there’s no definitive recipe. Some folks make it with a dark roux, and others with a lighter roux; some use tomato, and others don’t. Sometimes crawfish is used, and sometimes shrimp is: It all depends on what’s in season. Bon Ton Cafe in New Orleans serves a solid plate of both crawfish and shrimp etouffee, to suit both tastes.
That’s America today
And isn’t it though?
It’s pretty bat-shit crazy. Like the UK is.
When I was growing up as a boy, we had this magazine called “MAD Magazine” that we all used to read. We would read it cover to cover. It was filled with just off-the-wall interpretations of life, and we all loved it.
Today, it seems, America is just one big old MAD Magazine.
I'm sure everyone remembers their first issue of Mad Magazine. It was odd, uproariously funny, and immature enough for everyone. My first issue was when I was about twelves, when my mom bought me an issue to read at the orthopedic surgeon's office (I had broken my arm about a week prior). However, I'm no kid anymore (or so the judge tells me). I'm a college student, looking to become a professional teacher, and I'm a respected reviewer for this website. How can I like something as immature as Mad?
Simply put, Mad is the most dead-on entertainment magazine available. Through a combination of peurile humor, self-deprication, excellent art, and witty writing, Mad has seperated itself from the pack of low-end satire mags (like Cracked) and made itself a true piece of American culture. Stop groaning out there.
First, Mad brings itself to attention primarily for its spoofs of popular movies and television shows. I think this results in the "Weird Al" syndrome - you pay more attention to the obvious mockeries than the subtle ones. As time has gone on, Mad's style has cleaned up considerably - which means that now, you can catch marginal jokes even better than before, and the magazine fits more in. While occasionally lewd, Mad also recognizes that sometimes, humor is best left suggested, and many jokes are subtle innuendos, much beyond what people would initially give the mag credit for.
Mad's jokes work so well because they first did what Mystery Science Theater 3000 became famous for - finding what everyone makes fun of about in a given piece of entertainment and finding the perfect gag to make about it. For a classic example, in their parody of "Big Daddy," "Big Bladder," they have someone go up to the kid and complain about his wooden delivery. Who would be such an expert on bad childhood acting? The block of wood that played Anakin in "Phantom Menace."
I couldn't have come up with a better gag myself, and generally, Mad gives this kind of performance consistently. While it does occasionally foul up - I found some of their Pokemon parodies lacking the punch of other shots - Mad creates gags much better than, say, your average night of NBC's "Must See TV."
However, Mad also has a rabid following because of their regular gags that appear often. Of course, despite the passing of its creator, "Spy vs. Spy" is going on as strong as ever, with a new airbrushed style that doesn't detract from "the famous duo of double-cross and deceit." Dave Berg still puts in regular duty with his clever "The Lighter Side Of..." which has modern lampoonings of everyday situations. Newer additions to this mix are sure to become classics - "Jenkins and Melvin," an answer to Highlight's "Goofus and Gallant," brings me to tears laughing every time. While Jenkins is even more of a proper gentleman than Gallant, Melvin is sure to provide a situation even more ridiculous than Goofus ever could. Almost frighteningly educational.
However, nothing showcases Mad's continued tradition of excellence like one new feature and one classic. Al Jaffee is still around, and he still makes a new, highly entertaining "Mad Fold-In" for the back cover of every issue. There is sure to be an off-beat answer to the fold-in, and the art is rather cleverly done - I still wish I knew how Jaffee does it. On the opposite page from the fold-in is a new regular feature which has quickly become a favorite of mine - the Celebrity Odds of Death listing. When I first saw it, it listed the various odds of the Spice Girls dying in various ways - "Terminal Giggling" had a 1:1 chance, while "Choking on a chicken bone during a dinner celebrating their 5th year in the music business" had over a billion to one shot. I enjoy this feature so much, I start with it first whenever I pick up a new issue.
One thing about Mad, though, is that the humor is aimed for all levels - I wonder if the writers had a steady diet of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" when they were younger.
While there are plenty of obvious jokes for all ages, there is plenty of subtle humor, especially political humor, in each issue. Looking back on older issues I have, I'm surprised at how many jokes I didn't get because I didn't know much about politics then. If Mad felt like trying a bit harder, they could probably make a sister magazine that concentrated on politics. Of course, that would just scare people afraid of the magazine multiplying.
Mad isn't totally perfect. There are still occasional rough spots in the art, and sometimes, a whole section will just lack laughs, such as the first parody of Pokemon that Mad put together. Also, a new feature, "Monroe," usually lacks the punch and humor of the other segments - you can generally skip it. Also, Mad sometimes skimps over parts you wish were mocked, due to the limited amount of space the magazine has. I sometimes wish the magazine would expand and maybe carry a few ads (from Archie McPhee and other such companies) to pack in more sufficiently wickedly barbed jokes.
But in all honesty, this doesn't detract from the magazine as a whole. It consistently gives you more laughs than anything since Monty Python. Moreover, unlike most topical humor, it ages like wine, getting better with the passing years. And with the new humorous monthly features, the magazine is insuring that it will have a healthy continued existence. From 61 Man Squamish to Superduperman, from Spy vs. Spy to the Fold-In, Mad has helped define itself as a prominent piece of our culture. Find out why - while America may be going somewhere in a handbasket, Mad is here to save our sanity.
-MAGSConnect
I like that. “…while America may be going somewhere in a handbasket, Mad is here to save our sanity.”
But is America really going bat-shit crazy? Does it really resemble the movie “Idiocracity”?
A well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny,” noted Thomas Jefferson. It follows from this that if you want to visit tyranny upon a people, you can start by dumbing them down.
Ergo, 21st-century America.
So laments commentator Andrea Widburg. Writing Monday in a piece titled “There is no bottom to the ignorance of supposedly educated Americans,” she reminds us that the American system, “going all the way back to the Founding Fathers,” was predicated on having an educated population. “People weren’t expected to be scholars,” she pointed out, but the Founders did emphasize that their government couldn’t work without “a literate and moral population.”
“And that is what they got: most Americans were literate before public schooling,” Widburg continued. “Colonial Americans could also read at a very sophisticated level. The colonists would not have known what to make of the abysmally educated people this scary, funny video shows.”
They wouldn’t have known what to make of much that’s going on today. But the video in question, posted Sunday on YouTube, and showing supposedly average Americans trying to answer simple questions, and failing, is striking.
The question: “Who was the first person to land on the sun?” was taken seriously by the interviewees shown. Another highlight (lowlight) was when the questioner asked, “What country is Venice, Italy, located in?” The young woman queried responded, “Gosh, I’m gonna’ be a teacher, so I should know this.”
You can just see what is going on in the USA by the opinions of Americans on the outside looking in. Here's an article written by a Washington DC insider back on 2019 right before Coronavirus hit, and Donald Trump was getting ready for reelection...
One commenter under the video remarked “This can’t be legit” or “we are doomed.” But not only does it seem authentic, it simply reflects a multitude of “man on the street” interviews conducted over the years by comedian Jay Leno, shock jock Howard Stern, and others.
Knowing this, it’s not surprising to me that the referenced young woman would be a prospective teacher. It’s not just that studies have shown how little many educators know; it’s also that the people educating the educators — the pseudo-elites — are in their own way no better.
Shocked by her experiences at “prestigious” Columbia University, North Korean defector Yeonmi Park recently remarked about the state of America that even “North Korea is not this nuts.” Park was referring to the anti-Western sentiment and intense political correctness prevalent today, and she wasn’t joking.
Yet while our “wokeness” is called many things, nuts and dangerous among them, it’s also something else: profoundly stupid.
It can be said without exaggeration that America has become “Idiocracy.” This term is the title of a 2006 film portraying a dystopian, future United States in which IQs have dropped precipitously. People are obsessed with sex (sound familiar?), the president is a former professional wrestler and porn star who still dresses as befitting his former vocation (the one requiring clothes), vulgarity is everywhere, and entertainment has become über-simplistic and crude.
Of course, IQs are still high enough in the United States today, though some studies do show that they’ve been dropping for decades now. But the real issue is a moral corruption which infects everything else.
While real threats (e.g., China, the aforementioned moral crisis) are largely ignored, our pseudo-elites concern themselves with stupid things. Wholly contrary to science/evidence, they claim a boy can be a girl by willing it, we should be concerned about new “pronouns,” “diversity” is a strength, children should be vaccinated against a disease that doesn’t imperil them, a nation that has allowed 85 to 90 percent of its post-1967 immigrants to be from the Third World is “white supremacist,” and more.
It’s no wonder, either, that pseudo-elites want to “cancel” people who dispute the above. Their assertions are literally too stupid to be debated successfully; all they can do is make sure the debates never happen.
Then consider whom we now elevate to prominence. Curricula nationwide have been influenced by the 1619 Project, a deceit-filled, propagandistic portrayal of American history created by one Nikole Hannah-Jones. With red-dyed hair, Jones wouldn’t be out of place in Idiocracy, and she’s not out of place in ours: She was given a professorship by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Also fitting in is New York City-based psychoanalyst Dr. Donald Moss, who penned a recent paper in which he called “whiteness” a “malignant, parasitic like condition” that lacks a “permanent cure.”
His work was published in a medical journal.
And Jones and Moss are just two of a multitude of idiocrats.
The skids for their nonsensical thinking have long been well greased with philoso-babble. Years ago, the idiocrats labeled logic “white, male, and linear,” as if it’s a cultural oddity. Then there’s Critical Race Theory, whose proponents have claimed that “rugged individualism,” “a can-do attitude,” “hard work,” and “striving towards success” reflect “white male culture” and that planning for the future and punctuality are “white norms.”
The idiocrats have also bemoaned the teaching of “facts” — even though facts, as little snippets of Truth, are how we piece together life’s jigsaw puzzle. But it’s no surprise pseudo-elites deemphasize facts: They want to replace them with fiction.
They’ve succeeded, too, which is why “the most recent generations of school graduates will bore you to tears talking about gender, racism, class victimization, America’s wrongdoing over the centuries, etc.,” writes Widburg. As Ronald Reagan put it, they “know so much that isn’t so.”
The solution to this, of course and as I’m wont to emphasize, is a return to virtue (objectively good moral habits). Virtue neutralizes moral corruption. In this regard, one entity doing good work, and helping to mold children’s minds properly, is the Freedom Project Academy, a fully accredited, online school offering classical education to students in kindergarten through high school.
But lacking this, it’s unsurprising that a senile man was elevated to the presidency. Joe Biden is the perfect leader and metaphor for a nation that’s forgotten its history, its virtue, its faith, and its reason for being.
OK. So America is senile.
But when did this all happen? Last year? What was going on and what turned America to the shit-storm that it is today?
“At first we thought they were just another snake cult, but now their towers are everywhere.” —Conan the Barbarian 1982
At the dawn of my congressional career, after some of us staffers endured a particularly egregious dose of idiocy, one of my colleagues was moved to compare our office to Saint Elizabeth’s, then still functioning as a mental hospital in DC (and now, fittingly, as headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security). “Not quite,” I responded. “Here the lunatics are in charge.”
That exchange, alas, has become a prophecy for the nation at large. It begins, as we are made aware by each daily tweet-storm, at the very top, but this insanity could not persist without broad and intense public support. It has become commonplace to characterize such supporters as haters, but while it would be dangerous to underestimate the role of sheer malice, Trumpism could only sustain itself with tens of millions of people who might not fit the profile of a hater, but are assuredly either borderline imbeciles or not-quite-certifiably insane. Examples there are in profusion; but rather than ringing the changes on every single winner of the Darwin Awards, let us examine three cases that have wider policy implications.
Item. Measles, an infectious disease that each year once killed several hundred people and caused about a thousand cases of encephalitis in America, was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000. But thanks to a kind of misbegotten Hitler-Stalin alliance between right-wing religious nuts and New Age-Hollywood Hills types, the disease has come roaring back.
What other topic could unite such a disparate gaggle of characters as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., trading on his father’s martyr credibility to whisk us back to pre-Enlightenment times, and Texas Republican State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, (apparently such an extreme Neanderthal that even Texas’ own hardline Freedom Caucus was too liberal for him) who has called vaccinations “sorcery?”
Mimicking the measles that their evangelism spreads, American anti-vaxxers are also some of the most industrious Internet pests known to science, even if their trolling is supplemented by bots from a certain foreign country.
Item. One of the “noble lies” undergirding modern society is the myth of the rational actor. So-called enlightened self-interest suffuses economics (although corporations know better, which explains their lavish expenditures on advertising); as well as game theory, which supposedly prevents nuclear war from breaking out; and politics.
Political scientists (and some psychologists) are fond of proving that people “vote their interests” by the simple, circular expedient of defining a subject’s true interests as whatever they opt for. It is time for a sweeping reevaluation of this canard.
In 2016, American farmers voted by a margin of between 3 and 4 to 1 in favor of Donald Trump over the Democrat. This happened in spite of the fact that he told them in clear and unmistakable terms that he would, if elected, ignite a trade war with their most lucrative export market. Further, he would cut off their supply of the low cost, often undocumented labor needed for fruit and vegetable picking as well as beef, pork, and poultry processing.
As a result, farm income is down, even though the income calculation includes the Market Facilitation Program, money extorted from the rest of us to reward Trump’s political base. Farm bankruptcies have soared. There is alleged evidence (not quantified by polling) that “farmers are losing their patience” amid mealy-mouthed equivocating from farm belt, GOP-elected officials over Trump’s latest tariff threats.
For now, though, it appears that farmers are sticking with Trump. If his electoral margin among them should even fall to 2½ to 1 in 2020, Democrats will think of it as a miraculous breakthrough. The bulk of farmers would likely prefer to go down in whatever fate decides will be America’s functional equivalent of the rubble of Berlin.
Item. For decades, American religious fundamentalists have ceaselessly worked to poison whole departments of knowledge – from geology to history to herpetology – with ignorance and disinformation. All of this in the service of a project to turn the country into a living tableau of The Handmaid’s Tale.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Apocalypse. They seem to have dropped Jesus altogether as the ostensible object of their adoration and instead became a cult of the Antichrist. Every single sin they claimed to revile—adultery, fornication, false witness, the Mephistophelean sin of overweening pride—is now embodied in their new god incarnate, Donald Trump.
Like Lucifer, he led them to the mountaintop and offered them the world if they would but bow down to him. And they obediently dropped like ninepins.
Ecclesiastical dervishes like Jerry Falwell, Jr., Franklin Graham, and Robert Jeffress seem to be working out the theology to replace Jesus in the holy trinity with Donald Trump. And the faithful lap it all up like bulimics at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
* * *
How in the world did we get here? Journalist Kurt Andersen, writing in his abundantly detailed Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, believes craziness was baked into the American cake from the moment the Mayflower hove to at Plymouth Rock. Whether the holy man was Cotton Mather, P.T. Barnum, or Deepak Chopra, Americans have been primed to believe with the faith of a five-year-old in Santa Claus. That said, he posits that there were cycles of remission, when rationality was apparently on top, and then outbreaks of fever, when the passion burned with naked flame. The latter applies to an age like this.
My own pet theory is that American craziness, while always abundant, was relatively contained until 9/11, which opened a Pandora’s Box of hysterical fear, one of the basic ingredients of irrationality. It was quickly followed by the invasion of Iraq, which unloosed an avalanche of vaunting that we were endowed with special powers to remake the world. Note an essential component of stupidity: we retaliated for 9/11 by invading a country which had nothing to do with it.
On the heels of the mournful realization that remaking the Middle East wasn’t all it was cracked up to be came the financial crash of 2008, a folly of such greed and wishful thinking that it pushed a sizable portion of the public, already emotionally labile from the previous two shocks, right over the edge. Everything that followed, like the birther mania, was a signal flare that the Republican Party and its assorted hangers-on had devolved from merely being a pack of cynical crooks to full-dress nihilistic cultists.
All of this was supercharged by the Internet, right-wing talk radio, and Fox News – media nonexistent during previous bouts of mania. They acted as an electronic petri dish to purify and amplify the craziness.
We are now seeing the infection of lunacy on full display, like the alien monster in John Carpenter’s The Thing bursting out of its human hosts. Where exactly it will all end is anyone’s guess, but the odds are not good that it will end well.
Geopolitics
America is not a lone region full of “special” people like the American Nationalists want to believe. It is part of the mechanism that is humanity. And when the cog in the machine breaks, the machine stops working.
Geopolitics revolves around national economic might and during the historical era of Modernity economic might was always procured by capital and the products and services that it offers. These products and services generate the national income which allow a nation to spend on bettering its peoples’ lives and/or on military means to submit other nations or to defend from such submission.
One thing is clear. The West, over the last 200 years, has been selling the most advanced products and this gained it the largest national incomes.
But, you do know, that the West decided not to share the wealth with its citizens.
Instead, it decided to invest in military means to submit other nations.
Yah. And it worked.
The West was hegemonic for all this time.
America was the leader and the rest of the world bowed on bended knee to America. Most did not like it. Most did not care for it. Most actually despised it. But they were powerless to do anything about it.
But things have suddenly turned lately.
China is now at the core of the factory of the world. It is at the core of the East-Asian supply-chain. And no East-Asian country would dare detach itself from this chain because its national economy would immediately collapse.
I mean, at the exception of ideological bull-dogs like Australia’s Morrison, everyone recognizes the hard reality that dominates the Geopolitical scene of this 1st half of the 21th century.
Morrison and Trump; ideological brothers.
After it had lost the Yeltsin opportunity…
…of a near infinite supply of energy and resources…
…the West abruptly awoke to the shift of the center of gravity of the economy-world from its shores to East-Asia.
The Geo-Political world got enraged as Trump so well demonstrated for the whole world to see.
But the fact is that the American empire has lost its clothes :
American GDP
By all accounts America's GDP is largely inflated and the reality is that it could easily be half the size of what is announced officially (see hedonic adjustments)
Finance vs. Manufacturing
American production is no longer its core activity. Financial shenanigans are now what accounts for the bulk of its GDP.
Technology
Technologically the US has fallen from its pedestal and has now to reckon with the emergence of China as a technological leader. This explains why the US is now panicking and literally copying Chinese political economics while drafting new legislation ordering the state to invest 150 billion in the technological development of its national champions…
GDP Growth is an illusion
American GDP growth over the last 40 years was generated exclusively by the injection of new money in the form of new debts. During the last year US total debt increased by one third the size of GDP ! . This is not just unsustainable it is pushing the can down the road until a reckoning is imposed by the facts…
Destruction of the American workforce
The incomes of the 99% have been stagnating and even sinking for at least 50% of them and this explains the sheer social misery that litters the land of the free.
Balkanization
In the meantime the cohesion of the USA has been tanking and today US society is completely atomized as was so well demonstrated during its handling of Covid-19. Societal atomization means that the country is now unable to act as one unity. Each time it wants to undertake something the country shreds itself into multiple pieces going their own directions all at once. This is the best recipe to lose a war… the military knows that darn well and it wants to avoid that price !
So what we observe today is much noise and theater but very little really consequent actions.
But observers of the Geopolitical scene make a whole lot of this theater…
It will, without any doubt, take some time for the dust to settle but the outcome is now unavoidable for the following reasons :
1. Economic Shifts are in process. They cannot be stopped. By all accounts the shift of the economy world is irreversible and will further amplify going forward
2. The current global supply chain is fixed. The West does no longer have what it takes financially, nor societally, to set up an independent supply-chain. In other words it is forced to compose with East-Asia and more particularly with China.
3. China is gargantuan. By all accounts China’s economy is soon going to pass the size of the US economy in dollar terms and it will pass the combined West soon thereafter.
4. The world will continue without America. The internationalist wing, among Western big capital holders, wants to share in the profits generated by the Juggernaut China and by East-Asia. It is thus no longer going to sit passively when a Western political servant has a mental breakdown. Diplomacy will thus be forced to make a come-back soon.
In the meantime a last ditch propaganda effort is being made by the nationalist wing among big capital holders to try to cover China under a thick layer of dirt. But facts are necessarily going to emerge that will soon turn the tables on them.
5. China will grow to megalithic size and power. If it were not for “the Great Convergence of Late-Modernity” in the near future China’s economy should reach multiple times the size of the combined Western economies.
6. Convergences. The Great Convergence of Late-Modernity is the convergence of the following series of complex factors :
The multiple side-effects of Modernity are converging toward each other and starting to unleash all kinds of feed-back loops that are accelerating the die-off of life on earth. Many biologists, and complex-systems analysts, are warning that humanity’s activities are approaching a threshold after which the world natural systems will shift one after another outside of the bandwidth of life. Climate change is but one among this multitude of side-effects…
The present shift of the economy-world outside, of the realm of the Western civilization, is unleashing a mental breakdown on the West. And it will be extremely difficult for it to regain its composure and face the facts that are responsible for what is transforming into a real predicament for humanity.
The predicament of humanity is that to survive it has to abandon its present societal paradigm (the reason that is at work within capital) and adopt a new one (the reason that is at work within life).
. Grillades, pronounced “gree-ahds,” are little medallions of pounded-thin steak smothered in a tomato gravy. Typically served over a bed of grits, grillades are a popular brunch dish, but there are no rules saying you can’t eat them for dinner, too. Though Louisiana natives tend to make them at home, there’s a great version on the brunch menu at Café Adelaide in New Orleans.
Selections from Godfree Roberts’ extensive weekly newsletter: Here Comes China.
The expectation expressed by Russia and China is…
…that the US is no longer stable…
…and is becoming dysfunctional…
…and a bigger problem than what is worth to prop up.
A retreat, a crash, or a type of retrenchment from the world is imminent.
Russia and China. Top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev co-chaired the 16th round of strategic security consultations. This is a high-level meeting focusing on strategic cooperation in confronting both regional and global security and geopolitical threats. Or, in other words, “what to do about America and it’s war-loving-neocons”.
Quote:
China and Russia held a new round of strategic security consultations on Tuesday in Moscow, and during the frequent interactions between the two major powers in recent months.
The world has showed a dangerous trend of disorder or tensions in some regions, including the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Western Pacific.
All, and everyone, due to global strategic shifts made by the US,
Quote:
So Beijing and Moscow must keep close coordination to handle the upcoming situation.
Including how to establish a new order.
This new order will replace the US-dominated one.
This will occur once the latter gets totally dysfunctional.
Quote:
Chinese analysts said that the recent change has been generally caused by the decline of US hegemony.
Not only will the US pressure and hostility push China and Russia to stand closer...
... but the decline in Washington’s strength and influence (in some regions)...
... will also make Beijing and Moscow consider how (to figure out new regional order) to stabilize the situation and protect their interests after the US pullout.
The similar remarks made by China and Russia toward the US is a clear signal to the world that the US hegemony will no longer be tolerated.
The world order dominated by the US and its allies is unable to keep stability in many regions.
This failure of American order is causing more tensions and conflicts.
Weapons and nukes
We understand at the Saker Blog, that Russia has the weapons complexes and the ability to defend itself even in this climate of withdrawal from the many weapons treaties.
We also know that the US tried to force China to attend Nuclear Proliferation or Reduction talks with the US, up to the point of staging a meeting to pretend that China did not turn up.
The world has accepted that China had not done a major weapons build-out up to now, and if they did, it was muted. For decades, China only maintained the smallest nuclear weapons array.
This may be changing in front of our eyes.
After both Trump and Biden running all sorts of openly hostile efforts full-spectrum against China, a wise China, would ramp up production of MAD (Mutually Assured destruction) armories to counter any American aggressive action.
My post published on Chinese social media: As the US is crazily implementing containment strategy toward China, China must intensify building its nuclear deterrence. Here is the translation. pic.twitter.com/shJHXUJ5FX
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) May 28, 2021
Those that follow China and its news closely understand that if Hu Xijin says something like this, or writes a column such as this, the build-out of a Chinese nuclear deterrence is in full swing.
In the midst of these happenings, Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon papers leaked another top secret document. One that he had worked on, and kept secret for 50 years. Parts of it were obtainable but not the full document.
He drops a powerful warning of the present threat of nuclear war with Russia and China.
Here’s his thoughts…
Daniel Ellsberg: This Month We Must Discuss If We Should Go to Nuclear War Over Taiwan, Ukraine or Syria
The 1958 nuke China over Taiwan project was really quite amazing. The Pentagon wasn’t even ‘defending’ Taiwan, they wanted to do it over small islands held by the Chiang Kai-shek regime just 5 miles from mainland China. A classic bully move, ‘I have the right to punch you because you let your shadow touch me!’
——————————————————————————————————————
“Celebrated whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg, … now age 90…
… used the occasion of the April 30-May 1 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his release of the Pentagon Papers…
…in an event organized by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst…
… to reveal that John Foster Dulles had proposed in 1958 that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend to the President of the USA…
…that a nuclear exchange with China be launched in the Taiwan Straits.
Even though that would mean that Taiwan and its people would be wiped out completely.
The reason being for the sole geopolitical purpose of maintaining the United States “position” in the world.
I’m getting hungry
Right now I am drinking my favorite Shiraz wine from Australia and eating nuts, but still my stomach is a grumbling. I know that I can get some noodles, some rice, some dumplings, but really I am “hankering” (desiring) some delicious chicken. Whether it is BBQ or fully cooked.
You know, people in different areas cook chicken differently.
I grew up on Polish Hill in Pittsburgh that cooked the chicken in the oven with bacon on the top until the chicken was well done. A comparative cooking method in China is to cook it in mud, and the the chicken some out all moist and tender but well cooked. But here in the Southern section of China in the Guangzhou corridor, they like he chicken nearly raw with lots of exposed fat and grizzle. Not really to my liking.
I once had a Polish engineer visiting one of my factories and once he tasted the mud baked chicken, he devoured the entire bird. He sore that it reminded him of how his grandmother cooked chicken.
BBQ chicken.
Why have another world war?
“The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis, A Documented History,” Ellsberg quoted Dulles’s message to the meeting:
“Nothing seems worth a world war … until you looked at the effect of not standing up to its challenge.”
The RAND study explained that
“the issue then was, would we, as the joint chiefs, recommend the use of nuclear weapons to defend Quemoy, and Matsu, and Taiwan.
And possibly use seven- to ten-kiloton weapons with the expectation that … the Soviets would respond and would hit Taiwan.”
Why have a war?
Finally:
“Let them try to jail me for disclosing this still-top secret fact today,”
Ellsberg declared, adding that he was revealing the secret because,
“I have no doubt whatever, that that discussion is going on in the Pentagon right now…. This is the month we have to be discussing the issue, in public, of whether we should go to nuclear war over Taiwan, or Ukraine, or Syria.”
“Although the circumstances surrounding the U.S.-China conflict over Taiwan have changed dramatically since that stage of the Cold War, the 1958 Taiwan crisis provides a sobering lesson as the US military gears up for a new military confrontation with China.”
Of course the western and specifically the US provocative and unintelligent statements via their media containment complex continue. It is what Andrei Martyanov calls “a very acute case of a bipolar disorder .
When driving through Acadiana (aka Cajun country), you likely won’t be able to miss highway billboards advertising boudin at the next butcher shop or gas station — and you’d be foolish not to pull over. Handed to you still steamy, boudin is made from all those good, unctuous spare pork parts, which get mixed with rice and spices and stuffed into a casing. A local obsession, it’s best tried at Best Stop market in Scott, La. The casing can be thick and chewy, so you’re better off squeezing out the filling. While you’re at Best Stop, be sure to order a boudin ball — its fried-orb cousin — too.
Pentagon Special Forces nominee says US should ‘strongly consider’ training Taiwanese guerillas against ‘Chinese invasion’
Whether it is Taiwan, or Xinjiang or Hong Kong or any other area where propaganda can be manufactured, the US mighty Wurlitzer continues.
This is then the summary of the situation today:
Ellsberg warns that the same talks that happened 50 years ago to possibly strike China with nuclear weapons is no doubt happening in the Pentagon today.
Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev states that Russia and China must coordinate in order to establish a new order to replace the US-domination, once the latter gets totally dysfunctional.
China is mass producing hyper-velocity MIRV ICBM’s armed with massive warheads in a frantic pace.
Pentagon Insiders are horrified by the discussions and all warn that not only would America lose a war, but that could be destroyed and subjugated to an unfathomable degree.
Given the stature of Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev, I would consider the above some of the most significant moves in the world today. There are those who reason that as the US-dominated world order gets more dysfunctional, the urge for them to use nuclear weapons will become stronger. I will leave this here for you to make up your own mind and comment on what you see.
Moves around SARS–CoV-2 and its progeny Covid-19 and more leaks
There is also the major US accusation that Covid-19 was a lab leak and China is responsible. Yet China has no history of creating these kinds of bioweapons (if indeed it was created as such) but the US has a rich history of creating and using such weapons.
The acceleration of blaming China with respect to the virus is proportional to the financial and economic collapse of the west.
What west fails to understand is demonising China won't prevent its own collapse.
— The Sirius Report (@thesiriusreport) May 29, 2021
So why do we always say that Americans are effectively the most brainwashed people in the world?
Take a look at what happened to information similar to the Daniel Elsberg Pentagon Papers Leak…
…and his current leak of nuclear planning against China even to the point of demolishing and sacrificing Taiwan.
Godfree Roberts took a specific document and updated and annotated it for clarity. This is called The ISC (Needham) Report.
Published at the height of the Korean War, it validated claims by North Korea and China that the US had launched bacteriological warfare (biological warfare, BW) attacks against both troops and civilian targets in those two countries over a period of several months in 1952.
The cleaned up, updated and annotated version is available for Kindle on Amazon for a small amount here. , And a free copy (not very readable) is available here
If you wonder why the Americans have not seen this, or have not known about it, this will give you all the information…
The traditional Monday night meal of red (kidney) beans dates back to the 19th century, when the ladies of the house did laundry every Monday while the beans slow-cooked in a pot all day. It’s still a popular Monday night tradition, even if we stopped doing our laundry quite so regularly. The beans are served on a bed of rice and with the almost mandatory bottle of hot sauce. The best place to eat some is right at home, but the Creole Lunch House in Lafayette — open only for lunch — is also worth the trip.
Jeffrey Kaye says:
If you ask anyone in Cajun country, cochon de lait is French for “a pig still sucking on his mama.” (Outsiders know this creature as a suckling pig.) When cooked over a raging wood-fueled fire for hours, this pig becomes juicy, tender pulled pork. Many people have their first cochon de lait experience at Jazz Fest from Walker’s Southern Style BBQ, where the lines never die down. Thankfully, you can go to their smokehouse at any time of year for their Cochon de Lait Po’ Boy (and you should).
Secular vs. Traditional Values
An more than interesting visual for thoughts and reflection : the 2020 Inglehart–Welzel cultural map of the world by political scientists Ronald Inglehart (April, 2021) and Christian Welzel.
Some current geopolitical tensions can be seen through the distances on this map. One can imagine that this survey visual is significantly subject to change these days, through among others economic developments, political and media-psychological movements. Some triggered to find more distance towards corners while others moving towards centers and clusters.
My thought would be a map how much do different countries learn from each other in terms of values, followed by communication, society and governance. Might it not be that self-expression, traditional values have a harder time accepting other ways, even if it would be to the advantage of the actual practice and policy ??
It is noteworthy that today’s tensions are caused by differences in values, not by models such as capitalism or communism, not by economies.
Cross cultural awareness and mutual learnings with psycho-political projections/reflections is what counts for 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘 towards a better and fairer future.
Everything is going crazy in America today
Consider the collapse of the remaining American companies. A this article clearly demonstrates.
The world is in flux. If that sounds like another virus, it certainly feels like it on some days. Most of us have been pivoting so fast to adjust we are simply falling over from dizziness. Are we still resilient if we refuse to get back on a twirling carousel? Sometimes it feels like we are moving too fast to even see the brass ring, let alone grab it. Rubbing a Buddha belly is a calmer alternative. No pivoting needed. A friendly little rub, smile and breathe…
Peace is not a commodity for politicians. Despite past and current events, it’s not an item up for sale. Media rushes us from one regurgitated opinion to the next, parading it as news. Things to “like” or “follow” directed by Google algorithms and data mining. Our worlds narrowed through complex AI that doesn’t yet understand the randomness of human thought. The internet that previously opened the world, has become a political and marketing tool making our personal worlds smaller and smaller. The informational windows to other worlds, ideas, and ways of living get lost in advert hit scores.
Believing “our” world is the whole world is a slippery slide into the mud of bigotry and intolerance. And, rudeness! I for one, am missing Miss Manners. Poor thing crashed off stage faster than she could run out with her walker. Slander and Libel grabbed their wigs running for the exit without waiting for Justice to keep up. Nobody was holding the door open for anyone.
Maybe being our “true and transparent” selves needs a few hard check stops. A different kind of “wokeness” that embraces the idea of getting along for the benefit of everyone in society. Why do manners matter in our changing world? Nobody cares if the fork is different for salad or meat, when you’re hungry, it’s just a damn fork getting food in your mouth.
Manners and civility need a comeback. For all our sakes. If someone holds the door open, it doesn’t matter whether the door-holder is a man or, woman. I don’t feel my ability to open a door is in question. It’s just a nice gesture. Manners are a code of actions for consideration, respect and, grace. An acknowledgment of another, human. It is the foundation for a functioning society, of being -humane.
Why is the American leadership so against people living their lives and being happy ? It seems like they have a mental disorder and re surrounded by sycophants who also share the same disorder.
No need to spout false positive “thank-you’s” or to pretend you like something you don’t. We can still be transparent and true to ourselves while respecting the space and ideas of others.
Corporate America, is having a hard time in the pandemic as workers are quitting their jobs in droves. Walking resolutely away from environments that are now recognized as “toxic”. Previously “normal” work environments that lacked basic respect for employees. This attitude caused historical business losses of over $250 billion dollars per year. Which begs the question, how much can companies afford to lose, before it hurts enough to change? Giants like Amazon and TJX have been churning people for years without regard for basic human dignity or, respect. Dudes have no manners.
25 states have officially cut the extra $300 of Federal unemployment aid. In a sad display of very bad manners and name-calling, they claim a mere $300 is stopping people from working. With a Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, people can’t afford to work. Not only is this 100% below what is needed today for a living wage, but in addition, employees are treated like disposable trash as companies rake in billions of dollars in clear profit.
Yes, corporate America, backed by an embedded political system, is screaming. They are furious that the pandemic has shown them with their pants down. The “you can’t live without us” myth has been broken. The truth is, corporate America can’t work without employees. And, workers are now “woke” and demanding what they deserve. Respect, a living wage, and more importantly, as 3 in 5 refuse to return to the “office”, an environment that is not toxic. Where humanity is not just displayed as a pretty mission statement but transparently practiced with good manners.
My Mexican mocha coffee at Kaflex Roasters came with heart layered in. This small business survived the 2020 pandemic devastation. Why? Customers and employees agreed; it’s a pleasure to be here. It feels “real”. Kindness and respect mix with the smell of ground coffee beans, people smile at each other. “Good morning” and “thank-you” are genuine, not HR-directed practices. Good manners spread, a virus of consideration and kindness toward the stranger next to you in line. Everything seems to work better and the day is a little brighter.
It’s time for corporate and political America to wake up and “smell the coffee”. We, The People want a Better America.
One based in good manners. Humane, inclusive and transparent practices for the good of everyone in our society. We want a clear agenda of change that includes workers’ rights and protections. A legal system that has equality and justice-directed enforcements. Affordable education. Respect.
America is barely 246 years old. Our version of democracy is an evolving experiment. It’s time for the system to pivot again. Time for both politicians and corporations to say “thank you” and hold the door open for their workers. It’s time. Make America Better.
But when and while the USA collapses, the rest of the world continues and are all ready to fill the vacuum that the USA leaves behind.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted an exercise near the island of Taiwan on Monday with the largest number of warplanes ever recorded, which could be a rehearsal of a reunification-by-force operation, again sending a clear warning to Taiwan secessionists and the US that have been making provocative moves to escalate tensions in the region, Chinese mainland experts said on Tuesday.
A US aircraft carrier exited the South China Sea via waters south of the island of Taiwan also on Monday, a region close to the PLA warplane exercise. And analysts said the PLA displayed the capability of driving away foreign forces interfering in the Taiwan question.
Twenty-five PLA aircraft, namely two Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, one KJ-500 early warning aircraft, four J-10 and 14 J-16 fighter jets, and four H-6K bombers, entered Taiwan's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone on Monday, the island's defense authorities said late that day.
The number of PLA warplanes featured in the exercise was a record since Taiwan's defense authorities began to release information about PLA aircraft activities in the region on September 17, 2020, surpassing the previous record of 20 on March 26. The number of J-16s, a powerful fighter jet, was also the biggest of all exercises, media on the island said on Monday.
The exercise conducted by the PLA served as a warning to Taiwan secessionists and the US after the two had made a series of provocative moves, mainland analysts said.
On Saturday, the US Department of State announced new guidelines to encourage US government engagement with the island that reflects their "deepening unofficial relationship." Officials on the island recently also claimed that the island is drawing a line 30 nautical miles away from the island, attempting to deny PLA aircraft approaches.
Monday's exercise was characterized by the large number of aircraft, and as the PLA deepens its regular, combat-scenario drills near the island of Taiwan, the scale could continue to expand in the future. As this is normal, related parties should get used to it if they insist on provoking, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese mainland military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Taiwan's secessionist forces and the US must stop making provocations unless they hope to see further escalations in the region, mainland experts warned, noting that the PLA is taking pragmatic steps to make sure it can effectively reunify the island of Taiwan if it comes to that.
The exercise could be a rehearsal of its combat plan over the Taiwan island, and it could feature air superiority seizure, and attack on land and maritime targets, including warships of interfering foreign countries, Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
PLA's Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft target foreign submarines, the KJ-500 commands the battlefield, the H-6Ks attack maritime and land targets, the J-10s seize air superiority, while the J-16s plays a multirole of both aerial combat and attack, Song said.
Coinciding with the PLA's warplane exercise, the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which held a series of drills in the South China Sea in the past week, left the South China Sea via south of the Taiwan island on the same day, according to the monitoring of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a Beijing-based think tank, on Monday.
Overlying the flight paths of PLA warplanes released by Taiwan's defense authorities and the movement of the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier released by SCSPI, observers said they were not far away from each other.
Citing analysts on the island of Taiwan, Taipei-based Central News Agency reported on Monday that the PLA warplanes likely simulated attacks on the US aircraft carrier.
Fu said that the PLA has been conducting daily exercises in the region, and it is the US warships' presence that is irregular. "If they pose potential threats to China's national security, we will surely take countermeasures, including monitoring," he said.
The PLA is rightfully responsible to safeguard peace and stability in the region when foreign warships and warplanes stir up tensions and make provocations, Fu said.
Similar exercises demonstrated that the PLA is capable of cutting off foreign interventions in the Taiwan region if the situation arises, as it has a powerful aerial combat system to drive away foreign maritime forces, including aircraft carrier strike groups, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Tuesday.
China’s Artificial Sun Just Smashed a Fusion World Record
China’s “artificial sun” tokamak has sustained a plasma reaction for a whopping 101 seconds at 120 million degrees Celsius, setting new records in the field of nuclear fusion. The breakthrough could pave the way for a carbon-neutral energy future.
EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak), or HT-7U, is a custom-built fusion reactor that has operated in different phases since 2006. Like many of the world’s tokamak experiments, EAST has reached fusion before. As a refresher, inside the donut-shaped (or, sometimes, more spherical) containment of a tokamak, sun-hot plasma swirls in a circle that’s held in place by supercooled electromagnets.
This magnetic field is the only thing floating between 360-million-degree plasma and a bunch of human-made materials that obviously can’t sustain that temperature. The plasma results from smashing different nuclei together, fusing them rather than splitting them.
This requires a huge energy investment, which critics say means fusion will never really get off the ground. And so far, all tokamaks work for just a scant few seconds at lower temperatures before something goes wrong.
This is why EAST—which just properly “turned on” last December—running for 101 seconds at 120 million Celsius is such a huge deal. It’s a double whammy: a very long runtime at an extraordinarily high temperature. In 2018, the tokamak reached 180 million degrees Fahrenheit, or about 82 million degrees Celsius. But back then, EAST could only sustain the plasma for around 10 seconds.
That’s not hot enough or long enough, but 120 million degrees Celsius and 101 seconds, which EAST achieved in late May, certainly are. So, this is a record for both the required power-generating temperature and the duration for keeping the temperature at a stable level.
As for other high-profile reactors around the world, the U.K.’s MAST reactor recently made headlines with a new exhaust system that reduces heat 10 times better than its predecessor. In the meantime, the global International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is on track to build the hugest tokamak ever, with first plasma projected in 2030. Each experimental reactor has goals to help push technology forward to help all the others.
The future of EAST could involve lessons learned by ITER, Korea’s KSTAR reactor (which held the previous fusion record), MAST, and even private tokamak researchers that are chipping away at the major obstacles to fusion energy. All have the same goal: to sustain an extremely hot reaction and keep their equipment safely running for as long as possible.
Gosh! All of this stuff about society, and culture really makes me hunger for some fine Louisianian cooking!
Do you all have any idea what I am in the mood for? I am yearning for something like this…
Some fine Southern American food.
I’ll bet you that you don’t. I’ll bet that you are thinking something like steak, a find hamburger, or some pizza or lasagna. Nope. That’s not what I am yearning for.
I know that many Americans in the audience don’t “get it”. But that’s because everyone can get mashed potatoes, corn, and cheesy elbows. But not here. they are special treats. Not to mention deep fried catfish and chicken.
If you have the ability to eat this fine, but basic food, then do so. I think that it’s wonderful. It’s delicious and wonderful and the smells and the taste are wonderful.
Do you wonder why China is asking serious questions?
Beijing called on the US to explain a respiratory disease outbreak in northern Virginia in July, 2019 and a large-scale outbreak of e-cigarette disease in Wisconsin.
“When will the US release detailed data and information on relevant cases to the international community? The United States owes an explanation to the international community.”
Can you imagine what will happen if China is kinetically attacked?
A big part of the US industrial base is now in China.
The US would be attacking its own sources of food, commodities, and its own supply chain.
Looking at Elsberg’s ‘warning’ is this not a spectacular example of insane short-term thinking?
To end this section, taking the previous summary and adding one point, it looks like this:
Ellsberg warns that the same talks that happened 50 years ago to possibly strike China with nuclear weapons is no doubt happening in the Pentagon today. Is the Ellsberg warning more serious than what we think?
Yang Jiechi and Nikolai Patrushev states that Russia and China must coordinate in order to establish a new order to replace the US-dominated one, once the latter gets totally dysfunctional.
China is mass producing hyper-velocity MIRV ICBM’s armed with massive warheads in a frantic pace.
Pentagon Insiders are horrified by the discussions and all warn that not only would America lose a war, but that could be destroyed and subjugated to an unfathomable degree.
The US has clearly and unequivocally used bioweapons (even excluding Vietnam), in the past, and hidden this.
Conclusion: Unfortunately the mindset has not changed and the actions have not changed since the time described in both the Ellsberg report, or the reveals of the Needham report. This is currently the danger and is what we mean by doubling-down.
But I’m not done about Louisiana food…
Throughout the deep American South people eat this kind of food called BBQ. But you know, it must be the most misunderstood BBQ in America. In Boston, for instance a BBQ sandwich was nothing more than cold sliced ham and BBQ sauce. Ugh!
When in actuality, it’s really slow cooked brisket served on a hot toasty bun just dripping and oozing with delicious and tasty sauce.
I could use one right now.
Mississippi style BBQ.
Maybe with an icy beer.
Or two.
Another Cajun roadside specialty, cracklins, are Louisiana’s version of pork rinds. Fatty pork bits that puff up into something special, these savory morsels provide some crunchy bites, some chewy bites and some melty edges. It’s an altogether beautiful experience, especially when it happens at Don’s Specialty Meats in Scott, La. These are the ultimate road-trip snack.
I remember going on work related travel to different factories throughout the Southern American states. AN we would make a point to stop at the various BBQ place sand sample their food. The BBQ varied regionally from place to place. All were just great! Just simply great!
Following on from the last China Sitrep, we have banking news, a cute helicopter and drone soccer.
E-Hang’s electric VT-30 travels 300km in 100 minutes. With eight propellers, two fixed wings, and a propeller at the rear, it achieves a balance of hybrid lift and push, so needs no runway. Its tri-redundant, fly-by-wire controls can be flexibly altered for multiple modes, implying a much higher safety level for the aircraft. Read full article →
Chinese scientists set a new world record of achieving a plasma temperature of 120 million degrees Celsius for 101 seconds in the latest experiment on Friday, a key step toward the test running of a fusion reactor. Read full article →
China dominates consumer and commercial drones globally, and 369 exhibitors showcased 2,000 drone products in Shenzen this week. Mini drones the size of a wristwatch hovered next to cargo drones like four-seater planes. Kids played 3v3 drone soccer before a crowd of adoring parents. Read full article →
(They also say they need a million drone pilots!)
The Maglev trains are just running faster: A groundbreaking ceremony launched a 620 mph maglev test line. The train uses superconducting magnetic levitation to disengage from the ground to eliminate frictional drag and a near-vacuum internal duct lines to dramatically reduce air resistance to achieve its speed. Read full article →
European BRI Rail Freight rose 100% in 2020. Austria’s Rail Cargo Group (RCG) transported 70,000 TEUs across BRI routes and, compared to 2019, doubled its Eurasian volumes and reached an all-time high of 700 trains running on these routes, This year, the company aims to run 1,000 freight trains. Read full article →
Oh, gumbo. Served from a big ol’ pot, it’s the kind of food that warms your heart, your soul and your belly, all at the same time. It starts with a roux, the flavorful base of fat and flour, which gets added to the holy trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery). From there, gumbo can go in many directions, most popularly chicken and sausage or a seafood medley. Around Easter, there’s a special bowl of Gumbo Z’Herbes served at Dooky Chase’s in New Orleans, made with bright, verdant greens. The rest of the year, you can’t go wrong with the seafood rendition from Li’l Dizzy’s (also in New Orleans), which makes a regular appearance on the lunch buffet (along with killer fried chicken and mac and cheese).
But the USA has signed agreements with the G7 nations to construct an American BRI to go “head to head” with the Chinese BRI.
Show me the money, the G7’s B3W will have a hard time replacing China’s BRI.
Biden and the G7s Build Back Better for the World (B3W) program is going to have a hard time without money and so far no one will say where it will come from.
Finding the massive $40+ tn needed for infrastructure needed in the developing world won’t be easy. The US can’t agree on its own domestic infrastructure spending and how much money can it print for B3?
Comments that the private sector will pay are utter nonsense.
Say what you will China have already funded $4tn in projects. Most importantly, China saw the need in the developing world long before the West.
The real question is where was the G7 for the past decade?
Another major issue is that B3W funds will come with strings attached on democratic values, human rights, climate change, corruption, and the rule of law. Good luck.
In the end it comes down to “Show me the money.”
Cats and Louisiana BBQ.
I used to have cats when I lived in Mississippi and Louisiana, and Texas. But you know, they were always happy to nibble on a piece of sliced brisket or chicken. But over all, my cats were just as happy to eat fish or whatever I had on hand. For them, eating a slice of brisket or a McDonald’s creamer when I brought home a couple of cups of coffee were a real treat. I would drink my coffee, and they would have their creamers. Special times.
Cat eating a hamburger. I used to share my subway sandwiches with my cats. They loved the chicken and the meatball subs.
And this warning is being ignored in the Pentagon. Which is why there are people speaking out warning that the neocons inside of Washington are fucking bat-shit crazy nuts, and America will not survive their arrogance and idiocy.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said China will never allow the island of Taiwan to go independent as Beijing hit back at a US-Japan joint statement which for the first time in half a century mentioned China's Taiwan.
"National reunification of the island of Taiwan and China is a historical process. It will not be stopped by anyone or any force. We will never let Taiwan go independent," Le made the remarks on Friday in an interview with the Associated Press.
Asked if there was any timeline for the reunification and if the current situation could continue to exist for many years, Le stressed that "it's a process of history."
Le said China is firmly committed to safeguarding national sovereignty, security and promoting national reunification. "We are prepared to do everything we can for a peaceful reunification. That said, we don't pledge to give up other options. No option is excluded."
Le's remarks comes amidst the recent provocation from the US and Japan's joint statement.
The direct mentioning of Taiwan was regarded as a severe interference in China's domestic affairs and sends a signal that Japan and the US are attempting to challenge China's possible moves to reunification.
Chinese analysts said the US and Japan's move will only send the wrong signal to the Taiwan separatists and allow the DPP to go further down the wrong path.
Le stressed the one-China principle is China's red line and no one should try to cross it, whether low-level or high-level, official engagement is what China firmly opposes.
"The Taiwan question bears on China's core interests. There is simply no room for compromise," the Chinese vice foreign minister noted.
CIPS is proceeding without delay
Maybe SWIFT will collapse upon itself.
China ramped up its Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and set up clearing banks at all major offshore yuan trading hubs, like Hong Kong, Singapore, London, and Frankfurt. The CIPS clearing system operates during work hours of financial markets in every time zone.
Russia does not expect impossible outcomes from the upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden in Geneva, and the two sides are unlikely to resolve important issues at the meeting, Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov told the Global Times in an exclusive interview.
The ambassador noted that if the two leaders talk about issues related to China during their meeting, Russia will discuss them with the Chinese side. He stressed that Russia-China relations will not change no matter what attitude the US takes toward Russia.
Putin and Biden are set to meet in Geneva on June 16, the first meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office.
Some analysts believed that during their first bilateral meeting, Biden and Putin will discuss topics including strategic stability, disarmament, ecology, COVID-19 and conflicts in hot spots.
Denisov told the Global Times that Russia welcomes any measures that reduce tensions and competition, but they are also very cautious about what they can expect from Russian-American relations, especially in the context of the very tense relationship between the two countries.
He said Russia is a "realist" and does not expect impossible outcomes, and the summit is not likely to resolve important issues between the two countries. A better outcome is one that sets conditions for resolving problems in the future, said the diplomat.
Media reports showed that while the upcoming summit is seen by some analysts as an "ice-breaking" opportunity to reshape US-Russia relations, the two sides have been talking tough to each other and sending signals to lower external expectations ahead of the summit. Biden vowed to be tough with Russia and press it on human rights, while Putin has said he does not expect any breakthroughs from his meeting with US counterpart.
Some analysts pointed out that while it would be hard to break the ice in US-Russia relations, the US should stabilize relations and ease tensions with Russia so as to concentrate on dealing with China. As a result, the Geneva meeting may become an opportunity to lobby Russia.
In response to this view, Denisov told the Global Times that the idea that Russia would alienate China over the possibility of the US temporarily easing tensions with Russia is "very short-sighted."
"Russia is smarter than Americans think," he said.
The diplomat said that during the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to China and the visit of Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, to Russia, both sides discussed US topics. If the US and Russia talk about issues related to China during the upcoming summit, the Russian side will also communicate and discuss it with China.
Idiocracy: Flawed comedy or terrifyingly prescient science fiction?
It should be no surprise to anyone that our culture is rapidly drowning in lowbrow media. The perception that as a race we are being worryingly dumbed-down is not something new. Is this gradual intellectual decline something we can stop? Or is it the inevitable trajectory of our current society? One film that has managed to stay relevant seven years after release is Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s satirical take on our dumbed-down future. But for a comedy that was a little low on laughs for my liking, why has it caused such controversy and managed to stay in the public consciousness so long? And should we be worried that this film is accurately predicting our future?
The funny side of idiocy
Idiocracy manages to have a sense of humour about the potential bleakness of our shared stupidity-induced future. Mike Judge’s 2006 comedy Idiocracy did just that, though was sadly overlooked at the time of its release. The film isn’t Judge’s best, with the comedy often falling a little flat. Idiocracy couldn’t possibly hold a torch to Judge’s Office Space (1999). The core idea behind Idiocracy is what makes it worthy of remembering: a satirical view of Earth’s future where everyone is incredibly stupid. Sounds simple enough, and not too hard to imagine (wait, there’s another reality TV show starting?!). All these years later, this small film is still causing a stir.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this now cult film, the premise is fairly simple. Joe (Luke Wilson) is an average guy, put into stasis as part of a scientific experiment. When the experiment is cancelled, he is forgotten and left in stasis, waking up accidentally 500 years in the future. The future is a bleak one, where the average IQ of the world is worryingly low.
A misunderstood sentiment
According to Matt Novak on Gizmodo’s Paleofuture, the film is an affront for suggesting eugenics is the answer to this potentially dire future, and anyone who enjoys the film should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
Does anyone else think he’s missing the point a little bit? Sorry to disagree with you Matt, but I actually always thought Judge was being satirical. I don’t believe that he ever wanted to argue for eugenics. The rich vs poor set-up is again a deliberate choice, highlighting the prejudiced views of both ends of the economical spectrum. Not, as Novak argues, a simple boiling down of the situation to ‘the intelligent people are wealthy, while the uneducated people are poor.’ I would say that cheating husbands with a dozen kids is just as stereotypical as a frigid, unpleasant, career-driven, rich couple.
Novak claims that the film makes an unhealthy link between wealth and intelligence, but like many satirical films, it uses stereotypes to highlight the issues with that kind of thinking. In other words, Judge is using those precise stereotypes to make a point. Novak’s disgust at the stereotypes being used is entirely missing the point.
Nature vs nurture
The real premise of the film, in my opinion, is an argument for respecting nurture over and above nature. As such, it is in direct opposition to an argument of eugenics. The ‘stupidity’ that has taken hold of the country results in a great wealth of knowledge being lost. It is not the genius scientists, but the more menial labourers and their work that is missed most. Judge’s futuristic world needs mechanics to fix their robotic helpers, bin men and janitors to clean the country, gardeners, builders, etc. Is Judge really bemoaning the loss of the highly intelligent or asking us to look back at the basic pillars that keep our society going?
If you look at the main character’s story arc, the argument for nurture over nature is overtly apparent: you see an average man who was looked down on and not treated with much respect in his own time. When he is re-awakened in the future and found to be more intelligent, the nurturing atmosphere helps him to rise up and do more than he ever could have in the negative environment he was in before. The film is asking us to remember that everyone has potential, and that we need to be supportive of that no matter what their economic circumstances, who their families were, where they came form, etc.
While Idiocracy had a tiny limited release at the cinema back in 2006. Since then, it has found its place as a cultural yardstick for the dumbing down of society. When people bemoan the intellectual lows to which our society has sunk, referencing Idiocracy, I don’t believe that anyone is implying we should employ the use of the discredited science of eugenics. If anything, the film encourages us to always nurture potential, both intellectual and artistic.
A Historical piece from the 2nd World War
The secret deportations: how Britain betrayed the Chinese men who served the country in the war
During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fuelled and safe – and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truth
I like to believe that every problem in the world can be resolved with generous quantities of alcohol, fine delicious food, smiling and happy people, and dogs and cats scurrying about.
Taste of New Orleans : Creole Food.
The world decoupling from the horrible U.S. economy
Well, just how does the world break its dollar habit?
The most clear explanation I ever heard as to why the dollar maintains its global status is really quite straightforward, the U.S. trade deficit. USD’s are constantly filling everyone’s foreign exchange reserve, so almost everyone has these extra dollars to use for trading between themselves.
Sow how does one get rid of this gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe?
Buying treasuries – no, that is investing directly in the USD.
Buying assets in the U.S. – no, same problem as 1, you have assets valued in USD and something the U.S. govt can seize from you.
Buying assets in other countries – dang, you just gave them a boatload of dollars, that stuff is like dark matter.
Buy hard assets in the U.S. and ship it back to China – this is your best bet, buy gold, silver, platinum, or any hard asset and ship it to your vaults, now does the U.S. let you do that?
An article published by Foreign Policy on Tuesday, entitled "China and Russia Turn Deeper Ties into a Military Challenge for Biden," quoted an former US politician as saying the US faces "a two-front war where we don't have a two-front military." This seems to be an emerging possible scenario that is puzzling some American analysts.
On April 14, Reuters published a similar commentary headlined "US faces test on Taiwan, Ukraine," which articulated the concern.
Yet the test is caused by the US itself, thanks to its recklessness in handling major global issues. It is Washington itself which has been stirring up troubles worldwide, rather than resolving crises. Now the tactic is backfiring - Western media are becoming concerned that "rising tension over both Ukraine and Taiwan is putting the Biden administration in a bind," or worse, lead to "a two-front war."
The Taiwan question is China's domestic affair, where the US is not supposed to interfere at all. The Ukraine crisis involves the issue that should be decided by the Ukrainian people. But the US won't cease creating tensions over it.
US political elites have shown little interest in self reflection. More importantly, they attach too much significance to major power geopolitical games. In their eyes, if the US makes concessions over the Ukraine issue, it could result in Russia returning to Europe. In that case, everything Washington has been struggling for over the past 30 years since the end of the Cold War will crumble to dust.
When it comes to Taiwan, the US regards the island, from the military perspective, as a crucial link in its first island chain to contain China. Diplomatically, the US is utilizing the island as leverage to boost secessionist forces in China, in an attempt to split the latter, or launch a "peaceful revolution."
Suppressing Russia and China has been a long tradition in US politics. Apart from former US president Donald Trump, who once attempted to cozy up to Russia, yet failed due to opposition from the Democratic Party, most US presidents tend to pile pressure on both countries. Yet the problem is that the US has found it increasingly difficult to do so.
The US' biggest challenge is at home, not so-called threats from China or Russia. If the US hastily engages in, or creates more external geopolitical tests, while not having resolved its own domestic problems, it will only have its nose rubbed in the dust both at home and abroad, not to mention winning the "battle" on either side.
The US has its own calculations. It is hoping to push the EU to the forefront of the Ukraine crisis, letting the EU invest in more resources while the US could just play a commanding role. In addition, although the US reiterated its support for Ukraine, the latter's top diplomat has been stressing that Ukraine "is looking for more than words," Politico reported on April 13. It means the US' capability is very limited. It is just like the way Washington is dealing with Beijing - trying to establish an anti-China camp with as many allies as possible. If the US believes it can handle the Taiwan question and Ukraine crisis as it wishes, or in other words, China and Russia, at the same time, it has overestimated its strength and wisdom.
The truth is, the US is not confronting two tests, but three. The biggest crisis is from its home affairs. The biggest battlefield for US policymakers is on US soil. The best solution for elites in Washington is to put more energy in focusing on their country's domestic puzzles and stop creating troubles abroad.
Why is the American leadership so out of touch? Are the suck?
And Taiwan…
American neocons are pushing, pushing, pushing for a war regarding Taiwan.
... China remained the top issue on her mind, and on the minds of her fellow Republicans in the room. Haley hammered home that China remained an existential threat to the U.S. and democracies around the world and that government officials there should never be trusted.
Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, building bridges, tunnels and other infrastructure projects in dozens of nations, is nothing more than a ploy to gain influence and power around the world, Haley said.
"What they're doing is they're running out the deck for such a time as this and then waiting for times like COVID. And they say, 'You can't pay it? Now give me your power grid. Now give me your military installation. We want your port.' Now you look at that map - it will send a chill up your spine at what they're trying to do."
Haley also painted a haunting portrait of the war China is waging in cyberspace. Beijing, she said, just adopted a data-security measure that states that all private data is now a national asset.
"Think about the health data they have. Think about the financial data they have. Think about the surveillance actions they have on all of us," Haley said. "Now think that that's in the hands of the Chinese military. The way President Xi sees it is, whoever owns the data rules the world."
Haley was asked by one GOP lawmaker how the U.S. could respond to China when it sells pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and so many cheap goods to America.
"Don't lead with fear. Don't be scared of China. Go after them strong. Go after them aggressively," the former ambassador said.
-Nikki Haley warns Republicans on China: 'If they take Taiwan, it's all over'
American generals say otherwise…
While acknowledging that uniting with Taiwan is a "core interest" for China, Milley signaled that he thought Beijing will pursue such ambitions through peaceful means.
"The internal politics of China are up to China, as long as whatever is done is done peacefully and doesn't destabilize the region nor the world," Milley said.
Milley appeared in front of the committee to discuss the Pentagon's Fiscal 2022 budget request, alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Rachel Esplin Odell, a research fellow in the East Asia Program at the Quincy Institute, said Milley's comments "basically reaffirmed the longstanding U.S. One China Policy, which includes the understanding that the United States supports any peaceful, uncoerced resolution of cross-Strait differences."
"However, a somewhat more accurate statement of longstanding policy would have been that cross-Strait differences are up to both China and Taiwan to resolve peacefully through mutual agreement,"
"Nonetheless, Gen. Milley's comments are, on the whole, a welcome corrective to dangerous rhetoric from some analysts and politicians in Washington that portrays Taiwan as a strategic asset for the United States that must be kept separate from China. It is encouraging that Gen. Milley recognizes that danger," she said.
-Nikkei
What is the USA doing?
All of this isn’t secret information. It’s obvious and only the most deluded sheeple can’t see the build up towards war that the United States is marching towards. Knowing what is spread out before you all, as above. And noting that China and Russia are not fools.
What do you think they are going to do? Wait until the USA does something stupid? Or are they going to take proactive steps to castrate the “mad dog” before it infects the entire world with it’s madness?
I tire of this insanity.
It makes me want to gather up all the lunatics, lock them up in cages and bury them deep deep down in a place that they cannot harm themselves, or anyone around them.
But on the bright side there is China.
And China is doing well, they know what is going on. They are strong and formidable. And no matter what crazy-assed plans the Idiocracity world of America might think up, China is there to deal with them promptly.
American leadership in Washington DC as depicted in the movie Idiocracity.
I hope you enjoyed this visit in news that is unavailable to Americans. I’m tired and hungry. You probably didn’t notice. So I am going to go and eat some food. Have a great day you all!
I’ll leave you with this…
Why do people want to believe in lies about China when they know those lies come from their machinery of lies (politicians and MSM) which people already know do nothing but lie? Answer: They’re racist hypocrites. Turns out it’s not just a hunch.
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Well, aside from being thrown into a Thai jail for a couple of weeks, that is.
Anyways, here is a piece that I found on the UNZ site. It’s worth a read, not so much for the content (which is good) but for the comments that it attracted. You end up seeing a nice group of American society in the disparagement column, and some thoughtful analysis in the Brit and Aussie columns.
I like to read what other expats have to say about their experiences. As, well you should all know, everyone has a story and often those of expats tend to be the most colorful. This particular story revolves around a fellow in Thailand who made the mistake of fighting back when he was being scammed by locals. That’s a big no-no.
We have a saying in America. It goes like this… “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.
The phrase ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ means that ‘when you are living in, or visiting, a community of people, you should follow the laws and customs of that community’. Literally, the proverb means that when you are in Rome, you should act like the Romans.
-'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'
Well, he didn’t follow this very simple advice, and ended up paying for that mistake. This is his story. And the comments are really interesting.
As with all reprints, the usual disclaimer apply.
For young guys, yes… rise up and abandon the creeping meatball. I don’t care if it’s the UK meatball, the US meatball…. just get out while you can. There is serious talk of raising exit fees!
-Franz
As an expat myself, I am both charmed and repelled by the experiences of other Americans as the peek outside of the gulag that the inhabit.
Some comments are gold. Some remind me of bad experience I have had with Jerk-offs, and others remind me of just why I left. I really enjoy the more thoughtful and productive comments, and dialogs. they point to some interesting trends.
The ‘least developed’ European countries have the most interesting long-term prospects, at least as places I like to live."
Yeah, and they know it.
I worked steel, plus allied fabrications. These countries are buying up razor wire faster than anyone can make it! Trust me, in a few years, countries that are not yet holes will be off limits to wanderers.
-Franz
While you are reading it, please keep in mind that one person’s happiness is meaningless to another. We all live within our very own realities.
One person’s happiness is meaningless to another. We all live within our very own realities.
Here is the article with comments embedded within.
gotmituns says:
The only ones “escaping” from our wonderful and proud American nation are the cowards and shirkers who wouldn’t do either side any good when the shit hits the fan in this country. Nobody needs such people in their midst.
With my Escape from America series, I’ve interviewed American ex-pats who have settled in Mexico, the Philippines, Hungary, Costa Rica, Brazil or England, etc., but you’re constantly escaping from one country to the next, with the goal of experiencing all 180 of them! What made you choose such an unusual lifestyle, and how did you prepare yourself for it?
No preparation whatsoever and, in fact, no plan.
I’d had what’s called a ‘liquidity event’ back in NYC. Two, actually: a startup sale and then an IPO. Which just means I don’t have to work again if I don’t want to.
I was burnt out. 15 years of 10 hour days, grinding towards some pointless goal of accumulation. When I cashed-out I wasn’t sure what to do next.
I looked around and decided it was time to leave NYC and the US in general.
The path the country was heading down was pretty obvious to anyone willing to look.
So I threw a bunch of stuff in storage. Locked up the apartment. And left.
That was 2017 and I’ve only returned now and then: for weddings or near-deaths.
I hope to never have to return permanently.
Radicalcenter says:
... mere permanent residency in another country never requires giving up US citizenship, so why renounce US citizenship if mere permanent residency in the other country suits one’s purposes?
(Permanent residents often have the right to use the public healthcare system the same as citizens. Some countries, like Russia, give them the right to vote in local elections.)
US citizens who reside abroad full-time do indeed have to file a US income tax return even on income earned abroad.
But in 2021, a married couple can exclude the first $217,400 per year from US federal taxation:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/figuring-the-foreign-earned-income-exclusion
In 2022 the exclusion rises with inflation, probably to $224-225,000.
The system is unfair, grasping, and should be abolished.
But American worldwide taxation shouldn’t be a deterrent for most Americans who would seriously consider residing abroad. Seriously, what percentage of older American couples moving abroad will have more than $225,000 in income per year while they are retired?
Not many.
In Tirana, I ran into a folk singer who performed in Turkish, but was actually an American! In his early 40’s, “Dandelion Lakewood” left the States nearly 6 years ago, and has been in Europe ever since, mostly in the Balkans. Busking, he needs just $12 a day to survive.
In Tirana, Dandy was paying $8 daily to share a room with another American. Dandy has slept outside, it’s not a problem.
Different people have different requirements. You’re obviously in a different category, but most Americans with cash would not have made your choice. You told me you once drove from Atlanta to Juarez to sample an interesting Chinese buffet. Do you think you’ll ever get tired of traveling? If so, where might you settle down, and why?
Right.
And I don’t make the money point to brag or anything. I just got lucky. Right place, right time.
The bigger point I wanted to make is that guys like me are leaving the US in droves. Even before the pandemic.
We are not better or smarter than those that didn’t get lucky.
But I think some of us realized that the “juice wasn’t worth the squeeze”. So we bailed.
I feel a kinship with anyone that has left America, regardless of their situation.
PJ London says:
You sound like 99.9% of Americans, totally anal and caring only about their bank balance.
The rest of the world (and yes I have lived in 8 countries) have a far better life, as they do not rank existence on the thickness of their wallet.
Given a free choice and some income I would live in a Muslim country or eastern European. I would move to Abkhazia tomorrow if I could. Unfortunately, in my 70s, my travel and choices have become limited.
In terms of traveling and settling down.
I don’t know.
I have a reckless streak. I always have. Going to Juarez to eat Chinese food, or moving a bunch of gold over the Burmese border, or spending weeks in a Thai jail, or designing the interior of some Chechen billionaire’s yacht. I just can’t stop collecting experiences.
That, to me, is real wealth.
I’ve been to around 90 countries at this point.
There are a handful of places I could see myself staying long-term. For me, they have the right combination of cost of living/quality of life. Decent infrastructure. Nice people. Low-ish inequality coefficient.
They’re usually Muslim/Asian countries.
I think that was the biggest surprise.
I want to avoid the forced degeneracy of the West.
This is weird as, in my youth, I was the biggest champion of orgies and drugs and personal freedom and all that faux-liberal youth-culture decadent bullshit.
Alfred says:The issuance of a second valid passport should therefore be considered an exception to the one passport policy and will be issued at the discretion of the Consular Officer. If issued it will be valid for a maximum of two years.
U.S. Embassy and Consulate in the Netherlands – Second Passports
I like being around happy, multi-generational families.
People eating together as a family or flying kites in a park or a group of old-timers nursing a 3-hour conversation over a cup of coffee.
They still do that!
I am not ready to stop.
Perhaps that is the recklessness I was referring to earlier.
In German, real estate is ‘Immobilen’. It’s ‘immobiliere’ in French. Even without knowing Kraut or French, I bet you can deduce the meaning… purchasing a home renders one immobile.
A lease is a landlock.
You’re stuck in one place, one culture, one point of view.
To stay in the same place still seems like death to me.
Or perhaps a series of small compromises, small deaths, that add up to a more prolonged expiation.
Disclaimer says:
The introduction of Nassim Talebs book “Black Swan” has a interesting paragraph about growing up in Lebanon in the 1960s. It is worth revisiting...
"Increasingly, Celebrities and the upper 10% of US society have been getting second passports for themselves and their families for quite some time. After the financial crisis of 2007-08 it seems this trend accelerated. Its also illuminating how many of the upper 10% also have real estate overseas. These people are not doing these measures for fun. And they sure as heck keep their Plan B quiet."
The goal of travel is to court and embrace discomfort.
Otherwise, you’re just a fat Boomer on a cruise!
What did you do to spend weeks in a Thai jail?! And how were you treated by the other inmates?
To many white nationalists, Muslims are just low IQ losers, and Orientals are just conformists with disgusting culinary habits, yet both groups have managed to maintain their heritage, and hence dignity, better than the degenerate West. Is there any hope for white people, or are they condemned to rage impotently online as their societies unravel? Is Europe better off than America? And which European countries do you think have the best prospects?
The Thailand story is sad–and typical.
I’ll tell it here as a warning to anyone reading.
This stuff happens and, in retrospect, you should not handle the situation in the way I did. Linh, you can chop this if you don’t think it’s relevant.
I was in one of those seedy beach resort towns filled with decaying, SPAM-tinted Anglo men and their 21-year-old Isaan wives.
I was talking to as many of the men as I could, as they figure fairly prominently in a book I am working on.
A few of the blokes had warned me of a scam going on in that particular town.
The locals would wait until you rented a scooter and had a few beers at some local bar. Then, when you scooted off home, they’d put three teenagers on a shittier scooter than yours and drive full speed into you. The cops would conveniently be nearby to handle the proceedings.
I ignored this warning as typical ‘falang’ fearmongering.
But sure enough, a week into my stay this happened to me.
I’d had a big Chang beer and puttered off home.
Three kids on a crappy Vespa (motor scooter) hit me out of nowhere. Cops come out. from behind a nearby building: ‘You drunk Mister! You come to station and make right!’ They sounded like some Hollywood-stereotype from the 80s. But they were real and extremely angry.
I was terrified.
I had had a beer and driven my scooter (like everyone else in that town) but I had no idea what my ‘rights’ were.
Ha!
We went to the station and the officer demanded 40,000 baht to make it go away, plus some money for each of the three teenagers that were on the scooter.
In the meantime, they had already gone to the hospital after the accident and returned, bandaged up, with hospital bills ready to go.
They’d done this under an hour.
All three presented the hospital bills to me meekly.
I think they were another 60,000 baht.
Conveniently, 100,000 baht is the maximum you can withdraw from a Thai bank branch in one day.
Around $3k.
I told them this was absurd.
I ‘knew my rights’. Typical American arrogance.
After two hours of yelling at each other via Google Translate in their sweaty little station, they made me go back to my apartment and give them my passport, told me they’d be in touch and that I was not to leave Thailand.
Jeff Stryker says:
Michigan Native & Long-term South East Asia (SEA) Expat Here
I cannot say I would prefer a Thai jail but I would live on Thai beach in a fishing hut & let lizards crawl up my anus before I would return to the low-cost housing of Greater Detroit Washtenaw county.
I spent 30 K building my estate here & the irony is that my grandmother’s condo in Washtenaw County was worth $400 K in 1986 & after it was sold 20 years later it was worth 50 K-and my brother told me that whoever bought it was a fool. That is property value in Michigan for you.
Not long ago on FB I got ahold of a Polish kid who shared my dorm room at Central. The poor fool is still stuck in Flint. His formerly tidy if modest Polish-Catholic neighborhood is one great big crack house.
So that is one expat’s response.
As for Canukistan, well, they may export our leaders but try immigrating there. They don’t want us.
Americans that travel a lot can legally have two passports.
Not a lot of people know this.
It’s the same passport number but you can usually bank on the fact that if you get into trouble somewhere, it will take time for the various government departments to communicate with each other, and you have a window to clear the country.
I’d talked with a nice local lawyer girl after this happened and her advice was to get the hell out of Thailand. So that’s what I did.
I was gone within 48 hours, this time via a land border, which I assumed was insecure.
I crossed into Cambodia, made my way to Phnom Penh, and then flew to Bali for a few weeks.
Stupidly, I returned to Thailand a month later.
I thought somehow the problem would have ‘gone away’, as it was all a scam.
Ha!
They grabbed me at the airport, after clearing customs. That’s always the shitty part. They let you clear customs and grab your bag, thinking you are free. And then they grab you.
My passport number had been communicated to Border Police.
They were as surprised as I was that I had returned!
The charges were now serious.
In addition to injuring others on a scooter, I had tried to flee the country.
A few other minor charges.
Worst case: I was facing up to 3 years in a Thai prison.
I would now be remanded until I had a chance to appear before a judge. There were a series of holidays going on, related to the new King’s ascension, so the whole country was closed for at least a week. Bad timing on my part.
I spent around two weeks in a Thai jail back in the town where the crime had been committed.
Mulga Mumblebrain says:
It is very hard to contemplate leaving your homeland. Just leaving Sydney, that I knew like the back of my hand, but was unaffordable, was a dreadful break.
Unfortunately, Australia, that from c.1970 to 1990 was making good progress in creating a decent society, has since fallen into the Pit of Hell, led by the Right, monsters like Howard, Abbott, Morrison et al, and the complicity of the zombie remnants of the ALP, now the Another Liberal Party.
All driven by the Murdoch cancer.
Now the place is locked in a suicidal frenzy of treacherous and deeply racist Sinophobia, after decades when China did us NOTHING but good. Such duplicity is bound to get its just desserts-and soon.
The Thai jail is not a place I’d want to return to.
I was new so I had to sleep with my head directly next to the open toilet in the corner, my head getting kicked every time someone went to shit in the middle of the night.
I did meet a lot of nice Burmese guys in there, who insisted on sharing every single meal they had with me.
They taught me how to sleep with a water bottle under your neck, as it helps your posture on the concrete floor.
There was a Dutch man who’d killed his Thai wife.
A few Americans and Australians recently nabbed on drug charges. Lots of Iranian guys. They were the most aggressive towards Americans.
The common theme from everyone was, ‘I was set up’. I began to doubt my own story.
Fast forward a few weeks later.
I am out on some sort of conditional release.
They have both passports this time. I have to check in every week to a ‘parole’ office and wait for my official trial date which is set 4 or 5 months in the future.
I can’t leave Thailand.
Radicalcenter says:
Sweet numbers, brah. But that works only if you can avoid spending all the profit on the next, also wildly appreciated house, right?
One can do this by moving to a house that is smaller, older, or in a less desirable climate or location, of course. That isn’t a good option for everyone, though, especially families. We have a number of children, so we need to move someplace bigger, not smaller.
Once past that stage of life, yeah, it’s usually feasible to downsize and come out ahead that way on housing costs and equity: i.e., sell a big house and buy a smaller house. That way you come ahead even if you stay in the same locale, saving/investing some of the proceeds and/or having a lower monthly mortgage payment.
Also, those inland “flight” / retirement areas aren’t so cheap anymore.
One used to profit from expensive coastal and/or big-city home sales and buy really cheap inland. But this is changing fast. Primarily due to the acceleration of decent people fleeing even mid-sized cities (not just NY, LA, Chicago, Houston), and millions working mostly online for the first time.
Home prices continue to rise far faster than our salaries/wages in booming country & exurban counties across Utah, Nevada, Texas, Florida, eastern OR and WA, Montana, Wyoming, etc.
My mother is selling her house in a fairly expensive part of NJ and buying out West. The prices for the newer houses far from any city in Utah or Nevada, are shockingly higher than when we started looking in earnest less than two hears ago. We thought we were savvy and sufficiently apprised of costs in these boom-towns, but nope.
In the two inland flight areas we’re looking at, newer-home prices are going up maybe 4x faster than my Mom’s house. Houses we thought might cost $300,000 are surging to $400,000 and $500,000. If we thought she might pick up a house with a certain amount of property for $400,000, it’s now $600,000 to $800,000.
As for California real estate, man, you killed it!
I’m happy for you. I too would have bought when you did if we had lived in Cali then. We’d try to buy in SoCal even now, as overpriced and overcrowded as it is, if we weren’t raising children. But we won’t subject our kids to the California curriculum much longer — it’s getting more extreme by the month. Nor will we live in a jurisdiction with “vaccine” “passports”, which may be on their way here. In the new lockdown America, even the prospect of real estate profits isn’t enough to keep families in certain places long-term, like California.
Also, how are young Americans to buy real estate to raise their own families? The artificially low interest rates won’t last. And even rock-bottom rates don’t help if you can’t come up with a down-payment. A 20% down-payment could easily be $70-80,000 or more in many areas with good jobs. Many, probably most, Americans don’t inherit a house. Given the number of children we have, ours won’t each inherit a house either. How do they ever get on this absurd merry-go-round?
When home prices consistently riser faster than salaries and wages, this cannot serve most people well in the long run. You made out very well, and we may do alright, but this system already hurts more people than it helps, and it cannot go on forever.
And before you ask, no, the embassy does nothing.
You’ve watched too many television dramas. They only intervene in capital crimes or a crime that makes the US look bad.
While I was in the jail, they told me to hang tight and let them know if I was being mistreated.
When I got out they gave me a list of lawyers.
I picked the one who bragged to me that ‘Her husband was a high up police officer’. In any other country, this would have been a warning sign, but I figured in Thailand, it was a golden ticket.
I hang out in Thailand for a while.
Avoiding scooters and bars. freaking out, obviously, but pretty powerless.
No amount of American money could help me at that point. The government didn’t care.
The “trial” was bizarre.
No visitors are allowed. The courtroom I was in was underground. You’re brought to a jail before the trial where you have to take off your shoes and belt and then stand in a cage inside the trial room.
I was with three other guys in the cage.
There’s no one in the courtroom aside from some grim-looking guard with a rifle.
Jeff Stryker says:
An Expert Speaks
[1] You can stagger around drunk & be puking on yourself in Siam & nobody will care a whit.
[2] However, you can stone cold sober & drive & if you get into an accident…you are in trouble.
[3] Generally, you can buy yourself out of any reasonable situation for a few grand. You really should not be traveling in SEA if you don’t have $3000 spare cash in the event of a serious situation.
[4] It would be typical of an American new comer to believe that Americans are not detested overseas & that being American will mean jack in SEA. Canadian? Maybe a little respect. British? Okay. American? Zero. The USA is regarded as the worst Superpower that ever existed & the average white American is regarded as a loudmouthed hick & ignorant too boot. However, in Siam, generally Thais don’t care.
[5] If you get locked in jail its the other American-hating nationals like Iranians, of whom there are a considerable number, or even Pakistanis who will threaten you for political reasons. Thais do not care. For that matter, even some Aussies or Brits are anti-American to come at you in an Immigration jail.
[6] Doing drugs is a tricky business. If you have to do drugs, score from ladyboys or from hotel staff of a younger hipper variety who themselves smoke weed. You can buy your way out of a weed bust, but Ya Ba & Meth are going to get you time. If you deal drugs or try to smuggle them in Pattaya or Bangkok, you are so stupid you should commit suicide when you get busted. Which you will be. Scoring drugs randomly on the street will always be a set up. With Tuk Tuk drivers or taxi drivers who ask you if you want to purchase drugs it will be a set up. You can score in Sukhumivit around Soi 4 from the Africans but they are periodically hit for raids.
[7] Many bar girls or hookers are meth addicts.
[8] An American married to Issan girl who does not know these ropes is not very bright.
[9] Make one or two semi-important friends.
[10] Remember the property laws. They are not in your favor. Property belongs to your wife.
Many posters here are naive hicks who have no business being outside the small city or town they were born. Some hicks are scammed in SEA.
After an hour of waiting, a prim little woman walks in, sits down at a table facing the cage.
She calls out your name and you walk to the front of the cage.
She reads your file out loud: the charges, I guess. It’s all in Thai.
My lawyer is then allowed to enter the room.
They talk quietly for a few minutes in Thai.
She’s very deferential, not making eye contact with the judge.
The lawyer then approaches the cage and asks if I am sorry.
I’m ready: I know this is my cue to turn on the histrionics.
I bow and wai repeatedly at the judge, the guards, the other Thais in the cage.
My lawyer had prepared me.
I repeat the Thai phrase I had prepared, over and over again and again. “I am so sorry and ashamed. I am so sorry and ashamed.” Likely mangling the pronunciation.
I cry. I plead.
The judge looks at the lawyer. Laughs.
Scribbles something on the file and then proclaims something in Thai. Before the lawyer has a chance to translate, I’m taken by a guard from the cage back to the primary jail in the courthouse.
I sit there for two hours.
Eventually, they call my name and my lawyer is at the jail door.
She’s smiling.
If you’re interested, my total penalty was…wait for it…a 100,000 baht fine paid to the court and an agreement to ‘not do anything bad in Thailand’ for one full year.
Emslander says:
Your experience with the Thai legal system is fairly typical of experiences with any legal system anywhere. I have drilled it into my sons’ heads from birth to NEVER get involved with the police other than to say “Yes, sir” or “No, sir.” I told them that, if they wanted bad attention or to be punished, to just come home and I’d accommodate. They mostly complied. The deeper you get into any sort of trouble, the more it will cost you in time, money and degradation.
I pay my lawyer another 100,000 baht, wait to get my 100,000 baht bond back from the courthouse (which has to be fronted by a Thai…in this case, my lawyer), and I am on my way.
I fly to KL that night.
I bear no ill will towards the Thai people.
I made a stupid mistake and, in retrospect, should have paid the fine upfront. Scam or no scam.
The normal Thai people live in a shitty, corrupt system. They’re just trying to get by. At least they have the comforts of family, community, culture, and tradition to return to after a long day of sentencing Americans to prison.
Disclaimer says:
In response to a comment by @obwandiyag who said
“…Wait till he needs a doctor…”
The medical care in most of the world is far better than in the US. Its not even close. US is ranked 37th (and dropping) on quality of medical care which is basically dead last in the first world.
US medical care was the best in the world until around 1975 or so since then its been steadily downhill.
To answer your earlier question, I think most of the white nationalists are the disgusting pigs. Potato-shaped genetic-mutt trash dropping rancor and CheezeIt crumbs all over their cum-stained keyboards.
There is no hope for the United States if these guys are the vanguards of “our” future. I’ll take the “Orientals” or the Muslims any day of the week.
Europe is a weird case.
As a political or economic union it’s toast, but the individual states will still have a lot of interesting possibilities. In many ways, Europe’s inevitable dissolution is good for guys like me.
It will be easier to get in and purchase citizenship, or property, or whatever. The fragmentation of Europe will be a boon for those fleeing the West.
The ‘least developed’ European countries have the most interesting long-term prospects, at least as places I like to live. I’d look for those that are food-secure and have good access to clean water.
john cronk says:
I find the guy’s life as described to be mis-spent, randomly purposeless and morally bankrupt. He may as well have been an ant or a fly. However, the subject of escaping the deteriorating West is a salient one and I’m interested in how it can be done in a sensible, considered, and productive way.
There are some nice towns in Bulgaria (mostly in the Rhodope foothills) and Albania that I’d consider long-term. Portugal was great until the Golden Visa, and will now be flooded with Brits heading back to Spain or Chinese opportunists.
I’ve always been a fan of Poland, of Polish cities and people. Georgia and Abkhazia are gorgeous and ripe for sustainable development–whatever that means.
Northern Spain, west of Basque country, towards Galacia, is gorgeous and peaceful. There are some great small towns in Slovakia but you have to be ready to handle Gypsies. Northwestern Greece, in the mountains, has a great climate and food culture. No one will bug you there.
There’s also East Asia, but that’s a whole other article.
Reading about your adventures everywhere, some readers might think you’re just an anchorless hedonist, but you’re actually happily married, and your wife does travel with you. Since it’s nearly impossible to synchronize wishes or demands on the road, this is very rare. You’re very lucky. To wrap up, do you have advice for Americans who might want to get out?
Yes, for much of the past 5 years of non-stop travel my wife has been by my side. It’s been pretty amazing and I am incredibly fortunate to have someone so willing to be ‘unsettled’ throughout the world.
It’s always fun to travel alone but having someone to wake up and make breakfast for–no matter the weird city we’re in–is pure pleasure.
For those looking to escape, my advice would be to have a plan but not to commit to it too firmly.
Too many people over-utilize the Internet to the detriment of on-the-ground intelligence.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who’ve ‘sold everything’ back in the States and then bought a one-way ticket to Fethiye or Chiang Mai without ever visiting these places once! All based on some Youtuber’s drone videos.
It’s ridiculous.
These are, unsurprisingly, the people that go back to Michigan in a few years.
Once travel opens back up, get your money right in the US first. Don’t burn bridges.
Then, pick a region.
Pack minimally.
I recommend warmer countries first simply because there’s less to pack. Don’t worry about booking an apartment for a month. Book a few days on Airbnb. Move around to a different neighborhood. In a city like Jakarta or Yangon or even Milan, you can have a dramatically different experience based on your neighborhood.
Keep in mind, no matter where you travel, you’ll always bring yourself along. If you aren’t happy in your own head, in your own body, then no amount of wandering will change that.
Jonathan (41-years-old)
cohen says:
Linh
You are doing a good job to some degree in telling the audience the real interesting and historical stuff about counties you travel to.. unlike you, when I travel I don't talk to “intellectuals”.
I to go to small cafes and talk to locals who don't speak a word of English but somehow there is always a one eyed men among blinds, one who wants to speak and brush up his English with in the crowd. To me that is fun.
The most common bonding is the sense of humor and bonding through jokes. That is something so common among people of various background. Try that experience next time.
Your stories about Serbia, and Lebanon did lack information. For instance, in Belgrade the American bombing or missiles attack were incredibly precise and ironically US got away bombing the Chinese Embassy by claiming an error. No way Jose. The defense ministry building destroyed were among big building and in front of each. There was no damage to any neighboring buildings.
Philip Morris bought the Serbian Cigarette company for one dollar? and the Yugo (bad or good beside the point) car company was sold to an American car company for 1 dollar. There are three KPMG offices in Belgrade. Why an American company needs 3 offices in the same city. Privatization my man.
You are hung up on Albania. Did you see the digging of an old gladiator arena by the sea? Or their political parties. People like me care less about the nice pictures of food from a restaurant menu. At least I for one.
Go to Jakarta, or Casablanca and see Muslim women with their Hijab driving taxi without fear of any physical harm. You can not imagine that happening in America, This is information and not pictures of food which is very subjective. Try to go to Tangier in Morocco and get a taste of Europe and Africa in one place. And the weather one has to experience it oneself. Daniel Craig has a house in Tangier on the Atlantic side (lot of French artists, mostly fags).
Talk to a native Jews of Casablanca and learn why on earth they don't want to go to their “promised homeland”. The answer would surprise you. I was amused when one of them in a synagogue said “Then what the hell we will be doing there once we get to Israel”.
Try some volcanic islands in Indonesia where Comodo dragons still roam. Or Lake Biakal. Very different than the food information with prices.
Put some information in your writing that would be worth reading. Food? Who gives a sh… We have the tendency to talk about foreign foods and feel cultured and well informed.
Or at least that HIS opinion.
I liked the story. Seems like this fellow was in the right place, at the right time, and husbanded his money well. Good for him. My life has been one scramble after the other, with no time to take a breather.
Americans have a lot of issues they need to sort out before they go elsewhere. One of which is the hooks and claws that “Uncle Sam” has in just about everything you do. And another thing is the bad Intel that you have. You are better off living under a mattress for the last forty years than listen to anything available off the internet.
The Ugly American
All of this reminds me of an old movie titled “The Ugly American”.
An intelligent, articulate scholar, Harrison MacWhite, survives a hostile Senate confirmation hearing at the hands of conservatives to become ambassador to Sarkan. Sarkan is a southeast Asian country where civil war threatens a tense peace.
Despite his knowledge, once he’s there, MacWhite sees only a dichotomy between the U.S. and Communism.
He can’t accept that anti-American sentiment might be a longing for self-determination and nationalism.
Imagine that!
This 1963 MARLON BRANDO film ' The UGLY AMERICAN ' is an all too often overlooked effort from such a truly talented actor as was Mr. Brando. Relevant upon release 53 years ago, it is relevant today. The AIRPORT ARRIVAL scenes as Ambassador MacWhite speeds off in his 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine are a CINEMATIC TRIUMPH alone !
-Robert D.
Over the years, the term “the ugly American” has come to describe a pompus know-it all attitude that is dismissive of others, and that basks in the tattered remains of American patriotism.
The big problem with expatriation is the IRS. If you renounce your citizenship you are treated as though you have sold all your assets at fair market value, and must pay tax accordingly. If you don’t do that, you can simply live abroad and keep your US citizenship (and hopefully your new country allows dual citizenship). You will still have to file US tax returns and pay US taxes, although you will get a credit against it for any foreign taxes paid.
-Hapalong Cassidy
I found this review of the movie enlightening.
Viet Nam 1963
I was in Viet Nam from June 1963 to March 1964. We saw “The Ugly American” at the American movie theatre in Saigon, the Capitol Kinh Do.
There were many Americans and their dependents in Saigon and in Viet Nam at this time–most were isolated with cocktail parties, teas, and American activities. Most American children went to the American Community School outside of Tan Son Nhut Air Base. Their parents belonged to the exclusive Cercle Sportiff, hobnobbing with the Vietnamese elite who monetarily benefited from the war. There were opportunities for American civilians to teach the Vietnamese English, but I never knew of any opportunities for Americans to learn Vietnamese or national customs.
Many of the children of the diplomatic corps were instructed that if their shirt tails hung out or if they ate with their fingers when eating implements were available, they would be considered “ugly Americans.” Nothing was said about the teenage boys drinking, whoring, and racing their motorcycles through the darkened Saigon streets in the early morning hours. Nothing was said about how we knew the way to “win” the war against the popular nationalist freedom fighter known as Ho Chi Minh who organized the successful campaigns against the Japanese and French occupiers.
Perhaps if we had listened a little more, learned the language and customs, and understood that the desire for national freedom is not communism, we wouldn’t still be trying to “win” the Vietnam War.
…
I’m an American myself. So what is the deal?
Hum.
Not nearly good enough.
What is “it” with Americans?
I’m an American. So what’s the deal, eh?
America soon.
Why do we want to leave the “home of the free”, and “the shining house on the hill”, where the entire world wants to move to? Are we stupid? Are we too full of ourselves?
The U.S. government doesn’t formally track how many Americans leave the U.S. but the most recent estimate puts the figure at nearly nine million. This figure represents a doubling of the 1999 figure, placed at 4.1 million. The number of expats has more than doubled in the last fifteen years — a number growing faster than the rate of the U.S. population itself.
Juan jwayne says:
I live in Nicaragua/ Costa Rica. My $ goes much farther. The people are poor but happy,happier than Americans.You must have an income, me, union pension. My Atm card works here,so no worries.Takes a lil while to get used to it, different culture, but you’re easy going about things, it’ll work out. Good Luck
steinbergfeldwitzcohen says:
I would think that a smart guy would have learned something about the culture of THAILAND before he went there! You can go to jail for being disrespectful to their Royals.
Never, ever show anger.
Never: it is disrespectful and shows weakness (an inability to control emotions or to be properly afraid of those with the power of life and death, ie. 3rd world cops).
In fact, treat every cop and govt official as a long missed uncle you deeply love and respect. If you do that you cannot lose in the game.
You could have walked out of that station in 1 hr or less by being respectful and calm, wishing to pay while indicating a recent family hardship of a medical nature or, even better, allude to a recent family death that you had to cover the funeral costs for as you are the eldest.
The cops and robbers would have settled for 50% and you would have left happy.
After fifteen months of travel, I returned to the United States ready to give American life another try. After a few months at home with my family, I moved back to San Francisco, the city I lived and worked in before traveling. I started looking for a job, looking for apartments, looking for new friends. I felt eager to re-enter American society, and pick up somewhat where I left off.
Within four months, I had changed my mind.
After struggling with so many aspects of United States society and culture, I ended up finding a pretty great life in Cape Town, South Africa (along with a pretty great American boyfriend who had moved here years ago and found the same). I spent much of last year, hopping back and forth between the two countries, allowing me to distinctly see the differences between them. I moved here officially this past July.
A new survey shows I’m not alone: according to a TransferWise national survey of over 2000 adults, around one in three Americans say they’d consider leaving the United States for another country.
For us millennials, it’s even worse: 55% of Americans between the ages of 18-34 say they’d consider it.
What scares me most is that I won’t be able to enjoy life as I do here if I were to move back to the United States. Though life in South Africa comes with its own unique set of struggles, my life here in many ways became far easier than what I experienced in the States.
Here’s how:
1. I don’t have to worry about getting sick.
In the Transferwise Survey, “more affordable healthcare” was the number one improvement respondents said would make living in the US more appealing.
For years, the US has had the most expensive yet least effective healthcare system in the world. The recent drug price-hike scandal reminded us that unlike Canada, Australia, and many countries in Europe, our country does not regulate drug prices in the same way we regulate other basic needs, like water and electricity. Instead, we are the only developed nation that allows drug makers to set their own prices, regardless of whether average Americans can afford it.
America today.
As a freelancer, healthcare became one of my top priorities when deciding where to live. Individual plans in New York city can go up to a grand a month. And in my homestate of Florida, the limited access to affordable women’s health needs like pap smears, yearly gynocologist visits, and affordable birth control became a large part of why I left. Planned Parenthood was few and far between in Florida, and charged comparatively high rates after losing funding from the state government. The St. Petersburg Times reported that in 2001, presidential candidate Jeb Bush cut over $300,000 for family planning services through Planned Parenthood. The result? In 2014, an evaluation of health data found that Florida was tied with Oklahoma and Arkansas for the worst state for women’s health.
2. “Work-life balance” actually seems possible.
In the Transferwise survey, “a better quality of life” was the most popular reason people chose to consider leaving the country. It was top on my list too.
I enjoy living in places that prioritize joy instead of only productivity.
In South Africa, I saw people both engaging in meaningful work, and enjoying their weekends. I saw workers consider their loved ones and their overall well-being in their work decisions, without feeling guilty or selfish.
And, I’ve seen people with the most opportunity for financial gain simply choose not to capitalize on it. My boyfriend once asked the owner of a coffee shop we often visited why she closed on Saturdays and Sundays, and so early during the week. He explained to her she could make a killing with brunches on Saturday.
She shrugged her shoulders and told him she already knew that.
But she said she’d rather be with her family on Saturdays than have to worry about work. Similarly, I’ve seen some wine bars close Friday at 10pm, at the time they’d perhaps be most profitable.
I prefer this kind of prioritizing.
3. As a person of color, being an “expat” instead of a “minority” is kind of relieving.
Many articles have discussed how a person of color from the US can often receive more privileges abroad than in the United States.
In his New York Times article “The Next Great Migration” Thomas Chatterton Williams describes the story of his friend who moved from New York to London:
“He confessed, ‘The race situation back home occupies so much space in your mind, even just safety-wise, I actually never fully understood what it meant to be American, and all the advantages that come with it, until now…
You immediately remove that affirmative action target from your back.
A work visa gives you the validation that you’re good at what you do.”
In South Africa, I’ve had similar experiences. Instead of being the “affirmative action kid” I was often labeled at college, here my achievements are never tied to my racial background. People care far more about my US college degree and work experience than how I racially identify.
And because my racial background doesn’t matter nearly as much, race no longer has to matter as much in my life.
My primary identity in South Africa is “American” in a way it never was back in the States. After years of trying to figure out my how my Latino identity fits among my life, it’s kind of relieving for once to live in a place where frankly, no one gives a shit.
4. My values as a global citizen are affirmed.
Life in the United States is generally only about the United States. This is reflected in everything from American travel habits to American media to American curriculum in schools.
But life in other countries is about the world.
For example, Business Insider ran a story that illustrated the differences between US media and media internationally. They put side-to-side the cover stories for Time magazine’s US edition versus its editions abroad.
One month, the cover in the US had the headline “Chore Wars”, while the rest of the world got “Travels Through Islam.” Another month, while the rest of the world had a front page story on rebellion in the Middle East, the US got “Why Anxiety is Good For You.”
Statistics back up this apparent lack of interest in the rest of the world: a State of the Media survey found that in 2008, news agencies in the US devoted only 10.3% to foreign coverage.
While watching the news in South Africa, I also noticed that how we present international coverage also makes a difference. When watching coverage of developments in Iraq and Syria, newscasters actually interviewed Iraqis and Syrians.
I realized that this was perhaps the first time I had ever seen an Iraqi or Syrian civilian given substantial time on television to tell their story. In the US, though civilians from these areas were covered briefly in video footage, I never saw them personally asked for their opinion.
In some ways you could argue that our media is just catering to what Americans truly want to know– which unfortunately, seems to be only about ourselves. People from the US generally don’t have an interest in what happens internationally.
In 2013, The Daily Mail reported that in a survey of over 2,000 Americans, almost half of respondents who had never been abroad said that the only things worth seeing were in our own country. Almost a third answered that even if they had the money, they’d prefer to travel to local areas.
I know I want to live in a place where citizens and institutions care about the world around them and have a natural curiosity for learning about others. Unfortunately, it seems more difficult to find that in the States.
I’m not sure if I’ll live abroad forever, or if these four priorities will be my same priorities in the future. But for now, the US will have to put up a far better show to convince me it’s worth going “home.”
The Alarmist says:
When I was still military, in a so-called “friendly” country, one of my buddies decided our cab fare to town was too much … it was about $1 too much … BFD or Biloxi Fire Department, as we used to say … anyway, buddy decides to pay what he thinks is fair and walk away, so cabbie says, “No good… we go to police!” So buddy says, “Ok, we go to police.” I say, “You know the police beat people in this country, right?” and hand the cabbie the rest of the fare, figuring I was feeding one of his rugrats. When you are an American abroad, you have far fewer friends than you think, and they certainly don’t include the authorities … their and ours.
America soon.
So I am going to kind of throw some shit to America right now…
6 Uncomfortable truths about life in the United States
1. The only country that incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than the U.S. is North Korea.
The International Centre for Prison Studies estimates that we have more than 2.2 million people behind bars, or around 716 people per 100,000 citizens, which is far higher than Russia, China, and Iran. To put this in even more perspective, the number per 100,000 citizens in European countries: 78 in Germany, 103 in France, and 99 in Italy. Even worse, 60% of U.S. prisoners are non-violent offenders. The numbers demonstrate how the United States contributes a completely disproportional amount of prisoners to the global environment: we are responsible for around 22% of the total amount of inmates in the world, even though we only account for 4.4% of the world population.
2. Though we spend more money on health care than any other country in the world, our life expectancy in some areas of the South is lower than the life expectancy in Nicaragua, Algeria and Bangladesh.
Though our life expectancy overall has improved (Americans live around eight years longer now than they did in 1970), our rate of improvement is far slower than other countries, and in some counties is on-par with countries far less developed than we are. We also rank last among rich countries in overall health performance, according to a 2014 survey by the Commonwealth Fund that looked at measures like equity of care and efficiency.
This suggests that Americans overspend on technology, without achieving higher results. For example, Americans have the highest rate of MRI exams. And yet in Austria, where the MRI exam rate is around half of ours, the life expectancy is still two years longer than ours.
We also rank low among developed nations for the amount of doctors we have: only 2.5 per 1,000 people (in 2005). In most of Europe, that number is far above three. In Cuba it was 6.7 in 2010. A 2015 report suggested that by 2025 our country would need between 46,000 and 90,000 more physicians than we have today.
3. Out of all developed nations, we have the highest teen pregnancy rate.
The Guttmacher Institute found that the pregnancy rate for American girls is 57 out of every 1,000 girls, far higher than most developed countries. Many argue that this derives from the failure of our abstinence-only education programs. The majority of European countries use comprehensive sex-ed. The result? A teen pregnancy rate of 5.3 per 1,000 in the Netherlands, 4.3 per 1,000 in Switzerland and 9.8 per 1,000 in Germany.
…one-third of the world’s paper and around a quarter of the world’s oil, coal and aluminum.
5. We are the only developed country that still executes prisoners.
111 UN member nations have expressed their agreement with a moratorium on the death penalty. And yet the US stands alone among developing countries in continuing the practice.
We can’t argue that we’ve kept the death penalty because it works: several articles have shown how capital punishment in the U.S. has been significantly racist, economically costly, and ultimately inefffective in deterring future crime.
6. We are one of only three nations in the world that does not guarantee paid maternal leave.
Though 70 percent of children live in families where both adults work, the United States still has made little effort to provide paid maternal leave for American families.
The small company we keep? Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.
A 2010 survey found that 76 of registered voters supported some form of paid leave.
Other studies also show that when maternity leaves are short and unpaid, immunization and health visit rates go down and infant mortality rates go up. An OECD study on nineteen countries from 1979 to 2003 also found that paid parental led to significantly greater productivity.
So what is the point in all of this?
Life is what you make of it.
Do not live your life in fear.
Just because you were born in the United States, and was raised as an American with all the baggage and advantages that comes with it, you can change the script.
Forest Gump says that “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”. I argue that you can change the box.
And who cares why?
Really!
If you want to be a hedonistic slime-ball or, a forever-back-packer, or settle down with a family somewhere else. It is no one else’s business. It’s only yours.
So when I read the comments here, I see the arrogance of self-righteous American calling others out for doing things that they themselves are far too afraid to do.
It is really quite simple, really.
You migrate to where your happiness can manifest and become reality. That chick that I mentioned above was far happier in South Africa than in the States. And I am not doubting her. the things that matter to her are important. You just don’t brush them off to the side and call her a “coward” or a “traitor”. Do you?
If you are happy were you are now, then stay there.
I do miss many things about the United States, but for me personally it is literally a prison as a third-rate citizen.No matter what aspects that I miss, that I long for, and what fond memories that I have, I know that they are just that; memories.
We have to look at what is important to us all, and use faith, prayer and affirmation campaigns to make it manifest.
With a plan, backed up with action, understanding and wisdom, you will be able to manifest your desires
May your life become the source for your greatest happiness.
May your life become the source for your greatest happiness.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my index about Escape! (from America)
All through our lives we have been told that “news” provides us with a “window to the world”, and that we need to keep abreast of the events of the day. The argument is that this is how we grow, learn and understand our place in society.
This, now more than ever, is absolutely false.
And as I have repeatedly tried to explain this to you all, you all still don’t FUCKING GET IT!
(Sorry for being so brash and in your face, but Jeeze! Louise!)
All, yes all and every, item of “news” that comes out of the United States is manipulative propaganda. That’s what it is, that’s all it is, and if you respond that you have something that you read from this alternative news source… I will have to shake my head in sadness and disbelief.
There is no longer any free, independent “news” out of the United States today. It is all a very well-honed network of manipulation and deceit.
This means ALL OF IT.
Key Points
Point One. All “news” manipulates.
If you want to get a full perspective on something then you need to get a wide selection of information from many sources. And NO I DO NOT MEAN AMERICAN SOURCES. I mean international sources.
This is key point Two.
Oh, Mr. So-and-so wrote a "well researched" book on China. Great.
Did he write on his experiences inside of China?
No.
Why not?
He used many well documented sources.
Well, what were his sources?
Oh! All American publications, written in English, by people who have never been to China regurgitating what they have read.
And how is the opinion, of a person, who forms his opinions, by other opinionated people who know absolutely nothing about China going to improve your life?
It isn’t.
Instead, you should use that money and you buy a plane ticket and you look around yourself.
That’s key point Three. See what is important with your own two eyes, using your ears, on the ground and touching things with your hands. Books and periodicals and articles are so deceptive these days that they are more of a hindrance to the truth than information.
Now, the world has many many, MANY people pretending to be journalists.
Thus, you have to take each and every “report” and “news article” cautiously (in America we call this “with a grain of salt“). You can read it as most articles are really nothing more than opinions, NOT reporting, and some of those opinions have some value.
I think the most important key point is four. There is no longer any actual reporting inside of America today.
Zero.
Reporting of events in America has been replaced by carefully constructed narratives used to manipulate American citizens to follow herd behaviors.
One of the most important things that we must understand is that America has constructed the most powerful and elaborate propaganda network in history.
The American (levers of government) owns, through proxy, all of the major media, and all of the alternative media.
Yes, please read that again.
The American government owned Rush Limbaugh. The American government owns Free Republic. The American government supports GAB, the American government promotes Salon, the American government is the voice of the Huffington Post. The American government injects Zero Hedge. The American government controls the narratives on LinkedIN.
Those beloved Conservatives, and those funny progressives are all tools for the government. ALL OF THEM.
Thus key point five; actual events (and truths) are hidden from Americans.
So what is the purpose of “news” manipulation?
The actual purpose brings us to key Six. It is more than just a distraction. It’s a “snipe hunt”. The purpose of American news is to keep the American people ignorant.
It is to keep Americans away from the truths.
It is to keep Americans ignorant of the real situations.
This is because if they realized what they were, they would be extremely angry; angry to a point of killing everyone on sight in rolling fits of rage.
That’s why.
SNIPE HUNT
A snipe huntisa type of practical joke or fool's errand, in existence in North America as early as the 1840s, in which an unsuspecting newcomeris duped into trying to catch a nonexistent animal called a snipe. Although snipe are an actual family of birds, a snipehunt is a quest for an imaginarycreaturewhosedescriptionvaries.
-Wikipedia
Those of us “in the know” only have clarity on small tidbits of Intel. However, when we start linking up with others (such as through MM, here) who also have their information and we start putting the information together a very… very… VERY disturbing picture comes to light.
Which is point Seven. The actual reality of how Americans are, the lives they live, and the operation of the government is so far distanced from that which is promoted by the media that it resembles something completely different.
Indeed, the true reality of what America is really resembles the movie the Matrix where young Neo is exposed to the truth of what the world actually looks like.
Central to the philosophical edge of The Matrix is the red and blue pill scene. Morpheus, a human awakened to mankind’s reality, offers the same enlightenment to Neo, who is still plugged into an illusion. Alas, the choice must be Neo’s alone and to this end, Morpheus presents him with a metaphorical choice between two brightly colored pills. Take the red variety, and Neo will be unplugged, finally capable of seeing the world for what it really is. Swallow the blue pill, however, and Neo will not only go back to his digital, make-believe existence, but he’ll also forget ever having questioned what is real and what could be a lie.
Thus point eight. America is not a “shining city on the hill” with “democracy” and “freedom”, with a nation ruled by “justice”.
America is instead, an [1] oligarchy-owned Corporatocracy.
It is one that [2] operates as a military empire, and budgets it appropriately.
America [3] treats it’s people as disposable debit-serfs for profit, with a million tiny “hands in the wallet” with thousands (no longer hundreds) of taxes, fees, rules, and requirements that siphon money away from the citizenry in every shape, and in every form.
And America [4] engages on the international scene as a war-mongering bully, and is [5] presently a serious threat to the future of mankind.
Like a cancer the sicknesses that the leadership has permitted to grow has festered until now, the cancer has metastasized. America has become a dangerous monster that is thrashing around angerly, and trying to maintain it’s respect, it’s authority, and it’s world position. It cannot do that, and of which, it is quite dangerous.
But we are not going to talk about that.
Instead we are going to get back to the point that American “news” is a SNIPE HUNT of misdirection to keep Americans going around and around, and around, and around in circles.
American “news” as a “snipe hunt”
To illustrate how Americans are manipulated to go after “snipes” on a “snipe hunt” we will use the 2009 movie “Push” to illustrate this point.
What is real and what is an illusion when someone else controls your eyes and your memories?
Really.
What if everything that you know is an artificial construct that you now believe and that the truth was erased and false memories were implanted in your brain? Could you tell the difference?
I argue you cannot.
And just like many Americans “had a bad experience with Huawei”, who never owned a Huawei phone…
Who swear that they are never going “to use 5G”…
And now “will not get their RNA vaccination”…
… is no different than you remembering a brother that never existed.
The movie “Push” 2009
As that was one of the scenes in this movie. I am going to use this movie as the basis of discussion on the idea that other forces are so powerful that they can change what you think, what you believe, what you remember, and thus control how you act.
Push 2009.
This movie is sort of a “sleeper” movie about people with super-powers. But unlike that same-old nonsense about being bitten by radioactive spiders and the like, this one discusses …
These days you can't throw a half-brick in the air without it landing on someone who can fly, or was bitten by a radioactive spider (and that's assuming that the 'half-brick' in question doesn't GIVE the person it lands on the power to fly or climb walls!).
However, back in 2009, superhero movies (or those generally showing young, good-looking people with superpowers) weren't quite always guaranteed to make as much money as today's average Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
Therefore, 'Push' sort of flew below radar at the time.
I'd like to say that it's achieved a 'cult following' over time and it's a bit more of a 'sleeper hit,' however, it seems to have been completely forgotten. And, in my opinion, that's a shame - I really enjoyed it!
-bowmanblue
The movie start out with a narrator describing how those with “abilities” have been involved with the US government since 1945.
These abilities are various flavors of telekinetic powers. Some can push thoughts into other people’s brains, others can see into the future, and some can kill others by thoughts alone.
Two of the people with these special “abilities” or “powers”, are known as “movers”.
Movers
Movers are powerful telekinetics who are trained to identify the specific atomic frequency of a given material and alter the gravitational field around it, usually causing the nearby air to appear warped.
This allows them to move both animate and inanimate objects.
Advanced Movers can work at the molecular level, creating protective force fields in the air around them or to reinforce punches and other strikes to make them stronger.
A “mover” can move things with their mind.
Two “Movers”, Nick Gant and his father, are on the run from the “Division”. Which is a waved, unacknowledged special access program in the United States government W(U)-SAP.
Realizing that escape is impossible, Nick’s father tells him of a vision he received from a “Watcher”.
Watchers
Watchers have the ability to foresee the future to varying degrees.
As knowledge of the future invariably causes that future to change, Watchers' visions of the future in their direct sphere of influence are subject to frequent shifting.
This is another type of person who's telekinetic powers involve the power to see the future.
This, in this case, a girl will give him a flower and he is to do whatever she says in order to "save us all."
A “watcher” can see into the future.
Nick’s father throws Nick into an air vent as Agent Henry Carver of the Division arrives. Nick sees his father get killed before escaping.
A decade later, the American Division tests an augmentation drug on a “Pusher”, named Kira.
Pushers
Pushers have the ability to implant memories, thoughts and emotions into the minds of other people in order to manipulate them.
The skill level of the Pusher determines how many people the Pusher is able to control at one time, and how vivid the implanted memories are.
A powerful Pusher can push a large group of people at the same time, basically creating a personal army.
A Pusher is able to make a person do anything the Pusher desires, even commit suicide.
A Pusher's eyes indicate how powerful they are: their pupils will dilate to certain degrees depending on how powerful the push is (for example, Henry Carver's eyes are rendered completely black, signifying that he is an extremely able and effective Pusher).
A “pusher” can put thoughts in your head, and change your memories.
This drug either kills the host or greatly increases their powers exponentially.
The test works after many tries.
Rendering the doctor unconscious, Kira steals his security clearance card and an augmentation drug-filled syringe and escapes.
In Hong Kong, Nick (now older as a young man) is hiding from the Division as an expatriate.
He attempts to use his ability to make a living, but his poor skills at “moving” at a dice game leave him indebted to a local Triad. Which for you all who do not know, is the name of a Chinese criminal organization.
This particular Triad is controlled by “Bleeders”, bred by the now-defunct Chinese Division.
In the movie, the Chinese tried to make their own version of the American “division” but failed. The remnants were either absorbed by the American organization or went “underground” and became criminal syndicates.
Bleeder
Bleeders have the ability to emit high-pitched sonic vibrations that cause ruptures in a target's blood vessels.
While using this ability, their eyes turn into slits because of synthetic materials implanted in them to protect the blood vessels from the effects of their own ability.
They are also sometimes known as Joe Mama.
Bleeders can kill you.
A young girl named Cassie Holmes arrives at Nick’s apartment.
She explains to him that she is a “Watcher”.
Watchers
Watchers have the ability to foresee the future to varying degrees.
As knowledge of the future invariably causes that future to change, Watchers' visions of the future in their direct sphere of influence are subject to frequent shifting.
She further explains that they are going to find a case containing 6 million dollars. But shortly afterwards, they are attacked by Triad Bleeders but escape.
All of the reviews I've read of this movie have savaged it and, personally, I didn't think it was nearly bad as bad as all that.
There were some interesting characters (the guy they enlist to help them hide themselves from the bad guys comes to mind here), and it put a new and interesting spin on the whole "people with super powers" genre.
BUT...what really makes me love this film is the depictions of Hong Kong.
See, I have been living in Hong Kong for almost 5 years now and I've told all my friends and family that if they want to get a good look at the many sides of the city (other than the touristy facade is typically presented), watch this movie.
The film makers really did a great job of capturing what it's like to wander around Hong Kong, and the cinematography is like eye candy.
-srvblooze
Problems arise.
And Nick is nearly killed by the Triads. To recover, Cassie uses the help of a “stitch” to heal him.
Stitch
Stitches are psychic surgeons trained to quickly reconstruct cells to their previous or healthy state.
Using only their hands, they can heal and even "unheal" whatever they have done. For more detailed work, Stitches use a silver based cream on their hands which acts as a conductor for their ability.
Once healed up, Nick and Cassie go to a nightclub on a hint from Cassie’s predictions.
Nick sees an old friend, “Hook” Waters, who happens to be a “Shifter”.
Shifters
Shifters can temporarily alter the appearance of an object by manipulating the patterns of light interacting with it.
Once the illusion is established, it remains with the object for a short period of time.
For example, a Shifter could touch a one dollar bill and alter it to appear as a one hundred dollar bill until the effect expires.
The object shifted must have roughly the same dimensions as the object it is shifted into. The length of time that the effect will last is based on the Shifter's experience and ability.
Shifters can temporarily alter the appearance of an object by manipulating the patterns of light interacting with it.
The shifter uses his abilities to make a replica of the clue in Cassie’s drawing and tells them to go to Emily Hu, a highly skilled “Sniffer” who can help them find Kira.
Sniffer
Sniffs are highly developed psychometrics who can track the location of people or objects over varying distances.
Like bloodhounds, their ability is increased if they have tactile access to an object that has been in direct contact with the subject.
Sniffs receive information in the form of images, which is why identifiable landmarks help increase their effectiveness.
Nick and Cassie find Kira, who once had a romantic relationship with Nick.
They recruit a “Shadow” named “Pinky” Stein to hide Kira from the “Sniffers”.
Shadows
Shadows are trained to block the vision of other clairvoyants such as Sniffs, making any subject within their target radius appear "dark".
Experience will enhance the size of the area they can shadow and the intensity of their shielding effect.
Shadows need to be awake to manifest their ability, so it is common for a detail of two Shadows to operate in shifts while protecting a person or object for extended periods.
Most Shadows are effective only against Sniffs, but some extremely powerful Shadows are able to block even Watchers.
Cassie finds the key to a locker in which Kira hid a valuable case.
With the aid of Cassie’s visions, they piece together the events that led them to meet; Cassie’s mother used her visions to set a complex plan in motion that will destroy Division.
The plan to thwart the American Government
Nick comes up with a plan that involves seven envelopes in which he places instructions; each person in the group is entrusted with one red envelope, and none are to be opened until the right time.
Thus no one knows the content in the envelopes. That way, no one knows the plan except the person who made the envelopes.
While Kira and Pinky leave in a taxi, Nick and Cassie share a goodbye. Cassie tells him to “take an umbrella, it’s going to rain”, he replies with “you be careful too”.
Nick uses a “Wiper” to erase his memories of the plan, ensuring that Watchers from both Division and the Triads will no longer be able to interfere.
Wiper
Wipers are skilled at either temporarily or permanently erasing memory, an invaluable asset in espionage.
Experience will dictate the accuracy of their wipes, though there is always the danger that they will eliminate a desired memory.
Wipers are skilled at either temporarily or permanently erasing memory, an invaluable asset in espionage.
Hook retrieves the case (which does not have 6 million dollars, but instead has the syringe Kira stole) and brings it back to Cassie.
He shifts another case to match the case with the syringe.
Cassie takes the shifted case to Nick’s apartment and waits.
Nick regains consciousness: he has no memory of the envelopes or his plan.
He opens his envelope, which tells him to return home.
He finds the case in his room but Carver introduces himself to Kira as a friend, stating that her memories are false; she is a Division agent who volunteered to take the augmentation injection and suffered amnesia as a side-effect.
Agent Carver is the All-Powerful, all-controlling United States government.
Carver shows Kira her badge.
She believes him, because (after all) her memories and all the events confirm this narrative.
Nick goes to retrieve the augmentation drug and confronts Carver and Kira.
Carver tells Kira and Nick that the relationship they believe they had never happened and a special evening together at Coney Island was a “push” memory.
Kira reveals she has been using Nick the entire time and Nick takes the three to the building which contain the lockers and the case.
They are ambushed by the Triads.
In the midst of the fight, Carver injures Nick.
Nick grabs the case and jams the syringe into his arm, which “kills” him. This is because, after all, the injection is fatal to over 90% of the people so injected.
After the fights ends, Nick wakes up. He wasn’t killed.
Cassie appears with an umbrella and smiles at him, “I told you it was going to rain” she tells him, revealing that it was part of the plan.
Cassie retrieves the true case, revealing that Nick injected himself with soy sauce, as they planned.
Asked whether they will see Kira again, Cassie tells Nick that they will see “little miss trouble-maker soon enough”.
“Little miss trouble-maker”, a watcher for the Triad.
Flying back to America with a sleeping Agent Carver, Kira opens her purse, finding her red envelope.
She remembers Nick telling her to open it when “she started doubting the truth” and opens it.
She finds a photograph of herself and Nick, obviously in a relationship, at Coney Island and a message that says “Kill him, See you soon!”.
Kira “pushes” Carver, commanding him to put his gun in his mouth and pull the trigger.
The screen fades to black, followed by the sound of a gun shot.
…
Push is also, as I said, greatly artistical.
It has a lot of fantastic colors and utilizes lighting very well, it's set in very beautiful environments, and there are a lot of other great cinematic techniques being used.
I especially like the choice of soundtrack in this movie.
It reminds me a lot of the way they choose to use music in The Dark Knight. Instead of some really catchy, noticeable soundtrack there's been a very diligent work done with a subtle yet powerful soundtrack that emerges only when necessary and gives an indescribable force to the movie.
All in all, Push is a quite non-mainstream, entertaining, good movie worth watching.
-that-wierd-guy
Conclusion
For you to really understand what is going on in this reality, that you inhabit, you need to understand that (just like in the movie “Push”) that there are very powerful forces that want to control your mind. If they cannot have you, control you or profit from you, then they will kill you.
Just like in the movie.
They have unlimited resources, buckets of money, skilled and talented assistants, and experts in abilities equal or better than the best you can cobble together.
Just like in the movie.
They control what everyone around you does, plans, thinks, behaves and acts upon.
Just like in the movie.
And they are convinced at how everything will work out. They believe that they will be successful stamping out what tiny inconsequential opposition that still remains to their idea of a global utopia.
Just like in the movie.
But, like the movie, you need to realize that there are ways for you to counter their efforts and avoid becoming one of the mindless zombies that they control. And all of these techniques are spelled out in the movie.
[1] Look at what is NOT being presented as “news”.
For the origin of the Coronavirus, all the discussions boil down to two narratives, and only two narratives.
The Coronavirus is either a natural pandemic or a Chinese bio-weapon. Nothing else.
There is absolutely ZERO coverage on the idea that it was all part of the Donald Trump "hybrid war" against China and that John Bolton was the man in charge of the United States Bio-weapon program.
Which is amazing as that theory is the only one where ALL of the puzzle pieces come together.
[2] If the subject is being presented in a thousand different ways and details, then you are GUARANTEED that it is a United States government narrative. It is not independent and unique. It’s just another color of “Soylant Green”.
Notice that the same narrative is not present in other international publications. Of those, only the ones associated with the "five eyes" intelligence organizations will have similar articles. With some "bleed over" into the EU.
[3] You have to control your memories, as to what is real and what is not, to be fully independent.
We have all be preconditioned to act like Pavlov's Dog. We instinctively behave in certain ways reactively without thinking.
All the time we believe what was taught to us as being correct.
But that is false. Very few things that you accept as truth are really factual. They are all erroneous programming.
So you all are concerned about vaccinations. You are worried about the implications of “passports” and RNA, and unproven issues, and all this against a virus that is promoted as being nothing special nor dangerous. And I am telling you that all the “news” is bullshit. All of it.
The truth is hidden from you.
The dangers to you and your family are real, but NOT what is being described. The American RNA vaccinations are adaptable. They have abilities to adapt to a wide spectrum of viruses and biological weapons.
…a wide spectrum of biological weapons.
And it is critical that people be vaccinated right NOW.
So please ignore all the noise. Be careful and judicious in the selection of the vaccine that you take, and realize that the West has opted for a very unlikely candidate to fight an apparently “harmless” virus.
That makes my, and all of my hidden friends*, hair stand on end.
"Hidden friends" and idiom that refers to non-public MM members who have prior experience in American Black Programs and who understandably do not want any public association with MM, but communicate with me through back channels.
I do not trust anything out of America. But that is just me.
The Sinopham vaccine is based on long-duration, tried and proven technology, but is limited to the Coronavirus.
The American vaccines seem to have a for-profit motive, does involve unproven technology, and is adaptable (with some other injection boosters) to be able to combat a spectrum of other viruses. All this points to the construction of a new type of vaccination market that would require boosters from everything from the common cold to smallpox.
…with some additional boosters (at a price)…
…with annual or semi-annual inoculations (also at a price)…
…can enable the human host to combat new viruses…
…that can vary from the common cold to Smallpox.
The evil American empire has some nefarious plans ahead. I do not know what they are. But I do know that discussion of this, and what the plans could be are functionally being omitted or steered away from the public dialog.
If you read about it in the “news”…
…then you are being misdirected.
Any questions, please query in the comments.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Of course, I have covered the insane level of disinformation, lies, and distortions that are spewed from the American media. I have discussed why and how this has come about, and have provided quite an excessive number of examples. But what this article is about is what is NOT being reported.
If you would tell an American that they are ignorant of the “news” they would laugh in your face. They would respond that that idea is absurd. With the millions of articles being pumped out hourly from the vast American media, in all of it’s forms, of course Americans are “well informed”.
But nope. Americans are not.
Americans are subject to a fire-hose of outright lies, intentional distortions, eye-catching gossip, nonessential tidbits, and fear mongering. It is amazing in it’s size, scope, intensity and diversity.
If you exist within the by now almost hermetically sealed-off mindscape of Western mainstream media, and if you also happen to like knowing the truth, then life must seem increasingly unfair to you—because you can’t win.For decades now the modus operandi has been as follows. Regardless of which party has the majority in Congress or controls the presidency, the same unchanging national (and increasingly transnational) elite ensconced in Washington sets the agenda and pushes it through using any means necessary, whether legal, illegal or blatantly criminal (increasingly the latter as national bankruptcy looms and desperation sets in).Their operatives make sure that there is no real investigation of what happened. All Western media reports that contradict the official mendacious narrative are quashed. Any independent efforts to investigate and to find out the truth are denigrated as “conspiracy theories”—a derogatory term coined by the CIA for exactly this purpose.Any non-Western media sources that dare to contradict the official mendacious narrative are ignored, subjected to ad hominem attacks and all manner of false allegations and, if all else fails, banned outright (as is currently happening with the satellite TV channel Russia Today).
But do not be under the impression and “real and actual news” is somehow caught up in this flood of articles. The good stuff are all culled away before Americans ever get near the truth. Americans never see the REAL news.
Some recent examples of “withheld news” include…
The use of drones to spray swine flu over Chinese pig farms.
The content of John Bolton’s meetings when he was the head of the American military bio-weapons office.
The Chinese complaint about American involvement of COVID-19 to the UN.
And those are just right at the top of my head.
If you read foreign news, you will be well aware of these events, but Americans… nope. they would rather read other things.
This particular article is going to concentrate on the public messages that both Putin and Xi Peng have been making to the United States. They are not being (accurately) reported at all.
Any reports are of the content style of “Foreign clownish national leader says something insulting to America. They are just jealous.” And the same yada, yada, yada that you can expect from the Alt-Right and the American mainstream press.
If we swallow the official lies we are being told, knowing full well that they are lies, then we feel like fools.
If we refuse to swallow them, then we either have to accept some alternative interpretation...
... or narrative as real in spite of lacking all the facts we need to prove the case...
...because nobody is going to give them to us—and risk ostracism and marginalization...
... or we have to take an agnostic stance and declare that while we are not privy to the truth.
We know enough to declare that the official story is a tissue of lies.
The first two of these are both clearly losing moves while the last is a refusal to play and therefore a forfeit; thus, all three are defeats.There are no winning moves here.But it’s even worse than that; not only do we lack a winning strategy, but we also happen to be on a losing team that doesn’t know how to play and loves to be played.
If Americans would read what I am presenting here, maybe they would start placing calls to their Congressmen representatives urging them to tone-down the belligerent aggressive war-drums.
Ai.
Take the example of the ill-fated US invasion of Iraq: 4,801 servicemen dead, 1,455,590 dead Iraqis, a once prosperous country destroyed and turned into a terrorist playground with a weak central government that is aligned with Iran, buying weapons from Russia and increasingly hostile toward the US.The war was sold to the public in the US using a technique called “proof by juxtaposition” which works like this: keep showing a picture of Bob next to a giant pile of corpses and eventually everyone comes to believe that Bob is a mass murderer, never mind the fact that Bob only killed maybe half a dozen people, and all but one in self-defense or by accident.This is what was done with Saddam Hussein (who, by the way, was Osama bin Laden’s arch-enemy, who, in turn, had worked for the CIA). By 2003 70% of Americans had been made to believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center.“Proof by juxtaposition” works well for the TV-addled zombies in the US, but for the rest of the world, as represented by the UN Security Council, a stronger tissue of lies had to be woven—using forged “intelligence” of Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction.” The world blinked and either voted for or failed to veto the resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.The putative weapons were never found and the intelligence that was used to convince the world of their existence turned out to have been fabricated.
But since the American people (the “sheeple”) are so dumbed down and are unaware of what is going on, no one is sending up messages to Washington, and so they all believe what they want to believe.
“Foreign clownish national leader says something insulting to America. They are just jealous.”
First up is an article about what Putin had to say to America and it’s “allies”…
Putin to Western Elites: Playtime is Over
An excellent blogger about Russia distills Putin’s Sochi speech into 10 simple points
Dmitry Orlov Thu, Mar 17 2016 .A longer version of this article originally appeared at the ClubOrlov blog. All credit to the author.
Most people in the English-speaking parts of the world missed Putin’s speech at the Valdai conference in Sochi a few years ago, and, chances are, those who have heard of the speech didn’t get a chance to read it, and missed its importance.
Western media did their best to ignore it or to twist its meaning. Regardless of what you think or don’t think of Putin (like the sun and the moon, he does not exist for you to cultivate an opinion) this is probably the most important political speech since Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech of March 5, 1946.
In this speech, Putin abruptly changed the rules of the game. Previously, the game of international politics was played as follows: politicians made public pronouncements, for the sake of maintaining a pleasant fiction of national sovereignty, but they were strictly for show and had nothing to do with the substance of international politics; in the meantime, they engaged in secret back-room negotiations, in which the actual deals were hammered out.
Previously, Putin tried to play this game, expecting only that Russia be treated as an equal. But these hopes have been dashed, and at this conference he declared the game to be over, explicitly violating Western taboo by speaking directly to the people over the heads of elite clans and political leaders.
Here’s what he said…
1. The games are OVER.
Russia will no longer play games and engage in back-room negotiations over trifles. But Russia is prepared for serious conversations and agreements, if these are conducive to collective security, are based on fairness and take into account the interests of each side.
2. America cannot guarantee anything.
All systems of global collective security now lie in ruins. There are no longer any international security guarantees at all. And the entity that destroyed them has a name: The United States of America.
3. There is no New World Order as envisioned by America.
The builders of the New World Order have failed, having built a sand castle. Whether or not a new world order of any sort is to be built is not just Russia's decision, but it is a decision that will not be made without Russia.
The UN failed.
The NWO failed.
And so America launched the “Rules Based Order”, and it is…
…failing.
4. Russia prefers cautious and careful diplomacy.
Russia favors a conservative approach to introducing innovations into the social order, but is not opposed to investigating and discussing such innovations, to see if introducing any of them might be justified.
5. Russia will not play any games that America has created.
Russia has no intention of going fishing in the murky waters created by America's ever-expanding “empire of chaos,” and has no interest in building a new empire of her own (this is unnecessary; Russia's challenges lie in developing her already vast territory). Neither is Russia willing to act as a savior of the world, as she had in the past.
6. Russia does not want to lead the world.
Russia will not attempt to reformat the world in her own image, but neither will she allow anyone to reformat her in their image. Russia will not close herself off from the world, but anyone who tries to close her off from the world will be sure to reap a whirlwind.
And neither does China.
Which, of course, runs contrary to the K-street narrative out of Washington DC.
7. Russia does not want war, but sees America eyeing it as the next world war.
Russia does not wish for the chaos to spread, does not want war, and has no intention of starting one. However, today Russia sees the outbreak of global war as almost inevitable, is prepared for it, and is continuing to prepare for it. Russia does not war—nor does she fear it.
8. Russia will not interfere in the goals and objectives of other nations, just leave it alone.
Russia does not intend to take an active role in thwarting those who are still attempting to construct their New World Order—until their efforts start to impinge on Russia's key interests. Russia would prefer to stand by and watch them give themselves as many lumps as their poor heads can take. But those who manage to drag Russia into this process, through disregard for her interests, will be taught the true meaning of pain.
This is what China is doing as well. It’s a big night and day comparison to what the Untied Sates and it’s “allies” are doing.
9. Russia is about Russians. Nothing else.
In her external, and, even more so, internal politics, Russia's power will rely not on the elites and their back-room dealing, but on the will of the people.
Yes., And China is for the Chinese.
To these nine points I would like to add a tenth:
10. There can be no unilateral action.
There is still a chance to construct a new world order that will avoid a world war. This new world order must of necessity include the United States—but can only do so on the same terms as everyone else: subject to international law and international agreements; refraining from all unilateral action; in full respect of the sovereignty of other nations.
To sum it all up: play-time is over. Children, put away your toys. Now is the time for the adults to make decisions. Russia is ready for this; is the world?
But Americans just don’t “get it”
They are living in some kind of stupid haze, or just morons, or perhaps they have never seen the pain and suffering and despair that war brings. Maybe they view war as something that is done far away and that doesn’t affect them. they don’t see that when Putin and Xi Peng are making these statements that they are not talking about Russians and Chinese dying. They are talking about American dying in mass.
They just don’t “get it”.
So here is another article. This one is about the absolute frustration that Putin has with the fucking morons that run the West.
Putin LOSES IT, Warns Journalists of War: ‘I Don’t Know How to Get Through to You People’
‘How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction?’
Enrico Braun Wed, Jul 6 2016 | 320 words 238,361 Comments This post first appeared on Russia Insider.
Vladimir Putin has finally taken the kid gloves off.
The Russian president was meeting with foreign journalists at the conclusion of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17th, 2016 when he left no one in any doubt that the world is headed down a course which could lead to nuclear war.
This was in 2016, right before Trump was elected President of the United States.
Putin railed against the journalists for their “tall tales” in blindly repeating lies and misinformation provided to them by the United States on its anti-ballistic missile systems being constructed in Eastern Europe. He pointed out that since the Iran nuclear deal, the claim the system is to protect against Iranian missiles has been exposed as a lie.
The journalists were informed that within a few years, Russia predicted the US would be able to extend the range of the system to 1000 km. At that point, Russia’s nuclear potential, and thus the nuclear balance between the US and Russia, would be placed in jeopardy.
Putin completely lost patience with the journalists, berating them for lazily helping to accelerate a nuclear confrontation by repeating US propaganda.
He virtually pleaded with the western media, for the sake of the world, to change their line:
We know year by year what's going to happen, and they know that we know. It's only you that they tell tall tales to, and you buy it, and spread it to the citizens of your countries.
You people in turn do not feel a sense of the impending danger - this is what worries me.
How do you not understand that the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction?
While they pretend that nothing is going on.
I don't know how to get through to you anymore.
Does anyone in the reeking garbage heap that is the Western mainstream western media have a conscience? Do they even have enough intellect to get what Putin is saying – that they are helping to push the planet towards World War III?
That all was five years ago.
What about today?
Quite a bit has happened since Putin laid the line down with the West, and they repeatedly ignored his warnings. But you see trump started to focus on China instead, and that gave Russia a “breather” .
Of course the world has been turned upside down and no there is not a person alive who thinks that 2016 was an unstable time compared to the Biden / Trump years.
What has happened since then is a sequence of war events that were not reported in the Western press. And taken as a whole we can easily see what actually has transpired. And knowing this, and the results of the March 2021 Anchorage Alaska meeting, we know that after that meeting a significant shift occurred in Geo-political relations.
America told the world to accept it as their overlord or expect to be destroyed.
Russia, China and Iran formed a massive joint defense and economic block. Then laid out precise lines; “Red Lines” that will trigger World War III.
And sure, most certainly, the ambassadors have been quite clear on this.
And while I can well relate the various warnings over and over, and over to the moronic idiots who run Washington DC, let’s just keep things simple.
The stage has been set. Both China, and Russia are not going to pretend that America (and it’s cronies) are anything other than despotic-ruled military empire desirous of world conquest, and they WILL retaliate against the United States in a very substantive and spectacular way.
You all might as well ignore the “news”. None of this is being reported, and if you rely on the “news” for Intel, one day you will wake up in a reality that might not be to your liking.
No one is buying the mainstream media, or the same-old dialog any longer. It’s a new day. it’s a new beginning, and the old is sinking into the waters aflame. The only ones unable to see this are the rats scrambling on the deck of the collapsing ship.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Well China has unveiled a new operating system, and it is a BIG DEAL. And I am going to tell you why.
Why this is a big deal.
Presently America controls 99% of all operating systems in the world. America controls the vast number of computer operating systems (Microsoft, and Apple), and the vast number of cell phone operating systems (Microsoft, Google, and Android). The few remaining systems such and Linux and other odd-balls are hit and miss in regards to this control.
Now, I am not talking about American companies being in control of these operating systems.
Instead, I am discussing the American government controlling the operating systems themselves.
It is no secret that the United States government has offices in the development offices of Microsoft, Apple, and Google. And it is more than just “back doors” to operation access.
The Utah Data Collection Center.
To use any of these systems is to give the United States absolute control over your electronics,
As I can PERSONALLY affirm when the government burst into my home in 2006, seized my computer, plugged it into a machine and had full access effectively bypassing all of my passwords, biomedical fingerprint scanning mechanisms and folder locks. They (passwords, biometrics, etc.) are there to give you the illusion of security. The fact is, the US Government owns your computer and they can access it at will.
They can do it at any time. At any place, and there isn’t a fucking thing that you can do about it.
Enter China
This situation, where America has it’s fingers and hands on all communication and electronic communication, is dangerous. Not just for you as an individual who no longer has privacy in any form, but for governments who are exposed to electronic blackmail at the touch of a button.
Which pretty much explains the Morrison government in Australia.
Whether this is economic, such as what the Trump Administration was trying to do with Huawei, or domestically, such as the control of dams, pipelines, and military, the risk of a malevolent foreign actor… especially an out of control military empire such as the United States to have this ability is very, very dangerous.
And now China has it’s own OS.
And the entire “ballgame” has changed.
America must stop this from happening!
Thus we have an on-going war with everything Huawei.
After four years of anti-China disinformation, and anti-Huawei disinformation, most Americans will regurgitate the propaganda that they have been programmed.
All the sheeple feel “bad” about Huawei and have “bad experiences”. Not that they have any experiences, mind you, but they just regurgitate the narratives. And it’s like listening to a robot. Seriously.
I met a fellow who was like this just last week. We were in a Shaomi store, and we started chatting. He said that he didn’t like Huawei products. And so I naturally asked him why.
He said that he had a “bad experience” with it.
So, I wanted to know. What was it? Was it breaking down? Was it too expensive, did it remind him of a bad girl friend? What? Was he swindled? Did the screen fall off? Were there connection problems? What was it?
I asked him over and over.
All he would say for the umpteen time was that he had a “bad experience”. I was just about to give up when he admitted that he never really and actually owned a Huawei phone. It’s just that he read a lot of bad stuff about it.
Sheeple.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Harmony OS
After years of speculation and rumor, Chinese tech giant Huawei formally unveiled its Harmony OS operating system in 2019. It’s fair to say that more questions have been raised than answered. How does it work? What problems does it solve? And is it a product of the current feud between Huawei and the U.S. government?
Is Harmony OS Based on Linux?
No. Although both are free software products (or, more accurately, Huawei has pledged to release Harmony OS with an open-source license), Harmony OS is its own distinct product. Moreover, it uses a different design architecture to Linux, preferring a microkernel design over monolithic kernel.
But wait. Microkernel? Monolithic kernel? I’ve lost you.
Let’s try again. At the heart of every operating system is something called a kernel. Like the name implies, kernels are at the heart of every operating system, effectively serving as a foundation. They handle interactions with the underlying hardware, allocate resources, and define how programs are executed and operated.
All kernels have these fundamental responsibilities. However, they differ in how they work.
Let’s talk about memory. Modern operating systems try to segregate user applications (like Steam or Google Chrome) from the more sensitive parts of the operating system. Imagine an impenetrable line dividing the memory used by system-level services from your applications. There are two main good reasons for this: security and stability.
Microkernels, like the one used by Harmony OS, are extremely discerning about what runs in kernel mode, effectively limiting it to the basics.
Bluntly, monolithic kernels aren’t discerning. Linux, for example, allows many OS-level utilities and processes to run within this privileged space in memory.
At the time Linus Torvalds started work on the Linux kernel, microkernels were still something of an unknown quantity, with few real-world commercial uses. Microkernels also proved harder to develop, and tended to be slower.
Nearly 30 years later, things have changed. Computers are faster and cheaper. Microkernels have made the leap from academia into production.
The XNU kernel, which sits at the heart of macOS and iOS, lends much inspiration from earlier microkernel designs, namely the Mach kernel developed by Carnegie Mellon University. Meanwhile QNX, which forms the basis of the Blackberry 10 operating system, as well as many vehicular infotainment systems, uses a microkernel design.
It’s All About the Extensibility, Man
Because Microkernel designs are intentionally limited, they’re easy to extend. Adding a new system service, like a device driver, doesn’t require the developer to fundamentally alter or interfere with the kernel.
And that hints towards why Huawei chose this approach with Harmony OS. Although Huawei is perhaps best known for its phones, it’s a company involved in most sectors of the consumer technology market. Its lineup includes things like fitness wearables, routers, and televisions.
And let’s not even get into AI, robotics, infrastructure such as roads, trains and intelligent mining and farming initiatives.
And Huawei is an incredibly ambitious company. Taking a leaf from rival Xiaomi’s book, the firm has started selling IoT products through its youth-focused subsidiary Honor, including intelligent toothbrushes and smart desk lamps.
And while it’s not clear whether Harmony OS will run on every bit of consumer technology it ultimately sells, Huawei aspires to have an operating system that will run on as many devices as possible.
Part of the reason is compatibility. If you disregard hardware requirements, any application written for Harmony OS should work on any device running it. That’s an attractive proposition for developers. But it should also have benefits for consumers, too. As more and more devices become computerized, it makes sense for them to be able to easily work as part of a broader ecosystem.
But What About Phones?
It’s been nearly three years since the Trump administration’s Treasury Department placed Huawei on an “entity list,” thereby preventing American firms from trading with the company. While this has exerted pressure on all levels of Huawei’s business, the biggest pain has been felt in the company’s mobile division, preventing it from releasing new devices with Google Mobile Services (GMS) included.
Google Mobile Services is effectively the entire Google ecosystem for Android, including mundane apps like Google Maps and Gmail, as well as the Google Play Store. With Huawei’s latest phones lacking access to most apps, many have wondered whether the Chinese giant will abandon Android, instead moving to a homegrown operating system.
This seems unlikely. At least, in the short term.
For starters, Huawei’s leadership has reiterated its commitment to the Android platform. Instead, it’s focused on developing its own alternative to GMS called Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).
At the heart of this is the company’s app ecosystem, the Huawei AppGallery. Huawei states it’s spending $1 billion to close the “app gap” with the Google Play Store and has 3,000 software engineers working on it.
A new mobile operating system would be forced to start from scratch. Huawei would have to attract developers to port or redevelop their apps for Harmony OS. And, as we’ve learned from Windows Mobile, BlackBerry 10, and Samsung’s Tizen (and previously Bada), that’s not an easy proposition.
That said, Huawei is one of the most well-resourced tech firms in the world. And thus, it would be unwise to completely dismiss the prospect of a Harmony OS-powered phone.
Made in China 2025
There’s an interesting political angle to discuss here. For decades, China has acted as the world’s factory, building products designed overseas. But in recent years, China’s government and its own private sector has invested heavily in research and development. Increasingly, Chinese-designed products are making their way onto the international stage, offering new competition for Silicon Valley’s tech elite.
Amidst this, the Beijing government has an ambition it calls “Made in China 2025.” Effectively, it wants to end its reliance on imported high-tech products, such as semiconductors and airplanes, replacing them with their own homegrown alternatives. The motivation from this stems from economic and political security, as well as national prestige.
Harmony OS fits into this ambition perfectly. If it takes off, it’ll be the first globally successful operating system to emerge from China—with the exception of those used in niche markets, like cellular base stations. These homegrown credentials will come in particularly handy should the cold war between China and the United States continue to rage.
And as a result, I wouldn’t be surprised for Harmony OS to have some very enthusiastic supporters in the central government, as well as within the wider Chinese private sector. And it’s these supporters who will ultimately determine its success.
China Manufactures hardware for the world
99% of all hardware is made in China. What happens when China decides not to preload Windows 10, Apple OS, or Linux and only allows Harmony OS installed?
Sure you can write over the OS when you get the hardware. And that is probably what will happen. Certainly in the USA, American will be FORCED to use American OS.
It will begin as coercion. Where Americans will be warned about the dangers of Harmony OS.
Then it will be mandated by law.
Americans will be FORCED to use American computer operating systems. Just like they are forced to do other things, like pay taxes, buy health insurance, register guns, show identification to buy alcohol, and buy car insurance, etc.
Americans will be forced to use systems to allow their monitoring by the US government.
But that’s not the real concern. Actually. Americans lost their freedoms back hundreds of years ago.
What the real concern is that Microsoft will lose it’s substantial market share, as will google, and Apple. And without this dominance int he market will come a slowly eroding Intel collection ability for the American government.
And the folk at Langley are all in arms about it.
Keep in mind why the United States government wants you to hate Huawei.
Conclusion
The United States dominance on access to privacy, control of information, control of the media, and manipulation of thought are all being challenged by China. And the oligarchy inside of Washington DC do not like this one single bit.
They are flooding the media with warnings, fears and hype and doing everything within their power to assure complete dominance in the intelligence, and communication technologies.
The sheeple believe this.
That is because they have nothing else to compare it against. So they believe the one thousandth article on why Huawei is dangerous and how China is stealing from YOU!
Do not believe it.
If you all could only see things from my point of view, from me…
…standing outside…
…and looking in at the absolutely insanity inside of America today, you too would see what is going on and why.
And a nice little video that I took. I want all you you readers in MM land to start seeing what it is like living outside of America. So that you can see how God-awful America has become. You can watch it HERE. 180MB.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
Can you believe that the morons in the American “news” media, the assholes in Washington DC, and the “talking heads” all still refer to America as a “democracy”. Really! Seriously!
It’s a De Facto Military Empire.
It’s the largest Military Empire in history. And it lives for war. The vast budget of America is devoted to…
…wait for it…
…war!
Ah…
Which goes to show you just how stupid and idiotic America is today. It’s no longer a matter of being delusional. It’s a matter of pure and utter insanity and stupidity.
The American government would look quite different if it was focused on serving the needs of it’s people. It would look something like this…
But you know, people are slowly waking up. It only took them all until the nation is teetering at the edge of the cliff to notice, but well, better late than never. Don’t you know.
I initially found this on MoA in the comment section. It’s pretty good and I expounded upon it. It was originally found on Zero Hedge alongside the rest of the COVID nonsense that is day-to-day fodder in the “alternative” media.
Ah. You know what I am talking about; that Coronavius is just an excuse for more government powers.
Yup. It’s a comfortable narrative.
Far easier to digest than the truth; that the Coronavirus was a part of a multi-stage bio-weapons attack against China on CNY that went “tits up”.
go tits up[1] rude slang To break or malfunction; to die, fall apart, or cease to work. (A play on the phrase "go belly up." "Tits up" is sometimes hyphenated.)
[2] rude slang By extension, to have a poor, undesired, or ruinous outcome; to fail completely or not come together at all.
Never the less, the obvious points that he had made are worthy of consideration, and at that, I have expounded upon that comment and added my very own “two cents”.
Here are Ten Things We Have Learned …. about American (and United States) government, democracy and the superiority of “the American way of life”, “freedom” and “liberty”…
1. The American political system is hopelessly corrupt.
It is irredeemably corrupt. Virtually all politicians are hopelessly corrupt. No political party can be trusted. They all can be, and have been, bought. They serve themselves, pretend to work in the interests of the nation while all the time acting as the "bag men" for the oligarchy.
2. Democracy is a sham.
It has been a sham for a very long time.
There will never be any real democracy when money and power amount to the same thing.
The Founding Fathers who wrote the Federalist Papers were absolutely correct. A Republic tends to turn into a Democracy. A Democracy tends to turn into an Oligarchy, and an Oligarchy tends to devolve into a Military Empire if left unchecked.
America is an oligarchy ruled military empire. It hasn't been a democracy for centuries.
3. The system will stop at nothing to hold on to its power and, if possible, increase its levels of control and exploitation.
It has no scruples. No lie is too outrageous, no hypocrisy too nauseating, no human sacrifice too great.
Those in power are psychopaths, surrounded by psychopathic toadies, and empowered by a corrupt well-established "good old boys" network.
4. So-called radical movements are usually nothing of the sort.
From whatever direction they claim to attack the system, they are just pretending to do so.
These "radical movements" are just useful tools of the oligarchy, and serve to channel discontent in directions which are harmless to the power clique and even useful to its agendas.
5. Any “dissident” voice you have ever heard of through corporate media is probably a fake.
The system does not hand out free publicity to its actual enemies.
The entire media machine is owned, run, funded (either directly or indirectly) by the government, or it's controlling interests; the oligarchy.
Real and actually dissident voices are silenced through technological means, or barring that, killed outright.
6. Most people in our society are cowards.
They will jettison all the fine values and principles which they have been loudly boasting about all their lives merely to avoid the slightest chance of public criticism, inconvenience or even minor financial loss.
Additionally, most American people have a price, and they will sell their soul, their businesses, their families and their futures for financial gain.
7. The mainstream media is nothing but a propaganda machine for the system…
...and those journalists who work for it have sold their sorry souls, placing their (often minimal) writing skills entirely at the disposition of Power.
There are no longer any true dissident voices, or real journalism.
Those that try to practice it must rely on social networks to get their messages heard, and the government, in one way or the other, controls all social media.
8. Police are not servants of the public…
...but servants of a powerful and extremely wealthy minority which seeks to control and exploit the public for its own narrow and greedy interests.
9. Scientists cannot be trusted.
They will use the hypnotic power of their white coats and authoritative status for the benefit of whoever funds their work and lifestyle.
He who pays the piper calls the tune. And they all live for government funding. Either direct, or though an NGO that is supervised through the government.
10. Progress is a misleading illusion.
The “progress” of increasing automation and industrialization does not go hand in hand with a progress in the quality of human life.
Rather, it is becoming increasingly evident, that it will tend to “progressively” reduce it to the point of complete extinction unless managed expertly and adroitly.
So… is “black”, actually “white”?
There is a percentage of the population in America that is waking up to the fact that the American government is corrupt. That it controls all media, not just the mainstream media, and that “alternative” media outlets are all corrupted. And the beloved alternatives are now, themselves part of the government narrative.
To check who is who…
See which of your favorite “alternative media” sources are parroting the government line. Let’s use this one; “China is the source of Coronavirus, and they are covering it up.”
Any “alternative media” that repeats some form of this narrative, is a de facto arm of the American government.
When they should really be talking about how neocon John Bolton (psychopathic neocon) was put in charge of the bio-weapons office in 2017.
When anyone is talking about Coronavirus being a bio-weapon but omits this most critical piece of information should tell you reams about what your source of information is. That’s like buying a new automobile without wheels, an engine, and a steering wheel.
If you cannot see that your beloved “alternative media” are simply parroting one of three key media talking directions, then you too… must be… a sheeple.
And while I am at it…
How all that “dangers of 5G” working out now?
Why, all the news articles about it all suddenly came to an end when American companies were able to compete against the Chinese lead in 5G technology. Imagine that! What a coincidence!
Who was promoting the “don’t use 5G” narrative?
Rush Limbaugh
Hall Turner
FOX News
The ones who promoted the government narrative, are themselves agents of the government.
Remember, boys and girls, your most beloved “alternative media” are just mouthpieces of the government. That way they control your actions and your behaviors by controlling your favorite news outlets. They construct one of three narratives and you end up following the narrative that appeals to what you want to believe.
Meanwhile, what is actually going on is hidden from sight.
Alt-Right
“It’s the evil Chinese. They mishandled a bio-weapon that they stole and are covering it up.”
Mainstream
“Everything is just fine, and America will recover soon.”
Alt-Left
“Don’t be afraid. Everything is under control and the Coronavirus is being tracked.”
Conclusion
I need a beer.
Is there any American out there in MM land that disagrees with this appraisal? If so, I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Personally, I found it “on point” and accurate. But then again, I have a “bone to pick” with the USA, so I am biased.
And with that in mind, let me close with a short video that I made of my life here in China. It’s all of a few minutes long and worth the while for you all to have some perspective what things are like…
…for me on the outside looking into the house of madness that the USA is today. The video is HERE. 150MB.
To understand what is going on inside of the forest, you need to step out of it, climb a nearby hill and look at the bigger picture. There, from that vantage point, you will be able to see a much clearer and bigger picture of what is going on.
Forest Fire.
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
There was a song that I used to listen to by Triumph called “It’s Just a Game”. Their theme, at the time, was that life was just one game after the other. Ah. It was a nice theme, but you know, maybe they were right? Humans follow the rules of society, and when you have rules, you are actually playing a game.
Such as described in a particular song “Lay it on the line” where they decry the apparent game-play in relationships. It’s all just a game. Work. Relationships. Career. Family.
It’s all just a game.
And sure things have changed since the late 1970’s when I listened to this music and used the album covers to clean my nickel bags of twigs and seeds. And when I would have parties at my parent’s house with beer, whiskey, and (then illegal) marijuana.
Yes, sure things have changed since the late 1970’s.
But just because you are not wearing earth shoes, elephant bell-bottom trousers, and a fringe leather vest, doesn’t mean that the ideas and concepts of that time …
…were just short-lived conceptional fads. Perhaps what we thought at that time was actually correct. Maybe life was actually a game.
And whether you were downing Rolling Rock beer, or Coors, or an imported Beck’s beer you were too distracted to take note on the “rules of the game”. You just accepted your role. Whether it was a pawn, a rook, or a knight.
Maybe life was actually a game.
And maybe…
…just maybe…
…we all have been taking it far too seriously.
Life is a game and we have been taking it far too seriously.
And thus, maybe we should sit back, and stop being so anal about life. So what if you want to drive home and have lunch with your family during lunch break? So what if you want to go have a smoke outside? So what if you need to stretch your legs and walk around the building to give yourself a chance to think. So what if you want to have a icy cold beer at lunch with your hamburger?
In England you can get a beer with your whopper. It’s all very English, don’t you know.
Imagine that! Well, why not get a bottle from the quickie-mart, get some takeout burgers and drink the beer, eat the burger in a park?
That’s always a good idea. I used to do that. I would hop in my car, go through the drive through and order a combo meal, and then drive to a shady glade and sit there listening to El’ Rush Bo. I wouldn’t dare buy a beer. That would have gotten me fired. Not that they needed the excuse, mind you. In those days, they treated employees like toilet paper. Use and discard. Use and discard. Use and discard. There was always plenty more where they came from.
Of course, I do not advise sitting in the car listening to Rush Limbaugh right now. Since, he’s dead, and the narrative is still the alt-right US government propaganda. They are still following the script, set forth by John Bolton back in 2016, and drinking coke-cola daily is not good for you, and it’s lonely to boot.
But heck…
Go ahead, get a taco salad, and get a beer from the quickie mart, and go to a park.
What?
No park?
Well, how about driving your car to the never-visited cemetery at the end of the lane. Pulling over and either sitting in your car under the shade of a mighty oak tree, or getting out and enjoying the beer on a granite tombstone?
Lunch in a car is a typical way that American corporate clones get some private time.
What?
The grounds-keeper might call the police for observing your flagrant display of enjoying lunch with a beer in a quiet park setting!
Sacrilege!
Go to a cemetery and enjoy a beer.
Like I am saying. We are playing the game too seriously, and we are way too caught up in it.
If you are a corporate drone, and you sit back. Watch how you are participating inside a big elaborate game. And …
It's just a game, you're in it all the way
It's just a game, don't let yourself slip away
It's such a shame, I heard somebody say
It's just a game, and all I can do...is play
And it is a game.
And the rules of the game are constantly changing, and we are all adapting to the changing rules instead of defining our own rules.
Did you realize that they made a female version of Sherlock Holmes? Yup. I am not shitting you. It’s a bonafied version of Sherlock Holmes with his sister taking all the credit. Jeeze! It’s called Enola Holmes(2020).
When Enola Holmes-Sherlock's teen sister-discovers her mother missing, she sets off to find her, becoming a super-sleuth in her own right as she outwits her famous brother and unravels a dangerous conspiracy around a mysterious young Lord.
It’s all just a game.
Don’t get too caught up in it.
I dug up this interesting article on Strategic Culture, and it’s worth a study. Now, before we get into the subject matter too deeply, let’s consider life as a human has evolved (devolved?) into some kind of game with rules. All of which were created by other humans a long, long time ago. And we are all stuck “playing the game”, when we really don’t have to…
The Curse of Game Theory: Why It’s in Your Self-Interest to Exit the Rules of the Game
Game theory, the mathematical theory of games of strategy, was developed by John von Neumann. It was created in several successive stages from 1928 and into 1940-41. It was published in his book “Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour” which he co-authored with Oskar Morgenstern.
The crux of the theory is that an individuals’ behavior will always be motivated towards achieving an optimal outcome, which is determined by self-interest.
An assumption made is that the players in such a game are rational, which translates to, “will strive to maximize their payoffs in the game”.
In other words, it is assumed they are motivated by selfish self-interests.
Over the years, other contributors such as John Nash (Nash equilibrium) and John Maynard Smith (evolutionary stable strategy) have added to the theory.
Today, we are now at a point where it is considered by many to be an essential tool when modelling economic, political, sociological or military behaviors and outcomes.
As such, it is taught as such in many prestigious universities as something pretty much set in stone.
But what if we have made a terrible mistake?
After all, it is acknowledged by the theorists themselves that the entire functioning of their model relies upon the assumption that we are governed by rational selfish behavior.
People feel confident about this assumption since reality has apparently confirmed this fact to them.
But what if this game is not objectively mirroring a truthful depiction of us?
What if this game has rather, been used as a conditioning tool, a self-fulfilling prophecy, a positive feedback loop?
How can we know what is true?
How can we know what kind of a person we truly are and not what we have been conditioned to think of ourselves as?
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior
Before we can answer such a question, we need to look at the forms of simplification and assumptions that were used.
This may be counter-intuitive to some, but the “philosophy” or “hypothesis” must always precede the actual model.
The [1] variables you choose to use, [2] the variables you discount for, [3] how you define the variables, [4] how you define the relationship between the variables are not being defined by the model, but rather the creator of the model.
Once the model is created it can now, theoretically, add to that beginning structure and mimic a simplified version of reality.
However, we should keep in mind that a model that has been created on a false hypothesis could still “function.”
That is, of course, if the variables are not too much in contradiction to the other variables’ operations.
Such a model is not “aware” that it is not a representation of “reality,” and cannot indicate so to its creator.
Thus, a model can be a representation of a simplified reality or it can represent a completely artificial reality.
The Disclaimers
At the beginning of von Neumann’s book, he goes through several disclaimers which are highly problematic towards the relevance of his theory.
One of them being the acknowledgement that “there exists, at present, no satisfactory treatment of the question of rational behavior.
There may, for example, exist several ways by which to reach the optimum position.
They may depend upon the knowledge and understanding which the individual has and upon the paths of action open to them, because they imply, as must be evident, quantitative relationships.”
As becomes rapidly evident, von Neumann makes endless assertions such as these.
As if they were obvious and thus need not be examined at all.
The assumption that an under-defined “rational” selfish behavior is merely quantifiable and nothing more…
… and does not account for qualitative change (a mathematician’s worst nightmare)…
… is taking great liberty in over-simplifying human behavior to conveniently fit the limited parameters of his model.
In other words, it is cheating.
You are manipulating the definitions and interactions of your variables to fit an artificial reality of your model.
An Example of how this model fails
Let me give you an example.
In Euclid’s fifth postulate, it is considered a “rule” that two parallel lines will never intersect. Euclid was alive around the time of the mid-4th century BCE, before Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) made his beautifully elegant discovery that the Earth was indeed curved and also made a pretty accurate first measurement of the size of Earth.
That is, Euclid assumed a linear geometric space upon which the real universe was expected to “fit”. While it is true that two parallel lines will never meet on a two-dimensional plane, they can meet on a three-dimensional plane.
As is now understood, line A and line G, can be measured as 90 degrees from the equator line and thus are parallel lines, and yet they can eventually interface with each other if the surface is curved.
The problem with assumptions such Euclid’s is that they are ultimately only true in an artificial situation and are not reflective of how such things will interact in reality. Also, there is no way to predict from Euclid’s fifth law, how two parallel lines would interact in a three dimensional space, let alone in n dimensional space as described by the physicist Bernard Riemann.
Ironically, in his book, von Neumann likens his “pioneering” work in the field of game theory to that of what physicists have been doing for centuries, that is, mathematical formulations that represent, albeit simplified, the “laws of nature,” concerning matter and energy. However, von Neumann again showcases that he has no comprehension as to what constitutes the foundation for such “laws of nature.”
…but rather dimensions defined by an ever growing array of discovered physical principles such as magnetism, light, heat, gravity, sound, etc….
… each organizing principle being ironically characterized by both a finiteness and unboundedness with quantized least-action pathways discoverable therein.
According to Euclid’s logic, you never “see” two parallel lines intersecting and thus it is unfathomable that they ever could intersect.
His “rule” was based off of shared assumptions of what we “think” we are observing in such phenomena, however, this is not necessarily reality and it certainly does not translate to a “rule” that governs all.
By von Neumann acknowledging that he himself is heavily relying on his so-called “self-evident” truths in simplifying human behavior…
… he is asserting an outcome…
… he is not proving the outcome’s natural occurrence.
The Robinson Crusoe example in Monetarist Economic Theory
According to von Neumann, the Robinson Crusoe example was used by the Austrian economic school to model an individual’s behavior towards maximizing pay-off in an environment (in this case an island) where the resources available to you are set and limited.
There are many problems with this…
… but the most unforgivable one is the assumption of a set, limited and unchanging reserve of resources available to the individual.
In other words, the Austrian school of economy and von Neumann with them, consider Crusoe’s deserted island as the perfect case study for a limited resource, zero-sum game scenario.
Ironically, this assertion is entirely missing the point of what actually occurs in Daniel Defoe’s story of “Robinson Crusoe,”…
…and it causes one to wonder whether these theorists ever read the book or rather read a two line cliff’s notes synopsis.
Henry C. Carey, Lincoln’s economic advisor, would say in his book “Unity of Law” (1872):
“Crusoe having made a bow, had thus acquired wealth; that wealth exhibiting itself in the power obtained over certain natural properties of wood and muscular fibre, thereby enabling him to secure increased supplies of food with greatly diminished expenditure of labor.
Having made a canoe, he found his wealth much increased, his new machine enabling him to obtain still further increase of food, and of the raw materials of clothing, at still decreased cost of personal effort.
Erecting a pole on his canoe, he now commands the services of wind, and with each and every step in this direction finds himself advancing, with constantly accelerated rapidity, toward becoming master of nature, and a being of real wealth and power.”
Does that sound like the description of a “limited resource,” “zero-sum game” scenario?
In other words, where is the “set” limit?
The limit is constantly being readjusted to what the individual creates which changes his/her relationship to the “utility” of the resource.
For example, the resource wood, depending on the individual’s innovation can be used to keep one warm and dry, cook food, create weapons, create shelter, create a ship for travel etc. etc.
The existence of yet-to-be-created potential thus offsets the entire system of von Neumann because his system has no way of predicting potential, i.e. qualitative transformations, nor how it will affect behavior.
If you cannot predict future qualitative change, which is ongoing, such as the discovery of electricity or the creation of man-made Plutonium and other transuranic elements…
… or the potential waiting to be unlocked by the very feasible fusion plasma torch that can turn landfills into resource mines…
… how can you assume a defined set limit or even a defined zero-sum game as a “self-evident” truth when you cannot even predict what is the limit?
The Supposed Paradox of “The Greatest Good for the Greatest Possible Number”
In von Neumann’s book he refers to “the greatest good for the greatest possible number” as a contradiction, because according to von Neumann you cannot maximize two or more functions at once, that in a social economy, all maxima are desired at once by various players.
That is, there is no concept that it is possible to cooperate and share an optimal outcome, without it coming out of “your” share so to speak, that comes at a cost of having less instead of more.
This is a very basic understanding of economy, and again does not account for how cooperation and creative potential can work to transform the “goods” of an outcome.
For instance, country A is militarily stronger than country B, which is rich in many raw resources.
Country A is also stronger politically than country B in that, there are no other countries that will likely intervene against country A’s actions if it chooses to invade country B.
What course of action will yield the greatest return to country A?
Well, there is a very obvious answer to that question; however, contrary to popular thought it will not yield the greatest optimal outcome.
The greatest optimal outcome is rather to cooperate.
It is in both country A and country B’s best interest to share knowledge, even if country A has much more knowledge, such that country B develops the capability to refine its raw resources.
By doing so, country B will yield a greater return in trade over the long-term to country A, and country A does not have to worry about a future retaliation from country B.
By developing a more advanced economy the wealth of trade is increased for both countries.
By cooperation, the optimal outcome is transformed and offers a greater return.
This is exactly the model that is being used by China presently in their philosophy of “win-win cooperation,” and it has proven itself most effective despite all attempts to villainize it as something nefarious.
Rather than fight over resources, there is a cooperation to share technology, increase resource yield and share a greater boon than originally existed.
John von Neumann goes on to state in his book, that the more players in the model, the easier it is to predict the outcome, since the use of statistics and probability are increasingly better indicators of behavior and performance. As he states:
“When the number of participants becomes really great, some hope emerges that the influence of every particular participant will become negligible and that the above difficulties may recede and a more conventional theory become possible. These are, of course, the classical conditions of ‘free competition’.”
He goes on to use the example of our solar system, with its nine major bodies, as being much harder to model than 10^25 freely moving gas particles, as per gas theory, simply due to the sheer number of objects you are dealing with.
This is truly a remarkably absurd statement, where von Neumann is asserting that if the solar system had more major bodies orbiting within it, it would thus be easier to model based off of probability.
Every planet in our solar system is a different size and weight, with a different number of moons. Every planet revolves around the sun in imperfect elliptical orbits that change slowly overtime, the planets travel along these orbits in a non-uniform way that is observable through planetary retrograde motions.
The fact is that our solar system is not some perfectly closed system that is uniform and consistent in its actions, there are cyclical changes but there are also non-cyclical changes that are occurring.
This is due to our solar system orbiting around a galactic center of the Milky Way which is itself moving in yet-to-be discovered ways within a larger cluster of galaxies.
Therefore, you cannot use any theory of probability because the system is in a state of ongoing non-linear change. The more bodies you add to such a system the more complex it becomes, not the more negligible.
For example, there exists no straightforward formula to identify all prime numbers, though there are an infinite number of prime numbers.
Prime numbers are a reflection of a non-linear process of change.
Such an oversimplification of nature shows the audacity behind the assumptions that make up such formulations like game theory.
You are nothing more than a virtual avatar in their synthetic world with programmed limits to what you can and cannot do in the game they have created for you.
Game theory does not represent the motivations behind human nature, but rather imposes such limitations since, as they acknowledge themselves, it is easier to predict and control your chosen selfish behaviors which are encouraged and rewarded with “incentives.”
It is a system of enslavement that encourages its slaves to fight each other for “table scraps” and never question the hand that withholds, the system that creates false scarcity and promotes antagonism over artificial stressors.
We are taught never to question the rules given to us in these game theory scenarios, but to react accordingly to what has been defined to us as a limited set of options in an artificial scenario.
Perhaps the best indicator to this is, ironically, the very creator of the prisoner’s dilemma, John Nash. Nash had won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994 for his “landmark” work beginning in the 1950s on game theory.
Although it is not clear whether he was suffering with paranoid schizophrenia when he developed the Nash Equilibrium, starting in 1959, Nash would go in and out of mental hospitals for over nine years.
In 2007, he was interviewed while still working at Princeton. Here is his very unselfish offering of his “enlightenment” (his words) on game theory after over 50 years of work in the field. Keep in mind he is using the definition of rational behavior according to game theory, which is defined as a selfish self-interest:
“I have had some trouble myself on the psychological level; I’ve been in mental hospitals…
I realize that what I had said at some time may have overemphasized rationality…
And I don’t want to overemphasize rational thinking on the part of humans…
Human beings are much more complicated, the human being as a businessman….
Human behavior is not entirely motivated by self-interest of each human…
...game theory works in terms of self-interest, but…
...some game theory concepts could be unsound. There is over-dependence on rationality. That is my enlightenment.”
The entire West are basing all their plans, their strategies, their efforts, and their predictions upon “Game Theory”. But this theory is faulted,; tremendously faulted, and those that follow it against a society that has a better understanding of how the world works, will lose.
And the entire world is waking up to this realization.
There’s one easy prediction, though. The US is just about done as a world power, society, economy, concept or even joke.
- One night in Amerika
Inside America you have people that are watching their world crumble around them… and it’s not a game, and they want out.
On the global stage, we see nations in competition and those that follow the “Game theory” model fail, time and time again.
The world belongs to those societies that embrace things as they are, and not as they want them to be. And that means getting off the game board, and changing out the game pieces for real, tangible and accurate measures of society.
Daily Video Report
I am going to add a semi-daily video report on what is going on in China. This is going to be my first one. I took it about 45 minutes ago. I guess you can say it’s my pissed off opinions to counter the wide-spread of lies and disinformation that bombards my morning feeds day-in and day-out.
You can view it HERE. 137MB. I talk a bit about cameras and why the “color revolution” sponsored by the NED (the CIA) failed in Hong Kong. Of course, you will never read what I am talking about in the Western press.
They have more important things to talk about, don’t you know…
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
For the longest time, I had believed that the Strauss and Howe predictions for the Fourth Turning was correct but that the timing was slightly off. Instead of a Crisis Catalyst in 2005 and a Climax in 2020. I argued that the Crisis Catalyst occurred three years later in 2008. Which would launch a Climax in 2023.
Now I am not so sure.
What Strauss and Howe stated
If the Crisis catalyst comes on schedule, around the year 2005, then the climax will be due around 2020, the resolution around 2026. What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning? History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong—the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war. Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence—and perhaps even our nation—might never recover. As many Americans know from their own ancestral backgrounds, history provides numerous examples of societies that have been wiped off the map, ground into submission, or beaten so badly they revert to barbarism.
Indeed, the dates are close but seem to be off by a few years.
In our case, it appears that the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle.
That was three years later.
But does that mean that the Climax would also be delayed by three years?
I am now thinking “no”.
What is the Forth Turning Crisis?
This is what Strauss and Howe wrote;
And finally we enter the Fourth Turning, which is a Crisis.
This is an era in which America’s institutional life is torn down and rebuilt from the ground up—always in response to a perceived threat to the nation’s very survival.
Civic authority revives, cultural expression finds a community purpose, and people begin to locate themselves as members of a larger group.
In every instance, Fourth Turnings have eventually become new “founding moments” in America’s history, refreshing and redefining the national identity.
Currently, this period began in 2008, with the Global Financial Crisis and the deepening of the War on Terror, and will extend to around 2030.
If the past is any prelude to what is to come, as we contend, consider the prior Fourth Turning which was kicked off by the stock market crash of 1929 and climaxed with World War II.
Just as a Second Turning reshapes our inner world (of values, culture and religion), a Fourth Turning reshapes our outer world (of politics, economy and empire).
To be clear, the road ahead for America will be rough.
But I take comfort in the idea that history cycles back and that the past offers us a guide to what we can expect in the future.
Like Nature’s four seasons, the cycles of history follow a natural rhythm or pattern. Make no mistake. Winter is coming. How mild or harsh it will be is anyone’s guess but the basic progression is as natural as counting down the days, weeks and months until Spring.
As you can see, the essay originally published on 3/11/19 by Neil Howe confirmed that the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle.
But no one knows exactly WHEN the actual Crisis will occur.
It could be as early as 2020, or as late as 2025. And as I look at what is going on around the world, most especially with the belligerent activities of the American military empire, I see elements of a Hot War everywhere.
A “hot war” is a hallmark of this Crisis.
The Hot War
America has been involved in all sorts of operations against China since 2017 when Trump become President and John Bolton was put in charge of the Bio-Weapons office.
John Bolton was in charge of the American military bio-weapons operation.
Most notably was the attempt(s) at trying to generate famine and starvation inside China. This all was attempted by the selective destruction of food, grains, and livestock via drone-propagated bio-weapons.
But…
…it is when PEOPLE are targeted for death and destruction is when a “hot war” occurs.
I am convinced that the Hot War started in 2020 with the carpet bombing of China by the three strains of bio-weapons designed to target the Chinese people.
COVID-19 strain B against China, Iran. (Death by seizure virus) February 2020
No longer was the COVID-19 A-strain (light sniffle virus) going to provide herd immunity. The lethal B-strain was starting to rampage. And Americans started to “drop like flies” just like they did inside of China on CNY2020.
Oh, well, that was not to the liking of President Trump.
Washington still did not accept the message…
So that is when he unleashed the (Death by diarrhea virus) in July 2020 in China. This is a very, very nasty tick based virus. In Beijing. You do realize that there are no ticks in Beijing, don’t you?
Ah, the American media...
...keeping Americans stupefied since 1980.
And as soon as the CIA courtiers handed the vials to their local assets inside of China…
…these “assets”, in a strong action suggesting of Chinese patriotism, and perhaps some Geo-political understanding…
… dutifully handed over the vials to the PLA immediately.
And Washington DC was stunned.
So. Round Two. Or is it three, or four…
So then round two, the two-double punch, was unleashed. H1N1 flu G4 strain (Death by diarrhea virus) July 2020. It’s an extremely dangerous, lethal and contagious swine flu that was adapted to kill humans.
And yet again…
… the CIA assets dutifully handed over the vials to the PLA.
And China took action. China started to perform the “famous” anal swabs for testing for the three viral agents, and the American press is aghast as to why would China dare do this for a simple “flu like” virus.
Ah. The ignorance of the manipulated American sheeple.
But China handling three bio-weapons strains and interrogating the CIA assets inside of China did not go down well in Washington. As soon as it was discovered that the Chinese (and Russian) leadership were aware of what was going on…
But nothing happened, and three days later, in October 2020 he exited. With a remarkable “cure”. In which case he was miraculously cured in three days. And the media was all aghast at how amazing the President was to get cured so quickly.
Ah. American sheeple. Kept as clueless as ever.
Now, of course, none of this is reported in the “news”. At least not in context. It’s just random noise with no contextual meaning or connections.
So a Carrier Battle Group set sail for China
But you know, the morons in Washington DC, and Jesus H. Christ, they must be morons…
…decided to go ahead with that eight carrier flotilla to the South China Sea.
And the result of it has not been reported in the Western press. Still giving the idea of the American invincibility on the high seas.
Ah. American media is the "window to the world" as described by Washington DC.
Such a pity.
As well as the absolute fiasco that occurred with the Trump eight carrier invasion force that steamed home with it’s tail between it’s legs after confronting China in the South China Sea. Read about it HERE.
This is only the tip of the iceberg
As well as a number of other events that I will not go into detail about. Anyways, all of this pretty much tells me that a hot “shooting” war between China and the USA started in 2020.
Both American and Chinese people have died as a result of it.
The showdown.
And the policy positions of the two belligerents were put on the table for the entire world to see in the meeting on March 2021 in Anchorage, Alaska. And that meeting told the world that war was on-going.
Sure, there were other elements of conflict.
We have the eight viral strains designed to cause starvation inside of China that were propagated by drones. We had the color revolutions in Hong Kong. We had the positioning and build up for action “to save the Uighur Muslims” in Xinjiang, and the efforts to make Taiwan a United States protectorate.
But none of those events involved military forces.
American military were used to hurt China on Chinese soil
The American military forces started using their skills to kill, destroy and create havoc in 2020. In fact, it was precisely American military “boots on the ground” in China, at Wuhan that kicked off the first wave of biological warfare.
And the only reason that it did not erupt into World War III is because of the calm composure of China in the face of the moronic instability of the United States leadership.
But don’t relax yet.
Let’s not forget these words…
The next Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly.
So with that being said, let’s look at the timing.
The date of 2020 is the Strauss and Howe initial target date for the Climax of the Fourth Turning. But the Crisis Catalyst was supposed to occur in 2005 to have a Climax in 2020.
I have previously argued that since the Crisis Catalyst occurred three years later in 2008, it would launch a Climax in 2023. Now I am not so sure.
I am starting to believe that the Climax hit as planned on 2020. And as a result we are seeing the Strauss and Howe “textbook” results of that Climax.
The only difference is that it is not being reported at all in the American media. Which is surreal, in all the previous Fourth Turning events, the issues were always reported. But the United States is so absolutely fucked up today, that no one really knows anything, and the amount of crime, corruption and sheer incompetence is mind boggling.
So, with all that being said, let’s make it official…
The Fourth Turning Climax hit in 2020
And the next three years to five years will determine the followup events that the crisis started.
Historically, the Crisis would always set the pace of the resulting changes that would follow in the subsequent decades. And there are so many aspects and issues going on that it is difficult to anticipate what to expect.
What can we look forward to?
[1] It could go really, really, REALLY bad…
And when I mean BAD, I mean Baaaaaaaad!
The next Fourth Turning could mark the end of man.
It could be an omnicidal armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly.
But this end, while possible, is not likely.
Human life is not so easily extinguishable.
One conceit of linear thinking is the confidence that we possess such godlike power that—at the mere push of a button—we can obliterate nature, destroy our own seed, and make ourselves the final generations of our species.
Civilized (post-Neolithic) man has endured some 500 generations, prehistoric (fire-using) man perhaps 5,000 generations, Homo Erectus ten times that.
For the next Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection, and bad luck.
Only the worst pessimist can imagine that.
[2] It could change the way the world works.
And if the United States keeps on bearing down and pushing the combined nations of Russia/China/Iran you can well expect to see this…
The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity.
The Western saecular rhythm—which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance—could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last.
This too could come from total war, terrible but not final.
There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society.
The “Western Civilization” of Toynbee and the “Faustian Culture” of Spengler would come to the inexorable close their prophesiers foresaw.
A new dark ages would settle in, until some new civilization could be cobbled together from the ruins.
The cycle of generations would also end, replaced by an ancient cycle of tradition (and fixed social roles for each phase of life) that would not allow progress.
As with an omnicide, such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet.
But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.
[3] It could end the USA, but spare the rest of the world.
Which seems to be what the entire globe is hoping for. Few people outside of Washington DC wants America to continue being what it is. That includes most Americans. America is not “balkanized” for nothing. Most people want this “nightmare” to end.
The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation.
It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify.
This nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, Etruria ten, the Soviet Union (perhaps) only one.
Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival.
Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger:
In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a threat in more than one battle.
In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most horrible war in history.
In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed.
In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.
...
The new saeculum could find America a worse place.
As Paul Kennedy has warned, it might no longer be a “great power.”
Its global stature might be eclipsed by foreign rivals.
Its geography might be smaller, its culture less dominant, its military less effective, its government less democratic, its Constitution less inspiring.
Emerging from its millennial chrysalis, it might evoke nothing like the hope and respect of its “American Century” forbear.
Abroad, people of goodwill and civilized taste might perceive this society as a newly dangerous place.
Or they might see it as decayed, antiquated, an Old New World less central to human progress than we now are.
All this is plausible, and possible, in the natural turning of saecular time.
The items highlighted in BROWNhave already happened.
[4] Or, it could just be a “place holder” in the grand scheme of things.
The aggressive elements inside of Washington DC might retreat, and the same-old would continue in the same-old “well worn” pathways.
Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum.
Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere.
Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.
[5] Or,alternatively, things could end up being very, very good.
Alternatively, the new saeculum could find America, and the world, a much better place.
Like England in the Reformation Saeculum, the Superpower America of the Millennial Saeculum might merely be a prelude to a higher plane of civilization.
Its new civic life might more nearly resemble that “shining city on a hill” to which its colonial ancestors aspired.
Its ecology might be freshly repaired and newly sustainable, its economy rejuvenated, its politics functional and fair, its media elevated in tone, its culture creative and uplifting, its gender and race relations improved, its commonalities embraced and differences accepted, its institutions free of the corruptions that today seem entrenched beyond correction.
People might enjoy new realms of personal, family, community, and national fulfillment.
America’s borders might be redrawn around an altered but more cogent geography of public community.
Its influence on world peace could be more potent, on world culture more uplifting.
All this is achievable as well.
But I strongly doubt that such a positive outcome is possible.
Conclusion
As I sit here in a hot May 2021, it appears that scenario number [3] (above) is the most likely scenario.
With the option scenario number [2] (above) still possible.
We can only wait and see.
And these are my thoughts on this matter. If you feel otherwise, you are welcome to posit which of the five scenarios that you believe is possible. But for now, I am strongly placing my bets on scenario number [3].
Do you want more?
You can find more articles related to this in my latest index; A New Beginning. And in it are elements of the old, some elements regarding the transition, and some elements that look towards the future.
The ten rules of war propaganda were set forth by the historian Anne Morelli in her book The Principles of War Propaganda. Well, let’s look at these rules.
In doing so, we will see that our mainstream media follow them exactly.
Anyone who follows the media reports in the West must realize that our German media, free, objective, and critical, are engaged in war propaganda.
There are 10 fundamental well-known rules of American war propaganda that are easy to verify.
Rule 1: We don’t want war
Fun fact: Every war that American has been in for the last seventy five years involved a discussion with the (eventual) enemy where the United States made the statement (word for word) exactly stated "We don't want war".
It's so obvious that it has become the "Calling Card of America".
The West supposedly never wants wars. Even so, the West wages more wars than all other states put together. Germany is fighting in Mali to supply the French nuclear power plants with uranium (officially against terrorists, of course). Germany fought in Afghanistan for 20 years, so long that most have already forgotten what it was all about. Germany has been militarily active in Kosovo for over 20 years to build democracy, but the Albanian mafia still rules there under the protection of the Bundeswehr. And so on.
All of these – and also the other – wars of the US-dominated West in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and on, all have one thing in common: Of course, the West did not want them at all, but was forced to war by the evil rulers. This is the official reading every time, and none of the “rulers” has ever attacked a country in the West.
It was always the other way around, the West attacked.
“We don’t want war”
If you want a fun activity, read the transcript of the March 2021 meeting in Anchorage Alaska between the United States and China. Look for the announcement statement “We don’t want war” coming from the American side.
That is how the rest of the world knows that American has decided to wage a hot war, soon to become world war III, nuclear style with China.
Look for the specific wording.
That’s exactly how you know that America plans to attack China under some kind of excuse and that a propaganda barrage to justify that attack is being conducted.
Rule 2: The opposing camp is solely responsible for the war
It's all their fault.
See point one.
Assad is allegedly responsible for the war in Syria, although the media in the West consistently keep silent about the CIA operation “Timber Sycamore” with which the CIA started the war. If this is new to you, it’s no wonder. Der Spiegel, for example, has never reported on how you can find the term “Timber Sycamore” when you search the Spiegel archive. The relevant documents of the CIA were published in Washington years ago. If this is new to you, check it out.
It is always done that way. So it was with Iraq, Libya and all other wars in which the West is fighting. The blame was placed on the other side, concealing that the West started the wars itself.
Rule 3: The leader of the opposing camp has the face of the devil
This is the classic. The choice of words is crucial. Putin, Assad and whoever are “potentates”, “autocrats”, “dictators” who commit all the deadly sins of the world. When a war is imminent, the media bring – in order to make the population ready for war – the inevitable formulations of the “Second Hitler”, from whom the world must be saved.
Of course, the enemies do not have “governments”, they are “regimes”. With all these formulations the “enemy” is dehumanized, the public should feel hatred and be ready to overthrow such an evil person, even at the cost of thousands of lives.
Anti-China bullshit from the American media.
This is what is called “hatespeech” in modern German and what the same media, that use this hate propaganda against unloved heads of government, always find very bad.
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"America doesn't hate the Chinese people, just the Chinese government."
Rule 4: We defend a good cause and not special interests
Of course, the US wanted to bring human rights, democracy and prosperity to Iraq. Of course, it wasn’t about the oil wells that US corporations have secured for themselves. Not even in Libya, where France (one of the driving forces in the war) has secured many oil wells. And Mali is about the fight against terrorism, not the uranium on which the French nuclear industry depends. And of course Syria is not about oil or the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean, it is only about democracy, human rights and prosperity.
Wherever a government is critical of the West and where there are also natural resources (or where one of the main enemies China and Russia can be harmed), the West finds democracy and human rights very important. But if a government is pro-Western and allows the West access to natural resources, such as the absolutist Saudi dictatorship, then democracy and human rights are not so important.
Regime change in China The last major policy shift in China caught many off guard; we are at another such turning point. For the past ten years or so, bad newsin China was usually good news. Growth shocks triggered sizable stimuli, leading to asset price rebounds in China, emerging markets and the world more broadly.-Chinaregimechange
Incidentally, this is the key to understanding why Russia, which was a political friend under Yeltsin, has become enemy number one again under Putin: Under Yeltsin, Western corporations had secured control of Russian oil and gas. Putin ended that by 2003, and suddenly he was the number one villain. It doesn’t say that in the “quality media”, but it was actually so banal.
Rule 5: The enemy commits atrocities deliberately; on the other hand, when we cross the line, it is unintentional
We experience this one all the time. If the US is undoubtedly bombing a hospital in Afghanistan, then that is “collateral damage” and it was an accident. Nobody is punished, the “quality media” quickly forget it and do not ask for clarification.
On the other hand, it is enough if someone claims without evidence that Russia or Syria bombed a hospital and the media in the West are reporting not only for days, but also afterwards, so that the public does not forget who it must hate.
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Rule 6: The enemy uses illegal weapons
That is also a classic.
We have all heard many times that Assad uses “barrel bombs”. Nobody really knows what that actually is, but it sounds pretty nasty. The USA constantly uses barrel bombs, except they are called “cluster bombs” and the “quality media” are almost always shyly silent about them, because these weapons are internationally banned.
Whether Assad uses this weapon has not been proven at all, but as a precaution the media have come up with a separate word for it so that the readers don’t even get the idea that the West could also use such weapons. ‘But he does that all the time.
Rule 7: We suffer only slight losses; the enemy’s losses are enormous
This rule only applies when the war has entered its critical phase. Before the war it was the other way around. Before the war it was reported that the enemy was aggressive and, for example, had killed so many of “our” soldiers again when violating a ceasefire. This is to prepare the public for a war.
We have been seeing this in Ukraine for years. The “quality media” always report when it gets “hotter” there that the rebels have killed so many Ukrainian soldiers. In doing so, they keep silent about the fact that the mostly Ukrainian shelling of residential areas preceded them, in which civilians were killed.
But you don’t find out about that from the “quality media”, you have to read the reports of the OSCE. The “quality media” did not consider the fact that the OSCE presented a report in November 2020 in which it stated that almost 75 percent of civilian casualties in Donbass were due to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Rule 8: The artists and intellectuals support our cause
Notice how often celebrities have their say in the media who think the Western wars are good for moral reasons. Celebs have spoken out against Assad, Gaddafi, and Saddam in recent years. This is particularly evident in the American media.
John Wayne fights the demon heathen communists in Vietnam in the movie The Green Berets.
In 2019 a prominent “benefit concert” for Venezuela took place in the Colombian border town of Cucuta. Famous artists appeared in the middle of the jungle to sing against Maduro. Conveniently right next to the US military base there.
And for Navalny, for example, Western celebrities wrote an open letter to Putin in April 2021. It did not contain any truths and probably hardly anyone has read it. It was just important to be able to name the celebrities in the headlines of the media who are against Putin.
There are innumerable examples of this method of war propaganda.
But none of this has anything to do with politics, after all, what politician is interested in a singer’s opinion? These reports only have the purpose of giving the public the feeling that the position of the West is morally correct and thus the fans of the stars are to be influenced accordingly and to follow their idol. It’s all about emotions, not the actuality.
Rule 9: Our concern is something sacred
Of course, after all, it is supposedly about the “holy” values of the West, that is to say about democracy and human rights. You can also kill people for this.
This is probably the oldest means of war propaganda in world history. In ancient Rome one had to bring civilization to the barbarians, of course it was not about the enrichment of the generals. Caesar moved to Gaul as a practically bankrupt man and came back very rich.
Later the Spaniards had to bring the “savages” in America the right faith so that they would not burn in the hell to which the Spaniards sent them on the occasion. It wasn’t about the gold, of course. And the British Empire wanted to bring civilization back to the “backward” colonies, because the poor, backward people in the colonies couldn’t rule themselves.
What I am writing here so ironically is true. You can read it in the documents from the corresponding periods. There was always a “sacred” reason for urgently going to war.
And today the “holy” concerns are democracy, human rights, women’s rights and so on. It’s still the same principle as in antiquity, only the “sacred” concern changes every now and then.
Rule 10: Anyone who questions our propaganda is a traitor
Today the word “traitor” is out of date.
Today you can choose to say “Putin understanders”, “Kremlin trolls”, “conspiracy theorists”, “anti-Americans” and whatever other names are currently circulating.
Anyone who disagrees is demonized and marginalized.
But all of these terms have one thing in common: They identify the named person as an opponent of “Western values” or democracy.
Ergo: it’s a traitor.
It’s shocking, but the German media is actually doing war propaganda like in the darkest times in history. And not just since yesterday, it happened in 1991 in the First Gulf War with the incubator lie and has not been less since then, on the contrary, it has become more, and the techniques have been refined more and more.
Do you think it is a coincidence that the media works exactly according to the propaganda textbook?
The Conclusion
The United States has already decided to wage war with China.
The initial attempts, have all failed, resulting in (as best as I can determine) five HOT-level Assaults…
Carpet bombing using 8 bio-weapons to destroy livestock 2016 through 2020.
A hard attack using the COVID19 B-strain “death by brain seizure” during CNY 2020, with herd immunity for US allies using the inoculation A-strain . The “three day sniffles” variant.
A follow up (two punch) “desperation” (vindictive) bio-weapon attack(s) targeted on Beijing using the “death by vomiting” virus known as the Jingmen tick virus (JMTV), and the “death by diarrhea” virus. Which is itself being a human version of (ASF version of the H1N1) people transmittable Swine-flu 2020 virus. Also (curiously) disseminated by “criminal elements” using drones to spray the virus all over China. Good thing for China that the CIA assets turned themselves into the authorities.
The “tit-for-tat” minor assault carrier fires. China’s first big-deck amphibious assault ship, a type 075; a huge vessel that was built in a miraculously short amount of time, mysteriously caught fire on Saturday, April 11th, 2020. And then the gutting of the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard.
And the enormous late Summer US Navy armada that sailed to the South China Sea in 2020. And the return back to the USA with their “tail between their legs”. The USA was unprepared to to deal with the kinds of defensive capabilities that the Chinese had arrayed in the South China Sea.
Additionally, there are failures in collapse of particular cities, and Chinese efforts…
Color Revolution in Hong Kong.
Color Revolution in Tibet.
Turn XinJIang and the Uighur Muslims into a Syria-like battlefield.
The attempts to destabilize Chinese allies are a mixed bag…
Myanmar “regime change” to a pro-American anti-China nation.
Thailand “regime change” to a pro-American anti-China nation.
Chinese BRI construction in the Beirut port (destroyed by missiles).
And so on and so forth.
It’s a big effort, with the blocking the Suez canal, and mysterious fires in IC factories, and the like…
The propaganda is still in full active attack mode.
Which pretty much means that more, and worse events are scheduled to occur.
I think that the United States should realize that China is NOT a nation that is an easy target and that it would be in the best interests for America to work with China rather than try to destroy it. But what else can I say? America is run by idiots.
That’s the only thing that you can conclude.
They are all maniacs you see. Maniacs. Pure maniacs.
Do you want more?
This article is going into a new sub-index that I am creating for it titled VLOG. You can access it here.
I think that is important to address the issue of Taiwan and China. I believe that I need to do so because the USA is trying to start a war there. The drums for war are beating loudly. Really, really loudly. What the HELL is going on?
America is a military empire and it needs a war to exist. It’s always wanted one, two or three, as well well know. Right now the USA is involved in eight simultaneous wars, which could be reduced to seven if the (so called Afghanistan pull out) actually occurs.
But yeah. All evidence is that the United States is “throwing it’s weight around” trying to provoke a mighty World War.
(To) throw one's weightaround, to To use one’s wealth or standing to manipulateothers; to act officiously.
This expression dates from the early twentiethcenturyand uses weight in the sense of “authority.” John P. Marquand had it in H. M. Pulham, Esquire (1941): “Bo-jo was a bastard, a big bastard.
-Throwweightaround - Idiomsby The FreeDictionary
All you need to do is read the slant of the “news” out of America. Such as this piece of reprehensible trash…
I will admit that the anti-China articles have improved in their “sneakiness”. All you need to do is read the text to pull out the “boiler plate” anti-China screeds. Like this one from my Tech channels…
And the source for all this information? Why it’s the “United States Government”. That’s it. No other information on names or actual validation channels. Jeeze!
So the USA is busily running their anti-China screed, and they are still poking the Panda. But will it result in a hot war over Taiwan?
We should look into this. Here we tie together some most excellent articles and then weave them together for a better, more comprehensive picture about what is going on, why and who the culprits are.
We will start with this, it is one of the better articles on the subject. Edited to fit in this venue and all credit to the author.
We are witnessing the fourth Cross-Strait Crises. Chinese and American armed forces are undertaking dangerous, spectacular and threatening show of military might. What makes the present crisis different from the previous ones is the fact that it happened during and after the mutual cold-war declaration by Washington and Beijing in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18-19, 2021
The world is wondering how far this military show will go. Many are afraid of a shooting war involving China, Taiwan and the U.S. Indeed, many are even afraid of the possibility of the third world war which will kill us all.
However, I do not share such pessimistic views. My view is that the inter-China cold war is likely to remain cold, not hot, because none of the three actors involved in the conflict – two Chinas and the U.S.- will gain from the shooting war.
The Sino-American shooting war – if there will be one – will be ignited somewhere else.
Summary
My argument may be summarized as follows.
First, the U.S. does not want the inter-China hot war, because through its ambiguous Taiwan policy, it can continue to sell weapons to Taiwan and, at the same time, keep Taiwan as the primary outpost of its China containment policy.
Second, China is not eager to declare a hot war with Taiwan, because Taiwan has not provided the reasons for China’s Taiwan invasion.
What would force an invasion of Taiwan by China?
There are four reasons for China’s Taiwan invasion including [1] the declaration of Taiwan independence, [2] internal turmoil inside of Taiwan, [2] military alliance with another country, [3] acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and [4] negotiations under the violation of the 1992 Consensus for “one-China”.
None of these conditions are present.
Therefore, China has no reason to invade Taiwan.
Taiwan does not want a war with China
Third, Taiwan does not want the hot war with China for the reason that it will be most likely defeated. As well as the cost of such defeat will be too high in terms of economic development and the loss of its identity. In fact, if and when China wins, it is extremely likely that both of the two China’s will be united under the banner of PRC.
The U.S. does not want inter-China hot War
To understand Washington’s role in the inter-China conflict, it is important to understand its Taiwan policy.
Washington’s Taiwan policy is based on [1] the three joint communiqués, [2] the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 (TRA) and [3] the Six Assurances imposed by Ronald Reagan in 1982.
The followings are the contents of the three Communiqués, TRA and the Six Assurances.
The First China-U.S. Communiqué (28 February 1972)
The U.S. Government acknowledges (not accept or recognize) that all Chinese in either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but One China
Taiwan is a part of China
The U.S. Government does not challenge this position
. It reaffirms its interest in peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by Chinese themselves
With this prospect in mind, it affirms its ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all the U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan.
The Second China-U.S. Communiqué (January 1, 1979)
Neither should seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region or any other region of the world.
Each is opposed to efforts by any other country or group of countries to establish such hegemony
The government of the USA acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and that Taiwan is part of China
PRC is the sole legal government of China
Third China-U.S. Communiqué (August 17, 1982)
The U.S. Government attaches great importance to its relation with China.
It has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity or interfering in China’s internal affairs or pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan.’
The U.S. Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan
Its arms sale to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms the level of those supplied in recent years
It intends to reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final solution.
The U.S. Taiwan policy cannot be changed by the president and requires the consent of the Congress.
The Taiwan Relations Act (enacted by the U.S. Congress on April 10, 1979)
The principal contents of the Act is in Section 2 of the Act
Taiwan is treated as a country, a nation or a state as sub sovereign nation
Informal diplomatic relations are carried out by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)
The U.S. Government normalizes its diplomatic relations with PRC (Beijing) under the condition that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.
Any efforts to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means including by boycotts, or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific are grave concern to the U.S.
The Sino (Taiwan)-U.S. Mutual Defence Treaty is terminated.
The U.S. Government does not intervene in case of invasion by People’s Republic of China (PRC)
The U.S. Government provides arms of defensive character and maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan
The decision related to the quantity and the quality of defence articles and services is determined by the Congress and the president.
The Six Assurances
The administration of Ronald Reagan unilaterally added in 1982 “Six Assurances” to the TRA and this has become the mains part of the U.S. Taiwan policy
The U.S. Government has not agreed to set a date of the termination of its arms sale to Taiwan.
The U.S. Government has not agreed to consult with PRC (China) or ROC (Taiwan) for arms sales to Taiwan.
The U.S. Government does not perform the mediation role between ROC and PRC
The U.S. Government has not agreed to revise the TRA
The U.S. Government has not revised its position regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan
The U.S. Government will not exercise pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiation with PRC.
The positive aspect of Washington’s Taiwan policy is the termination of the bloody civil war between ROC and PRC which caused the two cross-strait crises (1954 and 1958); the civil war lasted until 1979.
But, the end of the inter-China civil war was also desirable for Washington as well, because Washington badly needed China to counter the aggressive assertiveness of the Soviet Union in Asia.
So, Washington and Beijing were strange bed fellows with different dreams. Another possible reason for the U.S. initiative to end the inter-China civil war was the fear of Beijing’s victory over Taipei, which means the loss of a lucrative American arms market and reliable outpost of China containment strategy.
On the other hand, Washington’s Taiwan policy is characterized by the amazing ambiguity of Washington’s perception of the cross-strait problems and tactics which was most likely designed to maximize the American interests at the expense of China’s interests.
What comes out of the three communiqués, the TRA and the six assurances may be summarized in terms of the issue of regional hegemony, the legal status of Taiwan and the American arms sales.
Regional ambiguity
In the second communiqué of 1979, there are items preventing China from becoming a hegemonic power in the region. Neither the U.S. nor China should seek for hegemonic power in Asia. But the U.S was already the hegemonic power there.
The second feature of Washington’s Taiwan policy is its contradictory and ambiguous position regarding the legal status of Taiwan.
In the joint communiqués, the U.S. acknowledges that China is one and Taiwan is a part of China and that Beijing is the sole legal government of China. But this should mean that since Taiwan is a part of China, Beijing should also govern Taiwan.
But, in the Taiwan Relations Act, Taiwan is given the status of a de facto sovereign country.
China can argue that Washington did not respect the contents of the joint communiqués. But Washington can say this: “We have never accepted one-China regime, we said we acknowledged the regime”. Here, we see the strategic political ambiguity of Washington.
In fact, in the TRA, it says that Taiwan is treated as a nation of sub sovereignty. The U.S. has established de facto diplomatic relations with Taiwan conducted through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).
Here, Washington’s position regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan is not clear. The hidden purpose of the U.S. could be to make the sovereignty issue ambiguous so that it can change its position in function of needs.
Washington’s Arms Sales to Taiwan
Now, as for the issues of arms sales to Taiwan, the U. S. is even more ambiguous.
In the third communiqué, the U.S. says that it has no long-run plan of arms sales to Taiwan.
Yet in the same communiqué, the U.S. says that it will reduce arms sales, which contradicts each other.
In the TRA, the Sino (ROC)-U.S. defence Treaty is terminated.
This is a very, very important point. One that is purposely being left out of all media communication originating out of the United States. The TRA ended Taiwan as a US Protectorate.
Therefore, Washington should not intervene militarily if and when Taiwan is in armed conflict with Beijing.
But, already, in media, the US intervention in case of PRC’s Taiwan invasion is openly discussed.
One wonders what the reliability of the joint communiqués, the TRA and the Six Assurances is. It’s as if the United States simply ignores inconvenient rules, treaties, and agreements that it has signed.
Now, in the Six Assurances, it is written that the U.S. has no date for the ending of its arms sales to Taiwan. The U.S. is not obliged to consult PRC or ROC for its arms sales to Taiwan. So, Washington has absolute freehand in handling the arms sales to Taiwan.
In short, the U.S. Taiwan policy is so confusing and so ambiguous that it has useful flexibility for the sales of arms to Taiwan. The following table shows the pattern of American arms sales to Taiwan.
Table: Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan by U.S. Presidents
The table above allows these observations.
Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan has increased over the years, which is contrary to what the U.S. Government had promised.
The Trump administration spent as much as US$ 4.45 billion per year which represents as much as 30% of Taiwan’s annual defense budget of $15 billion
By and large, the Republican Party sells more than the Democrats.
Washington sells more when the anti-Beijing liberal party of Taiwan, the Democratic and Progressive Parry (DPP) is in power, that is, under the DPP government of Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) and under the DPP government of Tsai Ying-wen (2016-2021)
This has an important meaning.
Remember that the DPP is the party which seeks independence of Taiwan.
Hence, the data can be interpreted as Washington’s strategy of encouraging the independence movement leading to ROC-PRC tension and more U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
So the United States is actively encouraging an armed conflict between Taiwan and China. Though everyone realizes that ultimately Taiwan would be absorbed into China as a result of the conflict.
So, Does the USA want a Hot War over the Taiwan strait?
Now, coming back to the question of whether the U.S. wishes hot war over the Taiwan Strait, the answer is that it will not want the hot war.
The USA does not really want a Hot War, even though it is provoking one.
The reason is because, the hot war means the unification of China and Taiwan will no longer be able to play the role of Washington’s primary China-containment outpost and its function of being the lucrative market of American military equipment’s.
Neither PRC (People’s Republic of China) nor ROC (Republic of China-Taiwan) wants the hot War.
Are Taiwan and China enemies as described in the Western media?
When we discuss Taiwan and China, it is important to remember that they once were enemies. This was around fifty years ago.
The army of the ROC was defeated in 1949 and Chiang Kai-sek fled to Taiwan and continued the Republic of China which was created in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen. The civil war between ROC and PRC continued until 1979.
Even though the civil war was terminated, the ROC and PRC relations have not been smooth partly because of the past history and partly because of different political and economic regimes. In other words, there are always the possibilities of hostility in the cross-strait relations.
However, they have established viable relations which have been beneficial to both through political and economic cooperation.
The Risk of full Taiwan Independence from China
Aside from the American and British media harping on the desire for Taiwan to be free of the “oppressive yoke” of the “brutal Communist Dictatorship”, the real truth is something else entirely.
The evolution of the Taiwanese political orientation may be measured in terms of the way in which its presidents consider the legal status of Taiwan vis-à-vis PRC.
The evolution of Taiwanese political leaders’ perceptions of Taipei-Beijing political relations is shown below. By and large, such relations have evolved by the following periods.
The civil war period (1949-1979)
The period of good relations (1979-1998)
The period of hostility (1998-2008)
The resumption of high level dialogue period (2008-2016)
The frozen relation period (2016-2021)
The period of civil war (1949-1979) was characterized by two cross-strait crises and never ending armed conflict between two Chinas.
During the friendly relation period (1979-1998), Deng Xiaoping met frequently the head of the Nationalist Party, Kuomintang (KMT) in order to develop cooperative relations.
President Chiang Ching-kuo (1980-1988) of KMT, son of Chiang Kai-shek, declared the three NOs:
No declaration of independence,
No unification of Chinas and
No use of force between the two Chinas.
On July 9, 1999, President Lee Teng-hui (1988-2000) of KMT defined the ROC-PRC relation as “country to country relations.” So, there is no need for the independence declaration.
However, Lee’s visit to the Cornel University Alumni in 1995 alarmed Beijing and it led to the 1996 show of military might of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of PRC.
This was, in fact, the third Taiwan Strait crisis.
During the period of hostility (1998-2008), President Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) of the anti-PRC party, DPP, changed the name of “Chunghwa Post Co.” to “Taiwan Post Co.” He changed also the name of “China Petroleum Corporation” to “Taiwan Petroleum Corporation.”
But, under KMT president Ma Yong-Jeou (2008-2016), the old names came back. This episode shows how Taiwanese people are sensitive about the identity of Taiwan vis-à-vis China of main land.
In 2008, Ma Ying-Jeou of KMT (2008-2016) took over the power and the friendly relations across the Strait were resumed.
The year 2008 was marked by the efforts of PRCs president Hu Jintao to improve the bilateral relations across the Taiwan Strait. On March 26, 2008, he talked to President G.W. Bush, who endorsed the 1992 consensus on “One China”..
President Hu Jintao also met the Chairman of the KMT, Wu Po-hsing, who also accepted the 1992 Consensus.
As for President Ma, he defined the bilateral relations as “One Country on each side” or “two states in the same nation.”
In 2016 began the current period of contention. The power went back to DPP and Tsai Ying-wen became President. Tsai’s perception of Taiwan’s legal status was not more certain than those of other Taiwan presidents.
Her victory has put Beijing in even uncomfortable position. In 2016, Beijing cut all communications with ROC.
But, in the same year, some leaders in Taiwan being aware of the deteriorating cross-strait relations formed a Taiwanese delegation composed of eight magistrates and city mayors went to Beijing to improve the relations.
However, the cross-strait relations were not peaceful. In 2018, PLA conducted military exercises which surely alarmed Taiwan.
In 2019, Xi Jinping reaffirmed his position in favor of “one China, two systems.”
President Tsai Ying-wen refused Xi Jinping’s idea.
To the surprise of the world, in 2020 Tsai Ying-wen won the election again; the world was expecting that she would take more radical position regarding Taiwan’s independence.
True, her victory has encouraged the independence movement in Taiwan and pro-independence political parties and civic organizations asked for a referendum on independence.
However, Tsai maintained her position that since Taiwan is already independent country, there is no need for the declaration of independence.”
To sum up, none of the presidents of the major parties, the KMT and the DPP, opted for the declaration of Taiwan’s independence.
True, there are some pro-independence parties such as The Taiwan Independence Party, the Taiwan Solidarity and the Formosa Alliance, but they have no electoral support.
Thus, the danger of Taiwan’s declaration of independence seems nonexistent and therefore, Beijing has no reason to invade for now.
Taiwan People’s Perception
What has intrigued me is the Taiwanese people’s perceptions regarding Taiwan’s legal or political status. There are four public opinion polls which are meaningful.
In the poll of 2008 by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) no less than76% of the respondents rejected the idea of “one China, two systems.”
In the 2017 poll by MAC, 85% of the respondents said that the future of Taiwan should be determined by the Taiwanese themselves.
In the 2019 poll by MAC, 75% of the respondents rejected the 1992 Consensus (There is only one China which should be governed by PRC).
In the 2020 poll by the Academia Sinica, one finds very interesting phenomena.
73% of the respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese.
27.5% of them identified themselves as Chinese-Taiwanese
2.4% of them identified themselves as Chinese
52.3% of them would prefer the postponement of the question of Taiwan independence and keep the status quo
35.1% of them prefer immediate independence
5.5% of them would prefer immediate or eventual unification of China.
In the Poll of MAC, 90% of the respondents refused PLA’s military threats.
To sum up, the Taiwanese are eager to greater autonomy, even independence, but they seem to avoid military confrontation by postponing the solution of the independence issue.
In short, Taiwan does not want a shooting war with China.
Economic Cooperation
There is another reason why the ROC-PRC hot war will not take place. It is the cross-strait economic cooperation.
Taiwan has achieved a remarkable success in economic development.
In the 1960s, the per capita GDP was as low as $60. Now, in 2020, its GDP (nominal) was $730 billion USD and the per capita GDP was $32,000. This is, in fact, the miraculous achievements of the Taiwanese people.
The information industries account for 35 % of the country’s industrial production. The semi-conductor producers such as Taiwan Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and the United Microelectronic Corporation (UMC) are world leaders. Taiwan is the 13th largest producer of steel; its steel products are exported to 130 countries. The most spectacular entrepreneurial performance has been shown by the SMEs accounting for 85% of industrial outputs.
Such achievement has been possible because of the courage, the innovative entrepreneurial spirit, the productivity and, especially the hard work of the Taiwanese.
However, Washington’s economic aid, its imports of Taiwanese products and technology transfer have all contributed. In addition, we should not forget the cooperation between Mainland China and Taiwan.
Under President Chiang Ching-kuo (1978-1988), two important semi-official organizations were was established: the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) under ROC’s Mainland Affairs Council and the Association of Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) under PRCs Taiwanese Affairs Office.
These two organizations have been the center of bilateral political and economic cooperation. They have initiated the three links: postal services, transportation and trade.
The Taiwan’s Investment Guidelines and similar measures taken by ROC have led to mutual business investments.
In fact, 40 % of Taiwan’s outbound FDI stock went to Mainland China. Chinese tourists contribute to more than 40% of ROCs tourist industry. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement of 2010 is another mechanism of the bilateral economic relations.
Above all, Taiwan depends heavily on China for trade. In 2020, the value of Taiwan’s total exports was $ 345 billion of which 29.7% went to China. In the same year, the value of Taiwan’s total imports was $ 286 billion of which 22% came from China.
It is true that the RCO-PRC relations are not peaceful. But these economic relations are beneficial enough to keep the status quo as long as possible.
The conclusion of my analysis is that none of the three actors involved in the cross-strait drama wants shooting war.
China doesn’t
Taiwan doesn’t
The United States doesn’t.
The United States. The U.S. does not want the hot war because it will mean [1] the unification of China, [2] the loss of Taiwan as the primary China-containment outpost and [3] the loss of the lucrative arms market.
Taiwan. Taiwan does not want the shooting war, because it will mean the complete destruction of its economy, and the loss of its autonomy becoming one of the Chinese provinces.
China. China does not risk the hot war because [1] Taiwan prefers the status quo; [2] it has no intention of getting weapons of mass destruction; [3] there is no internal turmoil; [4] it does not seek military alliances.
But the United States wants high stress and tension
However, even without the shooting war, as long as the Sino-U.S. cold war continues, the cross-strait tension will continue.
Washington will sell more military equipment and services and Taiwan will have to play the dangerous role of Washington’s the primary outpost of China containment strategy and that of main buyer of American military weapons.
I wish to add this.
The bilateral conflict between two Chinas like all other major bilateral conflicts is an integral part of Washington’s strategy of global hegemony. One of the most productive components of the American global hegemony is the proxy war, that is, some member country of Washington’s alliances will fight for the U.S.
Japan might be asked to play this role, because Japan is the best qualified for such task; it is a world class military power and it has the ambition of dominating Asia again; to do so, Japan has to destroy China. I hope I am wrong in thinking such an awful thing.
Finally, I would like add this too…
Taiwan is a country which has achieved an amazing economic miracle of which all Chinese should be proud. Taiwan has established viable democracy under very challenging conditions; this is a regime which will surely contribute to the further advancement of China’s socio-political system.
…
Well, perhaps it is the Taiwan oligarchy that is pushing this issue. Not the Taiwanese government, and not the American government. Perhaps it is the oligarchy inside of Taiwan, and the greedy evil neocons in America that is driving up the stress levels in the Taiwan strait.
Because if Taiwan, China and the USA doesn’t want a war, then why are we talking about this?
Twenty years ago, a group of neoconservative think tanks used their power to push for disastrous wars in the Middle East. Now, a new set of think tanks staffed with many of the same experts and funded by Taiwanese money is working hard to convince Americans that there is a new existential threat: China.
At MintPress, we have been at the forefront of exposing how Middle Easterndictatorships and weapons contractors have been funneling money into think tanks and political action committees, keeping up a steady drumbeat for more war and conflict around the world.
Yet one little-discussed nation that punches well above its weight in spending cash in Washington is Taiwan.
By studying Taiwan’s financial reports, MintPress has ascertained that the semi-autonomous island of 23 million people has, in recent years, given out millions of dollars to many of the largest and most influential think tanks in the United States.
This has coincided with a strong upsurge in anti-China rhetoric in Washington, with report after report warning of China’s economic rise and demanding that the U.S. intervene more in China-Taiwan disputes.
These think tanks are filled with prominent figures from both parties and have the ears of the most powerful politicians in Washington.
It is in their offices that specialists draw up papers and incubate ideas that become tomorrow’s policies.
They also churn out experts who appear in agenda-setting media, helping to shape and control the public debate on political and economic issues.
Twenty years ago, a group of neoconservative think tanks like the Project for a New American Century, funded by foreign governments and weapons manufacturers, used their power to push for disastrous wars in the Middle East.
Now, a new set of think tanks, staffed with many of those same experts who provided the intellectual basis for those invasions, is working hard to convince Americans that there is a new existential threat: China.
The Brookings Institute
In 2019, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) — for all intents and purposes, the Taiwanese embassy — donated between $250,000 and $499,999 to the Brookings Institute, commonly identified as the world’s most influential think tank.
Taiwanese tech companies have also given large sums to the organization.
In turn, Brookings Institute staff like Richard C. Bush (a former member of the National Intelligence Council and a U.S. national intelligence officer for East Asia) vociferously champion the cause of Taiwanese nationalists and routinelycondemn Beijing’s attempts to bring the island more closely under control.
TECRO featured prominently among myriad defense interests on the donor rolls for both the Atlantic Council, left, and Brookings Institute
In mid-April 2021, Brookings held an event called “Taiwan’s quest for security and the good life,” which began with the statement that…
“Taiwan is rightly praised for its democracy. Elections are free, fair, and competitive; civil and political rights are protected.”
...
“most consequential” challenge to the island’s liberty and prosperity is “China’s ambition to end Taiwan’s separate existence.”
According to another organization’s latest financial disclosure, TECRO also gave a six-figure sum to the Atlantic Council, a think tank closely associated with NATO.
The Atlantic Council
It is unclear what the Atlantic Council did with that money, but what is certain is that they gave a senior fellowship to Chang-Ching Tu, an academic employed by the Taiwanese military to teach at the country’s National Defense University.
In turn, Tu authored Atlantic Council reports describing his country as a “champion [of] global democracy,” and stating that “democracy, freedom and human rights are Taiwan’s core values.”
A menacing China, however, is increasing its military threats, so Taiwan must “accelerate its deterrence forces and strengthen its self-defense capabilities.”
Thus he advises that the U.S. must work far more closely with Taiwan’s military, conducting joint exercises and moving towards a more formal military alliance.
In 2020, the U.S. sold $5.9 billion worth of arms to the island, making it the fifth-largest recipient of American weaponry last year.
Other Taiwan-employed academics have chided the West on the pages of the Council’s website for its insufficient zeal in “deter[ring] Chinese aggression” against the island. “A decision by the United States to back down” — wrote Philip Anstrén, a Swedish recipient of a fellowship from the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs — “could damage the credibility of U.S. defense guarantees and signal that Washington’s will to defend its allies is weak.”
Anstrén also insisted that “Europe’s future is on the line in the Taiwan Strait.” “Western democratic nations have moral obligations vis-à-vis Taiwan,” he added on his blog, “and Western democracies have a duty to ensure that [Taiwan] not only survives but also thrives.”
The reason this is important is that the Atlantic Council is an enormously influential think tank.
Its board of directors is a who’s-who in foreign policy statecraft, featuring no fewer than seven former CIA directors.
Also on the board are many of the architects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and James Baker. When organizations like this begin beating the war drums, everybody should take note.
…
The Hudson Institute
Perhaps the most strongly anti-Beijing think tank in Washington is the conservative Hudson Institute, an organization frequented by many of the Republican Party’s most influential figures, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice-President Mike Pence and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.
The words “China” or “Chinese” appear 137 times in Hudson’s latest annual report, so focused on the Asian nation are they. Indeed, reading their output, it often appears they care about little else but ramping up tensions with Beijing, condemning it for its treatment of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Uyghur Muslims, and warning of the economic and military threat of a rising China.
Over the years, Hudson’s efforts have been sustained by huge donations from TECRO.
The Hudson Institute does not disclose the exact donations any sources give, but their annual reports show that TECRO has been on the highest tier of donors ($100,000+) every year since they began divulging their sponsors in 2015. In February, Hudson Senior Fellow Thomas J. Duesterberg wrote an op-ed for Forbes entitled “The Economic Case for Prioritizing a U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement,” in which he extolled Taiwan’s economy as modern and dynamic and portrayed securing closer economic ties with it as a no-brainer. Hudson employees have also traveled to Taiwan to meet and hold events with leading foreign ministry officials there.
The Hudson Institute also recently partnered with the more liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) to host an event with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who took the opportunity to make a great number of inflammatory statements about the “ever more challenging threats to free and democratic societies” China poses; applaud the U.S.’ actions on Hong Kong; and talk about how Taiwan honors and celebrates those who died at the Tiananmen Square massacre. TECRO gave the CAP between $50,000 and $100,000 last year.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
It is the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), however, that appears to receive the most Taiwanese money.
According to its donor list, Taiwan gives as much money to it as the United States does — at least $500,000 last year alone.
Yet all of the Taiwanese government money is put into CSIS’s regional studies (i.e., Asia) program. Like Hudson employees, the CSIS calls for a free trade agreement with Taiwan and has lavished praise on the nation for its approach to tackling disinformation, describing it as a “thriving democracy and a cultural powerhouse.”
Although acknowledging that the reports were paid for by TECRO, CSIS insists that “all opinions expressed herein should be understood to be solely those of the authors and are not influenced in any way by any donation.”
In December, the CSIS also held a debatesuggesting that “[w]ithin the next five years, China will use significant military force against a country on its periphery,” exploring what the U.S. response to such an action should be.
Like the Atlantic Council, the CSIS organization is stacked with senior officials from the national security state. Its president and CEO is former Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, while Henry Kissinger — former secretary of state and the architect of the Vietnam War — also serves on its council.
The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD)
The CSIS accepts money from the Global Taiwan Institute and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) as well. The former is a rather shadowy pro-Taiwanese group that appears not to disclose its funding sources.
The latter is a government-funded organization headed by former Taiwanese President You Si-kun.
Every year, the TFD publishes a human rights report on China, the latest of which claims that “the Chinese Communist Party knows no bounds when it comes to committing serious human rights violations” — accusing it of “taking the initiative” in “promoting a new Cold War over the issue of human rights” and trying to “replace the universal standing of human rights values around the world.”
Ultimately, the report concludes, China “constitutes a major challenge to democracy and freedom in the world.”
Joseph Hwang of The War College in Taiwan speaks at a CSIS about how Taiwan acts a buffer to protect US data infrastructure from China
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
The TFD has also been a major funder of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a far-right pressure group that insists that Communism has killed over 100 million people worldwide.
Last year, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation added all global COVID-19 fatalities to the list of Communist-caused deaths on the basis that the virus started in China.
The Foundation also employs Adrian Zenz, a German evangelical theologian who is the unlikely source of many of the most controversialandcontested claims about Chinese repression in Xinjiang province.
Other funded anti-China Think-Tanks
In the past 12 months, TECRO has also donated six-figure sums to many other prominent think tanks, including…
MintPress reached out to a number of these think tanks for comment but has not received any response.
“It would be naive to believe that Taiwan’s funding of think tanks is not pushing them to take pro-Taiwan or anti-China positions,” Ben Freeman, the director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy, told MintPress, adding:
After all, why would Taiwan keep funding think tanks that are critical of Taiwan? There’s a Darwinian element to foreign funding of think tanks that pushes foreign government funding to think tanks that write what that foreign government wants them to write. Taiwan is no exception to this rule.”
TECRO is not just sponsoring American think tanks, however.
the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)
It has also given funds to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a hawkish and controversial group described as “the think tank behind Australia’s changing view of China.” The country’s former ambassador in Beijing described ASPI as “the architect of the China threat theory in Australia” while Senator Kim Carr of Victoria denounced them as working hand-in-hand with Washington to push “a new Cold War with China.”
ASPI was behind Twitter’s decision last year to purge more than 170,000 accounts sympathetic to Beijing from its platform.
“We must be ready to fight our corner as Taiwan tensions rise,” ASPI wrote in January, having previously castigated the West for being “no longer willing to defend Taiwan.”
Who is behind all this money, ultimately?
ASPI — like Brookings, the Atlantic Council and others — are directly funded by weapons manufacturers, all of whom also have a direct interest in promoting more wars around the world.
Thus, if the public is not careful, certain special interests might be helping move the United States towards yet another international conflict.
While the situation outlined above is concerning enough, the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative’s research has shown that around one-third of think tanks still do not provide any information whatsoever about their funding, and very few are completely open about their finances.
Freeman maintains that, while there is nothing inherently wrong with foreign governments funding Western think tanks, the lack of transparency is seriously problematic, explaining:
This raises a lot of questions about the work they’re doing. Are their secret funders saying what the think tank can do in a pay-for-play scheme? Are the funders buying the think tanks silence on sensitive issues? Without knowing the think tank’s funders, policymakers and the public have no idea if the think tank’s work is objective research or simply the talking points of a foreign government.”
Freeman’s study of the Taiwanese lobby found that seven organizations registered as Taiwan’s foreign agents in the U.S.
Those organizations, in turn, contacted 476 Members of Congress (including almost 90% of the House), as well as five congressional committees.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was their most frequent contact, the Californian being contacted 34 times by Taiwanese agents. Pelosi has been a great supporter of Taiwanese nationalists, successfully promoting pro-Taiwan legislation and proudly announcing that the U.S. “stands with Taiwan.”
Foreign agents working on behalf of Taiwan also made 143 political contributions to U.S. politicians, with former Alabama Senator Doug Jones the lead recipient (Pelosi was third).
Losing China, regaining Taiwan?
The reports listed above understand the dispute as purely a matter of Chinese belligerence against Taiwan and certainly do not consider U.S. military actions in the South China Sea as aggressive in themselves.
That is because the world of think tanks and war planners sees the United States as owning the planet.
America has the right to go and do anything that it desires anywhere on the globe at any time.
To this day, U.S. planners bemoan the “loss of China” in 1949 (a phrase that presupposes the United States owned the country).
After a long and bloody Second World War, Communist resistance forces under Mao Tse-tung managed to both expel the Japanese occupation and overcome the U.S.-backed Kuomintang (nationalist) force led by Chang Kai-shek. The United States actually invaded China in 1945, with 50,000 troops working with the Kuomintang and even Japanese forces in an attempt to suppress the Communists. However, by 1949, Mao’s army was victorious; the United States evacuated and Chang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan.
The Kuomintang ruled the island for 40 years as a one-party state and remains one of the two major political groups to this day.
The war between the Communists and the Kuomintang never formally ended, and Taiwan has now lived through 70 years of estrangement from the mainland. Polls show a majority of Taiwanese now favor full independence, although a large majority still personally identify as Chinese.
While many Taiwanese welcome an increased U.S. presence in the region, Beijing certainly does not.
American military is getting ready for a war
In 2012, President Barack Obama announced the U.S.’ new “Pivot to Asia” strategy, moving forces from the Middle East towards China. Today, over 400 American military bases encircle China.
In recent months, the United States has also taken a number of provocative military actions on China’s doorstep.
In July, it conducted naval exercises in the South China Sea, with warships and naval aircraft spotted just 41 nautical miles from the coastal megacity of Shanghai, intent on probing China’s coastal defenses.
And in December, it flew nuclear bombers over Chinese vessels close to Hainan Island.
Earlier this year, the head of Strategic Command made his intentions clear, stating that there was a “very real possibility” of war against China over a regional conflict like Taiwan.
China, for its part, has also increased its forces in the region, carrying out military exercises and staking claims to a number of disputed islands.
A new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) report notes that China is the U.S.’ “unparalleled priority,” claiming that Beijing is making a “push for global power.” “We expect that friction will grow as Beijing steps up attempts to portray Taipei as internationally isolated and dependent on the mainland for economic prosperity, and as China continues to increase military activity around the island,” it concludes.
In an effort to stop this, Washington has recruited allies into the conflict. Australian media are reporting that their military is currently readying for war in an effort to force China to back down, while in late April 2021 President Joe Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to shore up a united front against Beijing vis-a-vis Taiwan.
In February, the Atlantic Council penned an anonymous 26,000-word report advising Biden to draw a number of red lines around China, beyond which a response — presumably military — is necessary. These included any military action or even a cyber attack against Taiwan. Any backing down from this stance, the council states, would result in national “humiliation” for the United States.
American fantasy dreams
Perhaps most notably, however, the report also envisages what a successful American China policy would look like by 2050:
[T]he United States and its major allies continue to dominate the regional and global balance of power across all the major indices of power;… [and head of state Xi Jinping] has been replaced by a more moderate party leadership; and … the Chinese people themselves have come to question and challenge the Communist Party’s century-long proposition that China’s ancient civilization is forever destined to an authoritarian future.”
In other words, that China has been broken and that some sort of regime change has occurred.
Forked tongue speak
Throughout all this, the United States has been careful to stress that it still does not recognize Taiwan and that their relationship is entirely “unofficial,” despite claiming that its commitment to the island remains “rock solid.”
Indeed, only 14 countries formally recognize Taiwan, the largest and most powerful of which is Paraguay.
Along with a military conflict brewing, Washington has also been prosecuting an information and trade war against China on the world stage.
Attempts to block the rise of major Chinese companies like Huawei, TikTok and Xiaomi are examples of this.
Others in Washington have advised the Pentagon to carry out an under-the-table culture war against Beijing.
This would include commissioning “Taiwanese Tom Clancy” novels that would “weaponize” China’s one-child policy against it.
And, bombarding citizens with stories about how their only children will die in a war over Taiwan.
Republicans and Democrats constantly accuse each other of being in President Xi’s pocket, attempting to outdo each other in their jingoistic fervor.
Last year, in 2020, Florida Senator Rick Scottwent so far as to announce that every Chinese national in the U.S. was a Communist spy and should be treated with extreme suspicion.
As a result, the American public’s view of China has crashed to an all-time low.
Only three years ago, the majority of Americans held a positive opinion of China. But today, that number is only 20%. Asian-Americans of all backgrounds have reported a rise in hate crimes against them.
Cash rules everything around me
How much of the United States’ aggressive stance towards China can be attributed to Taiwanese money influencing politics?
It is difficult to say.
Certainly, the United States has its own policy goals in East Asia outside of Taiwan.
But Freeman believes that the answer is not zero. The Taiwan lobby “absolutely has an impact on U.S. foreign policy,” he said, adding:
At one level, it creates an echo-chamber in D.C. that makes it taboo to question U.S. military ties with Taiwan.
While I, personally, think there are good strategic reasons for the U.S. to support this democratic ally — and it’s clearly in Taiwan’s interest to keep the U.S. fully entangled in their security — it’s troubling that the D.C. policy community can’t have an honest conversation about what U.S. interests are.
But, Taiwan’s lobby in D.C. and their funding of think tanks both work to stifle this conversation and, frankly, they’ve been highly effective.”
Other national lobbies affect U.S. policy.
The Cuban lobby helps ensure that the American stance towards its southern neighbor remains as antagonistic as possible.
Meanwhile, the Israel lobby helps ensure continuing U.S. support for Israeli actions in the Middle East.
Yet more ominously with Taiwan, its representatives are helping push the U.S. closer towards a confrontation with a nuclear power.
While Taiwanese money appears to have convinced many in Washington, it is doubtful that ordinary Americans will be willing to risk a war over an island barely larger than Hawaii, only 80 miles off the coast of mainland China.
Despite hopes by some that with Joe Biden a new US foreign policy will follow – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reaffirmed Washington’s committment to seeking conflict in the South China Sea under the guise of “standing with Southeast Asian claimants.”
Reuters in their article, “US stands with SE Asian countries against China pressure, Blinken say” would claim:
.
Secretary Blinken pledged to stand with Southeast Asian claimants in the face of PRC pressure,” it said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
China claims almost all of the energy-rich South China Sea, which is also a major trade route. The Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims.
The United States has accused China of taking advantage of the distraction of the coronavirus pandemic to advance its presence in the South China Sea.
The US announcement confirms that a confrontational posture toward China will continue regardless of who occupies the White House – as US tensions with China are rooted in unelected Western special interests and their desire to remove China as a competitor and potential usurper in what US policy papers themselves call “US primacy in Asia.”
US Primacy in Asia
One such paper titled, “Revising US Grand Strategy Toward China,”…
…published by the Council on Foreign Relations in 2015…
…not only spelled out the US desire to maintain that primacy in Asia vis-a-vis China…
… but also how it would use overlapping claims in the South China Sea as a pretext to justify….
…an expanded military presence in the region and as a common cause to pressure China’s neighbors into a united front against Beijing.
The paper would note specific US goals of militarizing Southeast Asia and integrating the region into a common US-led defense architecture against China.
It is a policy built upon the US “pivot to Asia” unveiled as early as 2011 and a policy that has been built upon in turn during the last four years under the Trump administration – demonstrating the continuity of agenda that permeates US foreign policy.
Turning Disputes into Conflict
Maritime disputes are common throughout the world – even in the West.
Just at the end of last year, the Guardian in an article titled, “Four navy ships to help protect fishing waters in case of no-deal Brexit,” would report:
Four Royal Navy patrol ships will be ready from 1 January to help the UK protect its fishing waters in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a deployment evoking memories of the “cod wars” in the 1970s.The 80-metre-long armed vessels would have the power to halt, inspect and impound all EU fishing boats operating within the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which can extend 200 miles from shore.
In terms of such disputes, the waters of the South China Sea are no exception.
Not only does China have overlapping claims with the nations mentioned in the Reuters article – each nation listed has overlapping claims with one another.
This results in sporadic disputes between all of these nations – occasionally resulting in the seizing of vessels and the temporary detaining of boat crews.
However – these disputes are regularly settled through bilateral methods – including disputes between Southeast Asian nations and China itself.
A high-profile example of this unfolded in 2015 where a US-led legal case was brought to the Hague on behalf of the Philippines regarding Chinese claims over the South China Sea.
While the Hague ruled in the Philippines’ favor – Manila declined to use the ruling as leverage against Beijing or to seek Washington’s assistance – and instead pursued bilateral talks with Beijing directly on its own.
It is a case that demonstrates the desire by Washington to escalate what are ordinary maritime disputes, into a regional or even international crisis – not unlike the US’ strategy in the Middle East which it uses to justify its perpetual military occupation there.
More recently the issue of the South China Sea has come up at ASEAN Summits.
Al Jazeera in its article, “ASEAN summit: South China Sea, coronavirus pandemic cast a shadow,” would cite Malaysia’s take on the issue, noting:
“The South China Sea issue must be managed and resolved in a rational manner,” Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told the meeting. “We must all refrain from undertaking activities that would complicate matters in the South China Sea. We have to look at all avenues, all approaches to ensure our region is not complicated further by other powers.”
While the US poses a champion for Southeast Asia – it is clear that its efforts are unwelcome and viewed instead as a source of instability – not a path toward resolution.
It is almost certain that it is Washington the Malaysian foreign minister was referring to when he mentioned “other powers.”
Just as the US nominated itself as protector of European “energy security” in its bid to obstruct the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline – the US has inserted itself into relatively routine maritime disputes in the South China Sea – not to “stand with” the nations of the region, but to serve as an excuse to impose its “primacy” over them.
The nations of Southeast Asia count China among their largest trade partners, sources of tourism, and for several – a key military and infrastructure partner.
The prospect of a regionally destabilizing conflict originating over long-standing disputes in the South China Sea benefits no one actually located in Asia – and only serves the interests of those beyond Asia seeking to divide and reassert their rule over it.
Who are these people?
Who are these Taiwan Oligarchs that want to start World War III? Most are old men. The youngest is in their 60’s. Most are in their mid to late 70’s and much older. What are they trying to do, and why? Are they so fixated in what happened fifty years ago that they cannot see what is going on right now, and what a bright future lies ahead for them?
MM is providing their names right here for you all to see.
Yeah. I wonder how much of a shame it would be for these people to suddenly stop provoking a war beacause of other issues that they need to deal with.
Conclusion to all of this
The governments do not want wars or conflict in the South China Sea, but the oligarchs do.
They are pushing, and pushing, and pushing for a war.
And “red lines” have been established.
For China to invade Taiwan.
For China to attack American cities.
For Taiwan to get involved with the United States.
And the wealthy oligarchy are pushing these limits.
And this is what is going on right now.
How successful will the oligarchy be? It’s a matter up to the government leadership.
A final word…
It’s propaganda that is pushing the world towards world war III. And this propaganda is very devious and very destructive.
The following is from the US defense department. It shows the nuclear delivery systems of American, China and Russia compared. Imagine that, the only nuclear delivery systems that America has according to the media are airborne!
From the US Department of Defense Nuclear Posture Review.
Do you believe it?
You shouldn’t. It’s false; it’s a lie.
But many do believe it. And that why there is an inherent danger in all these oligarchs pushing the world towards world war III.
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
If you read the American (and Western) media today, you will discover that there are a number of long-running screeds regarding China, that play over and over, and over again.
For instance, China is filthy, the people are evil, they lie and cheat and steal, and they are oppressed by the evil communist regime. Etc, Etc. Well one of the narratives is exactly that; “the oppression” of the Chinese people.
Here we are going to talk about this “oppression”.
Here’s a nice little video that works to dispel that illusion. Keep in mind that oppressed people do not smile, laugh, and have fun. They tend to hide inside their homes, and spend the evenings alone watching television or playing games in front of video monitors. They avoid groups. They talk about having to defend themselves, and they justify their stance of defense to be “freedom” from “tyranny”.
You don’t see that in China.
You do see that in the United States, though.
Shanghai, China.
Improving the lives of the citizens
All governments will say that their first order of business is to improve the lives of their citizens.
Most of them will actually mean it. Some of them will work hard at it. But only a few will succeed in doing it.
We know that GDP numbers cannot accurately capture the totality of life.
But certainly we can see that the trend of GDP per capita can offer strong clues about whether things are looking better, or worse, over time.
Harvard Business Review issued this very interesting report, that I would recommend for a read: https://lnkd.in/gY4F6DP
Check out this video
Here’s the video.
And NO, it’s not me. This is a video blogger that travels the world and speaks better Chinese than I do. He has a vblog called JaYoeNation. He’s pretty good. LOL.
Take a spell and let it download. If it is taking too much time, you can click on THIS LINK and down load a zipped-file and watch the video directly. It’s pretty good. Please enjoy.
You have got to see the pictures and this video…
Do you want more?
I have more posts along these lines in my China vs. USA Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This post is a little tad boring in that it relates to money and how money is used to generate more money. I find that boring. I also find it trivial.
However, this mechanism is ingrained in the United States and the West as the ONLY way for people to move upward in the class-caste structure that has been constructed.
The "big news" is that "the little guy" (people who live outside the oligarchy class) have devised a way to "get even" with the wealthy oligarchy that has been "sticking it to the rest of us" for decades now. And this "get even" event is well... it's fucking awesome.
Game Stop Corp
Late in January 2021, a few amateur stock trading nerds decided to promote a stock that was heavily shortened by certain hedge funds. The idea was to raise the stock price of Game Stop Corp., a vendor for computer games, by having lots of small stock traders to buy into it. The hedge fund that shortened the stock, and thereby bet on a dropping stock price, would then make huge losses while the many small buyers would potentially profit.
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These people, who had joined up in the sub-reddit /r/WallStreetBets, were not driven by greed but by rage against the financial machine:
Instead of greed, this latest bout of speculation, and especially the extraordinary excitement at GameStop, has a different emotional driver: anger. The people investing today are driven by righteous anger, about generational injustice, about what they see as the corruption and unfairness of the way banks were bailed out in 2008 without having to pay legal penalties later, and about lacerating poverty and inequality. This makes it unlike any of the speculative rallies and crashes that have preceded it.
1990’s portrayal of teenage hackers.
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The movement was successful. The stock price of Game Stop Corp. rose from some $10 to over $400 within just a few days. The short seller had to take cover under a larger firm:
Hedge fund Melvin Capital closed out its short position in GameStop on Tuesday after taking huge losses as a target of the army of retail investors. Citadel and Point72 have infused close to $3 billion into Gabe Plotkin's hedge fund to shore up its finances.
Then the system hit back.
Discord, the company which hosted the server for the sub-reddit /r/WallStreetBets suddenly found that there was ‘hate-speech’ in the threads. It unplugged the server. (Discord had previously unplugged the sub-reddit /r/The_Donald.)
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald - 0:53 UTC · Jan 28, 2021
What an absolutely extraordinary coincidence of timing that Discord happened to decide the r/Wall Streetbets sub-reddit had too much “hate speech” to tolerate on the same day hedge fund billionaires declared them a huge threat for the crime of winning at their expense!
Next the trading app Robinhood, which many of the amateur traders use, blocked further buys into the stock:
Robinhood, the fee-free investment app that has helped Redditors and other retail investors pump dark horse stocks like GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, and Nokia, has stopped allowing users to buy those stocks and others YOLO picks.
According to screenshots shared on social media, on Thursday morning a notification appeared on Robinhood telling users that they could close their position on GameStop's stock, but not buy any additional shares.
Redditors are currently panicking, looking for ways to transfer their shares of GameStop off of Robinhood to other platforms, and are generally furious at the platform.
In a blog post, Robinhood confirmed that it has placed restrictions on several stocks due to volatility.
“Volatility” = the prols are messing up Wall Street by doing legal stock transactions our overlords do not like. What an irony that a company named Robin Hood is protecting the rich from the poor.
The many people who use Robinhood can now only sell their shares and not buy additional ones:
This is likely to have a massive impact on Robinhood users and ultimately the company. According to a popup on the app's homepage, 56 percent of all Robinhood users own at least some GameStop stock. They are now unable to freely trade it; the app is only allowing users to close out their positions, meaning they can sell it but not buy more. This is potentially devastating for novice investors or those who simply want to follow the general marching orders of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit, which is to hold (and buy more) GameStop stock until further notice.
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That outright manipulation of the stock markets was noticed and may even have consequences. Unlike Joe Biden it united legislators across the aisle.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC - 16:36 UTC · Jan 28, 2021
This is unacceptable.
We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.
As a member of the Financial Services Cmte, I’d support a hearing if necessary.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will take care that nothing will comes from it. The system has proven again and again that it is rigged. No change to it will be condoned.
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As Glenn Greenwald noted yesterday:
Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald - 13:49 UTC · Jan 27, 2021
To review:
- Politics is to be manipulated only by K Street.
- The stock market is to be manipulated only by Wall St.
- Dissemination of information is to be manipulated only by corporate media outlets.
Those are the rules.
The lesson they want us to learn: Don't even think of ever breaking those rules.
Posted by b on January 28, 2021 at 18:05 UTC | Permalink
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It’s all been brutal.
Furthermore, everybody “understands” what happened with GameStop. Unlike some other Wall Street stories, this one isn’t complicated. The entire tale, in a nutshell, goes like this. One group of gamblers announced, “Fuck you!” Another group announced back: “No, fuck YOU!” That’s it. Or, as one market analyst put it to me this morning, “A bunch of guys made a bet, got killed, then doubled and tripled down and got killed even more.”
-Suck It, Wall Street by Matt Taibbi
Why?
Well, because the oligarchy believe that they and their system were untouchable. That it was unassailable, and that they were forever free of the consequences of their actions. Does “Too big to fail” ring a bell.
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Guess that the response from Joe Average and Suzi Average has been a little brutal. But can you blame them?
A best-selling fiction author could not have spun a more ironic tale so completely representative of our time.
Just as an unprecedented situation—COVID and lockdowns—unfolded over the past year and led to massive gains for corporate titans like Walmart and Amazon. Meanwhile governments have crushed small businesses and individuals…
And a new, unprecedented situation has unfolded.
Spilling off the pages of Reddit to become a substantial threat to the stock market’s stability Is amazing.
It is a microcosm of this tale of big business quashing the little guy.
It is a tale of Wall Street profiting despite the best, most subversive efforts of the underdogs.
In short, what started out as a long stock play in a subreddit full of rocketship and “diamond hand” emojis and anti-elitist snark has fueled a form of class warfare that extends well beyond rhetoric.
Big Tech and Wall Street are fighting back, and right now it appears they’re winning.
But in the long run, you do know, you can only tread water only for so long.
The subreddit has shown us the way forward.
You Do Need Some Background
The background of this story may seem dry to some, but as with “The Big Short” of ’08, the full extent of malfeasance and recklessness by big Wall Street players can’t be understood without some working knowledge.
Reddit user “u/DeepF*ckingValue” has been touting the potential of GameStop (GME) for months.
Seen as a dying retail breed, its stock price had hovered around $5 per share for several years as people move away from brick and mortar for video games and more towards digital copies of games and online purchases of consoles.
Enter Ryan Cohen.
He is the founder of Chewy, which he sold for a cool $3 billion back in 2018. This was after successfully competing with Amazon for the e-commerce dog food market.
Then, after stepping away from dog food domination, he turned his sights towards GameStop. Where he endedup buying a 13 percent share in the company and joining its board of directors in mid-January.
This move boosted the stock price, but it was still trading under $20.
While a visionary joining a failing company has brought about spikes in stock price in the past, GameStop had another unique factor against it.
Its stock, GME, was shorted at an astronomical rate by several hedge funds, including Melvin Capital.
A short position is taken when a person or fund believes the stock price will go down. They borrow against the current market price with the intention of paying it back when the market price is lower.
For example;
Stock A is trading at $3.
Bob believes it will drop to $1 and shorts 100 shares of stock. Meaning he "borrows" the 100 shares.
He “sells” those "shorted" (borrowed) stocks immediately for $300.
In a week, if the stock price goes to $1 he can close his stock position and buy the 100 shares he “borrowed” for only $100.
At the end of it all, Bob makes $200.
However, if a week later the price rises to $5 per share, he could close out his short position by paying $500 for 100 shares at $5 per share. In the end, he’d lose $200 on his bet.
Yikes.
But…
Bob has another option.
He can hold on to it longer.
If his short position isn’t looking too hot with a current price of $5 per share. He could stick with his short position and hope it drops back down to $3 or less sometime in the future to cover his current paper loss. The risk with this is that his loss potential is theoretically unlimited. If he holds onto his short position for another week and the stock price rises to $10, he’s even more in the red.
The longer you wait; and hold on to the stock, the greater the risk or gain.
Well, this is only one of the ways you can short a stock.
The bigger you or your fund is, the more complicated a short position can become, all the way into “naked” short (selling a stock you haven’t even borrowed yet, akin to listing and selling a home you don’t even own), which are illegal but hard to track and therefore rarely prosecuted.
SEC.gov | Naked Short Saleshttps://www.sec.gov/answers/nakedshortsale.htm
2010-7-23 · In a "naked" short sale, the seller does not borrow or arrange to borrow the securities in time to make delivery to the buyer within the standard three-day settlement period.As a result, the seller fails to deliver securities to the buyer when delivery is due; this is known as a "failure to deliver" or "fail."
Back to GameStop
GameStop was shorted at 140 percent of all the shares available to purchase, meaning it is likely more shares were shorted than there were to buy back to cover those short positions.
140 %.
140%
Think about it. 100% is all you have to work with.
This should never happen.
It suggests the types of shorts that were used were questionable at best and illegal at worst.
And the US government, and SEC looked the other way. They always “look the other way”.
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So “u/DeepF*ckingValue” and a group of redditors saw an opportunity: take advantage of those who are taking advantage.
What has unfolded over the past couple weeks has been a run on purchasing GME stock to try and buy up as much shares as possible to take advantage of this short position.
Buying all those shares naturally drove up the stock price, but it also did something else.
Every time the price went a little bit higher, hedge funds that had massive short positions took more and more of a loss as they were forced to buy an ever-increasing stock to cover their short positions.
[Hedge funds] short-sold AT LEAST 40% more shares than ever existed.
They’re obliged to buy back more shares than is possible.
The only way out of that self-made trap is a complicated mess of desperately buying, returning, rebuying from the people you borrowed them from, and returning them with losses at every step.
Imagine if I sold you 10 cars, but only delivered 6.
You’re standing there with your WTF face and I say ‘Hey! how much would you sell those 4 cars for?’
You can name your price at this point.
I pay it. Then I ‘finish’ my ‘10 car delivery.’
At this point, some fund managers and individuals exited their short position realizing that as long as people who were long GME held their position, the stock price would continue to go up and there was nothing they could do about it.
This is known as a short squeeze.
As short positions become due and shorters have to cover these positions, they’re forced to buy at the price set by the shareholder.
Since these same shorters shorted more stock than was available to buy to try and make an extra buck, they’re now at the mercy of those holding the shares, leading to exponentially increasing prices.
Uh oh!
Punishing Hedge Funds for Cheating
While some shorters realized the potential losses could be catastrophic, others decided to double down on their position.
Melvin Capital lost 30 percent of their portfolio value by Jan. 25, or close to $4 billion. On that day, Citadel and Steven Cohen gifted Melvin Capital $2.75 billion to help cover their losses. They then doubled down on their shorts and their losses have skyrocketed.
On Jan. 25, they announced they finally exited their short positions.
This is when the war with individual retail investors started.
While it cannot be technically proven that Melvin didn’t exit their short positions, short positions on GME as a percentage of available float were still at the same 140 percent.
Statistically, this should’ve fallen off hard if Melvin really did sell their short positions. Thousands of retail investors thus doubted this news and continued to hold onto their stocks.
GME stock had continued to skyrocket.
On Friday 22JAN21, it closed at $65 per share.
One week later it closed at $345 per share.
Last night, u/DeepF*ckingValue’s initial $50,000 position grew to $50,000,000, and he’s continuing to hold.
Now, a lot of short positions will become due by the end of the week, and that’s when the much-anticipated short squeeze is expected to kick in.
We might see GME share prices above $1,000. With this attention on targeting heavily shorted stocks, other stocks have seen massive gains as well, including AMC, BB, and NOSS.
Recent aftermarket trading pushed GME close to $500 and bankruptcy for funds with heavy short positions seemed to become more and more probable.
It appeared that the underdog small-time investors betting against the big hedge fund pessimists successfully dealt a blow to Wall Street know-it-alls.
Of course, you still can sell these shares, you just can’t buy them.
And what happens to a stock when you can only sell it or hold it? People sell it and losses start to pile up.
Within an hour, GME dropped from $469 to $132 and AMC dropped from $12 to $7. Several traders reported orders being cancelled.
This may seem like a responsible reaction to slow volatility, but one doesn’t need to look that deeply to see what’s really going on.
Mega hedge fund Citadel gave Melvin Capital, the company with the most to lose the higher these prices go, a $2.75 billion bailout. According to Yahoo News, “Citadel’s founder is Ken Griffin, who also founded Citadel Securities, a big investor in Robinhood that also works with TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab.”
Citadel’s founder is Ken Griffin.
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The company that touts “democratizing finance for all,” that many redditors have relied on to foil the fat cats’ plan to short a beloved videogame store, is really stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
Within an hour, billions have been transferred from individual retail investors to hedge fund managers in the name of Robinhood.
Its app store rating plummeted from 5 to 1.
This is a blatant act of market manipulation, and lovers of freedom on both sides of the aisle should be outraged.
In a free market, stocks should be able to be bought or sold at any time and foolish actions should reap negative consequences—even if those consequences come via spiteful “average joe” investors. Investors who’ve likely gone through a hellish year where they’ve felt squeezed and short-changed by establishment elites in government and big business.
You’re probably wondering what’s next.
That depends on the constitution of retail investors. The subredditors of r/wallstreetbets have received an overwhelming amount of support for the hold position as trade volumes indicate the price crash was caused by very few sellers but high-frequency small trades that artificially crashed the price.
This is Melvin’s/Robinhood’s/Citadel’s/Cohen’s last battle effort before the inevitable short squeeze.
As long as retail investors hold, they should see their position skyrocket.
But do they have the strength to do so as prices artificially tanked? Considering GME has recovered to $246, it appears they might. This is a once in a decade spectacle that has pitted retail investors against hedge fund managers, with irony off-the-charts: a platform called Robinhood screwing small-time investors?
Really?
Whether the trend of Big Business succeeding while the average American suffers continues through 2021 is anyone’s guess.
But we deserve a better ending than bitter irony.
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The key point in this, and the actions of the government, clearly demonstrate in clear and unambiguous terms that there are no absolute laws. There are just what they can do, and lip service about what YOU can do.
Laws? Only For You. Bend Over
Let’s start with the law:
It is illegal to "manipulate" a stock or other security -- that is, it is unlawful to express an intent to sell or buy for any other reason than to actually sell or buy, and it is also illegal to intentionally mislead others about your reasons for doing so.
This is why “spoofing” (although almost-never prosecuted) is against the law.
“Spoofing” is the practice of laying in a bid or offer you have no intention of being filled on for the express reason of making other people think you want to sell or buy something, when in fact you want to do the opposite.
They attempt to follow your claimed “expression of intent” only to find your offer or bid has disappeared, the price moves and they come in on the other side.
It sounds like picking up pennies in front of a steamroller and it is, but it can be very profitable especially if your connection to the exchange is fast enough that the risk of getting filled is extremely low in that you can cancel your order before anyone can hit it.
This could be prevented on a trivial basis by the exchanges through a simple rule:
All orders must remain valid for enough time for the signal to travel around the globe twice (once there and once back) or until executed and you may not have more open orders at any given instant than you can clear (e.g. margin capacity.)
Now if you try to “spoof” you will get filledand the scheme fails.
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But note that despite this being blatantly obvious not one exchange has implemented such a rule and neither has the SEC demanded it.
Gee, I wonder why not? Might it be that they really don't give a rats ass so long as only the "right" people cheat?
Spoofing is an extremely common practice, a practice that especially screws small retail traders because we are nowhere near as fast with our fingers as a computer and also not sitting next to the exchange either…
… and a number of years ago one particular idiot was dumb enough to do it when the futures market was open over a holiday weekend.
It was caught on video and put on Youtube, which got the CME very pissed off.
Oh by the way, they never have gone after the “big guys” doing the same thing nor changed the rules on order validity.
Just the “little guys”.
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Given how simple it would be to instantly stop this crap does that tell you everything you need to know?
But there is nothing illegal about bidding up (or shorting) a stock for a transparent and truthful reason that has nothing to do with its underlying value. The only requirement is that you not lie; witness firms like Tesla that have crazy valuations for which there is no rational justification, or Amazon, or similar.
They’re everywhere and always on the exchanges and always have been.
Fundamentally a company that pays no dividend has no value beyond the liquidation value of its assets in the free market when it comes to common stock. Therefore, if you want to get down to it every single stock that pays no dividend trades on nothing more than hype since there is no discounted cash flow to you as a holder, ever, and no expectation there will be.
That’s the dirty little secret that nobody wants to talk about when it comes to the stock market.
And that is why you can have a market that trades at 666 one year and a few years later trades at 3,700. Did the economy expand by a factor of five over that period? Did it even double? Not even close.
The sort of short squeeze that we’ve seen occurred due to fraud — but not by the people causing the squeeze.
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And don’t get your panties in a wad about this either; yes, the “at home” trading cadre has materially expanded with the pandemic lockdowns and such, and we’re sending “stimulus checks” to a lot of young adults with nothing to do with their time, so staring at a trading terminal attempting to make money sounds pretty good, especially if you win a few times. But that’s not the whole story — not even close.
If you want to short a stock you are supposed to first borrow it.
That is, ordinary people cannot sell what they don’t have, so if you wish to short you must first borrow that which you want to sell. This is one of the ways brokers make money; they keep all the stock their customers have in “street name” and keep track of who has what.
They can (and if supply is limited do) charge you to borrow that stock.
There’s nothing wrong with this, provided the stock borrowed is real.
It’s one of the things you agree to allow if you have a margin account; as part of the “price” of that privilege the broker can loan your stock to others for the purpose of shorting it. However, since you own it if you demand it back because you wish to sell it the broker either has to find some other set of shares to replace what he lent out of yours or the short-seller is forcibly bought-in at the market because they have to return your shares.
If that causes to take a loss, tough crap.
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There is an exception to this rule:
If you are a market maker then you can short naked, that is, without borrowing first.
Why? Because a market maker’s job is, as the name implies, to make the market — that is, to take the other side of whatever the customer wants to do. If I want to be long something in order to do it someone else has to sell it. Now in the physical security market this is easy; there either is or is not what I want to buy out there on the sheet offered by someone else.
But in the options market there is no physical security; the entirety of it is synthetic. This means if someone wishes to buy a CALL someone else has to sell one.
Well, that’s dangerous because naked short options positions are obligations to deliver.
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Specifically if you are short an IBM CALL @ $100 (for example) then you are obligated to deliver 100 shares of IBM stock on demand at any time before expiration for $100 each.
It does not matter what IBM’s stock is worth; if the holder of the CALL exercises their option you must deliver them. If the shares cost $500 at that time you’re fucked.
Likewise I can buy a $20 PUT on some stock. This gives me the right to PUT that stock on the other person for $20/share up until expiration.
IF the price is under $20 I of course have every reason to do that -- I can buy the shares for $10 and make you pay me $20!
Who doesn't like that deal?
Likewise, the market maker never wants that directional bet either since on the short side of an options trade you're obligated to perform if demanded by the long side.
Nobody would stay in business being a market maker if this sort of thing could happen to them, so as soon as they take the opposing side they execute a balancing trade on the other side.
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In short if you’re a market maker you always want to be neutral on every security you make a market in; you make a (very) small profit on each transaction but you never, ever want to be exposed directionally because the amount you get paid is tiny compared to the risk, and one mistake will bankrupt you.
Therefore if you’re a market maker you can short without locating first for this explicit reason. This doesn’t lead to a problem generally because nobody in their right mind as a market maker wants a directional exposure, ever. As a result the failure to locate is transient and does not accumulate; you will lay that risk off and remove the imbalance if you have to since you can construct synthetic positions that perform financially the same as real ones.
So how do you get 140% of the available shares short?
It would seem impossible and is…
…. unless someone cheats.
There are some players in the market who have “market maker” status but also trade their own books or have cross-interests with those who do.
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Allegedly there are “Chinese walls” between those pieces (or interconnected entities.) Quite obviously that is a load of crap because otherwise what you’ve seen would be impossible but it clearly not only has happened before but is still happening to this day.
These entities are how you wind up with short sales where the locate and borrow hasn’t happened first and the position remains open across time. This is supposed to be illegal but other than a few hand-slaps in the futures markets for physical commodities I’m not aware of any criminal prosecution for doing it.
And let’s be clear here: This practice is counterfeiting.
There is nothing wrong with borrowing a share of stock from someone and selling it, provided that if the person who you borrowed it from wants it back you are forced to deliver it. That is, if there are 100 shares of stock in the world the only entity who have the right to control how many total shares there are is the company itself. Provided there are 100 shares who loans them and on what terms is nobody’s business; that’s a private transaction and it’s perfectly legal. If I own something I have the right to lend or sell it to someone on whatever terms I choose.
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But if you sell something without locating it first you are counterfeiting because you are now representing that there are 110 shares in the marketplace but the company never authorized the other 10.
You thus are in fact diluting every one of the existing and real shares by 10% and pocketing the money from those sales. In short you are stealing by partially destroying the value of everyone else's holdings in that stock.
Counterfeiting is a criminal offense — always and everywhere.
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So now you have some folks who have discerned that in fact there is more than 100% of the public float out short. This cannot happen through lawful trading activity, but it leads to an interesting conundrum: If you drive the price up you force those who committed that offense to cover their bets and there aren’t enough shares to do it. Oh, someone will eventually fork up their shares at ever-increasing prices to unwind the fraud but in the process the people who shorted naked get a telephone pole up their ass in terms of losses.
There is nothing illegal about targeting people who do this; you are not lying about your intentions and ramming someone’s criminal conduct up their ass is not only legal it’s what they deserve to have happen to them. Remember that no company stock is actually worth anything beyond liquidation value at any instant in time when it comes to hard valuation; the entire remainder of the price is speculative premium — that is, the expression of belief in future prospects.
Further, the folks on Reddit aren’t the whole story of the pressure either.
There appears to be a "gentleman's agreement" among hedgies that they don't go after this when done by their "friends." The practice would never survive a day otherwise; competition is like that if it's honest competition. The reason we ban collusion generally is because it destroys honest competition and that is bad.
But as with any thieves guild breaking ranks can make you a lot of money and when something like this gets going you can bet there are folks with lots of money happy to jump on the bandwagon and add a few telephone poles — or a few hundred — to the pile being shoved up the short side’s ass. Why not if they can profit from it especially if they don’t get identified to the other guild members as the ones who broke ranks?
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So cry me a river, hedge fund mavens and screamers like Cramer — who, by the way, admitted on video many years ago how he used to manipulate markets before he had his own TV show. He never went to jail for that, did he?
What’s the difference?
These folks on WSB are telling you exactly why they're doing what they're doing -- they intend to shove a telephone pole up some cheater's asses and break it off, making a profit at the same time, which is the truth. That's legal. There's no deception at all; every one of their "buy" orders is in fact a bona-fide intent to purchase and they're being entirely transparent as to why.
That their intent has nothing to do with their view of the underlying company’s value in its present state means nothing; basically zero of the stock and option trades on the market, ever, are about today’s state of a given firm — they’re all about tomorrow’s beliefs which by the very nature of that being tomorrow are speculative.
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Now one more thing: Why would Robinhood and others halt buys in a stock?
Not crank margin to 100% (or some multiple of it for a short), stop it entirely irrespective of cash in your account?The broker does not care what the buyer and seller transact at and further, if there is no margin involved the broker also does not care if you grossly overpay and wind up with zero. He loses nothing and this was your own self-directed decision, not his recommendation. All an actual broker does is match buyers and sellers; they are not involved directionally. Well, not legally anyway.....Further, there are claims that people not on margin were force-liquidated. On what basis? Legally, maybe you signed something saying they could liquidate you "if they believed you were placing at risk" or even "if they're at risk" (without you being the cause.) However the question still stands: Why did they liquidate the accounts if in fact they did?
Robinhood makes money by routing trades from its platform to large brokers, who compensate the company for its order flow. The larger the trading volume, the better for Robinhood. But Robinhood also makes money through various forms of lending, primarily margin lending to customers.
Which is immaterial, as they had already set margin to 100%. In other words, there were no margin loans on GME stock. You put up cash before you buy, or you don’t buy. If you have an existing position you can’t borrow against it. That’s perfectly legit and brokers do that all the time when things get volatile.
That generates no exposure for the brokerage.
From Robinhood’s perspective, the GameStop rally is beneficial insofar as it generates revenue from increased trading activity, but it is also extremely risky, because the brokerage platform is lending millions of dollars to retail investors buying a world-historically volatile stock. As more and more buyers have flocked to GameStop, Robinhood has lent out more and more money.
That’s a lie since they had already set margin to 100%. They’re not lending money against those positions; those are cash transactions and, allegedly and if nobody is cheating, all Robinhood is doing is matching buyers and sellers.
It’s unclear how much GameStop stock Robinhood has lent to hedge funds, but whatever the amount, they’ve been lucrative, commanding as much as 80 percent in interest due to the massive amount of money betting against the stock.
Ah…. now we’re getting somewhere.
You see, brokers do that; they lend out stock and, in cases of hard to borrow shares there is often a fee that can get quite steep.
The brokerage would lose that income stream if the short was closed.
.
But….
…so what? There’s no existential risk here — just lost opportunity. Which doesn’t explain the clamp-down, does it?
NR goes on to try to excuse this as being the “adults in the room.”
Nope. Once you have margin set to 100% of a long position (and, I remind you, if there is no available float then you can’t short without breaking the law) then there is no risk to the brokerage. If the bubble pops, it pops. Your job is to match buyers and sellers and so long as you’re doing that and not doing something you shouldn’t be there is no problem. The customer may lose his or her shirt but in a self-directed account with no margin loan outstanding against the position there is no risk to the firm provided everything you’re doing on the up and up.
THERE ARE ANSWERS TO THE “WHY” QUESTION and I’d love to hear one that doesn’t implicate criminal activity. National Review is, to be blunt, playing cover for people; their “explanation” makes no sense. So why publish it at all until and unless they can get the answer to the actual question: Why?
So why did certain platforms do what they did?
I’ll bet there’s a common thread in all of this, and you won’t like it if and when it comes out into public view….
Um. Maybe. More than likely, however, nothing is going to happen.
A little review.
But so what?
Some teenagers found a missing clink in Smaug’s armor.
Smaug is portrayed as being psychopathic, extremely sadistic, confident, violent, cruel, arrogant, intelligent and greedy, possessing an unquenchable desire for gold.
His most distinguishing characteristic (aside from his greed) is his arrogance, as Smaug proudly boasts of his superiority and impregnability to Bilbo during their encounter.
However, this proves to be his downfall, as he unwittingly reveals the weak spot in his chest to Bilbo when showing the Hobbit how he had willfully coated…
-Smaug | The One Wiki to Rule Them All
Smaug roared back, and burnt them all to a dark crisp. A lesson will be made of them, and business will continue as normal. Right?
…
Perhaps a little review about what we have been dealing with is in order.
Let’s consider the fantastic “stimulus” check that the US government ave Americans. This stimulus check per person was $600 dollars. And was intended to “help” Americans deal with being unemployed for nine months. The cost of this stimulus was $900 billion and it was labeled the ” coronavirus relief package“. The United States population is 329.45 million people. Thus, the actual and real amount that should have gone to each American should have been $2,735,000.
So, if you simply take the total amount of money allocated to helping Americans out, and divide it by the number of Americans...
...each American should get a check for $2.7 million dollars.
But truthfully, an stimulus should go to each family. Not to each individual. THis was, after all, how the United States was first intended to operate.
So, if you simply take the total amount of money allocated to helping Americans out, and divide it by the number of American families...
...each American family should get a check for $10.8 million dollars.
So why do Americans only get a fraction of that amount?
$600.
What. The. Fuck.
.
Well, it’s all fun and games.
Now, heads up, when historians write about the collapse of the United States, you can be quite sure that they will list this event as one of the signs of the eventual downfall. The sign of the pathetic attempts of the “little guys” to “take down” the massive fraud and corruption that runs rampant inside of America today.
No matter what…
Keep in mind that everyone is rooting for the little “normal” people, and enjoy seeing the oligarchy hurt. That is, everyone except the oligarchy themselves. Depending on how the government reacts, you can see this as either…
A minor skirmish of class warfare.
A pivot point that enacts some much needed change.
Or, a spark that contributes to a major event to follow.
Do you want more?
I have more posts in my Front Row Seat Index here…
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It’s difficult to measure the damage that an ideology can do on a society. Often you don’t realize what a mess things are until long after the great looting, and destruction. But you can notice events. Often singular events, and often whispered about quietly. And one such event is the purging of art in favor of the formless and meaningless.
Look at the painting above. It is titled “Consulting the Oracle” and was painted by John William Waterhouse. It’s great right? It’s large. It would occupy the wall in a nice sized living room. It’s 77 inches long and 46 inches high. And it’s beautiful. Right?
This painting was very quietly sold by the museum that held it for £5 ($7.50) to a private individual.
I’ve seen cups of coffee that cost more.
The excuse is that the museum needed the money. Bills needed to be paid, and new works of art needed to be purchased to “keep the museum alive and vibrant”. Of course that old “song and dance”. The excuse, a progressive excuse, that you must destroy the old to make room for the new.
Ok.
I’ll bite.
What “new” art was worthy of purchase. How about millions of dollars for this magnificent piece…
Willem de Kooning’s Woman III
.
This undeniably strange-looking painting of a woman made Willem de Kooning and his estate a few millions richer. The painting recently changed hands to the tune of $137.5 million. This abstract painting was finished by Kooning in 1953. The painting became rather controversial in the 1970s, because it was refused for exhibit at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. This painting is currently privately owned. It spans 68 inches in height and 48.5 inches in width.
Yes. I cannot believe it. Can you?
And we are not alone either…
This painting is awful.
I get that it’s an abstract expressionist painting, but it is so hideous to look at. You honestly couldn’t convince me to take it if I was walking down the street and saw that laying on the grass. Clearly that means I have no taste because it sold for a ridiculous $137.5 million in 2006. This made it the 4th most expensive painting ever sold.
It was created by painter Williem de Kooning in 1953.
The buyer, David Geffen, is worth $6.5 billion, so nobody is going to step in and tell him how to spend his money… but are you kidding me?
-10 Ugly Pieces Of Art You Won't Believe Sold For Millions
Who in their right mind made this decision?
The Art Renewal Center chimes in…
From the Art Renewal Center…
Works of art worth tens of millions of pounds today have been sold off quietly by museums over the past 50 years for a few pounds. British art institutions such as the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the Exeter City Museum have disposed of pictures by masters such as Van Dyck and Henri Fantin Latour . They were sold without public notice, dismissed as too unimportant to keep. Among the most serious cases is a painting by the 19th-century master, John William Waterhouse . In 1965, the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro sold it for £200 ($300) to a private collector; today it is worth more than £5 million ($7.5 million).
"Most of the works were sold off as they were deemed to be artistically worthless", Christopher Wright, a leading Old Masters scholar, said. He discovered evidence of the sales while preparing a nationwide study of British art for Yale University Press. "They have been sold off without public notice," he said. "Many of the museums didn't dare make it public. They've all been proved wrong."
Mr Wright expressed disbelief at the decision of the Exeter museum to "rape" its collection of 160 works - "there is no other word to describe the destruction of an entire museum collection". The auctions, which involved selling works for as little as £5 ($7.50), included Waterhouse's Consulting the Oracle, four paintings by Fantin-Latour and one by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema . Caroline Worthington, fine art curator at Exeter, said that the sale took place at Christie's in 1954, "when High Victorian art was deeply unfashionable ... We would like them back, most definitely." "We're talking household names", Mr Wright said, adding that many were bought by the heavyweight dealers Agnews and Colnaghi, who clearly appreciated the importance of the artists, even if the museums did not.
Tamsin Daniel, Truro's curator of art and exhibitions, said that the museum had needed money for storage and a lift. She conceded that the loss was painful. The Waterhouse went to a private collector bidding at Christie's. The £200 ($300) it cost him, she said, was "a bit different to what Andrew Lloyd Webber paid recently for a Waterhouse": £6.6 million ($9.9 million).
Leeds City Art Gallery and Museum, Mr Wright was told by an insider, actually disguised the provenance of works when selling them through an auction house. "They were described as property of Madame X," he said. "The sales were clandestine. They didn't say Leeds was de-accessioning. They were all Victorian pictures purchased from the Royal Academy. They got rid of dozens." Nigel Walsh, curator of exhibitions, expressed surprise at the news, denying that the gallery had sold anything. Nor did Evelyn Silber, its director, know anything about it until contacted by The Times. She later discovered that 37 paintings (nearly all Victorian) had been sold in 1939 under the then director, Philip Hendey, who went on to head the National Gallery in London. The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge sold more than 200 works in the 1950s. Although they were marked "property of the Fitzwilliam" in the catalogs, they were mixed up with hundreds of other lots, Mr Wright said. "They put them through the salerooms in dribs and drabs."
Mr Wright said that the Fortune-teller with Soldiers "was sold off as a copy, but it has since been published as the real thing worth millions".
Craig Hartley, a Fitzwilliam curator, said: "In retrospect, this seems a horrific thing to have done." Among other institutions to have sold off paintings, Mr Wright said, were the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich; the Cooper Art Gallery in Barnsley; the Holbourne Museum of Art in Bath; and the Birmingham City Art Gallery.
-Art Renewal Center article by Dalya Alberge
I am horrified.
Just beyond my self.
So who ended up getting these magnificent works of art?
"They were described as property of Madame X," he said. "The sales were clandestine. They didn't say Leeds was de-accessioning. They were all Victorian pictures purchased from the Royal Academy. They got rid of dozens."
Well, you must understand that a museum collects works of art for pubic display and enjoyment. If they no longer wants to display that art to the public, they take if off display and put it in storage. Apparently these works took up too much space, so they sold them to “Art Dealers”. And these art dealers held auctions and auctioned them off to wealthy attendees.
Yes.
That’s right. The art was taken away from public display and sold off to the oligarchy for their own personal use.
Ladies and Gentlemen ... Artists,
The art of painting, one of the greatest traditions in all of human history has been under a merciless and relentless assault for the last one hundred years. I'm referring to the accumulated knowledge of over 2500 hundred years, spanning from Ancient Greece to the early Renaissance and through to the extraordinary pinnacles of artistic achievement seen in the High Renaissance, 17th century Dutch, and the great 19th century Academies of Europe and America. These traditions, just when they were at their absolute zenith, at a peak of achievement, seemingly unbeatable and unstoppable, hit the twentieth century at full stride, and then ... fell off a cliff, and smashed to pieces on the rocks below. Since World War I the contemporary visual arts as represented in Museum exhibitions, University Art Departments, and journalistic art criticism became little more than juvenile, repetitive exercises at proving to the former adult world that they could do whatever they damn well wanted ... sadly devolving ever downwards into a distorted, contrived and contorted notion of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression? Ironically, this so-called "freedom" as embodied in Modernism, rather than a form of "expression" in truth became a form of "suppression" and "oppression." Modernism as we know it, ultimately became the most oppressive and restrictive system of thought in all of art history.
Every reasonable shred of order and any standards with which it was possible to identify, understand and to create great paintings and sculpture, was degraded ... detested ... desecrated and eviscerated. The backbone of the painters' craft, namely drawing, was thrown into the trash along with modeling, perspective, illusion, recognizable objects or elements from the real world, and with it the ability to capture, exhibit, and poetically express subjects and themes about mankind and the human condition and about man's trials on this speck of stardust called Earth ... Earth, hurtling through infinity with all of us along on board, along with everything we know and everything we hold dear.
Reason ... philosophy ... religion ... literature ... fantasy ... dreams, and all of the feelings, emotions and pathos of our every day lives ... all of it was no longer worthy of the painter's craft. Any hint by the artist at trying to portray such things was branded as banal, maudlin, photographic, illustration, or petty sentimentality.
Our children, going supposedly to the finest universities in the world, being taught by professors with Bachelors or Arts, Masters of Arts, Masters of Fine Arts, Masters of Art Education ... even Doctoral degrees, our children instead have been subjected to methodical brain-washing and taught to deny the evidence of their own senses. Taught that Mattisse, Cézanne, and Picasso, along with their followers, were the most brilliant artists in all of history. Why? Because they weren't telling us lies like the traditional painters, of course. They weren't trying to make us believe that we were looking at scenes in reality, or at scenes from the imagination, from fantasy or from dreams. They were telling us the truth. They were telling it like it is. They spent their lives and careers on something that was not banal, and not silly, insipid or inane. They in fact provided the world with the most ingenious of all breakthroughs in the history of artistic thought. Even the great scientific achievements of the industrial revolution paled before their brilliant discovery. And what was that discovery for which they have been raised above Bouguereau , exalted over Gérôme , and celebrated beyond Ingres , David , Constable , Fragonard , Van Dyck , and Gainsborough or Poussin ? Why in fact were they heralded to the absolute zenith ... the tiptop of human achievement ... being worthy even of placement shoulder to shoulder on pedestals right beside Rembrandt , Michelangelo , Leonardo , Caravaggio , Vermeer and Raphael ? What did they do? Why were they glorified practically above all others that ever went before them? Ladies and gentleman, they proved ... amazing, incredible, and fantastic as it may seem, they proved that the canvas was flat ... flat and very thin ... skinny ... indeed, not even shallow, lacking any depth or meaning whatsoever.
And the flatter that they proved it to be the greater they were exalted. Cézanne collapsed the landscape, Matisse flattened our homes and our families, and Pollock, Rothko and de Kooning placed it all in a blender and splattered it against the wall. They made even pancakes look fat and chunky by comparison. But this was only part of the breathtaking breakthroughs of modernism ... and their offshoots flourished. Abstract expressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, minimalism, ColorField, Conceptual, op-art, pop-art and post modernism ... and to understand it all ... to understand, took very special people indeed, since the mass of humanity was too ignorant and stupid to understand. Like that famous advertisement in the NY Times said so many years ago ... Bad art ... or Good art? You be the judge, indeed.
Of course, to justify this whole theoretical paradigm, all the artists that painted recognizable scenes with depth and illusion had to be discredited ... and discredited they were, with a virulence and vituperation so scathing and merciless that one would think they must have been messengers of the devil himself to deserve such abuse. And to put the final nail in their coffins, all of their art was banished and their names and accomplishments written right out of history. I graduated with a Master's in art education from Columbia University, and I'd never heard of Bouguereau , much less that he was President of the Academy and head of the Salon ... the most celebrated artist of his time who single handedly, using all of his influence as the most respected leader of art world, opened up L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts and the Salons to women artists for the first time in history.
During most of the 20th century, the type of propaganda that has been hurled at academic artists is so insidious that people have been literally trained to discredit, out-of-hand, any work containing well-crafted figures or elements, or any other evidence of technical mastery. All the beauty and subtlety of emotions, — interplay of composition, design and theme, — the interlacing of color, tone and mood, — are never seen. The viewer has been taught that academic painting on a prima facie basis is bad by definition — bad by virtue of its resorting to the use of human figures, themes or stories and objects from the real world.
Prestige suggestion causes them to automatically assume that a work must be great if it's by any of the "big names" of modern art, so they at once start looking for reasons why it must be proclaimed great. Any failing to find greatness is not considered a failing in the art but in the intelligence and sensibilities of the viewer. Students operating under that kind of intimidating pressure, you can be sure, will find greatness - no matter what they are looking at.
The reverse of this has been trained into them when they view academic paintings. They have been taught that works exhibiting realistic rendering are "bad art" and therefore any good that is seen is not due to qualities inherent in their artistic accomplishments, but are rather due to a lack of intelligence and taste in the viewer. The same intimidating pressure works in reverse to ensure that a work by Bouguereau , Lord Leighton , Burne-Jones , Gérôme , Frederick Hart , or any of the rest of you here, will not be seen as anything other than bad by definition.
No student in a school with this kind of dictatorial brain-washing will ever risk exploring or even listening to opposing views, for fear of being stigmatized from that point on, with some undesirable label and being universally despised ... sadly, a very effective deterrent to independent thought. Thus the visual experience of well-drawn representational elements is perceived as a negative, ad hominem, that proves with knee-jerk automaticity the presumed "badness" of the art and its creator.
It is especially ironic that these are the same people who trumpet the virtues and inalienable right to freedom of speech, while they surreptitiously and steadfastly conspire to remove that freedom from those with whom they disagree.
Equally ironic is the charge that academic painting is "uninspired," a proclamation issued by critics who are unable to see beyond the technical virtuosity for which they condemn it, to see what is being said. This rich visual language is wasted on eyes that will not see. It would be no different than dismissing out-of-hand a piece of music as soon as it was determined that notes, chords and keys were used, or dismissing any work of literature upon noticing words arranged in grammatically correct sentences.
That is not to say that all academic art is great, or above criticism - certainly, it is not. It would be no less fallacious to issue blanket praise to an entire category than to condemn it. Academic painting ranges from brilliantly conceived and deeply inspired, to trite and silly, depending on the subject and the artist.
That being said, I find even the worst of it more meaningful than art based on the ridiculous notion that it is somehow important to prove the canvas is flat, and/or that one needs no skill or technique to be an artist - views generally embraced by those who condemn the entire category of academic art. Their point seems to be to elevate to legitimacy that which has removed all standards and prior defining characteristics of art. In other words, by defining non-art as art, the logical conclusion is that art is non-art.
Modern artists are told that they must create something totally original. Nothing about what they do can ever have been done before in any way shape or form, otherwise they risk being called "derivative". How utterly absurd.
These critics like to say Bouguereau's work is really only derivative, harking back to earlier artists. Only in the 20th century has such a thing ever been scorned. To this I have one thing to say:
What, dear friends, is wrong with being derivative?
That's one of the core beliefs of modernism that must be soundly vanquished by common sense and logical analysis. Nobody can accomplish anything of merit if they are in fact not derivative. Only by mastering the accomplishments of the past and then adding to it can we go still further. Every other field of endeavor recognizes this truth. Without the knowledge of the past we are doomed to everlasting primitivism.
And, as far as holding our works up to the old masters, that's what we want to have happen. If we are to accomplish things of true merit and excellence, we must germinate and nurture great masters in the next millennium, too. Bouguereau was quite aware that his work would be compared on the altar of past accomplishments, as did his contemporaries. It was precisely because they mastered the techniques of the past, built upon them and then opened them up to an avalanche of new subject matter and Enlightenment ideals, that they accomplished the greatest half-century of painting in art history.
And when we talk about the basic criteria and parameters of the academic tradition that built from the 14th through 19th centuries, Bouguereau , Lord Leighton and Alma-Tadema were second to none.
Could Bach and Beethoven and Mozart have achieved their masterpieces if someone before had not discovered scales and the circle of fifths? Does that mean these musical giants were nothing but derivative too? In fact all great literature exists due to the existence of advanced language. This upside down thought process would make Dosteovsky, Balzac, Chekhov, Shakespeare and the Brontë sisters derivative as well. If you think about it a bit you will see that these are exact analogies. There is nothing any more derivative about these 19th century Traditional-Humanist-Academic masters.
Being derivative is entirely different from copying. Copying itself can have value, but only for the purposes of instruction. Obviously, a copied work is not original art. But modernist ideologues have disingenuously dismissed all realist art as "derivative" as if that were the same as copying.
Additionally, students today are taught that every parameter upon which any standard for quality and excellence can be deduced is improper, because it's "limiting to freedom of expression."
There can be no story, for then you have to stay within the "tight boundaries" of the tale.
There can be no illusion, for then you are "chained" by the need to recreate a sense of three dimensions.
There can be no drawing, as that can be "limiting" to objects or people or things taken from the real world.
They want to remove the "shackles" of modeling, perspective, or subject matter of any sort.
There certainly can be no attempt at harmonizing of the above parameters with composition, color and tonality, for that would "restrict" one to making everything work together.
On the contrary, they have been propagandized by modernism into believing that only those works that break boundaries, ignore standards, and show no interest in skill or technique can be truly "original" or "inspired." In fact originality of methods take precedence over all else. If something has been done before, or is derivative in any way of anything that was done before, it thereby loses value proportionate to those similarities. In such a "Through the looking glass" world, every would-be "artist" is placed in the untenable position of trying to create an entirely new art form in order to be considered relevant. The sheer glaring reality is that nothing could be more imprisoning, binding, restricting, chaining and shackling than the impossible limitations of modernism and post-modernism, that remove from the would-be artist every tool (including training) that could give him or her the ability to create great works of art. The simple truth is that each and every one of us (and I mean nearly every human being), is capable of thinking of something that has never been done before. Does that make it worth doing and the work of genius?
For example:
(1) I could carefully (with enough money) dig up an old bombed out tenement building in the Bronx, and have it transported to a special slab built for it in Central Park. Rope off the structure and aim lights at it at night and give it a title, and with enough pomp and circumstance think of twenty reasons why this is sheer brilliance and genius.
(2) I could boil the entrails of several different animals and then preserve them by imbedding them in clear plastic. I could then hang them from a mobile with similarly preserved body parts of cadavers, and have critics claim that this is the greatest artistic statement about the horrors of war since Guernica
(3) I could imbed into the walls, ceiling and floors of a small room, pieces of neon lights, parts from broken machines and engines, and broken pieces of structural building materials like bricks, beams and cinder blocks. Then I could glue between everything millions of nails, nuts and bolts, and have clever writers and critics point out how this room (which could be installed at MOMA or the Guggenheim) is the quintessential statement of the effects of the industrial age on human psychology.
Well, those three ideas took all of 3 minutes to think of. MY GOD! This must mean I'm three geniuses rolled into one. Why, at this rate I could come up with more brilliant ideas for Modernism than all of the modernist geniuses put together, if I just would put aside a week or two.
The thing here that really is interesting is not their art at all, but the statement it makes about the nature of our species — that so many seemingly intelligent people have been so easily snookered by the tongue-twisting, convoluted illogic of modernist rhetoric. Clearly for many people it is more important to feel that they are some part of an elitist in-group that is endowed with the special ability to see brilliance where the bulk of humanity sees nothing and is afraid to say so.
Since most people aren't devoted to or educated in fine art, they have successfully intimidated the bulk of humanity into cowering away in silence, feeling foolish for their inability to understand. The average person shrinks away from believing the reality of his or her own senses in the face of seemingly overwhelming numbers of people in this 20th century "establishment" who authoritatively dictate what is great art and what everyone should be seeing.
Modern and Post-modern Art is nihilistic and anti-human. It denigrates humanity along with our hopes, dreams, desires and the real world in which we live. All reference to any of these things is forbidden in the canonistic halls of modernist ideology. We can see that their hallowed halls are a hollow shell, a vacuous, vacant vault that locks their devotees away from life and humanity. It ultimately bores the overwhelming bulk of its would-be audience, who can find nothing with which to relate.
It has been called exciting and cutting-edge, but the sad truth is that it is incredibly humdrum and monotonous. Whether you glue together pieces of plastic or shards of glass, assemble metal scraps or piles of feathers. Whether you dribble little dollops of colors or drag fat uneven slashes of black. Whether you compile a mountain of paper or wrap the Statue of Liberty. The effect is always the same. MEANINGLESS PRIMITIVISM.
Modernism is art about art. It endlessly asks the question, ad nauseam: What is art? What is art? Only those things that expand the boundaries of art are good; all else is bad. It is art about art. Whereas all the great art in history, my friends, is ART ABOUT LIFE.
Of course, this isn't exactly the first time in history that ideas which were complete shams managed to engulf the belief systems of entire cultures and civilizations. In many of those in the past, the lunacy was enforced by the severest of punishments for anyone who would dare to speak out.
At least we live in a time and place where it's possible to speak against this consummate con that has been perpetrated against the greatest period of artistic development and achievement in the history of Western Civilization and culture over the last 500 years.
Three-quarters of the 20th century will go down in art history as a great wasteland of insanity — a nightmarish blip in the long road of the development of human logic and reason and art, from which we are only just starting to awake.
The artists of the 19th century exhibited a deep, abiding respect for humanity and human feelings. A respect for our minds, our spirits and our reason, and a love of beauty, grace and true excellence and accomplishment. Bouguereau , Lord Leighton , Waterhouse , Burne-Jones and the other giants of the 19th C. tried to capture those things that are good and decent in our species. Their accomplishments are the quintessential high point of hundreds of years of human study and development in the art of painting. They are arguably the greatest painters that history has ever produced. Bouguereau especially fits this description. How fitting and sadly obvious that he should be characterized as the chief villain by those who would destroy rather than build — who celebrate chaos rather than order and beauty.
He continues…
Recently, a contributor to an on-line art forum I subscribe to made the following comments about Picasso,
I love the way Picasso did that woman all shards and angles. I don't recall the name of the work. But, he painted the woman in her turmoil how she tore herself apart within, and how he saw what her turmoil did to her. He painted the way he saw her, as fragmented as he saw her. She was a beauty on the outside. Yet, he painted the ugly face of her turmoil, and in so doing painted his turmoil as well.
Picasso worked in a turbulent time. I think it's why some of his works appeared to be reflections in a broken mirror. Shards, impressions all cut up and each with a voice about his subjects and of Spain. His work shows a deeply sensitive artist and was a pivotal point for the Russian avant garde school that said it was okay to feel in paint, to get all the chaos out in paint ... I didn't love him until I studied him ...
- Laurie
And he continues…
I thought it fitting to read here my response to her.
Laurie and Goodart subscribers,
I really need to address these ebullient expressions of praise for Picasso a bit more precisely.
Laurie, this is not to fault you at all, but to analyze the description you have made which reflects the gospel that is taught about him in most art history courses. His name and "achievements" have become so "untouchable" within the sacrosanct walls of modernist cathedrals, that to do any other than you have stated here would be like criticizing the cross or the bible in the College of Cardinals.
Let's look at this one idea at a time.
You said that, "He painted the woman in her turmoil how she tore herself apart within, and how he saw what her turmoil did to her".
I
n fact, all that he painted was a messy characterization of a woman in which the forms and shapes don't align or create any cohesive form. The drawing is virtually non-existent, and the disintegration of all artistic elements are self-consciously laid out for the express purpose of rejecting prior artistic standards.
There is no beauty in her face, or for that matter, ugliness. There isn't even a face ... but elements thrown together with just enough evidence to let the viewer know that it was meant to suggest a face.
Everything about the finished product is utterly awful and would be beneath the capabilities of a talented 12 year old.
Now, what if you are a theorist who needs to justify this hodge-podge of sloppy color and form? What can you creatively think of to place value and meaning, where none exists ... especially, if you are being paid to do just that?
It's simple: you need but approach the work as you would a Rorschach inkblot test, where anyone can use creative ability to make up a story, suggested by little, if any, information. If you want this man's work to be valued highly, you must create a tale of great importance, with meaning, which, when discussed or analyzed in intellectual circles, will be considered profound and meaningful.
The idea of a lady being ugly on the inside is a concept from literature, psychology, and in fact all of human history. Ugliness, mean-spiritedness, and turmoil are major concepts that tint all of human experience. So you simply say that the messiness represents that, and look how brilliant he is to have captured it.
But in truth he has done nothing of the kind. The writers who said that was what it means were the one who did it, and not the artist. Inner turmoil and ugliness on the inside is far more difficult to capture, and takes intense, subtle handling of story telling, composition, drawing, and realistic rendering to successfully convey so that it can be recognized without any words. Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott and Bouguereau's Divideuse both capture beautiful women loaded with inner turmoil, and Cabanel's Cleopatra testing poisons on slaves portrays intense inner ugliness within a beautiful face and figure infinitely better than these broken blotchy messes on canvas by Picasso.
But when the modernist professors say that's what it means, then implicit in their words is that if you don't see it too you're stupid and tasteless. Also to not see it becomes associated with not seeing how wonderful that subject matter would be. And it is after all truly wonderful subject matter. Only one problem; Picasso didn't paint it.
You say, "his work shows a deeply sensitive artist," but I don't conclude any sensitivity whatsoever. What is there is the sensitivity of a bull in a china shop, who stomps around breaking all the beautiful porcelain, and then with an army of critics lined up with their nostrils flaring dares anyone to criticize the dump he just left in the your living room.
"Either you love my turds or you are against freedom of expression."
If you don't want it in your museum, you're the enemy of freedom of speech. Faced with such intimidation surely many would rather line up in support. But there is truly nothing there. It's a trick of words and intimidation. An Illusion of social pressure and fearful conformity.
His school, "... said it was okay to feel in paint, to get all the chaos out in paint ... I didn't love him until I studied him."
Of course you didn't love him until you studied him. What you learned to love was all the explanations about worthwhile concepts and subjects. And with a training right out of Pavlov, you were taught to salivate when you were shown things that caused associations to those worthwhile ideas.
But Laurie, WHERE'S the BEEF? You're salivating at a symbol much the way people react to their country's flag. The flag comes to be seen as beautiful because it represents family, home and hearth, friends, loyalty, and the things we love. You've been taught to react to symbols instead of responding with the freedom of independent thought to works of art that are not supposed to be flag-like-symbols of great artistic ideas, but the great works of art themselves, which communicate, through a readily discernable visual language, some aspect of the human condition.
You had to be taught to love Picasso, because nobody would love him otherwise. But people don't need to be taught to love Rembrandt , Michelangelo , Bouguereau , or for that matter Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, or Tom Sawyer, The Grapes of Wrath, Alice in Wonderland, or The Christmas Carol.
Teaching and information can add to the depth of understanding of great works of art, but they are great initially by their ability to capture the soul and imagination of the viewer, without thousands of words to instruct us on how to deny the evidence of our own senses and to deny our innate sense of truth and reason.
Of course, what tends to happen to people who have allowed themselves to be convinced that the emperor is wearing beautiful clothes, is that they have become "ego invested" due to years of having parroted the same falsehoods ... and the associated humiliation that goes with acknowledging that one has been had. The more years, and the more said in support of Modernism, the greater the difficulty in breaking through the gestalts, and taking off the iconic blinders, shedding all the preconceptions and looking again with "innocent eyes" and describing what is really there (at least to yourself), and then comparing it to the maligned academics like Waterhouse , Bouguereau , Lord Leighton , Burne-Jones , Gérôme , and Alma-Tadema , and deciding with freedom of thought and an honest wish to find the truth, which of them indeed are works of art, and which are snake oil salesmen."
He continues…
And so I ended that letter.
The change in people's perceptions about this is happening now very quickly. Even this austere institution, probably the greatest museum in the Western Hemisphere, just a couple of summers ago had a major retrospective of one of these maligned 19th century masters, Edward Coley Burne-Jones.
And in their literature on the show declared him one of the three greatest English artists of the last century, along with Constable and Turner. In fact, the Metropolitan Museum deserves great credit for being one of the first great institutions to once again hang their Bouguereaus and Gérômes, Meissonnier and Burne-Jones, on permanent exhibit in the face of scathing criticism from the press back in 1980.
Soon after, Laurie followed this with a good-natured post saying that although she felt that I may have insulted her intelligence, she loved me all the same. To which I responded:
And …
Laurie,
It was not my wish to insult your intelligence. The very brightest of people are just as vulnerable. It is in human nature to go along to get along. I certainly did it too when I was in college and grad school in fine art. Even when I was finally willing to speak my mind about Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko and Warhol .... Picasso was somehow sacrosanct, and I would pay lip service to his brilliance while the works of the other modernists I allowed myself to see as they were.
It wasn't until I hit about 40 years old that I started to more fully recognize the power of prestige suggestion and social intimidation in forming opinions.
To truly judge your own feelings and opinion about a work of art, you need to look at it as if it were painted by a complete unknown, perhaps some student in another town, and then ask yourself what your opinion of that work would be then. Would you think it was one of the greatest works in the history of civilization, would it even be great ... or good ... or mediocre .... or just plain bad?
So true.
He continues further…
I know now absolutely that nearly all the works by most of the famous Modernists are truly awful on all fronts.
I also know that the best works by Bouguereau and Waterhouse would thrill me to my bones even if they had been painted by complete unknowns. When I saw a Bouguereau for the first time, I had never heard of him, but my response was immediate unambiguous and self-validating. I needed no books or texts or convoluted explanations. The strength of the work was powerful, unique, immediate and overwhelming.
It was exactly as I had felt in the presence of Michelangelo's David. Ah, but when I saw the David I was already predisposed to see what history considered one of humanity's greatest masterpieces. However, it was that seminal experience at 18 that excited my interest in art. The Bouguereau that I saw, Nymphs and Satyr, was when I was 32 years old, and it's effect was equally profound, changing the course of my life, ultimately leading me to this podium here today.
Don't let pride get involved here. Don't even answer me. Just ask yourselves and answer honestly.
One common claim that you hear repeatedly is that the proof that some abstract expressionists were great artists, can be found in their high quality academic student drawings. My answer to this is that it's really irrelevant whether or not they could do a decent student drawing. If anything it only makes it sadder that promising young talent was wasted. The quality and value of their "mature" work is not helped a bit by showing that they could draw decently when young.
The best way to prove that is to consider the inverse.
Would Raphael or Bouguereau's mature work be somehow made the worse if their student drawings from decades earlier had been of poor quality? Their great paintings would still be just as great, and de Kooning's hideous smears for which he is so famous are still just as awful.
I am quite certain that every artist in this audience paints better than all of the famous modernists and post modernists, and is more deserving of societal attention and praise. Yet still, so-called "major works" of theirs can sell for between 2 and 25,000,000 dollars at auction. The dirty little secret, however, that the modernist establishment and the press has been hiding, is that those same works sold for two to three times those prices back in 1988 and 1989. While the prices of all the icons of modernism peaked at that time, and any money invested then has declined a whopping 50 to 80%, the market for Gérôme , Waterhouse , Bouguereau , Alma-Tadema , Burne-Jones , Rossetti , Millais and Lord Leighton , has increased between 2000 and 10,000 percent since 1975.
Every year, records are being broken again and again.
In 1977, the world record price for a Bouguereau was $17,000. Now, in the past 3 years, the world records for his work first topped a million dollars in 1997, then a million and a half in 1998, two and a half million in 1999, and last May, Charity sold for over $3,500,000. Additionally, last June the world record for any Victorian painting was completely trampled when Saint Cecilia, by John William Waterhouse, sold for just over $10,000,000 in London to Andrew Lloyd Weber.
There are only 826 Bouguereaus and about 465 Tademas in the world. Do you know how many Picassos there are? Can anybody here guess? There are 80,000 of them, and the balance between supply and demand has faltered, and like the dot com stocks of last year they will soon come crashing down along with hundreds of billions of paper profits lost in the dust of history. Like the tulip bulbs in the 17th century, or Tokyo Real estate in the 1980's, investors will be decimated. If I owned a work by any of those "Abstract artists" I would be racing to cash it in before the fall, and that has been my recommendation to dozens who have asked me.
Many of my friends in and out of ARC have told me that I shouldn't talk so much about the modernists. One of them recently wrote to me saying, "I really don't think we help our cause by helping talentless modernists get press coverage." Another fearfully said, "Don't criticize the modernists, just focus on what's good."
I replied as follows:
His reply…
When have the modernists ever held back from criticizing traditional and academic art? The problem with this attitude, while I also find it very appealing, is that our not talking about the modernists doesn't really mean much.
The fact is that they are being talked about with high praise, in nearly every university art department and art history course in the western world ... parroting the same things that they were taught. They are also being constantly celebrated and exhibited by the biggest and most prestigious museums and getting rave reviews in the newspapers as often as not.
If somebody doesn't explain to everybody why they're not really any good, and why they're not really even artists, and how the whole thing is a hoax, then they will continue their propaganda and continue brainwashing our children and intimidating them into feeling stupid if they don't go along to get along ... and they'll do it unopposed.
If we don't speak up and tell the world that the Emperor's naked, nobody else will. We may not want to talk about them, but we have to if we are going to have any chance of turning things around. We have to provide a theoretical and philosophical context for the feelings of the tens of millions of people out there who are disgusted and feel an aversion for Modernism ... but feel afraid to say so. They need to know that they are not alone and they need to have their feelings validated. And at the same time, we need to provide alternatives ... rich alternatives with great traditional art and with countless images of the greatest paintings in history.
So well put…
And now ladies and gentlemen ... artists ... portrait artists ... I come at this point ... to you. Who are you? Who do you think yourselves to be? Well let me tell you how I see you. You are beyond doubt, the true artistic heroes and heroines of the 20th century.
Many of you know that I am the chairman of the Art Renewal Center, which you can find at http://www.artrenewal.org. The Art Renewal Center is building the largest on-line museum on the internet, and is completely devoted to the return of standards, training and human themes and subjects in the visual arts. Modern Art is about expanding the definition of art.
They believe that "everything is art", or, "Whatever the artist says is art, is art."
Well, if everything is art, then nothing is art.
Any definition that includes everything is not a definition at all. As I said, Modern art is "art about art", while all the great art and literature and theatre throughout history is "Art about life."
I wrote about all of you, and your teachers, in the published Philosophy of the Art Renewal Center. Here's what I said:
Against all odds, and in the face of the worst kind of ridicule and personal and editorial assault, only a small handful of well-trained artists managed to stay true to their beliefs. Then, like the heroes and heroines who protected a few rare manuscripts during inquisitional book-burnings of the past, these 20th Century art world heroes managed to protect and preserve the core technical knowledge of western art. Somehow, they succeeded in training a few dozen determined disciples. Today, many of those former students, have established their own schools or ateliers, and are currently training many hundreds more. This movement is now expanding exponentially. They are regaining the traditions of the past, so that art may once again move forward on a solid footing. We are committed in every way possible to record, preserve and perpetuate this priceless knowledge.
That's who you are. So if some of you are having trouble selling your work, or haven't been able to command the prices you deserve ... if you feel infuriated at piles of bricks and elephant dung filling museum galleries, while you can only pay to have space allotted to you for an evening in a great museum like this ... don't despair.
Your time is coming. You have done humanity a service of such magnitude, that sadly you will never be properly repaid. Keep painting your great portraits, and when you can find the time, paint what your heart tells you to paint, too.
The modern world is a boiling cauldron of all sorts of great and absurd ideas, feelings, pathos, pathologies, psycho pathologies, humiliation, and dehumanizing ideas ... and yet ... yet even beauty, too, is still here amongst us, here in this hall and throughout the world, and her manifestations in modern times have been insufficiently expressed. So, find her in your homes, find her in the streets, find her in your communities and in nature, and especially, find her in each other ... and save her ... save her ... protect and cherish her ... and exalt her back to her rightful place ... a place of supreme prominence, and bring her back into these our greatest institutions and our highest citadels of society and culture.
Thank you.
So inspiring.
Here’s one of my lost paintings. Destroyed by the “new” America that exists for the few; the oligarchy that controls all.
I am not a master, but I like to believe that I could have been one. The idea that the oligarchy controlled government can destroy your life’s work, your purposes, and everything that you have created so that they can implement some kind of selfish utopia is distrubing. It show that they are, and the systems that they have created, are pure psychopaths and psychopathic in nature.
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Psychopathic systems do not lend longevity to society. Instead they offer a means of destruction.
I aruge that the oligarchy can only continue upon this path that they tred upon by converting everyone to adopt their methodology, or to convert everyone into mindless, emotionless followers.
How about other examples…
"In retrospect, this seems a horrific thing to have done."
Ya. Think?
There are so many examples of great works of art that used to be owned by museums for public enjoyment, but that have been sold off to private collectors. And while some have been repurchased by other museums and are now available for viewing, the battle to obtain these “lost works” was contentious in many cases. We are , and should consider ourselves, to be lucky. Lucky that the oligarchy has allowed us to be able to view these works on the internet. Lucky to be able to recognize that they existed and still exist, and lucky that they were not burned in bonfires of progressive revisionism and fashion.
Examples of artworks that have been sold off…
Let’s look at just some of the art; the paintings that the museums around the world has sold off for the price of a cup of coffee…
Constant Afternoon Langour by Jean-Joseph Constant (Benjamin-Constant) (1845-1902, France)
And…
Bramley Frank – A Hopeless Dawn
And…
Herbert Draper – Lament for Icarus
Draper's vision of Icarus, crashed and dead on the rocks, stays true to the myth and yet has a drama to it that is definitely the making of a more contemporary mind. Nearly 50% of the canvas is covered by the image of Icarus' gigantic, broken, dark wings. The wings are so huge they are cut off at the top left of the canvas and at the middle right.
This makes the image seem even larger than life. It is as if we look through a window that is not large enough to hold the view. It is possible that the advent of the camera influenced the artist's eye in choosing this unusual perspective.
But the impact is successful, dramatic and highly emotional because of the skill in which the wings are painted.
They are so huge, in fact, that they make shadows on much of what remains of the canvas. They are so immense and yet they have failed poor Icarus so completely.
Icarus lies dead; a darkening figure still strapped to the useless wings, as a sorrowful and sensual nymph pulls his upper torso gentle towards her. Two other nymphs look on woefully. The canvas creates a heart breaking darkness with small splashes of gold light falling on the nymphs and the far rock wall. The golden light is reminiscent of the hope for freedom that Dadelus had once had for his son Icarus.
All life, beautiful or not, comes to an end, and all our grand strivings lead us to the same end. The power in this work of art is the sense of loss it projects. If you read the text in the catalogue, it mentions other layers of possible meaning. Simon Toll makes note that Draper's father died shortly before this painting was executed and he suggests that this painting "may also be a private statement of loss." The text also suggests that the painting may be a tribute to the artist Leighton, who died two years earlier.
-ARC
And…
Lady Godiva by Lefevbre Claude Gheerbrant – Musée de Picardie
Examples of “art” that have been purchased by museums afterwards…
Let’s have a look at the kinds of art that the museums (all over the world) purchased once they discarded the “old” and “outmoded” art…
White Fire I by Barnett Newman
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Would you believe that this ridiculous-looking canvas was sold for $3.8 million? This abstract painting, which is comprised of two straight lines, was created in 1954. Barnett is an American artist who is a strong follower of abstract expressionism.
Abstract Expressionism, broad movement in American painting that became a dominant trend in Western painting during the 1950s. The movement comprised many styles varying in both technique and quality of expression. Artists include Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler.
-Abstract Expressionism | Definition
This painting, which follows the color field painting style, is one of the few pieces that he has created during his lifetime. Barnett is considered the greatest color field painters of his time. That is the reason why this expensive painting is very popular now.
Or how about a museum considering this to be a worthwhile addition…
Royal Red and Blue
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This is one of the most basic paintings to date but don’t let its simplicity fool you. It was sold for a whopping $75.1 million during a Sotheby’s auction in November of 2012.
The painter, Mark Rothko, is a known abstract expressionist.
This painting date back 1954 and basically has three blocks of color – and that’s it. Rothko is an American painter with Russian and Jewish Roots. He is known for the color field method style of painting which was popular in New York during the 50’s.
Summary of Color Field Painting
Color Field Painting is a tendency within Abstract Expressionism, distinct from gestural abstraction, or Action Painting. It was pioneered in the late 1940s by Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still, who were all independently searching for a style of abstraction that might provide a modern, mythic art and express a yearning for transcendence and the infinite.
To achieve this they abandoned all suggestions of figuration and instead exploited the expressive power of color by deploying it in large fields that might envelope the viewer when seen at close quarters. Their work inspired much Post-painterly abstraction, particularly that of Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski, though for later color field painters, matters of form tended to be more important than mythic content.
-The Art Story
The idea is to paint the canvas with large blocks of solid colors giving off an impression of an uneven surface and a flat plane. This painting pretty much depicts that, although very simplistic that you can imagine a toddler painting this art piece, it has a surprisingly outrageous value.
Interchange
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To a lot of people, this can be viewed as a real abstract painting with a lot of character in it. There is no doubt about it- but to be valued at $300 million sparks a different kind of conversation.
As with all abstract art, most people can claim they can paint something similar, but in fact, there is more to this painting that meets the eye.
William de Kooning is a New York painter, but is originally from Netherlands. This artwork is an example of ‘action painting’ which is a technique where the artist spontaneously splash paint on canvas versus the traditional painting style that is meticulous and takes time to complete.
Action painting, direct, instinctual, and highly dynamic kind of art that involves the spontaneous application of vigorous, sweeping brushstrokes and the chance effects of dripping and spilling paint onto the canvas. The term was coined by the American art critic Harold Rosenberg to characterize the work of a group of American Abstract Expressionists who utilized the method from about 1950.
-Action painting | art | Britannica
It is somehow a form of physical art.
This technique is made popular during the 40’s to 60’s and has coined the concept of abstract expressionism. This painting was made in 1955 and is now housed in the private collection of Kenneth C. Griffin.
Onement VI
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This is one of the most boring paintings that you will ever see but you will be surprised to know that this blue colored canvas sold for over $43 million in 2013. It is one of the works of Barnett Newman, a known abstract expressionist. He has done a number of similar paintings such as this and has an entire “Onement” collection, which is basically composed of one dominant color and a division (what he calls a ‘zip’) right smacked in the middle. The zip is used to define the space of his paintings. This New York artist was born in 1905 and has made a following because of his color field art.
Birthday by Paul Klee
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If you don’t know better, you might mistake this for a preschooler’s art project. This is actually a painting from the famed painter Paul Klee. It starts off with an odd old maroon color with asymmetrical and disorganized images of triangles and squares, and oh yes, an odd orange circle in off center. One can maybe make this out as a series of houses or even a castle- but, hey, what do we know. Paul Klee is a Swiss-German painter born in 1879. Most of his works are now housed in varied museums all over the globe.
Blue Rectangle Over The Red Beam
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If you hear the word ‘painting’ you might be imagining something with a lot of imagination, color gradients and creative imagery. This painting from Kazimir Malevich is far from being complicated or deep but it is one of the most significant work of art to date.
Malevich is actually the pioneer of geometric abstraction- that is pretty obvious with his love of squares and rectangles.
Geometric abstraction, through the Cubist process of purifying art of the vestiges of visual reality, focused on the inherent two-dimensional features of painting. This process of evolving a purely pictorial reality built of elemental geometric forms assumed different stylistic expressions in various European countries and in Russia.
-Geometric Abstraction | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of ...
This artwork was sold in Sotheby’s auction for a staggering $60 million and is the most expensive piece of Russian artwork of all time.
No. 5, 1948
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To the naked eye, this painting may simply look like a piece of stringy lines splashed around using a yarn, just like those kindergarten art projects kids use to make. This is an artwork done by Jackson Pollock in the year 1948. It is quite a large piece of artwork measuring 8 ft by 4 ft. He is a known abstract expressionist.
This painting in fibreboard uses brown, yellow, white and grey paint. It is often tagged as a dense bird’s nest because of the way the strips of paint overlap each other. This artwork was reported to be sold for over $140 million to a private collector.
Black Square
This oil painting was done in oil on linen and is now housed at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. As you would have realized by now, the painting is a mere black square. But there is a lot of philosophy and history behind this seemingly plain and dull painting. This piece is dubbed as the ‘zero point of painting’ and a combination of various art methods including futurism and constructivism. This is one of the prime works of Kazimir Malevich, who is the leader in Russian avant-garde art and has several pieces of similar works under this collection. He described this artwork as ‘liberated nothing’.
Conclusion(s)
One afternoon I toured an art museum while waiting for my husband to finish a business meeting.I was looking forward to a quiet view of the art works.
A young couple viewing the paintings ahead of me chatted nonstop between themselves.I watched them a moment and decided the wife was doing all the talk.I admired the husband's patience for putting up with her continuous talk.Distracted by their noise,I moved on.
I met with them several times as I moved through the different rooms of art.Each time I heard her constant burst of words,I moved away quickly.
I was standing at the counter of the museum gift shop making a purchase when the couple came near to the exit.Before they left,the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a white object.He extended it into a long stick and then tapped his way into the coatroom to get his wife's jacket.
"He's a brave man."The clerk at the counter said,"Most of us would give up if wewere blinded at such a young age.During his recovery he made a promise that his life wouldn't change.So ,as before,he and his wife come in whenever there's a new art show."
"But what dose he get out of the art?"I asked,"He can't see."
"Can't see?You're wrong.He sees a lot.More than you or I do."The clerk said,"His wife describes each painting so he can see it in his head."
I learned something about patience,courage and love that day.I saw the patience of a young wife describing paintings to a person without sight and the courage of a husband who would not allow blindness to change his life.And I saw the love shared by two people as I watched this couple walk away hand in hand.
-MoFanGe
If you were in the role of the wife (as described above – explaining each painting to her husband), how would you go about describing the more traditional artworks that the museums have sold off? How long would each painting take to describe?
Likewise, how would you describe the new progressive artworks? How long do you think it would take to describe them?
Perhaps this simple measurement, this idea in how to describe the impressions of art that is presented to you, is an element of it’s value and worth. Not that of the amount of currency that is used to purchase it, but rather the emotions and feelings that are generated upon viewing it.
I have argued HERE that the oligarchy is populated with psychopathic individuals that not only are unable to emote, but are unable to feel or express real emotions. Instead they only mimic actions and facial expressions to manipulat others to follow and believe them. As such, these psychopathic individuals see no value in art. Their only value is how they can be used as an element in financial exchange and commerce.
And thus, the study of art, is the study of the oligarchy that rules us.
The oligarchy that rules 99.9% of humans have evolved into a new KIND of human.
They are in possession of a service-for-self sentience, and are extremely good at manipulation, creation and generation of money and currency, as well as the accusition of power as well as the control over others. They are weak in the ability to express emotions and cannot emote. Medically they are known as psychopathic personalities and a healthy society cannot afford to have individuals of this disposition near any positions of power.
As they see no value in the art like “normal” people, they have subverted the institutions that they control; the libraries, the museums, and the art world into something that they understand. They understand money and using objects as trade mediums. They do not conderstand or emote the value of art.
And finally…
This movement towards progressive revisionism can only originate from those that are unable to understand art. They have no idea or concept of evoked emotion via visual stimulation. It is alien to them. They couldn’t understand it in any of it’s myrid forms. Thus…
Indeed, thus…
The entire progressive revisionism movement from art, to culture to society is driven from the oligarchy downward. It is their efforts to redraw the world into a “utopia” that they can understand and embrace.
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Fourth amendment? What's a "fourth amendment"?
-Joe Average American Citizen
This is a compilation of articles, thoughts, information and data that I threw together for my personal use. It dates from the time period of 2013 through to 2018, and has not really been updated to account to the enormous expansion of the surveillance capabilities of the various alphabet organizations under President Trump.
Essentially, it became too overwhelming. It was impossible to keep up with the massive effort under-weigh to convert the United States government into a totalitarian utopia for the oligarchy.
Looking at the sole enormity of this information shows an overwhelming preponderance of evidence that the United States is not only no longer “free”, but that it has become a prison-state. It somehow by-passed or slid past the military totalitarian state mode and went straight to wall-less prison.
“Im just setting up a barebones linux laptop to go to Panama with. All the essentials will be kept on an encrypted thumb drive just incase I need to access client machines. Installed Skype, remote software and password safe, but the data is on the thumbdrive that gets wiped after 10 tries at the password. Its a shame that americans have to be like this for doing nothing illegal.”
-Skype message to the Author on 13JAN18.
We are witnessing the integration of spying on two levels, the government level (federal, state and local) and the corporate level (via telecom providers, web services and credit card companies). It’s “Full Metal” Orwell.
The term "full metal Orwell" is a play on words.
Full Metal
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 British-American war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay by Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford was based on Hasford's novel The Short-Timers (1979). Its storyline follows a platoon of U.S. Marines through their training, primarily focusing on two privates, Joker and Pyle, who struggle to get through camp under their foul-mouthed drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, and the experiences of two of the platoon's Marines in the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The film's title refers to the full metal jacket bullet used by soldiers. The film was released in the United States on June 26, 1987. In slang the term “full metal” means “to go into combat or to fight”.
Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often published as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English novelist George Orwell.It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons
If you are a user of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Craigslist or another popular site, the U.S. security state is watching you. An increasing number of federal agencies are employing sophisticated means to monitor Americans’ use of social networking sites.
1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual.
.
Federal entities from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Department to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to even the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are involved in developing programs to track the American public online.
Criminals are running the United States government; call them what you will, but they all serve their own interests.
“There’s nothing more destructive to a society than the institutionalization of immunity for elite criminals, yet that’s exactly what’s happened since the financial crisis. Top tier predators, whether they operate within government or mega corporations, recognize that the system they control will never hold them accountable for anything they do.”
Read more here; https://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2018/01/22/we-can-do-a-lot-better-than-this/
This is not, not, NOT how a function government acts. Not how ANY functioning goverment acts. Let alone one that was set up as a “Republic” for the people, by the people.
“Today the path to total dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by Congress, the President, or the people.
Outwardly we have a Constitutional government.
We have operating within our government and political system … a well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state....
The important point to remember about this group is not its ideology but its organization…
It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government....
This group ... is answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts. It is practically irremovable.”— Senator William Jenner, 1954 speech
This corruption of what the United States is has many facets. But in this article we will look at a very specific, tiny portion of this corruption. It is, to put it in a nutshell, the abrogation of the powers of Congress to agencies; the “alphabet organizations”. And the powers that they have grabbed for themselves when Congress stopped policing their behaviors.
In short, Congress has created numerous “Frakenstein monsters”. (Named CIA, FBI, IRS, ATF, DHS, etc…)
A metaphorical Frankenstein monster is a situation —political, financial, ecclesiastical, or domestic—which has been created through folly, and which has become so potent and uncontrollable that it is now a menace to social stability.
Meaning of “A Frankenstein Monster” phrase of Idiom
To each one they granted it their own regulation-making and law-making powers. And to each one they allowed it to grow and get big with no limits on behaviors, no oversight in what they were doing, and no controls or rules over their ability to run “roughshod” over the Bill of Rights.
Particuliarly the 9th and the 4th amendments.
The Ninth Amendment was James Madison’s attempt to ensure that the Bill of Rights was not seen as granting to the people of the United States only the specific rights it addressed. In recent years, some have interpreted it as affirming the existence of such “unenumerated” rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. In addition, it sets requirements for issuing warrants: warrants must be issued by a judge or magistrate, justified by probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and must particularly describe the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
Here is a brief summary of some of the programs that now exist un-constitutionally within the alphabet organizations that Congress has created.
WARNING: Specific examples come from both Conservative and Progressive websites. There, apparently, is more conservative examples of progressive abuses being illustrated than the other way around. Sorry about that. I use what is available to me.
Let it be well understood that the two political parties are both THE SAME PARTY. It is the party of the rich and powerful. They conduct theater to keep you and I occupied while they rob us blind. So do not get all caught up on “he did this”, or “she was innocent”, nonsense.
The examples used are illustrative only. So please do not be offended that I am using Hillary Clinton as an example, or Donald Trump as an example. Stop thinking of them as being the “flag bearers” of your own personal ideology.
They are both actors playing a role. Nothing more.
Justice Department
“To block exposure of their misdeeds, these officials falsely claimed that national security would be damaged.”
-Michael Goodwin
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a report from the DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property section, “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites,” that describes how evidence from social networking sites can reveal personal communications that might help “establish motives and personal relationships.”
It reports that monitored data from such sites can provide location information and “prove and disprove alibis.”
Perhaps most illuminating, it advises agents that “going undercover” on social media sites can enable law enforcement to communicate with suspects and targets, gain access to nonpublic information and map social relationships.
The DOJ document notes that Twitter retains the last login IP address, but does not preserve data unless legally required to do so. However, that means nothing. Twitter censors, deletes, and fabricates lies to meet whatever objective that it deems appropriate.
It was in 2016, when angry tweeters alleged that Jack Dorsey et al., were purposefully censoring and "suppressing" certain content on Twitter,
[1] namely anything to do with the leaked DNC and John Podesta emails, as well as
[2] hashtags critical of Hillary Clinton
[3] while "shadow-banning" pro-Donald Trump content. (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-31/twitter-shadow-banning-donald-trump)
We can now confirm that at least one part of the above was true, because during the late 2017 Senate hearing, Twitter admitted it "buried", which is another word for censored, significant portions of tweets related to hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta in the months heading into the 2016 presidential campaign.
Twitter’s systems hid 48 percent of tweets using the #DNCLeak hashtag and 25 percent of tweets using #PodestaEmails, Twitter general counsel Sean Edgett said in his written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
Twitter.
Can you just imagine all the issues related to twitter with Donald trump? Oi Vey! I’ll tell youse guys. You are either convinced that there is no such thing as freedom of speech or not. It’s not my job to prove it to anyone.
“While the FISA court’s activities are secret, the court did admit in 2013 that it had, during its several decades in existence, approved over 99.9 percent of the US government’s surveillance requests.”
-Adam Dick via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity
There is an American idiom for this. It is known as “rubber stamping” something. It means to approve something without any consideration, as a formality. Obviously any court that approves 99.97 percent of anything isn't doing jack shit as far as doing its job is concerned.
Hence, rubber stamps became one of the symbols of excessive bureaucracy, and a rubber stamp, in your sentence, would be someone whose role was merely to signify their approval of something, to endorse uncritically. The OED says of "rubber stamp" as a verb: "To endorse or approve uncritically; to pass routinely or automatically."
Rubber stamp - phrase meaning and origin
The IRS
“The gov is so rotten that it’s going to take an incredible, massive, long effort to expose, indict, charge, try, convict, and sentence the evil doers. It won’t always be pretty. But it HAS to be done.”
-2/8/2018, 5:24:35 AM by little jeremiah
The IRS uses a variety of social media sites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and Second Life to investigate taxpayers.
It seems to have started this practice in 2009 (shortly after Obama became President), providing agents with special training on social networking operations, and user habits. The EFF posted the IRS’ 38-page training that offers detailed tips to agents on how to conduct searches, locate relevant taxpayer information, narrow down and refine results.
The DOD Social Media Strategic Communications Program (SMISC).
The Defense Department has solicited proposals through DARPA for a $42 million “Social Media Strategic Communications” (SMISC) program, a tool that tracks social media and weeds out information.
It has set four goals for the project: [1] to detect, classify and measure the development of ideas, concepts in hidden social media messages; [2] specify the structure of the campaign and influence in social media sites and the community they create; [3] identify the participants and intention in conducting a social media campaign of persuasion and measure its effect; and [4] develop an effective counter-message to an identified campaign carried out against the enemy.
If not, we are no longer America. We are a banana republic where it’s acceptable for the government to use its police powers against political opponents.”
-Michael Goodwin
There should be no doubt in the mind of the reader as to just how corrupt the FBI has become. Permitting serial felonious treason, while at the same time operating “secret societies” within the government, are all crystal clear indicators of dangerous behaviors. Behaviors that can turn on the American people at any time for any reason.
The FBI has become a dangerous and out of control anti-American organization.
“Several other GOP Congressmembers have weighed in. "I have read the memo," tweeted Rep. Steve King (R-IA), adding "The sickening reality has set in. I no longer hold out hope there is an innocent explanation for the information the public has seen. I have long said it is worse than Watergate. It was #neverTrump & #alwaysHillary. #releasethememo."
Along with the four-page memo, Congressional investigators learned from a new batch of text messages between anti-Trump FBI investigators that several individuals within the Department of Justice and the FBI may have come together in the "immediate aftermath" of the 2016 election to undermine President Trump, according to Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) who has reviewed the texts.”
-From the article; “Comey, Rosenstein, McCabe All Named In FISA Memo, First Leak Reveals”
Unfortunately, for all the scandal, most people watching the mainstream media (run by the oligarchy) would be unaware of the turmoil inside of the FBI.
The FBI operates as a secret police. They are completely armed with military grade weapons, and they have their own secret court system. They do not follow the rule of law, and make it up as it suits them. It has gotten worse over time, and most alarming (after “upgrading” by President Obama) they have become dangerously political.
We can only imagine the terrible capabilities that they must now have after a Trump Presidency, and a Mike Pompeo Secretary of State.
This is pretty darn sad.
“So it was — and, look, this is scary stuff, right? I mean, these are secret courts. And I have long supported these because it’s mainly to go after terrorists and people abroad who are looking to do bad things. Never did I think that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be used to go after a political campaign. And, you know, there’s gonna have to be some major reforms done to these programs. And what shocks me is that the people at these institutions aren’t worried about this.
I mean, you know, we have a hard enough time, Rush, trying to track down terrorists and bad guys around the world. And just the fact that they would have wasted our intelligence agencies’ time to go after somebody like Carter Page to try to get into the Trump campaign is really scary stuff and really a waste of taxpayer money, and I think every American should be concerned about this no matter if you’re a Republican or Democrat or don’t even pay attention to politics, you ought to care about this.”
- Congressman Devin Nunes of California (chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) discussing the abuse by the FBI and how it was weaponized by Hillary Clinton for political purposes to attack American citizens.
The truth is, that today, the FBI was involved in activities more suited to Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, China under Mr. Mao, and Cuba under Fidel Castro than their constitutionally stated purpose.
They not only went far and above the law, they created their own internal “secret society”.
While the "secret society" reference may have been in jest, a “whistleblower” has (allegedly) confirmed the existence of clandestine meetings. Of which high ranking U.S. intelligence officials met "offsite" to conspire against a sitting President.
This is according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).
“...we have an informant talking about a group holding secret meetings off-site,” Johnson said. “We have to continue to dig into it,” he added. “This is not a distraction. This is biased, potentially corruption at the highest levels of the FBI.”
-The Hill
On the night of 22JAN18, Reps. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) and Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Fox News what they had learned from a batch of communications between two FBI investigators. These FBI communications were contained within a 384-page batch of text messages that were delivered to Congress from the DOJ on 19JAN18.
Of particular note is that Ratcliffe says that Strzok and Page were included in the clandestine anti-Trump cabal. This was at the highest levels of the American intelligence community. This is disturbing stuff no doubt.
These meetings are evidence of a secret society, or club. It’s a secret society where they gathered together and determined how to achieve their own internally-determined objectives. Often, if not always, that ran counter to the needs of the American people.
I wonder if they wore robes, had secret handshakes, and performed satanic rituals…
It is critical to the “powers that be” that this information be kept secret and hidden from the American people.
Therefore, of course, the oligarchy is fighting back hard.
Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schiff urged Facebook and Twitter to investigate involvement of Russian bots in pushing "Release the Memo" campaign:"
If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors." pic.twitter.com/SkAci5NefK” (https://t.co/SkAci5NefK)
— ABC News (@ABC) January 23, 2018 (https://twitter.com/ABC/status/955830690381254659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
The letter's claims were immediately shot down by Facebook, which told the Daily Beast (https://www.thedailybeast.com/source-twitter-pins-releasethememo-on-republicans-not-russia/) that #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag has been pushed by actual Americans.
A knowledgeable source says that Twitter’s internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo.
There are no preliminary indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is either predominantly Russian.
In short, according to this source, who would not speak to The Daily Beast for attribution, the retweets are coming from inside the country.
The PTB, and their oligarchy, simply just doesn’t want to lose their grip on power. They need the FBI, CIA, DHS, IRS, and the DOJ on “their side”. Or else they risk swinging from nooses on scaffolding.
It appears Billionaire (Democrat mega-donor) and Rabid-Clintonite Tom Steyer (D) is surprised that the nationwide ad campaign he bankrolled to urge members of Congress to impeach President Trump hasn’t yielded any results.
Steyer went off on both Republicans and Democrats in January 2018 after a House vote on articles of impeachment garnered a paltry 66 votes.
"This vote is not a reflection of whether or not Trump has passed the threshold for impeachment, which he did months ago, it is a failure by members of Congress to do what’s right to keep the American people safe."
- Steyer stated on Friday 12JAN18 in a press statement after the Congressional vote.
Steyer, a billionaire (former) hedge fund manager from California, launched his ‘Need to Impeach’ movement in October of 2017. While more than four million people have signed his petition, Democrats aren’t particularly happy with the initiative. Democratic leaders believe pushing for impeachment could hurt their party’s chances in the midterms later this year.
Steyer underscored his campaign by sending copies of Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” to every lawmaker.
Check out this video; https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-21/democratic-megadonor-launches-campaign-impeach-mentally-unstable-trump
To anyone reading these references, they seem so out-of-date, and boring. It’s “old news” the argument goes. Or, “Hey! it’s the democrats”, or “Hey! It’s the Republicans!” That’s not the point.
That’s not the point.
It’s both “parties”.
It’s a club and you ain’t a part of it.
Look at what is beginning to go on after the 2020 election, it’s all the same “song and dance”. It’s not to amuse Americans. It’s to control them.
Any idea of transparency in government is a FARCE.
As these dated examples indicate.
So to recap: not only were high level intelligence officials allegedly involved in clandestine meetings in which they conspired to “impair” Donald Trump, this leak in conjunction of the four-page GOP memo confirms what many have suspected all along; a highly illegal operation was conducted against a sitting President (President Trump) which goes all the way to the top of the U.S. government.
It’s a club, and you are not part of it. If you are an “outsider”, you will have zero support, and every method will be used to remove you.
“Stop and think what really happened here. We have a political candidate who lost the election. (Then) commissions an opposition research document, the Steele dossier. Which is then packaged and presented as legitimate intelligence (gathered by respected intelligence agents the world over). And it features such shocking details as the golden showers story.
We find out that Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the DNC paid for this, $10 million. We find out that Steele did not even talk to these people in Russia in person on the phone.
We then find out that the FBI uses this to get a warrant, as you say, to spy on Carter Page. They did NOT tell the court that this was a political document. This is the kind of thing that movie scripts contain and are made of.
It’s hard to get my arms around comprehending the number of people that had to be in on this and their motivation. Now, you may be nervous about going into motivation. To me, that is everything. Why? What’s the purpose here?”
-Rush Limbaugh talking to Congressman Devin Nunes of California (chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) discussing the abuse by the FBI and how it was weaponized by Hillary Clinton for political purposes to attack American citizens.
It’s a private club. It’s a “secret organization” that floats in the upper percentages of the United States population. The entire American government, all that juicy “freedom” and “mouth-watering “democracy” are just lies used to manipulate and control the American people from rising up from their roles as cash-cows under a feudal serfdom.
So, they must do everything in their power to keep their actions secret. For their actions are illegal and against the Constitution, and ultimately the citizens of the United States. They absolutely MUST keep things secret.
“In Comey's testimony where he said he did not determine not to recommend Hillary for indictment before her interrogation was held he asked that if any FBI person thought he was lying they should contact him privately before stating their opinion.
I thought that was a very odd thing to say.”
-LostinfortwaltonJan 25, 2018 8:00 AM PermalinkA former Federal Prosecutor sat down with The Daily Caller (http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/20/obama-administration-plot-exonerate-hillary/) to give perhaps the most comprehensive rundown of the Obama Administration's "brazen plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton" and "frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy."
“The FBI used to spy on Russians. This time they spied on us.
(This is) what this story is about - a brazen plot (by the FBI) to exonerate (Democrat Presidential Candidate) Hillary Clinton from a clear violation of the law with regard to the way she handled classified information with her classified (secretive) server.
(This was) Absolutely a crime, absolutely a felony.
It's about finding out why (as the Inspector General is doing at the department of justice) why Comey (head of the FBI) and the senior DOJ officials conducted a fake criminal investigation of (to exonerate) Hillary Clinton.
(They) ...
[1] Followed none of the regular rules,
[2] gave her every break in the book,
[3] immunized all kinds of people,
[4] allowed the destruction of evidence,
[5] no grand jury,
[6] no subpoenas,
[7]no search warrant(s).
That's not an investigation, that's a Potemkin village. It's a farce.
And everybody knew it was a farce.
The problem was, she didn't win (the 2016 Presidential election).
And because she didn't win, the farce became a very serious opera. It wasn't a comic opera anymore, it was a tragic opera. And she was going to be the focus.
What this is about, this is about a lavabo, a cleansing of FBI and the upper echelons of the Department of Justice.
We're going to discover that the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch (under President Obama), her deputy Sally Yates, the head of the national security division John Carlin (under President Obama), Bruce Ohr and other senior DOJ officials, and regrettably, lying attorneys (were ALL involved in this effort).
People who were senior career civil servants violated the law, perhaps committed crimes, and covered up crimes by a presidential candidate (Hillary Clinton)
But (it was) more than that, they tried to frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy that never existed, and they knew it, and they plotted to ruin him as a candidate and then destroy him as a president.
That's why this is important. That's why connecting the dots is important.
DiGenova condemned the FBI for working so closely with the controversial Fusion GPS, a political hit squad paid by the DNC and Clinton campaign to create and spread the discredited Steele dossier about President Donald Trump.
Without a justifiable law enforcement or national security reason, he says, the FBI “created false facts so that they could get surveillance warrants.
Those are ALL crimes.”
-Daily Caller
The FBI has become a very powerful police force run for and by the oligarchy.
It is used to keep the American people under control and “in line” while America undergoes a transformation to a “new” government structure –one that favors the elite oligarchy, and closes everyone else out.
This is not my opinion.
There proof of this is out there and obvious to all who is willing to face the ugly truth;
“The leadership of the FBI and DOJ behaved in a way we would expect of the former Soviet Union, not the United States of America. I applaud Representative Nunes and other Republican members of the House Intel Committee for fighting and exposing corruption.
Americans are tired of corrupt bureaucrats and their career politician enablers.
If powerful leaders are not held accountable, the American people will never regain faith in the institutions meant to protect us. Former FBI Director James Comey was entrusted with one of the most powerful positions in the world. Sadly, he intentionally abused his power in an effort to destroy Donald Trump’s presidency.
He should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and sent to prison for his crimes. No one is above the law. No one.”
– Georgia GOP Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Michael Williams demanding the prosecution of (former) FBI Director Comey for his efforts related to treason.
The FBI is seriously corrupted, and works to further the agendas of others.
“III. Conclusion
We should all recognize the harm done to our rule of law when crimes go unpunished because government officials look the other way for the wealthy, famous, or powerful.
Americans rightly expect a single and impartial system of justice for all, not one for the well connected and a separate one for everyone else.
The information available to the Committee at this time raises serious questions about how the FBI applied the rule of law in its investigation of classified information on Secretary Clinton’s private email server. We know that:
• The FBI did not use a grand jury to compel testimony and obtain the vast majority of evidence, choosing instead to offer immunity deals and allow fact witnesses to join key interviews.
• There were substantial edits to Director Comey’s public statement that served to downplay the severity of Secretary Clinton’s actions, and that the first draft of the memo was distributed for editing two months before key witnesses were interviewed.
• Director Comey stated that he had not consulted with the Justice Department or White House, when text messages suggest otherwise.106 We have text messages in which two key investigators discuss an “insurance policy” against the “risk” of a Trump presidency, and “OUR task.”
• Messages discuss “unfinished business,” “an investigation leading to impeachment,” and “my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”
• Senior FBI officials—likely including Deputy Director McCabe— knew about newly discovered emails on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner for almost a month before Director Comey notified Congress.
• Over the period of at least four months, the FBI did not recover five months’ worth of text messages requested by DOJ OIG and two Senate committees; however, when pressed, DOJ OIG was able to recover missing texts in less than one week.
Taken together, this information warrants further inquiry. While some may discount the investigation for political reasons, we all have a great interest in ensuring the public has confidence in the integrity and independence of the FBI, the preeminent law enforcement agency in the world. Unlike prosecutors or inspectors general, the primary goal of congressional oversight is full transparency in order to promote public awareness and confidence in federal agencies. For these reasons, our important work will continue.”
- THE CLINTON EMAIL SCANDAL AND THE FBI’S INVESTIGATION OF IT. An Interim Report. A Majority Staff Report of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs United States Senate. Senator Ron Johnson, Chairman
file:///C:/Users/Michael/Downloads/2018-02-07%20Interim%20Report_The%20Clinton%20Email%20Scandal%20and%20the%20FBI’s%20Investigation%20of%20It.pdf
To this end, the FBI has it’s hands in all kinds of ways to monitor (so they can control) Americans. Of course, we know that the 4th amendment to the United States Constitution prevents them for collecting “unauthorized” information. They need a court document from a judge to do that. So what they are doing in the meantime (without going through a judge) is simply collecting the information…you know, “just in case”.
Democrats do it. Republicans do it. It is a policy that is rampant.
As of 2016, the FBI has been soliciting a bid for a program that seems very similar to the DHS social-network monitoring program. Dubbed the “FBI Social Media Application,” the program would have
"[the ability] to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence ... to quickly vet, identify and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats."
In the FBI’s 12-page solicitation, it requests a program that can quickly identify, display and locate alerts on geo-spatial maps and enable users to summarize the “who, what, when, where and why” of specific threats and incidents.
Going further, it seeks to not simply detect “credible threats,” but to identify those organizing and taking part in gatherings and to predict upcoming events. According to the FBI,
"Social media will be a valued source of information to the SIOC [i.e., Strategic Information and Operations Center] intelligence analyst in a crisis because it will be both eyewitness and first response to the crisis."
An FBI spokesperson insisted,
"[We] will not focus on specific persons or protected groups, but on words that relate to 'events' and 'crisis' and activities constituting violations of federal criminal law or threats to national security. Examples of these words will include lockdown, bomb, suspicious package, white powder, active shoot, school lockdown, etc.”
Rest assured, much like the assurances voiced by the DHS, the FBI insists that its monitoring won’t be used to focus on specific individuals or groups.
The FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system is made up of fingerprints, iris scans, faceprints, and other facial recognition data. As of 2016 EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) sued regarding the FBI’s plan to include tattoos and scars in the database.
According to EPIC:
“With NGI, the FBI will expand the number of uploaded photographs and provide investigators with ‘automated facial recognition search capability.’ The FBI intends to do this by eliminating restrictions on the number of submitted photographs (including photographs that are not accompanied by tenprint fingerprints) and allowing the submission of non-facial photographs (e.g. scars or tattoos).”
“The FBI also widely disseminates this NGI data. According to the FBI’s latest NGI fact sheet, 24,510 local, state, tribal, federal and international partners submitted queries to NGI in September 2016.”
EPIC asked a judge to force the FBI to release records about its plan to share the biometric data with the U.S. Department of Defense. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2015, but the FBI has so far refused to release the 35 pages of responsive records.
EPIC and privacy advocates are concerned about the potential for cases of mistaken identity and abuse of the collected data. EPIC also argues
“the FBI stated that ‘increased collection and retention of personally identifiable information presents a correspondingly increased risk that the FBI will then be maintaining more information that might potentially be subject to loss or unauthorized use.”
Although very little is actually known about the database, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and EPIC have been able to uncover that the FBI would like to track every individual as they move from one location to another. In 2013, EPIC obtained a document that showed
“NGI shall return an incorrect candidate a maximum of 20% of the time.”
In 2011, EFF observed the growing biometrics trend:
"Once the collection of biometrics becomes standardized, it becomes much easier to locate and track someone across all aspects of their life.
EFF believes that perfect tracking is inimical to a free society.
A society in which everyone’s actions are tracked is not, in principle, free. It may be a livable society, but would not be our society.”
In 2014, EFF received documents from the FBI related to the NGI system.
Based on the records, EFF estimated the facial recognition component of NGI would include as many as 52 million face images by 2015. Indeed, the danger of abuse from facial recognition programs is on the rise.
Activist Post recently highlighted a new report from Georgetown Law University’s Center for Privacy and Technology that details how law enforcement is using facial recognition software without the knowledge or consent of the people. The report, “The Perpetual Line-Up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America,” examines several cases of misuse or abuse of facial recognition technology.
Facial recognition software is not the only type of surveillance tool the FBI has an interest in. The Bureau is reportedly set to sign a contract with Dataminr that will provide the feds with an upgrade to social media monitoring software.
According to the Federal Business Opportunities’ official government page, the contract will provide the FBI with around 200 licenses for Dataminr’s Advanced Alerting Tool. This upgrade “will permit the FBI to search the complete Twitter firehose, in near real-time, using customizable filters.”
The FBI claims to want the social media tool for detecting and catching terrorists, but it doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to see how this could be applied to U.S. citizens.
The pursuit of facial recognition software and social media monitoring tools is just the latest step in the expanding war on privacy, which is itself a part of the eternal war on freedom.
This system has been in operation for a number of years now, and is toted as a success.
This Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) covers the Next Generation Identification-Interstate Photo System (NGI-IPS), which serves as the FBI’s biometric identity and criminal history records system and maintains the fingerprints and associated identity information of individuals submitted to the FBI for authorized criminal justice, national security, and civil purposes.
-PIA: NGI-Interstate Photo Systen — FBI
Finally, let it be understood that the FBI’s Next Generation Identification system exempt from Privacy Act News roundup: The FBI Next Generation Identification biometrics database is exempt from the Privacy Act.
“From Rep. Adam Schiff’s increasingly desperate attempts to stonewall the truth to the FBI’s predictable appeals to secrecy from law enforcement to cover corruption, this memo is lifting the scales from the eyes of voters all over the country.
It’s telling them the cockroaches have run out of corners to hide in.
Time to put on our pointy shoes and start kickin’.
The reaction to this memo puts paid the classic libertarian critique that an organization’s highest priority is self-preservation. Doing what you formed the organization to do comes a distant second.
Government creates organizations that are not directly accountable to the people who fund them and therefore can dig moats around themselves to ensure their survival no matter what.
This is the essence of corruption. It is the essence of why the Swamp needs to be drained.
The FBI is a corrupt and venal organization of power-hungry, self-righteous arbiters of arbitrary justice. Even the good agents are tainted by the organizational rot. The same is true in every government department.
No one sees corruption like a government employee with half a conscience.
The pressure to not release this memo comes from formerly very powerful people – Obama and his staff, the Clintons, the DNC, etc. The fallout will be an overhaul from the ground up of multiple powerful agencies within the Federal Government.”
-Tom Luongo
It’s often the case that new technologies arrive on the scene faster than our society and its legal code can keep up. Sometimes this can be a good thing. For instance, 3D printing allows people to print out unregulated gun parts, thus allowing gun owners to circumvent the onerous laws of our government, which has struggled to come up with new laws to restrict the technology.
When technology advances at a breakneck pace however, it can also be quite dangerous for our liberties. This is especially true in regards to privacy. If a new technology makes it easy for the government to track us, you can bet that the government is going to take its sweet time updating the legal code in a way that will protect us from surveillance.
That certainly seems to be the case with facial recognition software. During a recent Congressional Oversight Committee hearing, members of both political parties sounded the alarm on the FBI’s use of the technology, and read the written testimony of Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Jennifer Lynch:
Lynch detailed the stunning scope of the FBI’s photo collection. In addition to collecting criminal and civil mug shots, the agency currently has “memorandums of understanding” with 16 states that mean every driver’s license photo from those states is accessible to the agency—without the drivers’ consent. The FBI also has access to photos from the U.S. State Department’s passport and visa records.
Lynch argued that “Americans should not be forced to submit to criminal face recognition searches merely because they want to drive a car. They shouldn’t have to worry their data will be misused by unethical government officials with unchecked access to face recognition databases. And they shouldn’t have to fear that their every move will be tracked if face recognition is linked to the networks of surveillance cameras that blanket many cities.”
“But without meaningful legal protections, this is where we may be headed,” Lynch stated. “Without laws in place, it could be relatively easy for the government and private companies to amass databases of images of all Americans and use those databases to identify and track people in real time as they move from place to place throughout their daily lives.”
All told, law enforcement agencies around the country have access to 400 million photos in facial recognition databases, which are connected to roughly 50% of American adults. Most of these people have never committed a crime, and obviously haven’t given any consent to this.
At first glance it may sound harmless to be in one of these databases. Movies and TV shows make it sound like this technology can help law enforcement swiftly and precisely nab suspects. So what do you have to fear if you haven’t committed a crime? It turns out that in real life, facial recognition is far from perfect.
Internal FBI documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center indicate that the FBI’s own database, called the Next Generation Identification Interstate Photo System, or NGI-IPS, had an acceptable margin of error of 20 percent — that is, a 1-in-5 chance of “recognizing” the wrong person.
And research published in the October 2015 issue of the scientific journal PLOS ONE by researchers at the universities of Sydney and New South Wales in Australia found that the humans who interpret such data build in an extra error margin approaching 30 percent.
If we ever allow our government to roll out facial recognition cameras on a wider scale, lots of innocent people are going to be hurt. Whether by mistake or by malice, it will become shockingly easy for law enforcement to identify ordinary people as criminals. The surveillance control grid will not only be inescapable, it will be unwieldy and rife with abuse.
It’s often said that you should never trade freedom for safety. In this case, we wouldn’t receive any kind of safety.
The FBI is operates as a “Secret Police”
In order to boost the credibility of the FBI’s investigations of the Trump team, much of the media is whitewashing the bureau’s entire history. But the FBI has been out of control almost since its birth. Here is a concise summary of some interesting history regarding this issue. Intelligence provided here was collected by James Bovard and all credit due to James Bovard.
In the 1930s, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court feared that the FBI had bugged the conference room where justices privately wrangled over landmark cases, as Tim Weiner noted in his “Enemies: A History of the FBI.”
From 1956 through 1971, the FBI’s COINTELPRO program conducted thousands of covert operations to incite street warfare between violent groups, to get people fired, to smear innocent people by portraying them as government informants, to sic the IRS on people, and to cripple or destroy left-wing, communist, white racist, antiwar, and black organizations (including Martin Luther King Jr.). These operations involved vast numbers of warrantless wiretaps and illicit break-ins and resulted in the murder of some black militants. A Senate Committee chaired by liberal Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) issued a damning report on FBI abuses of power that should be mandatory reading for anyone who believes the bureau deserves deference today.
Politifact quotes a professor who asserts that “any use of unnecessary violence (by the FBI) would be met with the full force of the criminal law.” Is that why an internal FBI report claimed that every one of the 150 shootings by FBI agents between 1993 and 2011 was faultless?
FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi gunned down Vicki Weaver in 1992 as she stood in her Idaho cabin doorway holding her baby. After being accusing the FBI of a coverup in a Wall Street Journal oped, FBI chief Louis Freeh denounced Jim Bovard for twisting the truth. But after a confidential Justice Department report leaked out revealing the FBI’s deceits and unconstitutional rules of engagement, the feds paid a $3 million wrongful death settlement to the Weaver family. When an Idaho County sought to prosecute the FBI sniper, the Justice Department invoked the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution to torpedo the case. (Ah, the 9th Circuit Court, rules in favor of the Progressive government.)
“Our very fear of speaking out (against the FBI) ... has watered the roots and hastened the growth of a vine of tyranny ... which is ensnaring that Constitution and Bill of Rights which we are each sworn to uphold.”
The FBI is currently scorning almost every congressional attempt at oversight. Thus far, members of Congress have responded with nothing except press releases and talk show bluster.
Politifact repeatedly scoffs at the notion that the FBI is “a secret police agency such as the old KGB.” And since the FBI is not as bad as the KGB, let’s mosey along and pretend no good citizen has a right to complain. A similar standard could exonerate any American president who was not as bad as Stalin.
In the 1960s, some conservatives adorned their cars with “Support Your Local Sheriff” bumper stickers. How long until we see Priuses with “Support Your Secretive All-Powerful Federal Agents” bumper stickers? But those who forget or deny past oppression help forge new shackles for the American people.
The FBI can come after YOU!
This should be obvious, but it isn’t. Most Americans think that “it can never happen to me”. Ask anyone in prison. Life can change in a heartbeat. Especially when the corrupt and powerful is in control of your life.
“RUSH: And welcome back. We wrap up here with Congressman Nunes. I thought of one more thing I wanted to run by you during the break. And it was… I played the audio sound bite of this earlier. It’s a former CIA counterintelligence muckety-muck guy named Phillip Mudd, and there have been two other people like him over the weekend saying to President Trump, “You know what? If you’re gonna pick a fight with the FBI, you don’t want to make those guys mad.“They can really come after you.”
And I’ve heard that before. The same thing has been said by Chuck Schumer to President Trump about the CIA, the intelligence community. I’m sure you’re getting the same kind of insults. Now, with people saying, “You better not make the FBI mad! They could really come out and do you damage or come after you,” doesn’t that kind of validate what’s already going on, if we have people advocating that the FBI be used as a weapon against political opponents?
NUNES: Yeah. So those days are over, Rush. That is what they did in the Obama administration. These institutions became corrupt at the top, and it’s not just the FBI. It’s all of the departments who became just out of control. I mean, do we have to go back to Lois Lerner and the IRS and all of those games that were played?
RUSH: Right.
NUNES: And what’s happening here is that the first time in a long time Congress — which is a separate branch of government. We created the FBI.
RUSH: Right!
NUNES: We created the Department of Justice.
RUSH: You could abolish them if you want to!
NUNES: We could abolish them. We could cut their money off. But the bottom line is this. I said, “We’re done. You cross the rubicon. You abused the FISA court.” And, you know, I had to fight for these documents for months and months and months. We issued the original subpoenas back in August of last year, and it took until just a few weeks ago for us to finally put all the pieces together. So, you know, I’m not gonna take their crap. I’m not gonna be threatened. They tried to do an end run around me, and Speaker Paul Ryan said, “No. The Congress is gonna exert our authority.”
-Rush Limbaugh talking to Congressman Devin Nunes of California (chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) discussing the abuse by the FBI and how it was weaponized by Hillary Clinton for political purposes to attack American citizens.
It’s getting pretty serious. It is obvious that the FBI no longer serves the American people. It serves the oligarchy and itself only.
“I’ll tell you how serious it’s getting. Well, not how serious it’s getting. To illustrate for you just how even greater the divide is becoming, there’s a CIA analyst named Phil Mudd and we’ve got the audio sound bite coming up. This guy is on CNN, and he’s actually saying to Nunes and to Trump, “You know, you make these guys at the FBI mad at you, and they can come back and destroy you.”
What in the hell does that mean? You make these guys at the FBI mad, and they can really come get you. What is that supposed to mean? And he says that with approval and advocacy, like as though he’s in favor of the nation’s premier law enforcement agent targeting people for their politics. It’s like when Chuck Schumer warned Trump, “You better be careful of these guys in the intelligence community. They can wipe you out six ways from Sunday,” which we know to be the case, but to advocate for that.
And lest anybody have any doubt, I’m amazed at people who are just realizing this, but they are. I’ve read I don’t know how many pieces, media on our side — I’m talking about the conservative media, forget the left — who have come to a sudden shocking realization that the media is part of the establishment! I’m reading this, “Duh. You think that’s a revelation?” But, I mean, I’ll take it. I mean, the more people get it, the better.”
-Rush Limbaugh
The FBI Is Paying Geek Squad Members To Dig Around In Computers For Evidence
“Compared to the 18-minute “gap” in the White House tape during the Watergate scandal, this is the Grand Canyon[i]. So what does the Bureau have to say about it?
They blamed it on “misconfiguration issues related to rollouts, provisioning, and software upgrades.” Someone at the FBI actually wrote that.“
-Robert Knight - Sunday, January 28, 2018[i]"The Grand Canyon". The pattern of alarming behavior at the FBI and the Justice Department deserves a recap:
On June 27, 2016, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch held a private meeting with Bill Clinton in a jet at the Phoenix airport, even though the FBI, a branch of the Justice Department, was investigating Mr. Clinton’s wife’s conduct as Secretary of State. A more glaring conflict of interest is hard to imagine.
A week later, on July 5, then-FBI Director James Comey released a report exonerating Mrs. Clinton. He criticized her misuse of emails, but described her violation of national security protocols as “extremely careless” instead of the criminally indictable “grossly negligent” in the original draft. The ever nimble Mr. Strzok has been credited with that edit.
Mr. Strzok also revealed in a text that the FBI team had removed a reference to President Obama as having received a text from Mrs. Clinton when one of them was “on the territory of sophisticated adversaries.” Was it Russia? Alabama?
To downplay the severity of the breach, the FBI report editors cleverly demoted Mr. Obama from president into just “another senior government official,” according to The Journal. The very next day after Mr. Comey’s press conference and release of the report, Ms. Lynch announced that no charges would be filed against Mrs. Clinton, to no great surprise.
Mr. Comey also drafted a statement closing the Clinton email investigation before the FBI even interviewed Mrs. Clinton or her staff. And, Mr. Comey leaked his own memo to a reporter about a conversation with President Trump in order to trigger the Mueller investigation. This all adds up to a disturbingly convincing scenario in which partisan FBI officials bent the law to protect Hillary Clinton, sully Donald Trump before the election, and destabilize his presidency afterward.
If something here isn’t a federal crime, I really don’t know what is.
Law enforcement has a number of informants working for it and the companies that already pay their paychecks, like UPS, for example. It also has a number of government employees working for the TSA, keeping their eyes peeled for “suspicious” amounts of cash it can swoop in and seize.
According to court records, Geek Squad technician John "Trey" Westphal, an FBI informant, reported he accidentally located on Rettenmaier's computer an image of "a fully nude, white prepubescent female on her hands and knees on a bed, with a brown choker-type collar around her neck."
Westphal notified his boss, Justin Meade, also an FBI informant, who alerted colleague Randall Ratliff, another FBI informant at Best Buy, as well as the FBI. Claiming the image met the definition of child pornography and was tied to a series of illicit pictures known as the "Jenny" shots, agent Tracey Riley seized the hard drive.
Not necessarily a problem, considering companies performing computer/electronic device repair are legally required to report discovered child porn to law enforcement.
The difference here is the paycheck.
This Geek Squad member had been paid $500 for digging around in customers’ computers and reporting his findings to the FBI. That changes the motivation from legal obligation to a chance to earn extra cash by digging around in files not essential to the repair work at hand.
More of a problem is the FBI’s tactics. While it possibly could have simply pointed to the legal obligation Best Buy has to report discovered child porn, it proactively destroyed this argument by apparently trying to cover up the origin of its investigation, as well as a couple of warrantless searches.
Setting aside the issue of whether the search of Rettenmaier's computer constituted an illegal search by private individuals acting as government agents, the FBI undertook a series of dishonest measures in hopes of building a case, according to James D. Riddet, Rettenmaier's San Clemente-based defense attorney. Riddet says agents conducted two additional searches of the computer without obtaining necessary warrants, lied to trick a federal magistrate judge into authorizing a search warrant, then tried to cover up their misdeeds by initially hiding records.
The “private search” issue is mentioned briefly in OC Weekly’s report, but should be examined more closely. Private searches are acceptable, but the introduction of cash payments, as well as the FBI having an official liaison with Best Buy suggests the searches aren’t really “private.” Instead, the FBI appears to be using private searches to route around warrant requirements. That’s not permissible and even the FBI’s belief that going after the “worst of worst” isn’t going to be enough to salvage these warrantless searches.
A bill that will allow homes to be searched without a warrant was passed with overwhelming support by the United States Congress.
It was signed into law by President Trump.
It happened silently with no media coverage and very little fanfare.
On the surface, House Joint Resolution 76 looks harmless. The title of the bill claims that its purpose is “Granting the consent and approval of Congress for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia to enter into a compact relating to the establishment of the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission.”
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/congress-passes-bill-allowing-homes-searched-without-warrant/
No 4th Amendment Protections!
As Andrew Fleischman points out at Fault Lines, the government’s spin on the paid “private search” issue — that it’s “wild speculation” the Best Buy employee was acting as a paid informant when he discovered the child porn — doesn’t hold up if the situation is reversed. AUSA Anthony Brown’s defensive statement is nothing more than the noise of a double standard being erected.
Flipping the script for a minute, would an AUSA say it was “wild speculation” that a man was a drug dealer when phone records showed he regularly contacted a distributor, he was listed as a drug dealer in a special book of drug dealers, and he had received $500.00 for drugs? Sorry to break it to you, Mr. Brown, but once you start getting paid for something, it’s tough to argue you’re just doing it for the love of the game.
In addition to these problems, the file discovered by the Best Buy tech was in unallocated space… something that points to almost nothing, legally-speaking.
In Rettenmaier's case, the alleged "Jenny" image was found on unallocated "trash" space, meaning it could only be retrieved by "carving" with costly, highly sophisticated forensics tools.
In other words, it's arguable a computer's owner wouldn't know of its existence. (For example, malware can secretly implant files.)
Worse for the FBI, a federal appellate court unequivocally declared in February 2011 (USA v. Andrew Flyer) that pictures found on unallocated space did not constitute knowing possession because it is impossible to determine when, why or who downloaded them.
This important detail was apparently glossed over in the FBI’s warrant application to search Rettenmaier’s home and personal devices.
In hopes of overcoming this obstacle, they performed a sleight-of-hand maneuver, according to Riddet.
The agents simply didn't alert Judge Marc Goldman that the image in question had been buried in unallocated space and, thus, secured deceitful authorization for a February 2012 raid on Rettenmaier's Laguna Niguel residence.
Courts have shown an often-excessive amount of empathy for the government’s “outrageous” behavior when pursuing criminals. The fact that there’s child porn involved budges the needle in the government’s direction, but the obstacles the FBI has placed in its own way through its deceptive behavior may prevent it from salvaging this case.
The case is already on very shaky ground, with the presiding judge questioning agents’ “odd memory losses,” noting several discrepancies between the FBI’s reports and its testimony, and its “perplexing” opposition to turning over documents the defense has requested.
In any event, it appears the FBI has a vast network of informants — paid or otherwise — working for both private companies and the federal government. Considering the FBI is already the beneficiary of legal reporting requirements, this move seems ill-advised. It jeopardizes the legitimacy of the evidence, even before the FBI engages in the sort of self-sabotaging acts it appears to have done here.
Underneath it all is the perplexing and disturbing aversion[i] to adhering to the Fourth Amendment we’ve seen time and time again from law enforcement agencies, both at local and federal levels. Anything that can be done to avoid seeking a warrant, and anything that creates an obfuscatory paper trail, is deployed to make sure the accused faces an even more uphill battle once they arrive in court[ii].
The DHS Media Monitoring capability Program (MMC).
Department of Homeland Security. A more aggressive monitoring program was revealed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).
This occurred when it secured from the DHS a list of approximately 380 keywords that the agency tracks. The allegedly threatening terms were found in the DHS’ Analyst Desktop Binder, part of its 2011 Media Monitoring Capability (MMC) program.
Agencies – 26 terms, including “DHS,” “FBI”, “CIA,” “Air Marshal,” “United Nations” and “Red Cross”;
Domestic security – 52 terms, including “assassination,” “dirty bomb,” “crash,” “first responder,” “screening” and “death.”
Hazardous materials – 34 terms, including “hazmat,” “nuclear,” “leak,” “burn” and “cloud.”
Public health – 47 terms, including “ebola,” “contamination,” “wave,” “pork” and “agriculture.”
Infrastructure security – 35 terms, including “AMTRAK,” “airport,” “subway,” “port,” “electric” and “cancelled.”
Southwest border violence – 65 terms, including “drug cartel,” “decapitated,” “gunfight,” “marijuana,” “heroin,” “border” and “bust.”
Terrorism – 55 terms, including “Jihad,” “biological weapons,” “suicide attack,” “plot” and “pirates.”
Emergencies and weather – 41 terms, including “disaster,” “hurricane,” “power outage,” “ice,” “storm” and “help.”
Cyber security – 25 terms, including “cyber terror,” “malware,” “virus,” “hacker,” “worm,” “China” and “Trojan.”
The DHS has been engaged in monitoring social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and LinkedIn as well as blogs since at least 2010. Its effort is run through the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS), National Operations Center (NOC), and is entitled “Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness (Initiative).” Its ostensible purpose is to provide situational awareness and strengthen its common operating picture.
The scope of DHS’ practice of social monitoring was unexpectedly revealed in a special congressional hearing, the House Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Intelligence, headed by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), in February. Two DHS officials, Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan and Director of Operations Coordination and Planning Richard Chavez, raised the representatives’ ire by appearing to be deliberately stonewalling on the scope and practice of the agency’s social media surveillance.
Most disturbing, the DHS reps appeared unsure about the monitoring program’s goals, how the gathered information would be used and whether it would be shared with other agencies. In an unusual show of bipartisan unity, Reps. Billy Long (R-MO), Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) joined Rep. Meehan in chastising the DHS officials.
Under intense congressional probing, DHS reps revealed that the keywords chosen for monitoring were drawn from commercially available, off-the-shelf database programs that were customized to meet its specifications. The agency was particularly interested in determining first witnesses to breaking events like the 2011 Tucson shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and others and the January 2012 bomb threat at an Austin school.
The DHS reps insisted that data gathered was only used to confirm other news reports and that information on private citizens was not being collected. In addition, they claimed that that all personally identifying information was regularly scrubbed from the agency’s servers.
Few should feel comforted by the DHS assurances. At the House hearing, it was also revealed that the agency was involved in what appears to be an ongoing campaign to monitor the actions and beliefs of individual Americans engaged in community-based political activism. It compiled a report, “Residents Voice Opposition Over Possible Plan to Bring Guantanamo Detainees to Local Prison-Standish MI,” that tracked community reactions to the proposed location of Guantánamo detainees in a local Michigan prison.
The DHS report is part of the EPIC documents acquired through a Freedom of Information request. It details that information was gathered from a variety of sources, including newspaper articles and responses, blogs by local activists, and Twitter and Facebook posts.
The House hearing also shed light on the DHS practice of outsourcing keyword tracking of social media through a sole-source contract to the giant defense contractor, General Dynamics. In 2011, General Dynamics had revenues of $5.5 billion of which 84 percent ($4.6 bil) came from government contracts. Earlier it’s Advanced Information Systems division was awarded a $14 million DHS contract to (in the words of a press release) “provide constant and continual watch operations for critical communications to the agency’s National Coordinating Center.” In addition, it will “identify the possible impacts of potentially disruptive events.
In keeping with the prevailing ethos of corporate unaccountability, it turns out if the General Dynamics employees are found to have misused the information garnered from a social network user, including a journalist or public figure, the employee must take a training course or, worst case, lose his/her job. No criminal penalties are specified.
A word to the wise, Big Brother is watching you.
The US Ministry of Propaganda
In the last your of President Obama’s term of office, “a bill to implement the U.S.’ very own de facto Ministry of Truth had been quietly introduced in Congress.
As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information.
Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and manipulation,” which they believe threaten the world’s “security and stability.”
Creation
Also called the Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government propaganda battles.
“These countries spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations,”
Portman explained, adding that while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news organization, RT. Portman stated,
“Surprisingly, there is currently no single U.S. governmental agency or department charged with the national level development, integration and synchronization of whole-of-government strategies to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.”
Yah. Sure. What ever you say bub.
You ever hear of the NID, or the NED, or the “color revolutions” or the “Pro-Democracy” movements?
Long before the “fake news” meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on such discredited mainstream portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would task the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to “establish a Center for Information Analysis and Response,” which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data, and — in true dystopic manner — ‘develop and disseminate’ “fact-based narratives” to counter effrontery propaganda.
In short, long before “fake news” became a major media topic, the US government was already planning its legally-backed crackdown on anything it would eventually label “fake news.”
Here is the full statement issued by the generously funded Senator Rob Portman (R- Ohio) on the singing into law of a bill that further chips away at press liberties in the US, and which sets the stage for future which hunts and website shutdowns, purely as a result of an accusation that any one media outlet or site is considered as a source of “disinformation and propaganda” and is shut down by the government. Go Here to read about this historical event.
Portman-Murphy Bill Promotes Coordinated Strategy to Defend America, Allies Against Propaganda and Disinformation from Russia, China & Others
U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) today announced that their Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act – legislation designed to help American allies counter foreign government propaganda from Russia, China, and other nations– has been signed into law as part of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Conference Report. The bipartisan bill, which was introduced by Senators Portman and Murphy in March, will improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation from our enemies by establishing an interagency center housed at the State Department to coordinate and synchronize counter-propaganda efforts throughout the U.S. government. To support these efforts, the bill also creates a grant program for NGOs, think tanks, civil society and other experts outside government who are engaged in counter-propaganda related work. This will better leverage existing expertise and empower our allies overseas to defend themselves from foreign manipulation. It will also help foster a free and vibrant press and civil society overseas, which is critical to ensuring our allies have access to truthful information and inoculating people against foreign propaganda campaigns.
“Our enemies are using foreign propaganda and disinformation against us and our allies, and so far the U.S. government has been asleep at the wheel,” Portman said. “But today, the United States has taken a critical step towards confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and disinformation operations being waged against us by our enemies overseas. With this bill now law, we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to confront this threat head-on. I am confident that, with the help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used against us, our allies, and our interests will fail.”
“The use of propaganda to undermine democracy has hit a new low.But now we are finally in a position to confront this threat head on and get out the truth. By building up independent, objective journalism in places like eastern Europe, we can start to fight back by exposing these fake narratives and empowering local communities to protect themselves,” said Murphy. “I’m proud that our bill was signed into law, and I look forward to working with Senator Portman to make sure these tools and new resources are effectively used to get out the truth.”
Priorities
The bipartisan Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act is organized around two main priorities to help achieve the goal of combating the constantly evolving threat of foreign disinformation from our enemies:
The first priority is developing a whole-of-government strategy for countering THE foreign propaganda and disinformation being wages against us and our allies by our enemies. The bill would increase the authority, resources, and mandate of the Global Engagement Center to include state actors like Russia and China as well as non-state actors. The Center will be led by the State Department, but with the active senior level participation of the Department of Defense, USAID, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the Intelligence Community, and other relevant agencies. The Center will develop, integrate, and synchronize whole-of-government initiatives to expose and counter foreign disinformation operations by our enemies and proactively advance fact-based narratives that support U.S. allies and interests.
Second, the legislation seeks to leverage expertise from outside government to create more adaptive and responsive U.S. strategy options. The legislation establishes a fund to help train local journalists and provide grants and contracts to NGOs, civil society organizations, think tanks, private sector companies, media organizations, and other experts outside the U.S. government with experience in identifying and analyzing the latest trends in foreign government disinformation techniques. This fund will complement and support the Center’s role by integrating capabilities and expertise available outside the U.S. government into the strategy-making process. It will also empower a decentralized network of private sector experts and integrate their expertise into the strategy-making process.
And so, with the likes of WaPo having already primed the general public to equate “Russian Propaganda” with “fake news” (despite admitting after the fact their own report was essentially “fake”), while the US media has indoctrinated the public to assume that any information which is not in compliance with the official government narrative, or dares to criticize the establishment, is also “fake news” and thus falls under the “Russian propaganda” umbrella, the scene is now set for the US government to legally crack down on every media outlet that the government deems to be “foreign propaganda.”
Just like that, the US Ministry of Truth is officially born.
Impact
The Founding Fathers protected freedom of speech and freedom of the press as the most important liberties. They are protected in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And as discussed below, the Founders recognized that the ability to speak freely was the foundation for all other freedoms. If you remove it, the other freedoms would fall. Thousands of years of history shows how rare and valuable such freedoms really are. Please consider…
Socrates
Socrates was killed in 399 BC for “failing to acknowledge the gods that the [government] acknowledges”.
Using the Printing Press
Before the invention of the movable type printing press by Gutenberg, the church controlled the production of books. Gutenberg’s invention allowed cheap production of books. This challenged the monopoly on books by the church, and thus allowed different viewpoints to be heard.
For example, when Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on a church door in Germany criticizing the corrupt Catholic practice of selling “indulgences” – paying the church in return for a reduction of your time in purgatory – the printing press spread his writings throughout all of Germany in 2 weeks, and throughout “all of Christendom” within a month. This launched the Protestant Reformation, and challenged the power of the Catholic church.
So Pope Alexander VI issued an edict against unlicensed printing in 1501.
And in 1535, Francis I of France prohibited – under penalty of death – the printing of any books.
William Tyndale
William Tyndale was killed in 1536 for translating the Bible into English so that everyone could read it for themselves, and no longer had to rely on the clergy to tell them what it said.
Unlicensed Printing
In 1585, the Star Chamber assumed the right to confine printing to London, Oxford and Cambridge, to limit the number of printers and presses, to prohibit all publications issued without proper license, and to enter houses to search for unlicensed presses and publications. The search for unlicensed presses or publications was entrusted to an officer called the ” messenger of the press.”
In 1557, Henry II made the collecting of prohibited books punishable by death or imprisonment. An in 1559, he made it punishable by death to print without royal authority.
Galileo
In 1616 and 1633, Galileo was tried for saying that the Earth revolves around the Sun, instead of agreeing with the church’s “mainstream” view that the Sun revolves around the Earth.
Heretics and Critics
Many people have been killed over the centuries for saying anything that the church authorities of the day disliked. And the British monarchy punished anyone caught with materials criticizing the monarchy, which they labeled as “libelous” or “scandalous”, even if what was written was true.
(Indeed, the ransacking of houses by authorities searching for “heretical” and “libelous” material was so common that it was the main reason the Founding Fathers wrote the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting unreasonable “search and seizure”).
Benjamin Franklin
In 1773, Ben Franklin was fired as colonial Postmaster General for informing the American Colonists about what the British were really doing.
Strongmen
Strongmen of all stripes have cracked down anyone who insults the strongman or criticizes his policies.
Book Burnings
In 1933, the Nazis carried out numerous book burnings of authors such as Einstein, Freud, Kafka, Hellen Keller, Jack London, Thomas Mann, Proust, Upon Sinclair and H.G. Wells because their writing book …
“acts subversively on our future or strikes at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people…”
There have been many other book burnings throughout history.
Mussolini
Mussolini had around 2,000 people killed because they challenged the dictator.
Stalin and the Soviet Union
Stalin murdered or through into insane asylums countless people who criticized the Soviet government or Communism.
Other Communist Regimes
China’s Mao and other Communist leaders killed people who failed to sign the Great Leaders’ praise.
CIA
In 1972, CIA director Richard Helms relabeled dissenters as “terrorists”.
Reporters
The extremely popular tv personality Phil Donahue’s show – the most popular on MSNBC – was canceled for questioning the wisdom of the Iraq war. Indeed, many reporters have been fired, harassed, spied upon and even accused of terrorism for reporting stories critical of government actions or policies.
Protect What Makes Us American
Those in power are always tempted to censor and punish critical speech and reporting. George W. Bush said “You’re either with us or your against us”, and cracked down on criticism and protest. Most powerful Democrats now want to suppress right-wing speech. But freedom of speech and of the press – no matter how much we may disagree with and even hate what someone else says – is the bedrock of America.
If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
– George Washington
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
– Ben Franklin
“Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.”
– U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo
“The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty.”
-U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglass
“If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
NGA
If you’re one of the countless Americans who was distraught to learn of the revelations made by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the mere idea that there might be yet another agency out there – perhaps just as powerful and much more intrusive – should give you goosebumps.
Foreign Policy reports that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, or NGA, is an obscure spy agency former President Barack Obama had learned to love and appreciate. Like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), the NGA is an intelligence agency, but it also serves as a combat support institution that functions under the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
With headquarters bigger than the CIA’s, the building cost $1.4 billion to be completed in 2011. In 2016, the NGA bought an extra 99 acres in St. Louis, building additional structures that cost taxpayers an extra $1.75 billion. Enjoying the extra budget Obama threw at them, the NGA became one of the most obscure intelligence agencies precisely because it relies on the work of drones.
A partially redacted March 2016 report released by the Pentagon revealed that drones had already been used domestically on about 20 or fewer occasions between 2006 and 2015. Though some of these operations mostly involved natural disasters, National Guard training, and search and rescue missions, quotes from an Air Force law review article found their way into the report. In it, Dawn M. K. Zoldi wrote that technology designed to spy on targets abroad could soon be used against American citizens.
Use Foreign Intelligence to Collect Intel
.@Judgenap: Three intel sources have disclosed that Pres. Obama turned to British spies to get surveillance on Trump pic.twitter.com/IghCFm7qhO
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 14, 2017
During the waning months of the Obama Administration, then President Obama used the British spy agency GCHQ to collect information on incoming President-elect Trump. This was because of both the constitutional limitations placed on him by law, as well as avoiding any connection to spying (and wiretaps like Richard Nixon had the unfortunate experience to endure) by using a “cat’s paw” to collect the intel.
MUSCULAR (DS-200B)
MUSCULAR (DS-200B), located in the United Kingdom, is the name of a surveillance programme jointly operated by Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) that was revealed by documents which were released by Edward Snowden and interviews with knowledgeable officials.
GCHQ
GCHQ is the primary operator of the program.GCHQ and the National Security Agency have secretly broken into the main communications links that connect the data centers of Yahoo! and Google.Substantive information about the program was made public at the end of October 2013.
The programme is jointly run by:
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) (United Kingdom)
U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)
MUSCULAR is one of at least four other similar programs that rely on a trusted 2nd party, programs which together are known as WINDSTOP. In a 30-day period from December 2012 to January 2013, MUSCULAR was responsible for collecting 181 million records. It was however dwarfed by another WINDSTOP program known (insofar) only by its code DS-300 and codename INCENSER, which collected over 14 billion records in the same period.
According to the leaked document the NSA’s acquisitions directorate sends millions of records every day from internal Yahoo! and Google networks to data warehouses at the agency’s headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. The programme operates via an access point known as DS-200B, which is outside the United States, and it relies on an unnamed telecommunications operator to provide secret access for the NSA and the GCHQ.
According to the Washington Post, the MUSCULAR program collects more than twice as many data points (“selectors” in NSA jargon) compared to the better known PRISM Unlike PRISM, the MUSCULAR program requires no (FISA or other type of) warrants.
Because of the huge amount of data involved, MUSCULAR has presented a special challenge to NSA’s Special Source Operations. For example, when Yahoo! decided to migrate a large amount of mailboxes between its data centers, the NSA’s PINWALE database (their primary analytical database for the Internet) was quickly overwhelmed with the data coming from MUSCULAR.
Closely related programmes are called INCENSER and TURMOIL. TURMOIL, belonging to the NSA, is a system for processing the data collected from MUSCULAR.
Blaming Others for Nefarious Activities
The WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 release contains a batch of documents, named ‘Marble’, which detail CIA hacking tactics and how they can misdirect forensic investigators from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to their agency by inserted code fragments in foreign languages. Per the WikiLeaks release:
"The source code shows that Marble has test examples not just in English but also in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi. This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion, --- but there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages."RELEASE: CIA Vault 7 part 3 "Marble"
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 31, 2017
The latest release is said to potentially allow for ‘thousands’ of cyber attacks to be attributed to the CIA which were originally blamed on foreign governments.
WikiLeaks said Marble hides fragments of texts that would allow for the author of the malware to be identified. WikiLeaks stated the technique is the digital equivalent of a specialized CIA tool which disguises English language text on US produced weapons systems before they are provided to insurgents.
It’s “designed to allow for flexible and easy-to-use obfuscation" as "string obfuscation algorithms” often link malware to a specific developer, according to the whistleblowing site.
The source code released reveals Marble contains test examples in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi.
“This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion,” WikiLeaks explains, “But there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages.”
The code also contains a ‘deobfuscator’ which allows the CIA text obfuscation to be reversed. “Combined with the revealed obfuscation techniques, a pattern or signature emerges which can assist forensic investigators attribute previous hacking attacks and viruses to the CIA.”
Previous Vault7 releases have referred to the CIA’s ability to mask its hacking fingerprints.
WikiLeaks claims the latest release will allow for thousands of viruses and hacking attacks to be attributed to the CIA.
CIA's "Marble Framework" shows its hackers use potential decoy languages
Background: https://t.co/GsoN4BuyTz pic.twitter.com/ZT66doCnfY
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 31, 2017
Full release from WikiLeaks:
Today, March 31st 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 "Marble" -- 676 source code files for the CIA's secret anti-forensic Marble Framework. Marble is used to hamper forensic investigators and anti-virus companies from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the CIA.
Marble does this by hiding ("obfuscating") text fragments used in CIA malware from visual inspection. This is the digital equivallent of a specalized CIA tool to place covers over the english language text on U.S. produced weapons systems before giving them to insurgents secretly backed by the CIA.
Marble forms part of the CIA's anti-forensics approach and the CIA's Core Library of malware code. It is "[D]esigned to allow for flexible and easy-to-use obfuscation" as "string obfuscation algorithms (especially those that are unique) are often used to link malware to a specific developer or development shop."
The Marble source code also includes a deobfuscator to reverse CIA text obfuscation. Combined with the revealed obfuscation techniques, a pattern or signature emerges which can assist forensic investigators attribute previous hacking attacks and viruses to the CIA. Marble was in use at the CIA during 2016. It reached 1.0 in 2015.
The source code shows that Marble has test examples not just in English but also in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi. This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion, --- but there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages.
The Marble Framework is used for obfuscation only and does not contain any vulnerabilties or exploits by itself.
Intentional Fabrication of UFO lore.
And why not?
You see all the above examples, the many, many, many examples are mostly political, or used to add control “for natural security”. It’s all just excuses.
It’s not about “getting your political opponents”. Nor is it about “the children”, or “for national security”.
It’s all about control.
"I share your concern over the secrecy that continues to shroud our intelligence activities on this subject."
-Congressman Thomas L. Ashley in a letter to NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena) on the subject of UFOs.
Numerous government employees have been actively engaged in the creation of UFO / extraterrestrial lore. This involves various people in the military; including the leadership, various government employees of various agencies that includes both contractors and direct payroll staff, and even elected officials who do so for political purposes. The reasons behind why they were involved in such activities ran the gambit from governmental projects with intentional goals, to mere mischievous pranks. These individuals are now well known in their complicity to deflect, redirect, and discredit all extraterrestrial related study and lore.
One must give pause as to why the government would want to employ someone to do this full time.
A former Air Force special investigations officer named Richard Doty has admitted to having infiltrated UFO circles. As a UFO researcher says:
"Doty had this wonderful way to sell it – 'I'm with the government. You cooperate with us and I'm going to tell you what the government really knows about UFOs, deep down in those vaults.'"
Doty and his colleagues fed credulous ufologists lies and half-truths, knowing their fertile imaginations would do the rest. In return, they were apprised of chatter from the community, thus alerting the military when anyone was getting to close to their top-secret technology. And if the Soviets thought the US really was communing with aliens, all the better.
The classic case, well-known to conspiracy aficionados, is Paul Bennewitz, a successful electronics entrepreneur in New Mexico. In 1979, Bennewitz started seeing strange lights in the sky, and picking up weird transmissions on his amateur equipment. The fact that he lived just across the road from Kirtland air force base should have set alarm bells ringing, but Bennewitz was convinced these phenomena were of extraterrestrial origin. Being a good patriot, he contacted the Air Force, who realized that, far from eavesdropping on ET, Bennewitz was inadvertently eavesdropping on them. Instead of making him stop, though, Doty and other officers told Bennewitz they were interested in his findings. That encouraged Bennewitz to dig deeper. Within a few years, he was [1] interpreting alien languages, [2] spotting crashed alien craft in the hills from his plane (he was an amateur pilot), and [3] sounding the alert for a full-scale invasion. All the time, the investigators were watching him observe them. They gave Bennewitz computer software that “interpreted” the signals, and even dumped fake props for him to discover. The mania took over Bennewitz’s life. In 1988, his family checked him into a psychiatric facility.
There’s plenty of stories like this.
Many central tenets of the UFO belief system turn out to have far earthlier origins. Mysterious cattle mutilations in 1970s New Mexico turn out to have been officials furtively investigating radiation in livestock after they’d conducted an ill-advised experiment in underground “nuclear fracking”.
Test pilots for the military’s experimental silent helicopters admit to attaching flashing lights to their craft to fool civilians. Actual photos were doctored to appear that things were being hidden, while other actual pictures were lost in the static of confusion.
It is now easy for anyone to simply say;
“There are no aliens or extraterrestrials at all. The government has been conducting a program to hid advanced research and development programs from the public. They use the smoke-screen of extraterrestrial activity to stigmatize observers of such actions into passive silence.”
As that is, indeed, partly the case.
But I am here, and I am telling you otherwise. Oh, the extraterrestrial presence is real. The technology is real. The government cover-up is real.
But most of what you read on the Internet, and in books are but lies and fabrications. What you see on the television, and observe on the Internet are but cleverly orchestrated efforts used to manipulate group conventional thought and placate the populace for the purposes of the government.
Conclusion
Long and drawn out.
Boring. Old “news”.
Old “subjects”.
Yeah! I get it.
These articles dated to before the Trump Administration. Now, you can well imagine that things are much tighter, the controls more restrictive, exacting, and lethal to your supposed “freedom”. You all are just animals in a big “free ranging” field. Nothing more.
And please don’t get all “hung up” on the “political song and dance”; the “progressives vs. the conservatives”. It’s all just “bread and circuses” for the mindless masses.
bread and circuses A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: “Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.” The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles.
-Bread and circuses | Definition of Bread and circuses
When Congress gave up it’s powers to the alphabet organizations, they did much more than create “Frankenstein Monsters”. They created an endless system that keep you within a stratified social construct. One that you must toil for the well-being of others, and by which you can be imprisoned and even killed if you fail to conform.
This means a complete subversion of the systems that are intended to help you and your family in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
The subversion is now complete. It is beyond redemption.
Key Point: The “fighting” for your Rights is all just a farce. The elections are all just theater. The systems are in place, and you are the cattle that toils for your new masters. Oh, the faces change on the “news” screens, but the takeover is complete. So any articles about “regaining” your “God given” Rights is just meaningless. You have NONE. It’s over. And nothing will be done when one party or the other takes power. It’s all just nonsense.
Anyone still sticking around in America is now trapped. It’s probably too late to escape. And if history has anything to say, it is that it’s only going to get worse.
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in my Front Row Seat Index, though this could just as well fit under any other index as well.
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I have some things to say. So brace yourself. I’ve got some strong ideas about life, happiness, peace, freedom, and liberty. I also have ideas about property, hamburgers, beer, wine, and pizza. So fortify yourself with some strong drink and something to crunch upon. Here we go…
You know, the sole purpose of government is to protect it’s citizenry.
That is it.
Nothing else matters. It should make sure that the people are fine and living life, or as they used to say in the United States, being in the “pursuit of happiness“.
Now, this can mean many things, but most fundamentally it means that the people are protected from thieves, robbers, and hoodlums. It also means that they are protected from other nations who might which to perform large-scale robbery, rape, and crimes against people, property, and things.
Different nations handle this differently.
Some (like early America) were small, and provided only the necessities.
Others believed in a central government that controlled everything.
While others set up military empires that pretty much ran the nation through strength.
And still others have varying degrees of “democratic” rule.
All nations change over time. Sometimes those changes are gradual, and sometimes those changes are rapid and violent. But change is the norm in human society and it’s high time that America starts to experience some of the long-delayed changes that have been building up for decades, if not centuries.
America today is an oligarchy (PTB) run military empire undergoing the pains of social, financial, economic, and leadership contraction.
It’s painful to watch.
Because…
Fundamentally, at the most basic level, a nation that cannot protect its people and that cannot provide for its people is no longer a nation. It is a dysfunctional “something”. It might have a flag, and passports and colored lines on a geographic map, but functionally it has ceased being a nation.
It’s people can see this.
And when they can no longer rely on the police and the government to protect them, they make changes. They seek means of protecting themselves. One of the greatest indicators in a loss of respect and confidence in a nation is when the citizens start buying up firearms and weapons.
When the government can no longer protect it’s people, the people try to protect themselves. they purchase guns and ammunition.
Most of the citizens in a dysfunctional nation can see this.
Only those living within protective enclaves of the elite are unable to see this. Yet, over time, even they too can see what is going on, and those with the necessary means, flee. They construct safe places far away and abandon the nation under collapse.
Those that remain behind have only two options available to them…
Accept the status quo and adapt.
Or change the nation into something that is functional.
If you, for whatever reason, are unable to participate or accept these options then you must leave. Because no matter how you look at it, there is going to be trying times ahead.
And things could get… uncomfortable.
Things can get uncomfortable when there is no order, no skills, and when laws are not followed. Accidents can happen. Both accidental and intentional.
There were numerous people writing articles arguing that you should construct a “life boat” and leave before things get worse. I was one of them. Here’s another fellow named Llpoh. He wrote an article about escape a few years back, and now he revisits it with some interesting insight…
The following article is from the Burning Platform Blog. In it he revisits an earlier article that he wrote titled “Llpoh: Get Out While You Can”. This article updates it with the day to day craziness that is the norm in America today. It’s a pretty sobering look at what the USA is, or what it has become. All credit to the original author.
Llpoh: Get Out While You Can, Revisited
Just under two years ago I wrote the article that follows. It garnered a lot of comments, and I encourage you to revisit them to see how well they have stood the test of time. The original article can be found here:
If anything, I was far too optimistic in my assessment. It is now too late to get out, as you can easily see. I did what I could to sound the alarm. I told you so, and it brings me no pleasure (well, maybe a little) to say that.
Interestingly, there are a number of posters on the original thread that said they would fight when the time came. I called bullshit then and still do. Things are far worse today than then, but no fighting is happening.
None.
The other side is better organized, and they are marching armed and un-impeded wherever they choose. It looks more and more like the normal folks are surrendering without even a dying whimper. Much as I suspected and predicted. It is not a criticism, just a statement of fact. The left and the minorities have won. If the Hispanics ever join the leftist march, it is well and truly over.
Does anyone see a way out?
The $5 trillion or more yearly deficit, the loss of Liberty to the pandemic, the acquiescence of all organizations and businesses to the demands of the left, the inability to even argue with a black person without losing your job, the loss of freedom of movement, the ability of the radicals to commandeer interstate highways and cities without so much as a “that is illegal” from elected officials, the erasure of history, the inability to defend your person or property, etc., are just some of the thousands of examples that show the normals have lost.
If they are not standing up now, then it is not going to happen.
Because this is as bad as it gets.
Oh, it can get worse, but when you have reached Hell, and you have, it is just the particular level in Hell that is the question.
So the question is – does anyone see a way out? And if so what is it. Because there is nothing happening now that I can see. Please give me some hope. I sure could use it about now. I just do not see it.
This is the text of the original article, for reference:
LLPOH: Get Out While You Can
I am currently stateside. It has been a few years, and I had to take care of some business. My wife and I have revisited some of our favorite spots, and caught up with some family. We have driven through some of God’s finest works. There is no more beautiful landscape anywhere on earth than the west coast, Route 66, southern Colorado, the Badlands, etc.
That said, I say this most sincerely, and with great sorrow. Those of you who can, get out now.
Discussing what to do over drinks.
What I have seen leads me to depression, and there is no road back for the US, in my opinion.
The blinkered people, the tax collectors roadside (police everywhere collecting taxes), the tax collecting at every opportunity, the welfare state, the severe drop in service at restaurants, the tattoos, the green hair, the lard-asses everywhere, the severe over-population of great swathes of the country, the hideous media out only to inflame, and not to report, the aged and infirm working at whatever jobs they can find, the homeless everywhere, the beggars, the filth roadside, the severe health issues seen at every turn (people everywhere too fat to walk, carrying oxygen, diabetes inflicted, toothless), casinos one after another, hideous roads, etc. ad naseum, lead me to but one conclusion: the US is fucked. It grieves me to say it. It disgusts me to see it.
Of all of these things, the most serious is the blinkered people. They have no insight, no curiosity, no sense of understanding of the world, no vision of anything outside their tiny bubble.
Put together a “bug out bag”.
There are far too many people. California has 40 million, almost double that of Australia, which is more or less the size of the lower 48. I struggle to breathe around such masses.
I can feel the desperation wherever I go, but the people cannot see that they cause their own issues by living far beyond their means, with leased cars and pickups, and mortgaged to the hilt.
I spoke with many relying on pensions, who do not realize the precariousness of their positions. I ask how well funded are their plans, and they stare at me mouths agape, unable to even grasp the question.
If you have the means then use them and go to a safe place.
I spoke to many business owners, who are so angry it defies belief. To a man, they are wanting to throw in the towel. The government has choked them to death, and dealing with employees is killing them day by day. One has seven lawsuits going and has been sued 25 times. He services equipment for other companies. Whenever an idiot maims someone with the equipment he services, he gets roped into the lawsuit. The equipment never fails, but some idiot, not employed by him, runs over someone, and he gets sued, guilty by association.
The immigration policy of the US is helping destroy the country. As a reference point, Australia takes a couple hundred thousand immigrants a year, talent-based. Talent based. Compare that to the US insanity.
On and on it goes.
Pick a destination and leave.
So I say this. Get out if you can. I recommend New Zealand or Australia. Others might recommend somewhere else. These countries have issues, but they are a few decades behind those that the US has. If not that, then if possible move away from the big cities.
My Concluding Thoughts
Ai! The USA is certainly a big mess.
I know, I left it and ended up in my “life boat” in China. You might hate China, but most people who do, do so out of ignorance. They just don’t know what I know, or what China is like.
I can tell you one thing, though…
China is a functional nation, run by serious people, who do not play. They invest in their people and in their society. They honor their traditions and make sure that they are preserved. All of them, including the 80+ minority groups. It’s beautiful here. The sky is blue, the trees are lush green, the ocean is a rainbow of light blues to dark greens, and all the flowers are vibrant and sweet.
The people are relaxed, and nice. The roads are new and well maintained. The police are alert and there are many freedoms that most Americans have long given up ages ago.
But that is my story.
What is obvious is that the United States is a mess and the elite in positions of power are so “off the grid” in reality that they don’t know if they are coming or going. It can only get worse before it gets better.
If you are stuck in the United States right now, I would suggest that you fortify your home, stockpile supplies, and practice, practice and practice. While it might not end up as a shooting hot conflict, that is (after all) the historical norm. Be prepared.
I would suggest that you fortify your home, set up strong fencing, add strong metal doors, and 2×4 barricades that you can put in place. Hide your supplies and plant shrubbery to hide your home from view.
Do not expect things to get better.
In fact, I argue, that if suddenly things did get better, then I would dig a hole in the ground and hide. For it is possible that even worse things are down the road.
It’s long past the time for “temporary fixes” and “band-aides” and other “kick the can down the road” solutions.
Things have run out.
We all can see the wreck that the United States is today. We can see that the entire government is dysfunctional, that the police are either dangerous or useless, and that the leadership are nothing but greedy evil people who will sell you out in a heartbeat.
It’s game over!
It’s game over.
Things have run out. The end of the road is getting clearer with each passing day.
As the car barrels down the highway and pumping the breaks no longer work… you can see the signs on the highway that read “Dead End”, “Road Closed”, “Bridge Out”, and…
..and when your car crashes through the wooden roadblock and sprinters of the sign are all over the windshield…
… Like RIGHT NOW…
You realize that perhaps it’s too late.
Maybe you should jump out of the speeding car. Even though it is going 60 mph on a twisty and winding road…
Even though you might get scratched in the process, it will probably be far safer than getting trapped inside the car as it goes engine first diving onto the rocky shores below.
…
If you are stuck and trapped in the United States right now, I would advise living a quiet low-key life. You would need to tone down your internet presence. Keep your private home and personal life quiet. Keep your political opinions quiet. Blend in, and then only come out when the “all clear” siren sounds.
Only come out when it is safe to come out.
Do you want more?
Do you want to see similar posts?
I hope that you found this post curious. Please take care. You can view other similar posts in my SHTF Index, here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
If you ever have the misfortune to read the comment sections of the social media on the internet, you will discover that 99% of American do not know what the United States is. Some say that it is a “Republic”. While others say that it is a “Democracy”. There are reasons why people use these terms, but they are all wrong. Today, the United States behaves functionally as an Oligarchy. And this post will prove it.
Now, you the reader might ask, why is this important?
Well, it is very important for the very simple reason that oligarchies do not last. They never last, and when they collapse it is often catastrophically.
Thus to fully appreciate what this post is saying, you need to recognize that no one can live on “borrowed time” for long. Eventually, everyone “must pay the dues” that accrue. This was true back three thousand years ago and it is true right now.
This post was written in January 2020, right before the COVID-19 coronavirus forced China to go into a full military DEFCON ONE lock-down, and right before the economic collapse of the United States in early March 2020.
The following is a reprint of an article titled “Oligarchy in America: How the 0.1% Rob Everyone Else Blind – 31 Shocking Data Points” with a sub-title that says “The rich are getting richer, and everyone else is getting poorer” . It was written by Jon Hellevig on Friday 17JAN20. It was edited to fit this venue, but aside from that, no other changes were made. All credit to the author and original editors.
The rich are getting richer, and everyone else is getting poorer.
There is no hiding anymore, the United States has become an
oligarch owned banana republic with nukes, and with a monopoly currency
which has allowed it to rig the markets for half a century. But now we
are only a couple of hours from curtain – Midnight in America.
With the stock market at all-time highs, virtually no unemployment (or so they say), and brisk GDP growth (supposedly) in the last decade, economic analysts would declare that the US economy is in excellent shape.
This was written just before the United States collapsed economically in March 2020.
But, it isn’t in “excellent shape”.
The stock market is a central bank inflated asset bubble, and what GDP growth there has been, is an illusion brought about by the very same financial bubble and by pumping the economy up with record federal borrowings to finance the deficits that America cannot afford.
Rigged statistics showing artificially low inflation serve to hold together the Trumped-up American economic narrative. (About the rigged inflation statistics, see this report). And the low unemployment figure is nothing but a chimera based on misleading.
The US Economy is failing
Actually, as of 20MAY20, it has failed. And people are now considering just how far it will collapse. Even the most optimistic are thinking in terms of months. When the reality might very well be decades.
In
reality, the US economy is failing – and the country with it. At least
two-thirds of the population has seen dramatic declines in living
standards and half are back to levels of developing nations – without
the development.
People are turning into impoverished serfs.
The big story covered up by all the happy macroeconomic figures repeated by rote by the US establishment – everybody from the president to cable television pundits and Trump fanboys – is the gradual impoverishment of the American worker.
In the early 1970’s, the wages of workers stopped matching the rise in productivity. Now, the rise in productivity was necessary to meet investor dividends. As inflation was eating away at profits. Thus, the only area where the costs to make things were cut were in employee wages. Thus, for most workers, inflation-adjusted wages were frozen at 1970 levels.
That’s an inconvenient truth increasingly difficult to hide as the American dream has turned into a nightmare for huge swathes of the population.
The rich are now obscenely wealthy.
As the figures we present below show, the rich are really getting richer, the middle class has been decimated, and half of Americans are poor and destitute of any financial wealth.
Keep in mind that an Oligarchy is rule by the rich. It is in their best interests to have a dual-tiered government and system. One for them, and one for everyone else. Thus, it makes sense that in an oligarchy, the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.
The super-rich are gobbling up an ever-increasing slice of the American pie at the cost of all the rest who get nothing but table scraps on one side and leftover crumbs on the other, if anything.
The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer, and gap between both is getting bigger and bigger.
The resulting stratification of society has brought back a medieval servant economy, where the have-nots are doing odd jobs, cleaning houses, fetching groceries, running errands and deliveries for the feudal rich and the remaining shrinking middle class.
Thanks to the Fed (the American oligarch owned central bank) pushing easy money into the hands of the privileged elite…
… now the super-rich Dismal Decimal – the top 0.1% – …
…have by now amassed as much wealth as they had just before the Great Depression. A depression that started with the stock market crash in 1929.
A lesson not learned.
Back to square one. How will it end this time?
Information Data Source
This article is based on an Awara Accounting study titled “Widening Income and Wealth Gap and Stagnating Wages in America.” Links and source references to all the facts presented here can be found in said study.
BTW all the data in this report is derived from official US government sources and American experts analyzing them.
Just how the Oligarchy has rigged the game against the citizens…
During the last decades, the financial rewards from the rigged markets first flew exclusively into the pockets of Top 10%, but later it was increasingly Top 1%, which pocketed most, perfectly illustrated by the charts below.
1. Income for the rich just accelerates upward.
The income of Top 1% has grown five times as fast as that of Bottom 90% income since 1970, who now earn double the amount of income than 160 million poor of the lower 50% stratum.
The income of Top 1% has grown five times as fast as that of Bottom 90% income since 1970.
The fortunes of Top 1% and Bottom 50% are now reversed.
The fortunes of Top 1% and Bottom 50% are now reversed.
2. The rich now own almost all the available money.
Top 1% now holds as much wealth as Bottom 50% combined.
Income inequality obviously leads to wealth inequality, but here the figures are yet more striking in showing the magnitudes of the grab at the top. Since 1989, Top 1% captured $21 trillion in wealth, while Bottom 50% lost $900 billion, actually pushing them down to negative wealth, meaning they have more debt than they have assets.
On a net analysis, half of Americans own nothing of real value.
On a net analysis, half of Americans own nothing of real value.
Until the creeping coup under Reagan, income equality was improving
It was bad enough in 1995 when Top 1% earned as much as Bottom 50%,
but today the richest 1% already take 20% of all income leaving the
bottom half with only 12%. As the chart shows, back in 1978 – before the
neoliberal creeping coup really got going – the trends were reversed.
Below chart compares income growth since 1920 of Top 1% to Bottom 90%
(that is, all the rest except Top 10%). We see that right after Ronald
Reagan entered the presidency with his Chicago School snake oil
influenced backers, the income growth of the 1% started its dizzying
growth, which is continuing to this date.
Up until around 1982 the income growth for the top 1% of earners was rather flat. But after President Reagan, it accelerated dramatically.
Money isn't the only system being used to isolate the oligarchy from the common people.
"Phoenix is the conceptual model for the DHS (US equivalent of RSHA under the NSDAP- my note). Both are based on the principle that governments can manage societies through implicit and explicit terror. The strategic goal is to widen the gap between the elites and the mass of the citizenry, while expunging anyone who cannot be ideologically assimilated."
-Dr. T. P. Wilkinson
Back in 1962, the share of Top 1% of America’s wealth at 33% was equal to that of Bottom 90%, but in the early 1980s the share of Bottom 90% started a steep descent and by 2016 their share had dwindled down to 21%.
Especially after the Federal Reserve shifted its market rigging low-interest-rate money-pumping policy into high gear from the beginning of 2000s, the superrich have experienced a massive rise in their fortunes, as illustrated by below chart.
The Rich became super-rich, while the middle class became poor.
But by today Top 1% are losers compared with Top 0.1% – the Dismal Decimal – who are where the music plays.
5. Top 0.1% now holds as much wealth as Bottom 90% combined.
A recent study revealed that the concentration on the top is yet much more pernicious.
It’s not any more a question of Top 10%, and not even Top 1%, as it is the Top 0.1% – the Dismal Decimal – that has now concentrated the wealth of the nation (and half the world) in their greedy hands.
Top 0.1% now holds as much wealth as Bottom 90% combined.
As the below chart shows, we are essentially back to the Roaring Twenties…a lesson not learned.
Actually, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, America entered an unprecedented era of four decades of prosperity with a more equal distribution of wealth as Bottom 90% recovered strongly in distribution of wealth at the expense of Top 0.1% parasites.
We are essentially back to the Roaring Twenties…a lesson not learned.
6. Top 0.1% earnings grew 347% between 1979 and, while Top 1% “only” gained 157% – the rest gained nothing
Top 0.1% earnings grew 347%
Top 1% earnings grew 157%
The rest 98.9% grew 0%.
The advent of opportunity for most Americans has become a zero-sum game.
7. The share of total income is oligarch in nature.
The next chart takes a longer perspective – while widening the sample to Top 10% – and shows their share of the total income since 1910 to 2010.
The Roaring Twenties – the period before the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression – experienced the same level of glaring inequality as today’s America.
With Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reforms the egregious average income inequality was tamed and stayed relatively low until Reagan’s fatal presidency. And it’s been downhill ever since – or uphill, if we look at it from the perspective of the rich.
The percentage share of the total national income for the top 10%.
8. The GDP
The only economic figure that has managed to look good is the GDP, but that is so only until you bother to find out where it comes from – from the Federal Reserved fueled asset bubble and massive federal budget deficits financed by record national debts.
Thing is that, beyond the richest 10% very few Americans have a stake in the stock market.
In 2016, the richest one percent held more than half of all outstanding stock, financial securities, and all other sorts of equity. The remainder of those asset categories were held by the rest of Top 10%, who owned over 93% of all stock and mutual fund ownership.
What wealth the remaining 90% may own is largely residential housing, the homes where they live.
According to Jonathan Tepper, the wealthiest 1% own nearly 50% of stock and the top 10% more than 81%. The so-called middle class owns only 8% of all stock.
This also kills the myth that record highs on the stock market would be good for American retirement savings – with the richest few holding all the shares there’s nothing in it for the overwhelming majority.
8b. Pension plans.
A recent report also showed that only 10% of Americans are invested in pension plans. That is down from 60% in 1980.
And those who are, are traditionally more weighted towards bonds and money-market instruments, which suffer from the rigged markets with the artificially low interest rates.
The pension savers are hence literally paying for the super gains flowing into the pockets of Top 1%.
On the other hand the super low interest rates are out of grasp for the all but Top 1% who gobble up the wealth of the nation with that largesse delivered to them by their Federal Reserve.
At the same time the common household is paying double-digit rates on their credit card debt traps.
9. Household wages have been stagnant.
Below Top 10% wages and total household income have been stagnant, at best.
10. Stagnation of incomes for the bulk of Americans.
Average income of the bottom 50% has stagnated at around $16,000 since 1980, while the income of the top 1% has skyrocketed by 300% to approximately $1,340,000 in 2014
11. Almost half of Americans are impoverished.
45% of Americans earn annually only 18,000 or less. A recent study found that 53 million Americans or 44% of the working age population earn a median average annual salary of only $18,000. Basically then, at least half of the Americans are working-poor.
12. Zero change in income for the middle class.
Middle-class households had in 2015 basically the same income as they had in 1979
13. Only the rich got richer.
In the two decades from 1997 to 2017, only Top 5% of households saw their income increase
14. Most American wages did not change at all.
For most American workers, real wages have barely budged in decades. By end of 2018, the real inflation-adjusted average wage had about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago.
15. Minimum wages have not changed.
As the below chart illustrates, the real average hourly wage which was $20.27 in 1964 had only inched up to $22.27. David Stockman calculated that the real hourly worker’s wage was in 2019 still at 1972 levels.
Minimum wages have not changed.
16. Men’s wages at all levels have fallen.
For full-time employed men real wages have fallen 4.4% since 1973, according to economist Paul Craig Roberts. The total average income of men at $51,212 in 2015, was lower in real terms than it had been in 1974.
17. Rise is “gig work”.
As of 2014, the average hours worked per week had fallen from around 39 hours in 1970s to under 34 hours. Economist Mike Shedlock calculated that the actual hours worked and the average hourly earnings would deliver a weekly income of $690, well below its $825 peak back in the early 1970s. If we multiply the hypothetical weekly earnings by 50, we get an annual figure of $35,497. That would in 2014 have translated to a 16.4% decline from its peak in October 1972.
18. All productively benefit has gone to the rich.
All labor productivity growth since the 1970s have gone to the robber capitalists. From 1973 to 2013, hourly compensation of a typical (production/nonsupervisory) worker rose just 9% percent while productivity increased 74%.
Nowhere is income inequality and the egregious worsening trend as manifest as in the case of CEO pay.
In the 1970s, CEOs made 30 times what typical workers made, but by 2017 the CEOs made 361 times the workers’ pay. According to the Economic Policy Institute CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time.
The Fed fueled financial market orgy is the main cause for the
windfall riches of CEOs as stock options and the accompanying share
buybacks make up a huge part of CEO pay packages. This rising pay of
executives was the main factor in Top 0.1%’s super grab of household
income
20. Americans struggle for the basics
A 2017 study found that 40% of US adults struggle to pay for basic necessities like food, healthcare, housing, and utilities.
Nearly 70% of Americans have virtually no savings. Bottom 55% have zero savings, while the following 24% – the core of the former middle class – have only $1,000 stashed away.
24. The other side of the (non-existent) coin is that the same 50% of
Americans would obviously struggle to come up with $400 for an
unexpected expense. By extension, the former middle class – those with
the miserly savings of $1,000 – would also have real troubles in coping
with any kind of bill for medical treatment without dipping into more
debt. Considering the above reported findings (see the chart) only the
Top 10% would be financially secure in a medical emergency.
25. According to shocking findings by the American Cancer Society,
137.1 million US residents suffered medical financial hardship in 2018.
Americans had to resort to borrow a total of $88 billion in 2018 only to
cover for essential medical treatment.
26. A third of young adults, or 24 million of those aged 18 to 34,
lived with in their parents’ home because they cannot afford a home of
their own.
27. The income and wealth gap pictures get worse yet when we look at
the age distribution of wealth. Younger generations are earning less and
own next to nothing (that is, if you are not the golden youth of the
10%). Baby Boomers born between the end of the Second World War and 1964
currently hold wealth that is 11 times higher than that of millennials.
Median Income for Younger and Older Families in Inflation-Adjusted Dollars
28. Growth of “real” Jobs is zero.
The number of full-time jobs with life-sustaining wages – what economist David Stockman calls breadwinner jobs – have not been growing since 2000, by 2014 their number was still 3.5 million or 5% lower than it was at the peak in early 2001. In the same period 4 million part-time and gig jobs were created.
While the official unemployment figure is presently near historical lows – and at levels what some economists would like to call full employment – there are some big problems with it.
1. Problems with the official unemployment statistics. The officially touted unemployment figure (so-called U3 unemployment) record only those who have been looking for a job during the last 4 weeks, while discouraged long-term unemployed are cleansed from the statistics and left unrecorded as if they would not be in the workforce at all – makes stats look beautiful for the powers that shouldn’t be.
2. The labor participation rate has been falling.
3. New job creation has amounted to only a third of the annual increase in working age population.
4. Part-time and gig jobs count as full-time employment. Any person who takes a part-time or gig job for just a few hours a month is recorded among the employed, although they would rightly be considered unemployed merely clutching at straws.
5. Connected with the previous point, there is also a more general problem with the quality of jobs created. Most jobs created in the last two decades are low-paid low-skill jobs that do not provide a life-sustaining income considering the cost of living in the United States.
More than one third (36%) of U.S. workers are in the gig economy,
doing part-time work or side hustles for companies like Uber, Lyft,
Etsy, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Freelancer.com, Ebay or just any odd job
they can get from time to time.
29. Debt Peonage.
To make up for the shrinking earnings, the American regime is pushing the American population into 21st century debt peonage.
Ensnared in the debt trap, US households had nearly $14 trillion in outstanding debt at the end of the third quarter 2019. That debt load now equals 73% of GDP. By end of 2019, consumption debt alone (not including asset acquiring mortgages) was up by $2 trillion since 2014.
Since 2004, the weight of the student loan millstone has gone up fivefold from only $250 billion to today’s $1.5 trillion.
That’s due to the huge price inflation in higher education. The cost
of both public and private college escalated by 40% over the general
consumer price inflation between 2005 and 2015.
30. Huge increase in the cost of living in the USA.
We mistakenly believe that the increase in the cost of living is universal around the world. Nope. It isn’t. Only the cost of living in the United States and Zimbabwe have increased exponentially. The rest of the world, not so much.
Because of the huge rise in the last few decades in cost of living in the US, in Russia, you get the same standard of living for a fraction of the American cost. A Moscow average monthly salary equal to $1,600 (annual $19,200) gives the same purchasing power as a monthly salary of $6,000 in Chicago (annual $72,000). Meaning, you live in Moscow (at least as well for a monthly paycheck of $1,600 as you live in Chicago for a paycheck of $6,000.
The present oligarch controlled rigged crony capitalist system has killed the American dream, the belief that anyone, regardless of parents’ social status and incomes can attain success and wealth by hard work and ingenuity.
The gates for upward mobility have been shut for the overwhelming majority.
The monopolization of practically all sectors of the economy, the ever increasing bureaucratic restrictions on doing business, the extreme concentration of ownership, and the rigged financial markets have made it increasingly hard for people outside the top echelon of penetrating the financial membrane protecting the elites.
A 2017 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that the probability that a household outside the top 10% made it into the highest tier within 10 years was twice as high during 1984-1994 as it was during 2003-2013.
The United States is an oligarchy
This concentration of the income and wealth on the top, proves that the United States is an oligarchy.
With this report showing the insanely widening income and wealth inequality, my aim is to show, that the country is an economic oligarchy, too.
In fact, economic super riches are the precondition for their political power, too.
In America, as always, the oligarchy has achieved their uncontested power in a hermeneutical feedback loop, where the initial wealth of the superrich has bought them increased political power, which has given them increased riches, which has bought them more political power, and so on, until today, when they own practically the whole economy and the entire government.
Clearly the source of higher inequality has been Fed policies, which has pushed cheap money into the pockets of the already rich, who have exclusively then benefited from soaring stock and real estate prices.
Fittingly, we got end of 2019 a report revealing that the world’s
richest people increased their wealth in the year by $1.2 trillion, a
staggering 25%, most of which belong to the oligarchs of the United
States.
Intentional or Accidental?
The question – which I have set to explore in my series of Capitalism in America – is whether there has been a game plan, a long-term strategy or whether intermittent achievements have just spurred the oligarchs on to new economic and political power grabs in the course of establishing their totalitarian rule.
I tend to think, there has been a long-term plan ever since the establishment of the Federal Reserve.
Thank you President Wilson.
The economic and political history of the United States provide so much circumstantial evidence, which supports the view that there has been a conspiracy of the Wall Street elite.
I shall return to this hypothesis in further installments to this series of Capitalism in America.
It is however clear – whether through a long-term plan or by a series of ad hoc interventions – the US financial elite has by now completed a creeping coup, which have delivered them absolute economic and political power.
In my investigation of the oligarchization of America – the creeping
neoliberal oligarch coop, which set in full force since Reagan – I have
so far completed these instalments:
Next due is a fifth report showing how from point of view of political science the oligarchy has destroyed the social fabric of the US economy and deliberately enacted laws that favor the few over the people. Of particular interest here is how the oligarchy has rigged the political system by institutionally solidifying the mendacious Janus- faced two-party system in order to remove any potential challenge to their rule.
Conclusion
Three points;
Point One
There are two classes in the United States; the rich and the poor.
Actually there are nine classes. But for this discussion it's the 0.1% against the 99.9%.
The 9 classes are...
The Oligarchy
The wealthy
The Per Diem
The upper class
The middle class
The Gig class
The low class
The Felon Class
The Sex Offender Class.
The door has slammed shut for most Americans. It is already decided. You are part of one group or the other. The days of being able to leave the “impoverished” and join the ranks of the wealthy are over. It is a fine childhood fantasy, but it will never happen. They best you can do is be slightly better than your peers. That’s all that you can possibly hope for.
Point Two
The United States is stratified by finances. There are two main class groupings of people; the rich and the poor. The government is controlled by the rich, which is a textbook definition of an oligarchy.
oligarchy
noun, plural ol·i·gar·chies.
a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.
a state or organization so ruled.
the persons or class so ruling.
America, the United States, is an Oligarchy.
Part Three
The oligarchy, and the PTB (The Powers That Be) are one and the same. Nothing that is written here is unknown to them. They know about all of this, and they do expect everything to crash, or go through a “big reset”.
They plan on this, and have predicted it. They expect it to happen, and fully expect to survive through it. In their viewpoint, they will end up better placed afterwards.
Though, to the vast bulk of Americans, it is new information. Often dismissed as “conspiracy rubbish”.
It isn’t.
So what does all this mean?
The United States is neither a Republic or a Democracy. It is an Oligarchy.
Those that are in the Oligarchy realize that all Oligarchies collapse, and they have been trying to manage this collapse for the last decade.
In fact, they want this collapse to happen, for they believe that not only will they survive it, but that their position, and the world, and society would be better afterwards.
Those not part of the PTB Oligarchy will suffer.
However, those that are resilient, able to discern, and adaptable will be able to “ride the waves of discord” and survive just as well as the oligarchy can.
You just need to change your ideas and attitudes about who you are and what your role is.
Last minute note…
https://www.yicaiglobal.com/news/american-families-only-half-as-rich--as-those-in-chinese-cities
Some food for thought (and controversy): Is the median net worth of American families really only HALF the net worth of Chinese families?
When looking at median net worth (rather than average!) this seems to be the case and points to significantly higher inequality in the US compared with China, which has its fair share of inequality nonetheless.
In addition, Chinese families are sitting on very valuable self-owned properties (often more than one actually), are less indebted and have higher savings.
What conclusions shall we draw from these perplexing numbers?
-Dr. Shirley Yu
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This is what we refer to as a "sanity check". It is where we, as engineers, perform a simplified calculation to determine if the calculations that we arrived at, are valid...
This is a reprint of the most excellent Ron Paul article. Modified and edited to fit this venue. In it, he argues that you don’t need to look at complicated “generational theories”, r/K or KaLa theories to explain what is happening to America today. You just need to look at what happens every one hundred years or so…
The great Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises wrote:
"History is a struggle between two principles, the peaceful principle, which advances the development of trade, and the militarist-imperialist principle, which interprets human society not as a friendly division of labour but as the forcible repression of some of its members by others."
America was founded on the peaceful principle.
If you are peaceful, other people and nations will work with you on friendly terms, and your people will be happy.
The country’s first President, George Washington, said in his farewell address:
"It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world".
Ah, that is all nice and good. However consider the practical applications and issues…
This policy, which can be packaged into the euphemism “America First” was the guiding policy for the first 100+ years of the country’s existence.
The guiding principle for the first one hundred years was to put Americans first in all national decisions and programs.
Indeed, America truly was independent.
America
This did not mean that America was “isolationist.” Far from it, of course. Thomas Jefferson explained at his inaugural that the policy was one of:
"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none."
Do not laugh.
America, as founded, was a peaceful and positive and friendly life. It was a place where people formed communities and welcomed others and helped others.
Here was a land, the largest free-trade zone to ever exist, shielded by giant oceans, with a limited government that only had a few enumerated powers. The individual was master of his domain.
Consider…
The situation. The creation of “America”in a free-ranging (or apparently so) land, were Earth-shattering and life-changing — Prosperity, the likes of which have never existed before.
America was a prosperous and happy place. The government was run by people much like ourselves, and they held the same value and issues that we ourselves cherished..
But alas, after 100+ years passed, new generations with little to no connection (or care) for the ideas of Washington & Jefferson, decided to change course for the worse. The ‘Old World’ ideas of power and empire crept in through the back door…
Ideals were replaced by individual greed.
Roughly one hundred years after the founding, ideals were replaced by individual greed.
The new reality.
In this new embrace of the ‘Old World,’ the individual would no longer be the master of his domain. Government would be the master.
Sounds perfect, eh?
It is a parent-child relationship. One in which sociologists and psychiatrists consider to be very unhealthy for peer-to-peer interaction.
Big government only grows bigger. Eventually it takes and consumes everything and you, as a hapless civilian, gets trampled upon.
I know many Democrats believe that utopia is “just around the corner”. It’s just only if…
A new America…
Suddenly, in 1898, after much careful planning by those who had an insatiable lust for power, America would take on the role of conqueror.
And conquer it did.
In a single year, the United States took control of five far-flung nations, which contained 11 million people, all in one fell-swoop.
The military was no longer used for defensive and humanitarian missions to help American citizens. It became a money-making machine to serve the special interests of Washington neocon insiders.
Washington & Jefferson were tossed into the dust-bin.
Independence was cast aside. Intervention was the new game in town. In 1898, the slow death of “America First” was given its first real kick to the chops.
Of course, the original role of government would have to be transformed.
Transformed…
If America was to have an empire, it would have to take control of every American citizen’s earnings.
Once citizens no longer owned their earnings, and money. They became powerless. The people who had control of the money also had control over them. Americans became debt-serfs at the mercy of the government.
Enter President Wilson – Progressive Genius.
And so, in 1913, with the creation of the income tax, every American’s earnings would belong to the government first. The government would decide how much each person would be allowed to keep.
The government would decide.
President Wilson believed that the concepts of “Liberty” and “Freedom” were outdated and needed to be replaced with “modern” and “progressive” systems.
The government should decide what to do with people’s earnings.
Not the people.
Not the individual.
The government should decide.
American government today. It is far, far too powerful. This is the complete creation of President Wilson.
It’s all so progressive…
…
A nightmare!
What a drastic change for the worse!
The big enormous government takes and takes and takes. It threatens and puts the citizenry in a state of near constant fear, and what do they get in return? Nothing.
But an income tax would not be enough.
It wasn’t enough. Not for the people who thought that they were better then everyone else. Oh, no.
After all, government can only tax people up to a certain point before they decide to revolt. American politicians, of all people, knew that!
So an even more insidious institution would be created, also in 1913. It would be called The Federal Reserve. This central bank would be granted a monopoly on counterfeiting money.
Pure genius!
Take the blame out of the hand of the government and put it into an unaccountable entity. Such wonderful genius.
The Impact…
How much money?
As much money as the government needs in order to sprawl itself around the world. Every American would be forced to use this “money,” of course, even though its purchasing power would be constantly eroded. Legal Tender Laws would make sure that there was no way out.
It’s ok, though.
Americans voted for the people who decided to implement this system. You know…
… one hundred years ago.
And the people in charge allocated their responsibilities and veto power to other people…
…other people who turned it over to others…
…who allocated it to others…
… who decided to pass it on to others…
… who would work in the best interests to make the system work….
Sounds bad. Well, sorry, that’s the way it is.
And so, with an income tax and a printing press, the Land of The Free would morph, over the next 100+ years, into the biggest government to ever exist … the biggest military empire to ever exist … and the biggest welfare state to ever exist.
Aren’t you all happy?
American leadership knows just how to manipulate and cajole the American serf-cash-cows… erp, I mean citizens.
Freedom!
Washington & Jefferson would not recognize this at all. It’s literally the exact opposite of why the 13 colonies seceded from England.
It is.
Do not tell me that it is not the case.
This new era of empire would be dominated by “Bread and Circuses”. There would be plenty of food, and plenty of entertainment. What happens outside of America would remain out-of-sight and out-of-mind.
Yeah.
All political fighting inside of America would take place between two virtually indistinguishable factions. The gangs would passionately battle each other, but they would never battle the policy of empire.
Yeah.
Policy is the only thing that matters. But Americans would be flooded with a deluge of propaganda telling them that the ability to change politicians is a gift from the heavens. That, they would be told, is the only thing that matters.
Yeah.
And so, throughout this period, the politicians would certainly change, but the policy wouldn’t budge even a single inch. In other words, the politicians would change….but it wouldn’t matter!
And now…
So now we have two sets of 100 year periods in American history, each guided by completely opposite ideas.
The first produced liberty and prosperity in tremendous abundance. The second has produced a dependency, militancy and debauchery that has always been the lot of mankind living under the boot of power.
American today. This is what America is, it rules by force, and power.
The two one hundred year periods…
The first was underpinned by peace, trade, sound money, savings and investment.
The first one hundred years of America was one with solid and conservative values. It put the individual in full control of his domain, and kept the government small. People lived their lives as they deemed fit.
The second has been underpinned by war, sanctions, counterfeit money, taxes, and crushing debt.
The second hundred years has been nothing but war after war, after war. All funded with more and more, and more taxes. You know for “democracy”. Everything in this picture was destroyed with American bombs, and weapons, fired by American soldiers, and used by America to spread American “democracy”. This is the reality today.
And us, the American citizens…
Those who live are always presented with a choice — continue, or change?
America: CONTINUE or CHANGE?
For years…
Years…
Generations..
No one did any thing.
America. Americans live in a constant state of fear and are really too afraid to change anything. They are just content to yell about their “freedom” and the wonderful “democracy”, instead of doing things and fixing things.
Nothing.
Weaklings. Lazy. Slothful.
Our parents, grand parents, great-grand parents.
Change happens through individual choice. The ideas that we each individually embrace mean everything.
Real change can happen when we stop allowing the government to take over society. We need to throw away that connection. Because a corrupt government will corrupt society.
People!
A corrupt government will corrupt society.
Power lives and breathes on your belief in it. Why do you think you’re surrounded by propaganda at every turn?
For fun?
No! … It’s to keep you believing.
You do not need to live your life in fear. Prepping is well and good, but your government should be on your side. Not the other way around.
It’s to convince you that liberty is dead. And that government has the keys to your happiness. You just keep on following the media talking points. Nothing else matters.
Reality
However, if you change your belief, you change everything. You breathe life into the idea of liberty.
If you breathe life into the idea of liberty, you make America a much better place.
Washington left us with these wonderful words: “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
The choice is always yours…..continue, or change?
And that is it.
Thank you Ron Paul.
Many Americans mistakenly believe that “America is the greatest nation in the world”, simply based on the longevity of the nation. That’s just pure ignorance. The nation had changed governmental structure numerous times.
Founded as a Republic.
Changed to a Democracy with the 12th amendment.
Centralized Federal Democracy during the Civil War.
Progressive Social Democracy under President Wilson.
Military Oligarchy under President Lindon Johnson.
Corrupt Military Totalitarian Empire today.
If you believe that what is written makes sense than you have two choices of action. They are [1] take immediate action to protect you and your family, or [2] ignore it.
If you ignore it, then that if fine. Just listen to me and do not allow the American propaganda to force you to live within fear. The world is not a terrible and dark place. Good people are everywhere and the world outside the United States increasingly looks like a modern scene from the televisions show “Wally and the Beaver”.
Avoid the American “news”. In all of it’s forms…
What in the world is the American government up to? I thought that the ninth amendment states that Americans have more rights than just the enumerated ones.
If you don’t believe that this is the state of affairs, then you can can ignore this and read CNN, MSN and WaPo to tell you what to believe and how to act.
Do not live your life in fear. DO NOT LIVE YOUR LIFE IN FEAR!
It’s your choice.
American news is really just propaganda. It is designed to keep Americans into a state of control. While real events and real news is kept secret.
Commentary and Conclusion
Kinda of boring,eh?
Well, that’s the way it is. America has stratified, and it is the rich vs. the slaves and there is nothing that exists in the “dead-lands” between the two groups. This is the sum total of the “wonderful” progressive utopia implemented by President Wilson in the early part of the last century and engineered to perfection today.
You like it?
You’d better, because there ain’t no way that you can change it. You are fucked.
You are fucked.
Fucked.
Welcome to being an American.
Put a smile on your face. It’s your life.
Rah! Rah.
“freedom”. “liberty”, “democracy”! Rah. Rah!
Hope you keep all your receipts to give to the IRS in April. You don’t want to suffer the consequences for “non-compliance”, now don’t you? It’s all part of that big “freedom” package that comes with “democracy” don’t you know.
Friendly IRS making sure that you will not cheat your owners out of their money. You had best obey or else you and your family will be shot dead. It’s all so very progressive and modern, don’t you know!
I hope you enjoyed this little narrative. You can find more, and better, discussions on other SHTF posts, Accessed here…
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
The word medieval is often treated as synonymous with filth, lawlessness and brutality. In particular the recent actions of ISIS and their treatment of prisoners have been called 'medieval’ by journalists, commentators and bloggers alike. But why do we do this, and is it fair?
-History Today
While many of us are grateful for the 40-hour work week, Medieval peasants worked far less than even that.
When professor Juliet Schor released her book, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, the average American was shocked. According to her research, they were working more days and taking fewer vacation days than a medieval peasant.
Americans are working harder, and being rewarded less, than a Medieval serf.
Now, her scholarly presentation was correct. American life has migrated far, far away from what it was like during Medieval times. There are good and bad things about this. But we need to put things into perspective. Because most Americans have a very warped idea of what life was like in the past.
American Misconceptions…
Americans mistakenly believe that Medieval life was far, far different than the lives we live today. I counter the opposite. Aside from technology and medicine, socially and economically, we are identical.
Let’s get rid of some misconceptions…
Typical Misconception 1. Peasants were a single class of people who were more or less equal to one another.
It's easy to think that people in the Middle Ages were easily divided into very broad classes: royals, nobles, knights, clergy, and toiling peasants at the very bottom. But just because you didn't have "king," "lord," "sir," "father," or "brother" (or their female analogs) in front of your name doesn't mean you weren't concerned with your own social standing. There are vast classes of people whom, today, we might generally refer to as "peasants," but there were actually various classes of people within that broad category.
Mortimer points out that, in 14th-century England, for example, you have your villeins, people bonded to a particular lord's land. Villeins were not considered free folk, and they could be sold with the lord's land. And free folk were of a variety of social and economic classes. A freeholder, for example, might become successful enough to rent a lord's manor, essentially acting as a lord himself. And, in a village, a few families might hold the majority of the political power, supplying most of the local officers. We may tend to think of these people as "peasants," but they had much more complicated ways of thinking of themselves, with all the class anxiety that goes with that.
Much like today. American society is stratified. America hardly has a middle class. Most of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few elite. The rest of us fight against each other for the “table scraps” thrown to the side by “trickle down economics”.
Misconception 2. Inns were public houses with big common halls below and rooms above.
There are few images as firmly rooted in pseudo-Medieval fantasy as the tavern inn. You and your party enjoy a few flagons of ale in the main room, hear all the local gossip, then go up to your private rented chamber where you'd sleep (alone or with a lover) on a lumpy mattress.
That image isn't wholly fiction, but the truth is a bit more complicated — not to mention interesting. In Medieval England, if you combined a city inn with an alehouse, you'd probably get something resembling that fantasy inn. There were inns where you could rent a bed (or, more likely, a space in a bed), and these inns did have halls for eating and drinking. But these were not public houses; innkeepers were generally permitted to serve food and drink only to their guests. And, Mortimer points out, you would likely find a single room with several beds, beds that could fit up to three people. It was only in the most upscale inns that you'd find chambers with just one or two beds.
There were establishments for drinking in these cities as well: taverns for wine and alehouses for ale. Of the two, alehouses were the rowdier establishments, more likely to function as your Medieval Mos Eisley. But ale and cider were often made at home as well; a husband might expect his wife to be skilled in brewing. The Gieses note in Life in a Medieval Village that a tavern in an English village was often someone's home. Once your neighbor opened up a fresh batch of ale, you might go to their house, pay a few pennies, and sit and drink with your fellow villagers.
There are other options for accommodations as well. Travelers could expect the hospitality of people of equal or lesser social class, enjoying their food and beds in exchange for tales from the road and a tip. (Mortimer says that, if you were lucky enough to stay with a 14-century merchant, the digs were much nicer than any inn.) Or you might go to a hospital, which was not just for healing, but also for hospitality.
Like America today, there are all sorts of accommodation. Is the modern housing APPs any different from the medieval arrangement? It’s just a modern equivalent.
Misconception 3. You would never see a woman engaged in a trade such as armorer or merchant.
Certainly, some fantasy stories will cast women in equal (or relatively equal) positions to men, carrying out the same sorts of trades that men might carry out. But in many fictional stories, a woman who makes armor or sells good would seem out of place — although this does not universally reflect Medieval reality. In England, a widow could take up the trade of her dead husband — and Mortimer specifically cites tailor, armorer, and merchant as trades open to widows. Some female merchants were actually quite successful, managing international trading ventures with impressive capital.
Women engaged in criminal activity as well, including banditry. Many criminal gangs in Medieval England consisted of families, including wives with their husbands and sisters with their brothers.
Men and women shared and swapped roles in the past, much we do today. There is nothing new or progressive about that.
Misconception 4. People had horrible table manners, throwing bones and scraps on the floor.
Sorry, even in the Middle Ages, members of polite society, from kings to villeins, followed certain etiquette, and that etiquette involved good table manners. In fact, depending on when and where and with whom you were eating, you might have to follow very strict procedures for eating and drinking. Here's a tip: If a lord passes you his cup at the dinner table, it's a sign of his favor. Accept it, backwash and all, and pass it back to him after you've had a sip.
Manners are part of the human condition. While they might vary from society to society, manners follow us everywhere.
Misconception 5. People distrusted all forms of magic and witches were frequently burned.
In some fantasy stories, magic is readily accepted by everyone as a fact of life. In others, magic is treated with suspicion at best or as blasphemy at worst. You might even hear the Biblical edict, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
But not all claims of magic in the Middle Ages were treated as heresy. In her essay "Witches and the Myth of the Medieval 'Burning Time,'" from Misconceptions About the Middle Ages, Anita Obermeier tells us that during the 10th century, the Catholic Church wasn't interested in trying witches for heresy; it was more interested in eradicating heretical superstitions about "night-flying creatures."
And in 14th-century England, you might consult a magician or a witch for some minor "magical" task, such as finding a lost object. In Medieval England, at least, magic without any heretical components was tolerated. Eventually, the late 15th century would give rise to the Spanish Inquisition, and we do see witches hunted down.
Witch burnings weren't unheard of in the Middle Ages, but they weren't common, either. Obermeier explains that, in the 11th century, sorcery was treated as a secular crime, but the church would issue several reprimands before it would resort to burning. She puts the first burning for heresy at 1022 in Orleans and the second at 1028 in Monforte. It's rare in the 11th and 12th centuries, but becomes a more common punishment in the 13th century for relapsed heretics. However, it depends where you are. In the 14th century, you probably won't be burned as a witch in England, but you may very well get the stake in Ireland.
Much like today. You might have trouble finding a practitioner of the Black Arts in the Southern American states, but you won’t have problems in New Orleans. Or Los Angles. Or Detroit. Or New York. Or Baltimore.
Misconception 6. Men's clothing was always practical and functional.
Yes, Medieval people of various classes were interested in fashion, and sometimes fashion — particularly men's fashion — got pretty absurd. Early clothing is more functional, but during the 14th century, men's fashions in England were both body-bearing and rather experimental. Corsets and garters were common for men, and increasingly, popular fashions encouraged men to show off the shape of their hips and legs. Some aristocratic men wore gowns with sleeves so long they were in danger of tripping on the cuffs. It became fashionable to wear shoes with extraordinarily long toes — one such shoe, imported from Bohemia, had twenty-inch toes that needed to be tied to a man's garters. There was even a fad of wearing one's mantle so that the head went through the arm hole rather than the head hole, with the sleeves functioning as a voluminous collar.
It's also important to note that fashions would trickle down from royalty, through the aristocracy, and down to the common folk. In the seasons after a fashion appeared among the nobility, a less expensive version would appear among those of lesser stations. In fact, sumptuary laws were passed in London to prevent people from dressing above their stations. For example, a common woman in 1330s London was not permitted to line her hood with anything but lambskin or rabbit fur, or risk losing her hood.
Much like today. The fashions might change, but the importance of having them is a time honored standard.
Misconception 7. Servants were all low-class people.
Actually, if you were a high-ranking individual, chances are that you had high-ranking servants. A lord might send his son to serve in another lord's manor — perhaps that of his wife's brother. The son would receive no income, but would still be treated as the son of a lord. A lord's steward might actually be a lord himself. Your status in society isn't just based on whether or not you were a servant, but also your familial status, whom you served, and what your particular job was.
Something you might not expect about servants in English households in the late Middle Ages: they were overwhelmingly male. Mortimer points to the earl of Devon's household, which had 135 members, but only three women. With the exception of a washerwoman (who didn't live in the household), the staffers were all men, even in households headed by women.
Most Americans today fall in the below-middle class; the serf and slave classes. We do not have servants.
However, the wealthy do. If you were to poll the wealthy Democrat politicians in America today, you would discover that their contemporaneous servants would indeed fit the Medieval model.
Misconception 8. Medicine was based on pure superstition.
Admittedly, if you're looking outside of Game of Thrones, a lot of healing in fantasy novels is just plain magical. You've got your cleric class who gets their healing from the gods, and otherwise you might have someone on hand who can dress a wound or make a poultice.
And yes, a lot of Medieval medicine was based on what we would consider today mystical bunk. A great deal of diagnosis involved astrology and humoral theory. Blood letting was a respected method of treatment, and many of the curatives were not only useless — they were downright dangerous. And while there were medical colleges, extraordinarily few physicians were able to attend.
Still, some aspects of Medieval medicine were logical even by modern standards. Wrapping smallpox in scarlet cloth, treating gout with colchicum, using camomile oil for an earache — these were all effective treatments. And while the notion of a barber-surgeon is a horrifying one to many of us, some of those surgeons were actually quite talented. John of Arderne employed anesthetics in his practice, and many surgeons were skilled in couching cataracts, sewing abscesses, and setting bones.
Not so different from today. While American “big pharma” and high technology has saturated American culture, practitioners of chiropractic techniques, acupuncture, herbal medicine and Chinese traditional medicine abound.
Misconception 9. The most powerful military force consisted of armored knights riding into battle.
James G. Patterson, in his essay "The Myth of the Mounted Knight" from Misconceptions About the Middle Ages, explains that while the image of the mounted knight might have been a popular one during Medieval times, it didn't match the reality of warfare. Armored cavalry, he explains, can be incredibly useful — even devastating — against untrained revolutionaries, but they were far less useful against a trained foreign infantry. Rather, ground forces, including knights on foot who frequently served as officers, were invaluable in battle. Even during the Crusades, when the image of the mounted knight seemed synonymous with glory in battle, most the actual battles involved sieges.
In the 14th century, English warfare focused increasingly on archery. In fact, Edward III prohibited football in 1331 and then again in 1363 in part because people were spending too much time playing football and not enough time practicing their archery. The English archers were able to repel many a French cavalry force.
Aside from technological differences, force mixtures, arrays and alignments remain the same.
Misconception 10. Only men's sexual pleasure was important.
A common belief during the Middle Ages was that women were more lustful than men. A lot more lustful, in fact. Rape was a crime in 14th century Medieval England, but not between spouses. A wife could not legally refuse her husband's advances, but a husband could not refuse his wife's advances either. The popular belief was that women were always longing for sex, and that it was bad for their health not to have intercourse regularly. A woman's orgasm was also important; another common belief was that a woman could not conceive without an orgasm. (Unfortunately, this also made rape impossible to prosecute if the victim became pregnant; Medieval English scholars believed women's bodies had a way of, in the modern parlance, shutting things down.)
So what was an unmarried woman to do? Well, if she couldn't find a husband, the English physician John of Gaddesden recommended that she find a midwife who could get the job done manually.
Men and women both have sexual needs that must be met.
As I have stated, the point must be made clear that aside from differences in technology and culture, mankind has not really matured away from what it was one thousand years ago.
Americans, aside from technology advancements, live within the same kind of ruler – serf arrangement that existed during Medieval times.
Thus, subtracting those influences, we can compare life between the two times. We can compare lifestyle, leisure and freedom. However, when we take a look with these new eyes of ours, we become astounded.
Americans are working more days and taking fewer vacation days than a medieval peasant.
The numbers.
Unfortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest available data only supports this notion. Indeed, the average annual hours worked by Americans in 2017 reached 1,780, whereas an adult male peasant in the United Kingdom worked an average of 1,620.
Let’s take a closer look at why we work 160 hours more than the average serf.
Productivity vs. Annual hours of work.
Because the need for agricultural labor in the Middle Ages was season-dependent, the average peasant had about eight weeks to half the year off.
Plus, the Church knew the opportunity to rest would keep workers happy and orderly, so they ordered frequent mandatory holidays.
Farm life painted by Norman Rockwell.
The 70 to 80-hour work week for the average 19th-century laborer in the industrial revolution was actually a deviation from the ways of their medieval predecessors. Arguing for an eight-hour workday was not so much a push for the progressive, but a return to the ways of yore.
Indeed, medieval peasants enjoyed a less rigid workday.
Meals weren’t rushed and the afternoon might call for a nap.
“The tempo of life was slow, even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed,” said Schor. “Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure.”
Feeding time.
Work hours weren’t as rigid back then due to a variety of factors including season-dependent tasks.
A 16th-century Bishop wrote of the average workday of his time…
“The labouring man will take his rest in the morning; a good piece of the day is spent afore he come at his work; then he must have his breakfast…
At noon he must have his sleeping time,
then his bever in the afternoon, which spendeth a great part of the day;
and when his hour cometh at night, at the first stroke of the clock he casteth down his tools, leaveth his work, in what need or case soever the work standeth.”
While we may be accustomed to images of medieval peasants toiling away from dawn until dusk and be convinced from this that we have it better than they ever did — a 13th-century laborer could have up to 25 weeks off per year.
For reference, the average American worker has 16 days of vacation per year.
Life was slower, the pace was slower. People were more content.
“Consider a typical working day in the medieval period,” said Schor. “It stretched from dawn to dusk (sixteen hours in summer and eight in winter), but, as Bishop Pilkington has noted, work was intermittent…
… called to halt for breakfast, lunch, the customary afternoon nap, and dinner. Depending on time and place, there were also mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshment breaks.”
A milk maid and her cows.
Additionally, the medieval calendar was also one of many official
Church-going holidays which were always considered mandatory. In total,
leisure time in medieval England took up probably about one-third of the
year.
The U.S. is the only advanced country with no national vacation policy.
Vacation days around the world by employee contract.
But since the Reagan era, the security of long-term employment has steadily declined.
Our generation has become accustomed to hopping from job to job and adding a part-time gig on top as to combat the fears of a fluctuation economy. With a Great Recession ingrained in our psyche, vacations seem like a luxury.
The United States is the only first-world country without a national
vacation policy, after all. Millions work on public holidays and don’t
use their vacation days for fear of retribution. With a horrific lack of
standardized, easily accessible healthcare — sick days and vacation
days often blend together.
According to the World Economic Forum,
the Greeks have the longest work week in the European Union (EU).
Granted, they’ve struggled with a terrible economy in recent years which
could explain the additional effort.
The simple life.
However, Germany is second to last in the EU when it comes to annual
hours worked and has a generous work model in place. It is, nonetheless,
an economic behemoth. An average German works 1,363 hours per year
which goes to show that vacation days might actually improve a nation’s
GDP.
The Peasant Wedding by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1567 or 1568. The Medieval calendar set aside vacations for saints’ days, weddings, church holidays, rest days, and more.
Indeed, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine,
which conducted a nine-year experiment, the frequency of annual
vacations is directly “associated with a reduced risk of all-cause
mortality” and concluded that “vacationing may be good for your health.”
Paid vacations and paid holidays in different nations.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the United States Congress is getting more vacation days than the average American citizen. According to Thought Co., its members make a base salary of $174,000 and work fewer than half of the days in a year — and this is perhaps not even to mention this years shut down.
Congressmen, and Senators in Washington DC live lavish lifestyles and lord over Americans like Kings over peasants.
Now…
You would think that any “red blooded” American man would say “take this job and shove it” to their employer for not giving them vacation and sick time, and having to wait a full one year to take it. But that never happens.
American’s don’t do that.
Because…
Most Americans Are Up To Their Eyeballs In Debt
In the United States, it has been common to pay via credit card for almost anything, but the use of credit cards hasn’t been as widely accepted in other places around the world.
A decade ago, you couldn’t pay for much in Germany with them, and the same is true of many European and Asian nations, though they are growing in popularity.
For Americans, credit and debt are simply a way of life.
A large part of American culture is capitalist consumer-driven markets, which means, Americans like to buy stuff, and they often do so via some form of credit. Why wait to buy a new computer when you can pay it off with some interest over the next five years?
Shepherdess watching over her flock.
The main reason it’s not a great idea has to do with an accumulation of debt.
Americans buy one thing, then another, and another, and before they know what they’ve done, they owe an average of $38,000 in debt, and the trend is showing an increase.
$38K is already a huge number for most people, but if you add it up, it shows just how deep the nation is in debt.
Americans cannot get the lifestyle they deserve because they are chained to dept, like indentured serfs working on a plantation.
When you take that average and factor in the population and demographic information, the nation as a whole owes $4,000,000,000,000 in all forms of consumer debt.
That number includes credit card debt, which has an average interest rate of 17.41%. The bottom line: Americans are drowning in debt, and the problem is worsening.
Americans cannot get the lifestyle they deserve because they are chained to dept, like indentured serfs working on a plantation.
Being indentured slaves is problematic. It creates a situation whereas you have a stratification of society.
Indentured slaves work for the ruling class.
Ruling class lives a life of ease and comfort.
If you do not fit into either of those two classes, you become homeless.
Thus, in America…
Homelessness And Wealth Distribution Is A Serious Problem
Homelessness is a problem all over the world, and while you can find it in developed nations like the UK and France, the United States has far more in contrast to other developed Western nations – with the exception of the other oligarchy; the UK.
Selected nations and their homelessness compared.
As of 2018, about 0.17% of the American population was living on the streets, and while that doesn’t seem like a lot, it amounts to more than 553,000 people.
The states with the most homeless people are California, New York, Florida, Washington, Oregon, and Texas; coincidentally, most of these states have higher amounts of population density, but they also have some of the wealthiest people in the country.
Homeless in the United States.
Homelessness is a serious problem, and fortunately, there are people and organizations working to help provide temporary and permanent housing to displaced Americans.
The most obvious question is if the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, why are so many people homeless?
The complicated economics of the States doesn’t offer a simple answer, but there is an obvious disparity between the wealthiest people and the folks who have nothing.
Because the number of Americans who are insanely wealthy remains low, the top 1% of wealthy Americans hold 40% of the total national wealth.
America is stratified into the Ruler class (Kings) and serfs. Those that do not fit within those two classes are social outcasts and homeless.
Now, all of this high concentration of wealth into the hand of a few means that the rest of the people make do with less. Less money is available for repair. Less money is available for healthcare. Less money is available for maintenance, and less money is available for new things.
You can this how the money disappears when you witness the absence of proper resource allocation…
The United States Has A Crumbling Infrastructure
Contemporaneous American bridge.
If it took a long time for this page to load and get to the article, you may be somewhere in the United States.
Despite being the country chiefly responsible for inventing what became the Internet, the US languishes behind many other nations in terms of download speeds.
The United States ranks 38th out of 141 nations on the Speed-test Global Index. The country falls just below Portugal and sits on top of Spain. The main reason the US has poor Internet is due to the cost of overhauling the telecommunications infrastructure, but that’s not the only part of American infrastructure that’s lacking; the roads, bridges, dams, water, and power systems are all falling apart, and nobody wants to pay to have them fixed.
Countries with the fastest internet.
The politicians talk about fixing infrastructure all the time, but nothing has come out of it.
Meanwhile, 47,000 bridges are in serious need of repair with the possibility of a catastrophic failure should a rather large pigeon fire some droppings on the wrong platform.
HK-China bridge. The Chinese have invested heavily on their infrastructure.
Roads are also a serious problem, and the effect is noticeable if you drive down any major highway in the United States. The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation determined that 42,000 road deaths were the result of potholes and other road maintenance issues.
A lack of healthy infrastructure is a “sure fire” sign of a ruler-serf government.
What other indicators are there?
Well, the ruler-serf arrangement is not stable – historically speaking. So efforts are made to control the bulk of the population using laws, rules and strong policing efforts. Laws are made to prevent the people from overthrowing the government. Not to improve the lives of the people.
The way that you can judge the degree of ruler-serf control is…
…is to look at the size of the prison / jail / parole population.
Thus…
The US Has The Largest Prison Population In The World
Americans have the greatest chance of being incarcerated than anyone else in the entire world.
This statistic is widely known, but it’s likely most Americans aren’t aware of just how bad the penal system in the country is.
The United States has more imprisoned people than any other nation on the planet.
For every 100,000 citizens, 724 are in prison, and when you see that number, it may not look large, but for China, their number is only 118 out of 100K.
The number becomes an even bigger problem when accounting for the total population of prisoners in the States, which is around 2.2 million, and the jail occupancy rate is at 107.6%, meaning they are overcrowded and insufficient to house what amounts to the equivalent population of Macedonia.
The rest of the world will not arrest you for having a lemonade stand in your front yard, jay walking, or riding in a car without a seatbelt. They will not demand you report your earnings and expenses every year to them. They will permit you to live your life.
Overcrowding is just one of the many problems facing incarcerated Americans; another major concern revolves around the fact that more than 21% of incarcerated people haven’t been sentenced with a crime. Doing so usually takes a long time.
You see, if a person can’t afford bail, they have to remain in prison until they’re sentenced, even if they are ultimately acquitted of a crime. This essentially means that because everyone is innocent until proven guilty, the United States has more than 460,000 innocent people in jail.
Conclusion
Being a serf in the middle ages, for most Americans, would be an improvement over their lives today.
The pleasures of spending time with family and loved ones, a slower pace, and good food and drink are not appreciated by Americans today.
Both situations; serfhood under a modern progressive oligarchy, or serfhood under a King, are similar. The differences lie in technology and lifestyle.
While life in the middle ages didn’t have all the modern inventions and advancements that we take for granted, their pace of life, lifestyle and easy-going happy-go-lucky life had advantages that Americans today can only dream about.
We are not machines. Toss away that progressive modern Marxist ideal. It has no place within your life.
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Now that President Trump has released almost all of the documentation related to the President Kennedy murder, a full picture surfaces. It’s an ugly one, indeed. We now know in full detail how the President was assassinated, who the people were who participated in it, who covered it up, and the motivations behind it. It’s very interesting, but a very long study because it touches on a number of principles that Americans are uncomfortable with…
The wealthy guard their money and power ruthlessly.
They have complete control of the American media.
They have complete control of the American police.
They have complete control of the American military.
They treat Americans as farm animals (cash cows).
They kill anyone that stands in their way.
The following video is a long one, but is very complete. Watch it.
We can now see the entire state of affairs about what our nation is, what is actually stands for and how it actually operates. So when I speak about the “oligarchy”, it should be taken to mean…
Oligarchy = Secret American Government
And, as such… it has affected everything. From technology acquisition (MAJestic), to geopolitical interactions, to society. Our world, our nation, the life that we live is what has been created for us by this oligarchy.
Yupper.
Let that sink in.
There will be a reset of sorts within America, but how it will “play out” and evolve is anyone’s guess. What you can expect is that the oligarchy will not relinquish their control or power easily. That a return to a more democratic representative, or republican form of government is impossible without serious conflict. And, that there will be a period of discomfort during this adjustment period.
I do NOT know how it will evolve. Certainly there are both human and “other” elements that favor the status quo, and they will permit an enormous amount of strife, as long as they can control it’s outcome and utility.
Those that control the United States are far too powerful, too dangerous, and too ruthless for removal. As such, the individual must plan accordingly.
If you enjoyed this post, I have others that can be found in various links such as this…
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because I just don’t care to.
There is a sizable majority of the American (and by extension, globalist) oligarchy believe that they will be able to “ride out” the coming “shit-storm” of societal upheaval slated for America. They have bought land, and established residences, and constructed mini-fortresses in far away lands for precisely this purpose. Well, I am going to be the first to lay out the truth; you all will not be able to avoid your comeuppance.
It’s coming.
It’s heading and barrelling right down upon all of us, and this time, the oligarchy will be not be spared.
The American second civil war will not be like Bosnia, Rhodesia, Rwanda, or any other revolutionary messes. You know the ones. Where the wealthy creates a situation, and then skedaddles off to a “safe haven” to wait out the societal reconstruction.
Take note. This time is different.
We are coming after you.
The world is connected. There’s a Burger King and Pizza Hut on Tutuila island, for goodness sakes! Internet is everywhere. We know where your “hidy holes” are, and who built them, and when, and what mechanical systems you utilize. We know which planes you fly, who pilots them, and where the pilots families reside.
We know a lot more than you think we know, and (drop the bullshit) you know that us “deplorables” are not at all the under-educated white racists that you so loudly proclaim. We are watching you all with seething anger.
I met Lloyd Blankfein at a Super Bowl. It was the New England Patriots and the New Jersey Giants. And Blankfein came up to me, “I know who you are, but you don’t know who I am.” And I said, “The hell I don’t! You run Goldman Sachs. I know who –” and he was stunned that I knew who he was. He said, “I know who you are,” like, “I know who you are. Ha-ha. I know what you’re up to, but you don’t know who I am.” “Oh, yes, I do.”
-Rush Limbaugh
We are chomping at the bit for an excuse to come after you all. It’s gonna be glorious.
Factory
workers, with their company name badges, in the parking lot of their
employer. Two dead and one dying with his legs shot off. He and his
co-workers had no idea that “world war III” would break out while they
were trying to clock in at work. When one group of people identify
another group, and target them with hate, and violence, it only
escalates. It gets worse. Eventually there is whole-scale blood shed. Do
not be under the illusion that it will never happen in America. There
are enormous groups of people just chomping at the bit to attack
conservatives and traditionalists. All in the name of a progressive
utopia.
See how easy it was to find this information, on just a three key-word search. Very easy.
But you know, escape anywhere will be fraught with problems. We, as humans, are all interconnected. He have histories, associations, and ties. And, it’s not all “black and white” internet data streams either. It’s personal. It’s visceral.
It's not going to be like you all think. With some kind of race genocide, on top of political machinations, with overtures of hicks riding around like some scene out of Mad Max.
There are going to be elements of WWIII, and WMD. There's going to be a great deal of political and sociological changes, and you are right to realize that "blue areas" in America will not be safe.
But you are wrong to think that you all can sneak away and go somewhere where you will be forgotten. You will NOT be forgotten.
Let that sink in.
And, it’s all going to come back and haunt you.
What? You think that you don’t have siblings, who are married with kids? You think that they are immune from the consequences of your evil machinations? You think that you are NOT on watch lists? You think that your behavior is not tracked? You think that your “connections” in whatever government entity will protect you?
Listen up.
The world is not a new “enlightened”, and “progressive” reality where wars are long behind us. Where citizens will turn in their weapons willingly to be serfs under a wise Kingly leader. Nope. Those are all imaginary fantasies that many of you all believe.
They are not true.
Most of human history has been fraught with terrible, terrible battles and conflicts. Where entire blood lines were executed. Where women, if they were lucky, were enslaved as sex slaves, while everyone else were killed. Know your history. Entire cities were decimated. Men, women, children, even the dogs and cats. All killed and the ground salted afterwards.
The time has come that you all must start to live like the Kings of old. With poison testers, thrice-tested body guards, and loyalty oaths that are rock solid. You will not be able to hole-up behind strong stone walls. You will not be able to escape to a land where you will be unknown and untraceable. You will not be able to escape the wrath of your fellow citizens who have spent decades watching you cart your weight around and lord over us.
We are coming for you.
Know your history. This is what really happens when a particular group comes to power and their enemies are disarmed. It is never pretty. Know your history.
You think that your accents, behaviors, and lifestyle won’t give you away. You think that being a flabby old white dude walking on the beach of Mahebourg on Mauritus will be overlooked? Is that what you think? Do you actually believe that an extensive underground lair in Dunedin will protect you? Hey! Am I being specific enough for you? Or, perhaps you think that you will be different…
We are coming for you.
No, you do not have to worry about one singular person. Personally, I not going to do Jack Shit. But what you will need to worry about is the consequences of your support… in all the myriad of ways… for the coming Shit Storm that is going to engulf the United States into a conflagration of an unparalleled magnitude.
Read your history books. You cannot simply take on a defensive posture and hole up like some hermit in a monastery while Rome burns, or the Huns sack your city, rape your women and torture everyone else.
The “bubble” of civility is coming to an abrupt end.
Graphic photograph of a capture and subsequent rape of a young girl by German soldiers. Know your history. This will be common. Know your history.
It had a good run. At least in America, it did. Eighty years. That’s long enough to assume that things will always be a certain way, and full danger is really only the stuff of nightmares. Well, it is ending.
In large part because of your actions.
As such, the historical “normal” is returning. Buckle up. You and yours are all in the cross hairs.
Greek authors rarely go into any detail when describing the fall of a city, so if we want to know what this really means, we are to some extent forced to use our imagination. However, it's clear from what little we hear that Xenophon's 'universal law' usually meant 3 things:
All movable property was taken
All adult men were killed
All women, children and elderly men were sold into slavery.
The first of these points is least well attested, but probably most widespread. Every warrior who was sent against an enemy settlement would hope to come away with a profit.
Homes could be stripped of furniture and metal objects; temples could be robbed of their dedications and temple treasuries emptied. If there was time, even the rooftiles and wooden fittings of houses could be torn off and carried away.
The simple fact that large amounts of ancient coinage and jewellry was preserved in its hiding place (buried, thrown into wells, etc.) shows that people were quite concerned to keep their valuables out of the hands of greedy invaders.
The second point is better known, because it was a matter of justice and pride. When a city was attacked, it could choose to surrender; if it did not, it forfeited any claim to mercy. Those who had decided to resist their enemies would get what they deserved. The most explicit example of this is the fate Agamemnon desired for Troy:
Not a single one of them must escape sheer destruction at our hands. Not even if a mother carries one in her belly and he is male, not even he should escape. All together they must be exterminated from Troy, their bodies untended and invisible.
-- Iliad 6.57-62
There are loads of examples from Greek history of sieges ending with the slaughter of all adult men. These massacres removed the defeated community's ability to fight and ensured that there would be no further resistance.
The third point arises from the fact that the Greeks seem to have considered it barbaric to kill captured women and children as well as men. The few examples of this in Greek history were condemned as savage. Once the needs of revenge had been satisfied, the remaining population was instead considered a potential source of profit:
When they were delivered to her by the Persians, Pheretime took the most guilty of the Barkaians and set them impaled around the top of the wall; the breasts of their women she cut off and planted around the wall in like manner. As for the rest of the Barkaians, she told the Persians to take them as plunder.
-- Herodotos 4.202
There was substantial money to be made from this, which is why commanders sometimes tried to restrain the bloodlust of their victorious troops. Even if it was just, as well as satisfying, to kill the defenders, it still amounted to the destruction of a source of income:
Dionysios' entire army burst into the city (...) and now every spot was a scene of mass slaughter; for the Sicilian Greeks, eager to return cruelty for cruelty, slew everyone they encountered, sparing without distinction not a child, not a woman, not an elder. Dionysios, wishing to sell the inhabitants into slavery for the money he could gather, at first attempted to restrain the soldiers from murdering the captives, but when no one paid any attention to him and he saw that the fury of the Sicilian Greeks was not to be controlled, he stationed heralds to cry aloud and tell the Motyans to take refuge in the temples which were revered by the Greeks. When this was done, the soldiers ceased their slaughter and turned to looting the property.
-- Diodoros of Sicily 14.53.1-3
The beginning of this passage is unique in actually describing a scene that must have been typical when a city fell to a Greek army. Most successful siege assaults were not the result of elaborate circumvallation, but of a surprise assault or betrayal.
As a result, rather than bottling up the helpless enemy from all sides, the attackers usually entered the city from one point and began their rampage from there.
Those left in the city therefore had two choices: either to resist or to flee. The former would result in the brutal fate sketched above - but the latter explains how Greek communities often seem to have survived a lost siege despite the genocidal intent of their attackers. It was often possible for a substantial part of the population to get away.
Their ultimate fate would then depend on what the victorious enemy intended to do with the settlement. Sometimes (especially in the Archaic period) their intent was to seize the territory for themselves; in these cases the town would be razed, and the fugitive population cast adrift. Fear of this outcome was supposed to keep the Spartans in the fight against the Messenians early in their history:
The most wretched of all things is for a man to leave his city and its fertile fields, reduced to the life of a beggar, wandering with his mother and aged father, his little children and wedded wife. Wherever he ends up, he will be as an enemy dwelling among them. He will succumb to need and detestable poverty, bring shame upon his family, disgrace his splendid looks. All forms of dishonour and misery will dog him. Since this is how it is and no one cares for or respects a wanderer or his offspring at all, let us fight hard for our land and die for our children without sparing our lives.
-- Tyrtaios fr. 10.3-14
If they had friends elsewhere, they might be able to obtain a temporary home, or even gain resident status and a home away from home, as the Plataians did at Athens when the Spartans razed their settlement in 427 BC.
In the Classical period, the intention was often rather to plant settlers on the conquered territory in order to expand the victorious city's number of land-owning citizens. This is what Athens did with the land of most of its defeated enemies from 506 BC onward. In such cases, the captured city might be reinhabited - at times by the new settlers along with the old population of women and children, whom they took as wives or slaves.
Alternatively, once due vengeance had been exacted, the remnants of the city's population could simply be allowed to return to it, often subjected to tribute and an imposed political regime. When the Athenians finally lost their fleet at Aigospotamoi in 405 BC, fear washed through the city, because the Athenians fully expected to meet the same fate that they had inflicted upon other Greeks throughout the decades of their Empire - the eradication of their community, the death of their men, and the sale of their women into slavery. However, for reasons that are still debated today, the Spartans decided to spare them. They got away with "only" a sack, the destruction of their walls, and the imposition of the tyrannical yoke of the Thirty.
- What actually happens when a city is sacked?
You should have paid attention to history class. The historical normal is one where no one is ever safe. It is always a short bubble of time, no more than one or two generations in length where people can live together in some sort of sanity.
But that bubble always pops, and the people living their nice safe lives are often overtaken by the shock and brutality of the reality that will overwhelm them.
We
know what will happen. It has been well documented. People will be
collected. They will be rounded up into urban areas, or centers. The men
will be separated out from the group. They will be led to an isolated
area, a cellar, a warehouse, a cluster of tree, an area behind a
bulldozer. They will then be held down by two people and shot dead.
We are coming for you.
It’s going to be historical. It will be Biblical, and it will consist of many elements that are not at all “enlightened” and “progressive”. It will be raw and unbridled.
Who are “we”?
We
have learned all about the great con game, and we are fed up. We know
know what is going on and we are pissed, and desire real, substantive
change. Now, for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time
for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60
years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely
new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
Like water, we are not one set person, but rather a very lose and amorphous collection of many well-educated people that will not allow instigators, and criminals to scurry away unscathed. It won’t be me, but I’m telling you that it will be others. And they won’t have any set plans, no set maps, no coordination. But they will see you all for what you actually are; big, plump, juicy, lush, targets to seize and use for purposes that you do not want to read about.
Yet…
Yet, there is still time. You can alter your future and atone for your sins. Your future does not need to be that of fertilizer spread out upon a glassed-over barren wasteland. You can change. You can start taking action to prevent the crisis that is barrelling straight down the Pike for us all. You can make a difference.
Yes, YOU!
Well… listen NOW.
But let’s speak frankly to each other. I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?I see pitchforks.
- On Friday Jun 27, 2014 at 12:04 pm Michael Krieger posted an article where he offered up a warning for thouse oligarchs about the coming shit-storm and what you can do about it.
He and others have warned you.
Once
a political ideology takes power, they are ruthless in their treatment
of opposition. They will kill you, and if you are a woman, they will
rape you and then kill you. There will not be any mercy. It is better to
die fighting when they come to your house, than to accept the lies that
they will put you into “protection” for your own best interests.
If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising.
There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
The is something about money, wealth and power that corrupts. It corrupts everyone it touches, and no one is immune. If you are wealthy then you are corrupted. There are no exceptions.
You might not think that you are corrupted.
You might, somehow, think that you are different. “Just one of the guys that got lucky.” You are deluding yourself.
The “freedom from need” corrupts the soul. Thus, the individual finds other pursuits to occupy the void in their being.
"What I do care about is the kind of power that such money can buy, and how that power is then abused to purchase politicians and run roughshod over entire societies. I have also been disgusted with the fact that the 0.01% as a class seem self-absorbed, apathetic and delusional when it comes to the catastrophe the current economic and financial system is reaping upon the planet. So busy are they patting themselves on the back and scrambling to acquire that next billion to see what is rapidly unfolding beyond their moats."
- Michael Krieger
And that is where you are all.
You might consider yourselves smart, intelligent, lucky, fortunate, or whatever.
But you are not.
You have forgotten so much.
The
progressive liberal communists rounded up anyone who could possibly be a
threat to them. They loaded them into trucks. They tied their hands
behind their backs, and they killed them.
You have forgotten, or maybe never had the experience of being a most valued employee; working 14 hour days for months in a row, earning the company millions of dollars and then you suddenly being let go on Christmas eve. Coming home to a shocked wife, with the baby screaming for food, and you being forced to go into your meager savings… savings that will be depleted in a week… to buy some day-old vegetables, and on-sale food-stuffs.
That’s America for the last fucking three decades you God damn son-of-a-bitches!
You think that we are going to turn the other cheek and not find a scapegoat to roast over some burning embers? Maybe you weren’t the the person who handing out the pink-slip, or the manager that approved it, or the VP that authorized it, or the President that demanded it. But all of you… EVERY… FUCKING… ONE… contributed.
We will never forget.
Your time is coming.
At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Yes.
Inequality is one aspect of it. There are “haves” and “have nots”. But that’s not the point. Many of us watched our life fall apart before our very eyes, not because we were lazy while we toiled in the company, but rather instead to make the bottom-line look better to the investors of the companies where we were employed.
We see pictures in history books and say, “nah that could never happen here”. The roads are dirt. The people are wearing military clothing. There isn’t anything that looks like a part of America in the pictures.
This attitude… one of us being just a useful tool… like a broom or a toilet brush… has altered the emotional fabric of America. And, yes, part of the turmoil that you see all over America today is a direct result of this arrogant behavior.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is
intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society.
Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will
disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Oh, do not be under the illusion that the situation and the contributors can all be quantified on some sort of chart. They cannot. Like the school kid relentlessly bullied by the school-hall bullies, an anger has been pent up for decades.
You do not want to be on the losing end of that stick.
During
these times and types of conflicts it is NORMAL for women, and girls to
be abducted, raped repeatedly and then killed. This is a historical
norm.
The only way that you avid this fate is to confront it.
Face on. Right now.
Do good works, and stay out of politics. Help people.
In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.Here’s what I say to you: You’re living in a dream world. What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time. Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
You know that this is coming. Its not a surprise.
You all are not fools. Indeed, you all are investing in property, safeguards and insurance plans.
ISIS
sex slave at a slave auction in an occupied region of Syria. During
periods of change, the plight of women is always a dangerous one.
What I am saying is that clutching your bags of gold and scurrying off to your rat-hole in some remote location is not the answer. Historically it will not end up like you think. This will not be like a Hollywood movie.
Instead, it will (more) be like a barricaded city that tries to deal with an overwhelming and vicious Mongol horde.
Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Imagine that you and your family are living in one of those cities, one thousand years ago.
It’s a very large city for the time. With large stone walls that tower up many, many stories high. You have a great life, based on trade along the “silk road”. You are wealthy. You have a large spacious home. You have a beautiful family, servants, fine clothes and a home filled with fine arts, laughter and parties.
You are aware of the coming Mongols.
You have discussed this matter with your other wealthy friends. They all have strong political connections and everyone reassures you that there is nothing to worry about. Most of the Mongols are over-rated they say. Plus they have provided reassurances that our military, with the best fighters in the world are more than a match for them. They even took you on a tour of the military barracks and you saw first hand how well organized they were.
Rather than agree to the demands of the Mongols, the most intelligent in the city advised that the rulers confront the Mongols with their superior military.
And so a strong force of 20,000 of the best warriors in the city left the city gates and marched forward with trumpets blowing to confront the horde.
You don’t know what will happen. But you have been reassured that your military will be victorious. After all, they have never lost a battle for at least four decades.
Still you worry.
All you know is that the military went out one week ago and never returned. The King gave you every assurance that things are proceeding well, and that you need not worry. But the truth is that you feel very uneasy.
This is a joint suicide by a Burgermeister and his family upon news that the Americans were entering the town.
The wife says that people are beginning to talk and rumors are starting to fly about what happened at the battle last week.
You cannot put your finger on it, but there is this feeling of dread and gloom that you cannot shake. yet, the sky is blue. The birds are fluttering in the trees, and the boys are playing in the yard. Your daughter just bought a nice silk dress that she is going to wear to a religious celebration in two days. Yet, that dread persists.
“Maybe I should flee?” you ask yourself.
Maybe.
At Politicon 2019 in Nashville on Saturday, during a "conversation" with Never Trumper MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, James Comey said, "Our leaders must reflect the glue that holds us together. They can’t be people who lie all the time. They just can’t. And I hope people see that’s true whether they are Republicans or Democrats.
Wallace then asked, "What if he wins again? Will you still believe that?"
Comey said, "I will be, from my new home in New Zeland, I will still believe in America."
-Townhall
Do you want to place a bet that what Comey says will come true? That he will be safe and forgotten in New Zealand?
Do
not think that in today’s “modern” and “enlightened” society that we
are beyond mass genocide against a particular race, or group of people.
Here are people who were seized out of their homes at the dead of night
by militarized police (the Federal Police), handcuffed with wire-ties
(behind his back) and then killed and dumped in a mass grave. Like this
poor fella. I am quite sure that the person putting the wire-ties on his
clasped wrists was very polite and nice about it. Cool and
professional, most certainly. Then he was handed over to others. Those
others then killed him like one would step on cockroach. And, with just
as much care. What? You think America can’t relive the Bosnia
experience?
Or do you think that he will be in chains before he can ever reach an airplane? Or, barring that, seized by the NZ authorities upon the direction of the American government?
All of you are delusional.
Raped and then killed. This is the fate for most targeted women from the ages of 10 to 40. Those outside will probably just be killed.
You keep on dancing near the fire, unaware that you are dowsed in kerosene and that a single spark can set you, and those around your alight.
Because here’s an odd thing. During the past three decades, compensation for CEOs grew 127 times faster than it did for workers. Since 1950, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio has increased 1,000 percent, and that is not a typo. CEOs used to earn 30 times the median wage; now they rake in 500 times. Yet no company I know of has eliminated its senior managers, or outsourced them to China or automated their jobs. Instead, we now have more CEOs and senior executives than ever before. So, too, for financial services workers and technology workers. These folks earn multiples of the median wage, yet we somehow have more and more of them.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Grbavica where a huge complex was set up for the mass internment and rape of women. This is what it looked like at the tail end of the war. 1996.
People! You have jumped over the turnstiles, and gobbled up all the money that you can. Then you set up systems to keep it all for yourself. And somehow you think that the rest of us hasn’t noticed.
Well, we have, and we are royally pissed off over it.
Wal-Mart is our nation’s largest employer with some 1.4 million employees in the United States and more than $25 billion in pre-tax profit. So why are Wal-Mart employees the largest group of Medicaid recipients in many states? Wal-Mart could, say, pay each of its 1 million lowest-paid workers an extra $10,000 per year, raise them all out of poverty and enable them to, of all things, afford to shop at Wal-Mart. Not only would this also save us all the expense of the food stamps, Medicaid and rent assistance that they currently require, but Wal-Mart would still earn more than $15 billion pre-tax per year. Wal-Mart won’t (and shouldn’t) volunteer to pay its workers more than their competitors. In order for us to have an economy that works for everyone, we should compel all retailers to pay living wages—not just ask politely.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
All of you are fucking guilty.
And if you live in an upscale neighborhood, YOU WILL BE TARGETED.
There will be no avenues of escape. You are FUCKED.
While Donald Trump is undoing many terrible things, nothing is being done about the pre-genocidal conditions already put in place. Unless action is taken by the President or Congress, it is just a matter of time before they will be mobilized against YOU and your family. Take notice.
We rich people have been falsely persuaded by our schooling and
the affirmation of society, and have convinced ourselves, that we are the main job creators. It’s simply not true. There can never be enough super-rich Americans to power a great economy. I earn about 1,000 times the median American annually, but I don’t buy thousands of times more stuff. My family purchased three cars over the past few years, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and a few shirts a year, just like most American men. I bought two pairs of the fancy wool pants I am wearing as I write, what my partner Mike calls my “manager pants.” I guess I could have bought 1,000 pairs. But why would I? Instead, I sock my extra money away in savings, where it doesn’t do the country much good.
-From Nick Hanauer’s excellent Politico Op-Ed: The Pitchforks are Coming…For Us Plutocrats
Back to the wealthy man living in his villa in the upscale part of the city-state that he inhabits…
Last night over some chicken and some fine vintage wine, you discussed what was going on with a fellow trader friend of yours. He had entered the city and was planning on leaving in the morning. He said some worrisome things.
He said that he used to trade to numerous cities to the East. But he no longer trade with them any more. They no longer exist.
When we went to visit them, they were abandoned. Some still had the walls intact, but most of the homes were empty. Some wild dogs and a goat or two were all that remained. He said that most of the homes no longer had roofs and it looked like the entire city was sacked and set ablaze.
Some had piles of bones blowing in the sand and trapped under broken stone, bricks and walls. Farm fields of plants weren’t harvested and allowed to go fallow. The trees were ripe with apples, but no one collected them.
He couldn’t tell what happened.
All he said was that it looked like it came upon everyone suddenly and no one was spared. Even the churches were burned to the ground. What was not looted, was intentionally destroyed.
He said that he was going to leave in the morning and wanted the family to leave and accompany him.
960403-A-2407B-008
Photo of a suburb in Sarajevo Bosnia after the fighting that took place
between the Serbians and the Muslims,taken by Specialist Nadine Byrnside
from the 55th Signal Company Combat Camera team, in a place called
Grbavica on 3 April 1996.
In Conclusion.
I tip my hats off to Mr. Hanaeur and Mr. Krieger. I think you all should listen to them. But if you choose not to, that is fine. Then listen to me. Your fucking days are numbered, and if America burns, then do not rest easily, for you will be searched out. Located and slaughtered.
It will be historical.
Heed my words. There will be no place for you to hide.
I am talking about the annuals of history and the role that you will play in it. It will not be pretty. But there are things that you can still do about it. You can still make a difference. And running away to hide is not one of them.
This
is what happens to people who do not “go along” with the “new” way of
doing things. It is never pretty. You are rounded up. You are
handcuffed, and you are killed. That is the way it has been for
thousands of years. It never stopped. It will continue.
It is time to atone for your sins. Do not put it off.
Now, you are probably wondering what happened to the family that was awaiting the news of the battle between their city and the Mongol hordes…
Large Urban Cities…
Worse was to come in 1221 — ‘a year to live in infamy’. While Genghis’s other armies had been busy in the east, threatening Tbilisi in Georgia and terrifying the Christian world, Tolui, one of Genghis’s equally reprehensible sons, took Merv (in modern-day Turkmenistan), one of the largest cities in the world.
Promised safety, the citizens surrendered and emerged from behind their walls. Tolui ‘surveyed the masses dolefully gathered with their possessions, mounted a golden chair and ordered mass executions to commence’.
They took four days and nights to complete.
Genghis’s rotten fruit did not fall far from the tree. Terror — and the certainty of its visitation — was a major weapon in Genghis’s arsenal: decapitated women, children and even cats and dogs were reputedly displayed.
- Was Genghis Khan the cruellest man who ever lived?
Complete devastation…
Incursions into Southeast Asia were largely successful, most factions agreed to pay tribute, and only the Invasions into Vietnam and Java failed.
Europe was devastated by the Mongols.
They destroyed near enough every major Russian city, and invaded Volga Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary.
If rumours spread that the Mongols were coming, then it would cause a mass panic, and some would run to safety.
There was no guaranteed way to defeat the Mongol hordes, they continuously defeated much larger armies, so numerical strength couldn’t protect you.
Mongol conquests would leave once populous and flourishing areas as wastelands, with little to no people, those remaining would be slaves.
-ESKify
The Women…
Genghis Khan had so much power that he could do whatever he wanted.
For instance, when Genghis occupied some new area, he would kill or enslave all the men and share all the women amongst his tribe.
Genghis Khan would even make beauty contests of captured women to decide which woman is the most beautiful one.
Yeah, he was having his Miss Universe competition before it was cool. So, the queen of those beauty competitions would win the privilege to become one of many Genghis Khan's women.
Rest of the Mongolian army would share all the other contestants.
-The Richest
The Wealthy…
Genghis Khan was the most feared human of the 13th century, who could destroy dynasties just by moving his little finger. He created the Mongol Empire all by himself and earned his eternal spot in the history books.
However, a lot of people had to suffer for Genghis Khan to succeed. Oh yes, the Mongolians were known for their horrendous torturing techniques.
One of the most popular was pouring molten silver down the throat and ears of a victim. Genghis Khan also liked bending his enemy's back until the backbone snapped. If that sounds barbaric, skip this next part.
So, the Mongols once celebrated victory over Russians in a very bizarre way. They picked all the Russian survivors, dropped them on the ground and put a heavy wooden gate on top of them.
Then, Genghis Khan and the entire Mongol army had a huge banquet on that wooden gate. They ate, drank, and watched how Russians were dying one by one from the suffocation, pressure, and wounds.
-The Richest
A return to the old ways…
“The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.”
-Genghis Khan.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
I believe that it is time for all Americans to take a serious re-look at what America stands for; our “democracy”, and our way of life as it exists today. Is it really all that great?
Is America living up to the grand ideals set forth in the “Great Experiment of 1776”?
Or, it is just going to be yet another big mistake heading towards the “great collapse” of society?
I think that a serious reappraisal of [1] what America is, [2] what notions it is founded upon, and [3] how it is structured needs to be re-thought out. It is time to take a good long hard look at [4] what America has become, and [5] how we got here. And [6] what needs to change once [7] corrective measures have been put in place.
I ask this.
Really, is democracy; “rule by popularity” ideal for Americans?
A typical American, inappropriately dressed (obviously), shopping at Wal-Mart. Really, is democracy; “rule by popularity” ideal for Americans? Or should America be run by talented people who earned their role through merit rather than popularity? Think about it.
Can the Constitution be protected from “well meaning”, or “the greedy”, or “evil” such as President Wilson, or FDR, or Obama from rewriting and re-interpreting it to fit their various nefarious ends?
Well, can it?
Because if we cannot, using the current governmental structure, then we must change it into something different.
Indeed, simply hoping that our progeny will be “ever vigilant” is just wishful thinking, and history has proven, for certain, that it does not work. And at that, we must well understand that it will NEVER WORK in the future.
Can the Constitution be protected from “well meaning”, or “the greedy”, or “evil” such as President Wilson, or FDR, or Obama from rewriting and re-interpreting it to fit their various nefarious ends?
What’s going to stop another Wilson, another FDR, another Obama, another Bush from rewriting the Constitution, or reinterpreting it to fit their nefarious ends? What’s it going to take?
What is it going to take?
But my thoughts are this matter are perhaps a little too harsh to the general American public. No one wants to hear that a democracy is flawed, or rather so flawed that America will collapse upon itself within a decade. No one wants to hear this.
Americans have a Pavlovian response to the phrase “freedom and democracy,” and it’s no surprise that so many of them are rooting for the protesters in Hong Kong.
-World Affairs Blog
Well, others, better word-smiths than myself have some things to say about this subject. One of the best comes from Mr. Noonan in his article titled “A Clean Break“. He wrote this article on 29 September 2019, and I personally think that it is brilliant. He isn’t so prone to offending people as I am.
For I earnestly believe that America has neither "democracy" nor "freedom". We just parrot the words without talking a good look around us at what America has devolved into.
Here I present it for your viewing pleasure.
This article is copied as written without much editing aside from some paragraph formatting and the fonts used in this template.
I added some "pull away" text for highlighting and maybe interjected on or two personal comments along the way (though you will be able to easily see that they are from your's truly.)
I have added my own pictures to help illustrate some of his fine points.
After reading the article, I would suggest the reader go to his original article and read some of his other works. This fellow is brilliant and a word-smith.
All credit to the author Mr. Noonan writing in Blogs for Victory.
As the last few weeks have played out in politics, it has forced me to do a complete re-assessment of how I’ve looked at the world for my entire adult life.
To be sure, this reconsideration has been ongoing for about a decade, or maybe a little more, but it has really crystalized out recently. It is time for a complete, clean break with what went before and to chart a new path forward.
As the last few weeks have played out in politics, it has forced me to do a complete re-assessment of how I’ve looked at the world for my entire adult life. It is time for a complete, clean break with what went before and to chart a new path forward. Maybe the American Constitution is flawed in some very serious ways, and it is up to use to seek out those flaws and eliminate them completely.
What Hunter Biden did is nothing new; it isn’t in the least remarkable.
He was merely the recipient of what people in his position routinely receive: a special deal which allows him to be very rich for little or no effort.
Hunter Biden was merely the recipient of what people in his position routinely receive: a special deal which allows him to be very rich for little or no effort.
This way his life can be devoted to what really matters: hanging around with other rich people, attending conferences and galas and generally having a swell time.
And if he decided to follow in Daddy’s political footsteps, the way would be cleared for him in some safe (Congressional) seat.
If you start looking into it – as Matt and I did in our 2007 book, Caucus of Corruption – you just see that it is everywhere. In that book, for political reasons, we concentrated on the Democrat side of the aisle (given that our goal was to show the absurdity of the Democrats 2006 campaign against a so-called “GOP culture of corruption”), but we could easily have written it about politics, in general.
If you start looking into it – as Matt and I did in our 2007 book, Caucus of Corruption – you just see that it is everywhere. In that book, for political reasons, we concentrated on the Democrat side of the aisle (given that our goal was to show the absurdity of the Democrats 2006 campaign against a so-called “GOP culture of corruption”), but we could easily have written it about politics, in general.
Corruption is everywhere in the United States.
What it really shows is that people who go into politics – with a few very rare exceptions – are in it for themselves.
The advent of legalized corruption launched by the Supreme Court empowers the superrich to fund their own presidential and congressional campaigns as pet projects, to foster pet policies, and to represent pet political enclaves. You have a billion, or even several hundred million, then purchase a candidate from the endless reserve bench of minor politicians and make him or her a star, a mouthpiece for any cause or purpose however questionable, and that candidate will mouth your script in endless political debates and through as many television spots as you are willing to pay for. All legal now.To compound the political felony, much, if not most, campaign financing is now carried out in secret, so that everyday citizens have a decreasing ability to determine to whom their elected officials are beholden and to whom they must now give special access. As recently as the 2014 election, the facts documented this government of influence by secrecy: “More than half of the general election advertising aired by outside groups in the battle for control of Congress,” according to the New York Times, “has come from organizations that disclose little or nothing about their donors, a flood of secret money that is now at the center of a debate over the line between free speech and corruption.”Of this handful, the largest by far is WPP (originally called Wire and Plastic Products; is there a metaphor here?), which has its headquarters in London and more than 150,000 employees in 2,500 offices spread around 107 countries. It, together with one or two conglomerating competitors, represents a fourth branch of government, vacuuming up former senators and House members and their spouses and families, key committee staff, former senior administration officials of both parties and several administrations, and ambassadors, diplomats, and retired senior military officers.WPP has swallowed giant public relations, advertising, and lobbying outfits such as Hill & Knowlton and BursonMarsteller, along with dozens of smaller members of the highly lucrative special interest and influence-manipulation world. Close behind WPP is the Orwellian-named Omnicom Group and another converger vaguely called the Interpublic Group of Companies. According to Mr. Edsall, WPP had billings last year of $72.3 billion, larger than the budgets of quite a number of countries.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
Corruption is part of democracy.
They want power and money and attention and fame and praise and so they go into politics – and almost invariably, if they are even modestly successful at winning office, wind up richer than they did when they started.
And it has been going on for a long time, folks; throughout all the Western democracies.
When you study the motivations of those in politics, you discover what drives them. They want power and money and attention and fame and praise and so they go into politics – and almost invariably, if they are even modestly successful at winning office, wind up richer than they did when they started. And it has been going on for a long time, folks; throughout all the Western democracies.
There are, I believe, some who still deny that England is governed by an oligarchy.
It is quite enough for me to know that a man might have gone to sleep some thirty years ago over the day’s newspaper and woke up last week over the later newspaper, and fancied he was reading about the same people.
In one paper he would have found a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland.
In the other paper he would find a Lord Robert Cecil, a Mr. Gladstone, a Mr. Lyttleton, a Churchill, a Chamberlain, a Trevelyan, an Acland.
If this is not being governed by families I cannot imagine what it is. I suppose it is being governed by extraordinary democratic coincidences.
…extraordinary democratic coincidences.
Funny, huh? How people from the same family can keep winding up on top. Either they are families of geniuses, or someone is making things happen.
What are the odds that the son of an American Senator would be just the person an oil company needs to pay $50,000.00 a month to?
But, it just keeps happening and happening because, well, that’s just the way it is. And it wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least any good at being an oligarchy!
But they aren’t.
After you study this issue, you discover that it just keeps happening and happening. And the reason why, is because, well, that’s just the way it is. And it wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least any good at being an oligarchy!
Back in Chesterton’s day, there was the cold, hard reality that Winston Churchill was at least as talented as his father, Randolph. There was something there – there was, that is, a justification for Winston getting a leg up (and he did) to enter politics based on his father’s previous efforts.
These days, you get to benefit even if the previous person in line was a complete, rotten failure. And rotten failure is all we’ve gotten – and I’m getting very ecumenical in that, by the way. I’m not excusing anyone on partisan grounds any longer.
To be sure, the Republicans I voted for in the past were at least better than the Democrats I voted against (with the exception of McCain: knowing that I’m the co-author of Worst President, please understand that I believe McCain would have been even worse than Obama proved to be).
But they were only better in degree, not in kind.
Republicans are corrupt.
I mean, let’s face some cold, hard facts here: President Bush the Younger was re-elected with 51% of the vote in 2004 and came into his second term with high approval ratings and a Republican Congress.
With all this, he couldn’t even manage to de-fund Planned Parenthood or NPR!
I mean, let’s face some cold, hard facts here: President Bush the Younger was re-elected with 51% of the vote in 2004 and came into his second term with high approval ratings and a Republican Congress. With all this, he couldn’t even manage to de-fund Planned Parenthood or NPR! He did not care for the conservative cause(s), he only campaigned on them to hood-wink all of us for voting for him. He knew which levers to push, and which buttons to push.
It could have been done, easily, in a budget reconciliation between House and Senate and there would have been nothing the Democrats could have done about it.
On a more personal level, how can public service be promoted as an ideal to young people when this sewer corrupts our Republic? At this point in early twenty-first-century America, the greatest service our nation’s young people could provide is to lead an army of outraged young Americans armed with brooms on a crusade to sweep out the rascals and rid our capital of the money changers, rent seekers, revolving door dancers, and special interest deal makers and power brokers and send them back home to make an honest living, that is, if they still remember how to do so.Our ancestors did not depart Europe and elsewhere to seek freedom and self-government alone. They came to these shores to escape social and political systems that were corrosive and corrupt. Two and a quarter centuries later, we are returning to those European practices. We are in danger of becoming a different kind of nation, one our founders would not recognize and would deplore.In addition to the rise of the national security state, and the concentration of wealth and power in America, no development in modern times sets us apart more from the nation originally bequeathed to us than the rise of the special interest state.There is a Gresham’s law related to the republican ideal. Bad politics drives out good politics. Legalized corruption drives men and women of stature, honor, and dignity out of the halls of government. Self-respecting individuals cannot long tolerate a system of election and reelection so dependent on cultivating the favor of those known to expect access in return. Such a system is corrosive to the soul.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
This was “better” than a President Kerry who probably would have increased PP funding, but not really better in that the taxes of pro-life Americans were still going to fund something they consider abhorrent…and which Bush and the entire GOP campaigned on getting rid of.
I know some will say that this is just our GOP screwing it’s base and that the Democrats don’t do that. But, they do.
Both the republicans and the democrats are corrupt to the core. They only care about themselves and their little tribe of corrupt underlings. No one else.
Democrats are corrupt.
Obama was elected in 2008 with 53% of the vote and came into office with a Democrat Congress and a filibuster-proof Senate majority…and he couldn’t even get the single payer health system Democrats say they want.
It would have been easy.
The GOP could have done nothing to stop it. Enact a 10% payroll tax to fund it and just start passing out the cash to people who need health care.
A former senator from Colorado, Gary Hart, has written an extremely powerful and accurate critique of the unfathomably corrupt and crony state of the U.S. government in 2015. It covers several very important angles, including how appalled and disgusted our founders would be at the current state of affairs. How a once great republic has devolved into a thieving oligarchy in which the pursuit of money at power at the expense of the public good has been elevated into something that’s not just tolerated, but actually celebrated and encouraged amongst an ethics deprived status quo.
-Liberty Blitzkreig
That you and I know it would have been a disaster is neither here nor there – our side had lost the election and the Democrats won all the power they could possibly need to make all Democrat dreams come true…and they couldn’t do something like that.
Once you are in politics, it’s all on for party-on good times. You swindle and funnel money left and right and no one gives a damn about the American people. This includes both sides of the Congress, and all their cronies from the war-mongering generals to the intellectuals pushing climate change, and radical social change down our collective throats.
They instead wound up with the abomination known as Obamacare which even if it had worked as planned would still have left millions out in the cold and cost like the devil – but they couldn’t even write something that worked!
Meanwhile, not only did Obama not end the wars they campaigned against in 2008, he started new one’s…
droning the living sh** out of every poor, brown skinned person they could target (well, those they weren’t letting in as unvetted refugees, that is).
A public works bonanza that didn’t create any public works.
A slew of new spending which improved nothing.
This is what the Democrat voters get for investing their time and effort? Yep – in other words, nothing: but lots and lots for whomever is the crony. Democrat cronies made out like bandits. But your average purple-haired Democrat wanting more safe spaces? Not much.
This is what the Democrat voters get for investing their time and effort? Yep – in other words, nothing: but lots and lots for whomever is the crony. Democrat cronies made out like bandits. But your average purple-haired Democrat wanting more safe spaces? Not much.
By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both. And that gargantuan, if not reptilian, industry now takes on board former members of the House and the Senate and their personal and committee staffs. And they are all getting fabulously rich.Frustrated, irate discussions of this legalized corruption are met in the Washington media with a shrug. So what? Didn’t we just have dinner with that lobbyist for the banking industry, or the teachers’ union, or the airline industry at that well-known journalist’s house only two nights ago? Fine lady, and she used to be the chairman of one of those powerful committees. I gather she is using her Rolodex rather skillfully on behalf of her new clients. Illegal? Not at all. Just smart . . . and so charming.There is little wonder that Americans of the right and many in the middle are apoplectic at their government and absolutely, and rightly, convinced that the game of government is rigged in favor of the elite and the powerful. Occupiers see even more wealth rising to the top at the expense of the poor and the middle class. And Tea Partiers believe their tax dollars are going to well-organized welfare parasites and government bureaucrats.
– From the Gary Hart article, Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption
And as far as the social disintegration we’ve seen over the past 60 years – we’ve been blinded by the Democrats pushing the disintegration that we haven’t noticed the Republicans letting them do it.
And when they have power to roll it back, doing nothing of the sort.
And as far as the social disintegration we’ve seen over the past 60 years – we’ve been blinded by the Democrats pushing the disintegration that we haven’t noticed the Republicans letting them do it. And when they have power to roll it back, doing nothing of the sort. They just smile for the cameras, enjoy their high-priced meals in fancy restaurants, free hookers, and retire for their closed “boys clubs”.
The Administrative state and its regulators, a creation of previous congress’s, have grown into a bureaucracy so entrenched that worker’s can’t even be fired. They lurk in the darkness of their own regulations and use their powers to punish those who fail to comply. Regulators are great for making and executing rules and regulations, and taxing, but not so good at designing those regulations to advance unproven political theories, that most often come undone.
The unrealized dangers of delegating rules and regulations making, is that Congress removes itself from accountability. Legislators govern by theory, proposing ideas that are then delegated to an agency charged to “make” it work. To ensure their schemes work, Congress politicized the Federal judicial benches, including the Supreme Court, to support their legislative agenda regardless of the unconstitutionality, through judicial activism. Judges don’t make laws!
- Why Should We Accept Corrupt Government?
Their actions are disgusting.
And now we see in the Epstein case the reason why it might have all been allowed to happen: Lord only knows how many of the high and mighty are caught in that web…
…but what better way to get out from under that rock than by making the rock legal?
Hey, Paul Ryan, you’re the guy in charge of the House. You’re the Speaker of the House. [1] You had half a decade to figure out what to REPLACE Obamacare with and you came up with … bupkis? [2]. Hey, Paul Ryan, you had more than a hundred days to fashion a piece of legislation after you knew President Trump won — even with all the “budget resolution”, three tranche, inside baseball baloney and it came as a surprise that the Freedom Caucus wasn’t on board? [Pro tip: Check with your own caucus first. OK, that’s better.] Hello, America, Paul, babe — that was your job. We gave you one stinking job — to fashion a clean repeal and replacement of Obamacare — and you were surprised the Freedom Caucus wasn’t genuflecting and kissing your ring? A week out, you tell the President you “have the votes” and the day of the vote you come to the White House and say, “Uhhh, maybe not. Maybe not, Mr. President. Poorly played, Paulie. Very poorly played. [3]. Hey, Paul Ryan, this shit is on you not the President. You suck at your job.
By making you, a normal person, the bad guy if you point out some of the disgusting actions?
Illegal immigration to provide votes for Democrats and cheap labor for Republicans.
Wars which don’t end in victory or defeat.
Enforcing immorality against popular wishes.
Providing government sinecures to anyone who will toe the line – and who won’t be got rid of no matter how corrupt or stupid they prove.
Accepting money from foreign entities who want the United States destroyed.
Will you fucking Republicans stop criticizing President Trump for following through on his campaign promises?
He ran on them. He told you what they were. He won on them. He is delivering on them and you snowflakes act like you just discovered them.
Both sides, all the time – and on top of being this stupidly destructive, raking it in for themselves, their families and their friends. It is time to bring an end to all that. By peaceful means if possible but, ultimately, by any means necessary.
Our peaceful means are “President Trump”.
President Trump is the hero of the common man.
Trump isn’t part of the system, you see.
Dimwits look at his billions and go, “he must be one of them”. But, the bottom line is that he’s not.
He’ll hang out with them. Be friends with them. But he never was of them. He made his own way and got his pile of money…and then looked around and saw, from the 1980’s, what was happening to his country and started to wonder why, and if there were anything he could do about it?
He essentially first let Bill Clinton have his chance.
Then Bush the Younger.
Then even Obama.
But he found out something – it didn’t matter who was in charge, they were all in on it, together. That is, regardless of stated political philosophy, the primary goal of nearly everyone in politics was personal enrichment and making sure no outsider pushed his or her way in.
Trump found out something – it didn’t matter who was in charge, they were all in on it, together. That is, regardless of stated political philosophy, the primary goal of nearly everyone in politics was personal enrichment and making sure no outsider pushed his or her way in.
Trump decided to push his way in.
And now he’s there – and outside of a precious few (Cruz, Paul…and, oddly, McConnell), he’s nearly alone fighting for one thing: us.
The United States of America.
We, the people.
And everyone inside is furious and terrified and so are lashing back as much as they can hoping that something, anything will turn up to get rid of Trump.
And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
And everyone inside is furious and terrified and so are lashing back as much as they can hoping that something, anything will turn up to get rid of Trump. And, make no mistake about it, they are already planning on punishing us for electing Trump. They don’t propose to allow this sort of thing to happen again.
The “big con game” is up.
I’ve mostly stopped arguing with liberals these days – first off, it is pointless but, secondly, I’m starting to pity them; nearly as much as I pity that shrinking number on the right who still stand aloof from Trump: they simply can’t shake free from the line they’ve been fed.
And none of us can get high and mighty about that: to one degree or another, all of us were suckered at one time or another.
No other government is as corrupt as the United States government.
All of us believed in some aspect of the con being used to keep us confused, frightened and divided while the Ruling Class stays fat and happy.
All of us. Including myself.
But for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60 years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
We have learned all about the great con game, and we are fed up. We know know what is going on and we are pissed, and desire real, substantive change. Now, for those of us who have awakened from the con, it is time for a clean break – a refusal to accept that anything over the past 60 years was any good…a desire, that is, to move forward in an entirely new way, unshackled to whatever we might have said or done in the past.
We can see what happened; we can see what needs to be done – we can’t trip ourselves up (nor allow our opponents to slow us down) by fussing over what views we might have expressed previously.
Our desire is a Constitutional Republic of free people – our means of getting there must be “whatever works”, not adherence to a dogma which might, upon review, only have been a means whereby the con artists kept us in line in the past.
I, for one, will only defend what I find defensible and will attack whatever I see as wrong.
Republicans Are Terrified Because Their Candidates Are So Fucking Lazy. As a number of Democrats win high-profile special election victories in deep red districts, fewer and fewer safe Republican strongholds seem to be off limits.
We still have a magnificent window to win this thing and fix our nation – naturally, the first requirement is protecting President Trump.
We need a complete review of EVERYTHING and ask “is it good”
But the next step is just as important: a complete review of everything and asking the question, “Is this good?”.
We’ve already learned that so-called “Free Trade” wasn’t what many of us thought it was – take that as your template and ask yourself, “is this thing I’ve adhered to really in the interests of a free people? Or is it something which only serves the well-connected?”.
As Lincoln once said, it is time to think anew and act anew: not to create something different (nothing can be more magnificent than the United States, as far as human effort allows), but to recreate what we had, but even better than before.
It is time to think anew and act anew: not to create something different, but to recreate what we had, but even better than before.
And if that mission requires us to knock a few off their pedestals, then that’s just what will have to happen.
The problems of government are systemic. The reason for government should be a primary concern of anyone wanting a better government but this cannot be accomplished with people of socialist persuasion who scream, yell and interrupt other speakers in an effort to kill free speech.
Trump has thrown a wrench into the gears of socialisms advancement. Socialists are reeling in confusion but don’t count on them staying there. A revolution is coming. The question is, who’s going to lead it, them or us?
- Why Should We Accept Corrupt Government?
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Some prepper humor…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Sunday had a call with President Donald Trump about gun control legislation. According to a statement from Democratic leadership, universal background checks are a non negotiable that must be included in any proposal Trump moves forward with.
People! A “universal background check” is a violation of the 4th amendment. Yeah, I know. It’s already violated left and right and every which way that you can think of. Indeed, the entire 16th amendment is a blatant violation of the 4th amendment on it’s face.
Fourth Amendment - Search and Seizure
Amendment Text | Annotations
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
And for all of you who are confused about the second amendment…
Second Amendment - Bearing Arms
Amendment Text | Annotations
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
All of this is silly.
The United States stopped being the land of the free the moment the 12th amendment was ratified. Good-by Republic. Hello to mob rule and manipulation by oligarchs. It’s just dying a long, slow death. That’s the way it is, and any protests from myself or others just fall on deaf ears. No one wants to hear all this. They want their feudal society, and us rabble had just better accept our place within that model.
From what I see, they are not giving up on this. They will push and push and push until something snaps. Though, I think that they have no fucking idea just how bad the snap will be. You have over three decades of rage built up inside of conservative patriots. They will not give any quarter.
And that, boys and girls, is the way it is.
About the picture, splash above…
Cambodian troops before they were disarmed by Pol Pot in 1970. Socialist Marxist Communist Pol Pot came to power in Cambodia in 1970. These troops were government military forces who were told by their leadership to hand in their weapons to the new government. They complied. They listened. They turned in their weapons. Every one of them were then systematically killed. Not one survived.
Not one person survived once they turned in their firearms to the new government. Not. One.
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to prepping, SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Funny Pictures
Be the Rufus – Tales of Everyday Heroism.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Well, it’s been (almost) three solid years into the Donald Trump Presidency and not one treasonous criminal action has been punished. Not one. ZERO. Zilch. Na-da.
Take for example when Hillary Clinton literally laughed out loud at a question about her email investigation — had to wipe her eyes, she laughed so hard. She laughed at us, at America, for being so clueless as to think she’d ever answer to our laws.
And she’s still laughing, because she’s right: she’s untouchable. The consensus is that even though we know that the first email investigation was rigged by the FBI to clear Hillary, no one will reopen the case.
-Cold Fury at hold your breath.
Nope. All we (the people) have are promises. Promises that someday, at some time, all the 5d machinations of the DOJ will “get to the bottom” of things. They’re “experts” don’t ya know. Don’t ya know.
Promises.
You know, like all those promises that the government has given us year, after year. Year after year. Promising to make changes. Promising to fix potholes. Promising to do things. But doing nothing.
Promises.
Same old. Same old.
Watching FBI agent Peter Strzok battle with Congress, my initial reaction was pure anger.
His repeated, arrogant insistence that he had done nothing wrong despite tons of evidence to the contrary convinced me he deserved immediate firing — if not the firing squad.
Gradually, though, anger gave way to amazement as Strzok grew increasingly combative and condescending. Given his predicament, the sneering and smirking were stupid, and yet he persisted.
Who is this jerk, I wondered, and how in the hell did he get to be a big shot at the FBI? And why are taxpayers still paying for the privilege of his malignant presence on the FBI payroll?
My answers can be summarized in four names: James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray. They are chief culprits in the death of public trust in the Department of Justice.
-Michael Goodwin
Meanwhile, those who have committed the most blatant abuses of their offices in the history of the world, are walking free in their mansions, and enjoying the “good life”. They are still on the media networks. They are still cavorting with “our betters”. They are still eating expensive steaks and drinking high-end Chardonnay. They are still cavorting with the rich and famous. They are still behaving like they always have.
They are rubbing their privilege in our faces.
Real privilege is begin able to avoid getting arrested when you break laws. Real privilege is knowing that you are immune from the Justice system, and that you can do what ever you want in life and no one will lift a finger against you.
Blatantly.
Real privilege is killing a threat in public. While in Federal custody, and having all the guards asleep, the cameras turned off, and the documents erased.
Real privilege is doing it blatantly, in an "in your face" assault, with zero consequences.
The pure audacity and brazenness of these crimes are mind blowing and staggering in their audaciousness.
They are doing so because they know there isn’t a FU@KING THING that we can do about it. We are powerless, and our illustrious president; Donald Trump is actually powerless to stop them.
Real privilege is operating in the open, in public, where everyone knows that you have this privilege.
Powerless.
Full of hot air.
Every day, it seems more and more likely that Donald Trump is just a clown to entertain us "normal's" with the hope for change, when in all actuality, nothing substantive is getting resolved.
I give you my word!
Now, do not misunderstand.
Oh, for certain, he has done some good works. Yes he has. Yes, he is miles ahead of any other Republican President, including Ronald Reagan.
But…
But…
It’s all fun and games. The expression on all those “Holier than thou” smug (in your face) progressive Marxists is precious. And, yes, I do enjoy sitting down with a big bowl of popcorn and watch their heads explode.
But Trump is NOT doing the dirty and nasty work that he needs to do…
Getting us out of the eight wars (x8) that we are currently fighting. There is no reason at all for us to be fighting and dying in Yemen. None.
Elimination of those progressively-armed Federal Agencies; IRS, ATF, FDA, EPA, and for certain FBI and the DOJ. They are now armed military forces with their own law-making branches, their own judicial branches, and their own processes. All of which lie OUTSIDE our elected Congressional representatives. They police, and enforce, the two-tiered justice system.
Arresting and trials, with death sentences for treasonous activity…
It’s a treasonous bunch for certain, but nothing is getting done.
It appears, by all substantive measure, that AG Barr is just as ineffective as AG Sessions was. "Ineffective" is a polite word for "corrupt".
Ah. The Progressive globalist oligarch cabal.
Their crimes vary from committing outright treason, stealing and embezzling millions (if not billions) of dollars, and cover-ups at an extraordinary scale. All these people should have been left hanging from a scaffolding with back hoods over their heads.
Yet nothing has happened.
As much as I admire Trump for taking on the wild beast that the United States has become, the fact remains that serious action MUST occur to slay the lawless oligarchy that rules our nation. Unless that is taken cared of, everything will subside and revert back to the gallop of rampant progressive Marxism.
Our patience has worn thin. We are no longer the hopeful, wide eyed people we once were. We can see the evil straight up. We know the score, and no media spin, or RINO-conservative article is going to change our assessment.
Comey got the last laugh. He is above the law. He earned that by keeping the Clintons above the law.
- From Don Surber
How about greed for personal gain. How about treason for personal gain. How about murder for personal gain. How about coverup for personal gain.
One quibble: I met Randy Weaver at a Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot one year, and spent about an hour hanging out and casually conversing with him. At NO point did he strike me as an “outspoken white separatist”; white separatist he may have been, which is not a crime (yet).
But he wasn’t an “outspoken” anything at all. He was instead very quiet and humble—almost diffident, really. The one thing that stood out most about him was how deeply he was still haunted by FBI scumwad Horiuchi’s wanton, vicious murder of his entire family.
Weaver’s grief over their execution by federal death-squad was still as raw and agonizing as if it had been fresh, several years after his own despotic government inflicted it on him.
I hadn’t known of Barr’s sordid history before, but it does clearly establish one thing: the very idea of him ever ensuring justice against Deep State coup d’état plotters is no better than wholly ludicrous.
That Barr would defend such an outrage against all decency and humanity as the FUSA government’s murder of unarmed and innocent civilians at Ruby Ridge—a youth shot in the back as he fled the monstrous agents of a monstrous tyranny; his dog killed for no purpose other than to terrorize him; his mother sniped from hiding as she committed the heinous crime of standing in the doorway of her own home with her infant child in her arms—puts paid to that nonsense.
-Cold Fury. Put no faith in the stalwart AG Barr. He's a deep swamp plant.
They should have been arrested, incarcerated, and hung until dead. That didn’t happen, and now it seems that Barr is just another Sessions. It’s all a dog-and-pony show,
This "investigation" into the treason of the Deep State is proving to be the equivalent of a 25-month pregnancy, and counting.
- From Col. B. Bunny at Liberty's Torch
It’s all a fraud
One of the features of the current year is the regular reminder that western style democracy is a complete fraud. According to the political class, democracy allows for public policy to reflect the will of the people. The parties put forward candidates offering various policy proposals and the public signals their preferences by voting for one or the other candidates. The winners then set about trying to implement the policies they proposed. That’s how we’re told representative democracy works.
In reality, nothing like this happens. Instead, the parties put on a show for the voters, rarely intending to actually do what they claim. Instead, they manufacture differences between one another, so they can pretend the choice before the voters is stark. Once the election is over, the politicians go back to living their lives of leisure, waiting for instructions from the people who actually run things. The politicians are like robot actors, brought out for elections, then put back in storage.
The obvious example of this is the most recent American presidential election in which Donald Trump scored a stunning upset on the promise to reduce immigration, crackdown in illegal immigration and address the gross inequality resulting from globalization. So far, none of that has been done. Instead, he spent most of his presidency fighting a seditious coup to get him out of office. In fact, Trump’s three years are pretty much what Jeb Bush promised when he was running in the 2016 primary.
-The Z man Blog
Before…
Russian oligarchy prior to the 1916 October revolution. Most, if not all, of the people in this photograph were killed, or fled the country to safe havens elsewhere.
After…
We
know what will happen. It has been well documented. People will be
collected. They will be rounded up into urban areas, or centers. The men
will be separated out from the group. They will be led to an isolated
area, a cellar, a warehouse, a cluster of tree, an area behind a
bulldozer. They will then be held down by two people and shot dead.
Well, were the criminals arrested?
But, that didn’t happen did it? Nope. Instead what did we get? We got a media onslaught of a “Russian Narrative”. We got trade wars that increased the prices of our purchases, and we got a promise with more wars “down the pipe”. The latest being with Iran.
Meanwhile in America, in the “heartland”, we are arrested and incarcerated for the slightest offense. It’s really sad and alarming to the most wide-eyed believer.
This is what is called a “two-tied” ,”unequal“, or “Medieval” Justice system. Hell would freeze over before the likes of Louis Learner would be arrested for anything resembling jaywalking.
The Joke Police are looking to strip Dave Chappelle of his speech rights, which once again proves we are coming to a decision point in this country. That’s what this whole godforsaken Woke Crusade boils down to — a choice, and the choice is this: Are we going to allow ourselves to become second class citizens in our own country? Are we going to allow far-left activists and their allies in the media, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood to bully us into creating a two-tiered class system?
- Great little slice of outrage from John Nolte.
Two-tiered Justice System.
Heck! Hillary Clinton could be filmed stabbing an illegal migrant to death in the town square with hundreds of onlookers, and the news media would report that Donald Trump did it.
What we get is “bread crumbs”. A monthly feed of hope…
Hope…
But, people… Hope is not actionable by itself.
People, a two tiered justice system is not sustainable.
Two Tiered Justice
If you have one set of laws for the members of the government and another set for everyone else, you are not being governed, you are being ruled.
- SteveF, comment at Daily Pundit, via Cold Fury
And this quote…
“How do I recognize that the SHTF is very close?”
One of as closest answers possible to give there is this: “You know it is close when people stop worrying about repercussions (punishment from the law and the system).”
-Organic Prepper
Yeah, and this…
Then as now, the pleasant skin of “Yay, democracy!” has been sloughed off to reveal the naked sinews of power and wealth and violence beneath. There’s no crisis like there was in 2008. The world isn’t ending like it was in 2008. But I’m telling you that it feels the same to me.
They’re. Not. Even. Pretending. Anymore.
-Epsilon Theory
Give him some time…
The conservative argument is always “give it some time”. “It’s a big mess and Donald Trump is only one lone man.”
Yes. I get that.
But we don’t have all day. We do not have an unlimited amount of time. We have THIS window. Maybe another four years. Maybe…
Maybe…
Yes, there are things that need to be put into place. I get that…
Prerequisites for draining the swamp.
The thing is that there just isn’t a lot of time.
There really isn’t.
You either do things NOW, or accept the fact that they will never get done.
Don’t believe me? Well then do some comparisons…
Obama implementation of ACA ObamaCARE … months.
Obama giving 7 billion dollars to South Africa … weeks.
Wilson in the formation of the Federal Reserve … months.
Arrest, trial, sentencing and execution for Lincoln’s death … months.
Meanwhile…
Arrest, trial, sentencing for contemporaneous treason … years
Don’t you all see that there is something seriously wrong here? Don’t you see that time IS AN ISSUE?
Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it is raining.
Lewis Powell Payne 2. A UNIQUE INSIGHT into the Civil War Confederates has been brought to light in the form of rare photographs that have been enriched with colour. The authentically colourised pictures depict the tragic circumstances of the war with two dead men lying on the ground in Maryland, USA; a confederate buried and a federal unburied. Other photos include a portrait of American confederate soldier and commander of the Confederates States of America, Robert Edward Lee, and Lewis Powell Payne, who conspired with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, leaning against a wall. Further images expose the aftermath of the war with a confederate soldier in Petersburg, Virginia, lying lifelessly on the ground with blood on his face. The vintage photographs were carefully colourised by CEO, Mads Madsen (23), from Horsens, Denmark, who spent between 12 to 14 hours to colourise the pictures of the dead men at Dunker Church and Antietam alone. Mads Madsen / mediadrumworld.com
Meanwhile
Yeah. Meanwhile, it’s the same old. Same old.
It’s nearing the next election cycle. They know how to predict our behavior. They know how to manipulate us. They know what buttons to push.
They are following the same old tired formula. They are expecting us to react in the same old tired manner.
Who cares what conservatives do, say, or think anymore? They didn't conserve America. They didn't conserve the ladies room. They couldn't even conserve the two human sexes!
- Vox Day at Vox Popoli
They are expecting to move us “normals” to pull the lever to whomever they want us to.
You know strike at the curtain, not at the man behind the curtain. Fight and get all worked up with the political hot-button items of the day. From “Red Flag” laws, to “global warming”, to LGBT bathrooms.
Vote to make a difference.
No one, of course, no one is talking about the REAL issues.
That is the sustainability of an oligarchy under the guise of a democracy / partial republic. No one is talking about this. For they, the Kingly rulers, believe that they have sufficiently dumbed down the populace to a point where we are unaware of their crimes and their manipulations.
They are chomping at the bit, as all this has been in the works for a century at least and it is just about ready for fruition. All they need is to disarm a large enough segment of the population. If they can’t do it overtly, they will do it covertly though “red flag” laws, and when that happens, it will just be a matter of months before they can exert full dictatorial control.
As if they don't have it already.
People, if you can get arrested in your own yard for making and selling lemonade, you ARE living in a dictatorship. If you have to pee in a cup to get a job, you are living in a dictatorship. If you need to undress to your underwear to board a plane, take a train, or travel you are living in a dictatorship.
It’s just a matter of months.
Voting?
Elections provide the illusion of control.
However, every study conducted on this issue has proven that the issues that matter to the voting public are not what the fellows in Washington DC promote. They have a totally different agenda.
Americans in America today. Many on drugs. Many unemployed or underemployed. Many getting their information from questionable sources.
It is a globalist agenda and they follow the money path and directions from the global oligarchy.
Today, we are fighting PROXY wars in the Middle East. Not because mainstream Americans demand that we fight Yemen to protect our "interests", but rather because it is what the donors to our political class desire.
Sometimes, in a once in a century event, a candidate will be elected (like Donald Trump) that will try to do the “right thing”, and who will make the hard and the difficult choices.
But, what if all the people that he has to work with are corrupt? What if they do not answer to their constituents simply because they are not beholding to them. What if they don’t need to try?
What then?
Broken electoral system.
Knowledge is power
It should be clear enough for everyone that the “Deep State” is far larger and far more powerful than any citizen voted initiative, even when it is the President of the United States. There is nothing that we can do about it. We can only react to it. There are three options.
Except accept our fate, fight back, or flee.
We crossed the Rubicon.
We must now accept our fate. As well as how it will develop in the next few years, or…
We need to jump ship. Escape while it is still possible. Just like the multimillionaire software oligarchs are doing. Or…
We need to fight and take back what is ours.
Face the facts. Face it. Our nation is a full-on oligarchy, run like the most evil and corrupt mob organization ever conceived.
Meanwhile, us citizens are treated like dirt. We are the money-cows that have zero rights and are ear-marked for the gulag as soon as a Progressive Democrat gets control of the armed forces. You know this is true, or do I need to provide links and data to convince you all?
They have already nullified key sections of the Bill of Rights. Since when can any Congress make any law infringing upon any of the Rights within the Bill of Rights? Or, do you think that everything will magically reverse and go away?
Read this letter…
They have already nullified key sections of the Bill of Rights. Since when can any Congress make any law infringing upon any of the Rights within the Bill of Rights? Or, do you think that everything will magically reverse and go away? Negating the Bill of Rights.
Be Sensible
Here is my attempt to talk you, the reader, out of dangerous violent action.
Most conservatives are sitting tight and looking around trying to see what other conservatives are doing. Then, they plan to take action themselves. No one wants to make the first move. They are waiting on the mainstream American news media to somehow report on other traditional conservatives taking action…
The thing is that the American mainstream media controls information dissemination.
American mainstream media controls information dissemination.
There is no way to know positively if other conservatives are taking hard action. Thus, as a result you risk becoming the lone “gun man” who is disturbing the tranquility of “our republic”.
Listen to me.
War is ugly.
People die. Including you, your friends, your family and your loved ones.
It should be avoided at all costs.
People get tortured, and sadness abounds.
Dying ain’t much of a living.
If you are truly unhappy with the way things are today, then leave the United States.
If you are unhappy, but do not want to hurt anyone, just lie low and hunker down. Go with the flow. Do what everyone else is doing. Accept things as they are, and hope that your children will turn things around.
Violence is a last resort item that will probably get YOU KILLED. Heed my words.
…
Let’s take a breather and look at our options. There are three, and only three options.
[1] – Protect your own.
Option one. You can, if you wish, to accept servitude and slavery. There is no shame in that. As the saying goes in North Korea…
"It's better to be miserable than dead."
That’s fine. I’m sure that is your deep desire. Let it all blow over, and some day everything will change. Most (so called) Conservatives will accept this reality. My guess is that 94% will.
Pretend that some day it will all go away.
Think about other things. Think about your family. Think about your career. Think about your favorite sport team.
It was the summer of 1996, early June, and I was teaching a course at Simmons College in Boston to make some extra dough. Jennifer was clerking for a lawfirm down in Dallas, pregnant with our first child.
My dad called. He and my mom were in London, where they had rented a small flat for a month. Did I want to come over and stay for a few days?
As it happened, I had five days free, perfect for a long weekend trip. I walked down to a cheapo travel agency on Boylston (yes, a physical travel agency), and found a ticket for $600 or thereabouts.
Seemed like a lot. I could have afforded it, by which I mean there was room on my credit card to buy it, not that I could really afford it. $600 was a lot of money to me.
That said, I hadn’t seen my parents since Christmas, and my dad sounded so … happy. This was a special trip for them, a chance to LIVE in a city that my father LOVED, and this was my chance to share it with them. But $600. I dunno.
I called my father and told him that I just couldn’t swing it. He understood. He was a very practical guy. The call lasted all of 20 seconds. You know, international long distance being so expensive and all.
I never saw my father again. He died a few weeks after he and my mother got home.
You must make the choices in life that mean a lot to you.
My cat taught me this trick; “Life is hard. Then you nap.”
Up until now, this has been the status quo for most of America and most certainly for most Conservatives, and “normals”. We have accepted our lot. We don’t like it, but we accept it.
We pay our taxes.
We don’t protest when the government is out of control.
We accept the fact that we must undress to travel.
We shrug off the latest restrictions on our freedom.
We have adapted to the chains around our wrists, and the shackles on our legs.
The spunk is beaten out of us.
This is true though many do not want to admit it. Listen up! Here is the harsh truth…
Let me tell you that it’s only going to get worse. It’s going to get a whole lot worse. But maybe you can survive. Ride the waves, so to speak.
There are a lot of sick and perverse people around us. We are simply not seeing them. They are waiting for the SHTF.
- Selco at Organic Prepper
Ride the waves.
Accept your place in the world.
American mainstream media telling us “normals” what they fully intend to do with us once they reacquire the reins of power.
This is what the United States government wants you to do.
It is what the progressive liberals want you to do.
This is what the American mainstream media wants you to do.
This is what the “deep state” wants you to do.
This is what the “swamp in Washington DC” wants you to do.
This is also probably what your friends and family want you to do as well. It’s a female trait; safety over freedom. Even if that safety is probably going to be short lived.
Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin appeared on MSNBC's "AM Joy" Sunday and said that not only does Trump have to lose in 2020, but there must be a purging of "survivors" who still support the commander-in-chief.
"It's not only that Trump has to lose, but that all his enablers have to lose," she said. "We have to collectively, in essence, burn down the Republican Party."
"We have to level them because if there are survivors — if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again."
- Nick Givas at Fox News, about the 2020 national election
Your freedom, if you wait, will be short lived.
Progressive Marxist plans for when they obtain the reins of power. Only this time, it will be forever.
Option two. Alternatively, you can do what I did. Leave. My guess that a small minority will join me, but you all had best consider this option. Time is fleeting and the window of opportunity is closing.
It’s not a comfortable option. You must discard most of your belongings. Move away from all you know and love. Lose your support network, your friends and your family.
You will need to embrace a new place, a new culture, a new society and a new way of doing things and living life. You might need to learn a new language, take up a new occupation, and live at a standard of life that you are not accustomed to. Are you up to it?
Yup.
That’s right. You can leave.
Leave America.
Doug Casey quote.
It’s no longer my business who gets rich and who suffers in the USA. It’s one big enormous cluster f@ck and I want no part of it. Not at all. I really do not want to get embroiled in any kind of spitting match between progressive and traditional nationalists.
Not.
My.
Problem.
When you get older in life, you learn that there are some things worth fighting for, and other things that are important to you. You learn to pick and choose your battles selectively. You know what is important, and what hasn’t a hope in Hell in occurring.
So you make decisions based on YOUR own personal circumstances.
In my case, for me, it’s one of moving to a freer nation. One where I can live life on my very own terms. And let others battle the mess that the United States is today.
Maybe I cannot get a bagel or an authentic NY Style slice of pizza, but I sure can get other things just as wonderful.
For those of you who would prefer to live to a grand old age, and have no desire to observe blood spilled, I would advise you to leave America. I would advise you all taking some immediate actions to secure a safe-haven and protect you and yours from the encroaching darkness.
Life is far too short to get killed, watch your family suffer through hardship or endure a life crippled.
Do what I did, and flee.
Spicoli telling it like it is. Wars and strife are for younger idealistic mean to deal with. Old grizzly coots like myself would rather stay far from all the strife and life the rest of our life in peace. While it is impossible to find the best island to hide upon, we can make reasonable choices and hunker down for the protracted shit-storm that is about to be unleashed.
That's what many Jews did in the 1930's when Hitler rose to power. Some made it to the USA, but only a few. Some made it to Shanghai, and there they huddled in their enclaves while the war waged around them. While others went next door to Poland. But that didn't help them at all.
Call me a coward, if you will.
While the USA goes through the “big reset”, I will be out here, minding my own business. I will not need to fight, or witness atrocities. And I will be safe.
The days of the United States fighting a three or four year long war are long over. Today, the United States fights long-duration decade-long wars that never end.
Instead of the second American Civil War (CWII) being over in a short period of time (like the first American Civil War), it might be prolonged for decades.
Decades, or even longer. Maybe something resembling the Palestine vs. Israel conflict. The "forever" war.
Are you willing to permit you and your family to endure that?
Instead, I will be surrounded by people who will not be affected by anything going on in the USA. Just like youse guys aren’t affected by anything going on in Lusaka, Zambia. Just like your family is not affected by what is going on in Spain right now. Or Singapore. Or Taipei.
When you live in another nation, it’s a different world, and I’m doing just fine, thank you.
Outside of the USA, everything is just fine.
Call me what ever names you want. I just do not want to be either a slave or embroiled in the SHTF CWII, Fourth Turning that is gathering momentum in America today.
And, make no mistake, it is gathering momentum.
While I had hope that the election of Donald Trump would reverse and undo the damage of progressive Marxism, he has not.
He has failed.
Hey! Instead of tweeting about buying Greenland, how about shutting down the ATF, or at least downsizing it... severely.
Outside the United States, everything is just fine.
Yes. Donald Trump.
He’s done some nice things, and he’s a hoot to listen to, but he’s not doing the real hard and uncomfortable things that need to be tasked.
It's as if the United States is a big car wreck. With broken windows, flat tires, a fire in the engine, with wounded and dying people inside. And Donald Trump, is well, washing the rear view mirror instead of tending to the damage and the destruction that urgently needs his attention.
A great example of that is former AG Jeff Sessions and his war on medical marijuana instead of prosecuting for treason. It's the same thing. Just different personalities.
Donald Trump has failed to reverse the century of Progressive ideology and oligarchy control. He has not undone the mistakes of Wilson, and FDR. Nor has he taken affirmative action to restore liberty crashed by Bush, Clinton and Obama. America is just treading water.
Realize that, and take appropriate action.
[3] – Go on the offensive.
Option three. The “into the black” option.
I’m not moping around waiting to die. I’m not lazing around eating bonbons. The present is for DOING. The present is FLEETING. I’ve got something to SAY before I go. I’ve got a future to SECURE for my children, because in them I can still see future’s promise and not just future’s threat.
-Epsilon Theory
Do not misunderstand. Just because I am quiet and kind, does not mean that I am incapable of being entirely and dangerously violent.
Disclaimer.
It is natural to fight for freedom and liberty. That being said, it is ugly, ugly business and should only be undertaken as a last resort. You should not go about it cavalierly. You need to plan and strike with maximum effectiveness at the root causes, the generals and the masterminds of those who are sealing your freedom.
You can, if you wish to stay, go on the offensive and fight back. (As the saying goes; Be a man gosh-darn it!) Though, you must realize that you are taking a big and dangerous risk. Be careful.
The Stoner 63. This was exactly the kinds of weapons that the founders intended the people to arm themselves with. Not single-shot .22 round BB pellets.
You are only a single person and the problems going on in America are far to large and deep for a single person to handle. You know this, right?
However…
However, regionally, YOU can make a difference.
Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think everything you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you’re alive. If you don’t claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.
- Chuck Palahniuk, “Fight Club” (1996)
Regionally… locally… YOU can make a difference.
Regionally.
Locally.
Contrary to the Mainstream media narrative, conservatives, and traditional patriots do not strike out at innocents. We are not progressives who want to shoot up a elementary school, run down people on a sidewalk, or shoot up a Walmart. Nope.
No.
We only fight as a last resort.
However, when we fight, we aim at the target, and we do our best to hit that target. And we do not care how we do it.
You will know when real conservatives are taking action. It won’t be a school full of innocents shot up. No. It will be a counsel member, a congressman, or a labor leader strung up and lynched. It could be a university professor, a member of the mainstream media management, or a software mogul.
We study. We prepare. We plan. Then, we hit where it matters the most. When playing chess, we go after the King and The Queen. We don’t bother with the pawns.
We go after leadership.
Make sure that your entire family is properly trained in the use of firearms.
The progressive liberal cabal, and their RINO enablers, treat Americans as animals. Like cattle and that they can ratchet up the intensity of their progressive agenda slowly without worry of a backlash. They view this entire matter; the adjustment towards progressive Marxism as a giant rheostat.
However traditional conservatives do not look at things that way. We look at it as an on/off switch. We are petrified that it might go to on. But if it does, we will NOT have any mercy. It will be a real bloody nightmare.
The conservative populace will target the progressive leadership in precise surgical attacks. Avoid the innocent. Hit those singular individuals that run the oligarchy in your region. Do not waste your time on the little guys. Target those in charge. Then go down the list and hit their enablers.
Ai! And it’s certainly a target-rich environment.
Target Rich environment.
Operational Zone
In the map below you can easily identify where you live and what social-geographic region that you inhabit. That is your operational zone.
Select your operational zone.
Compile a target list.
Plan each one thoroughly.
America’s cultural enclaves. America is not a homogeneous society. It is a collection of social-economic regions. America’s cultural enclaves. (Image Source)
You need to [1] identify the progressives that live within that area, you need to [2] identify the enclaves of the wealthy and [3] their points of egress, such as small regional airports. You need to identify [4] bridges and [5] choke-points and [6] you need to target those enemies of Liberty…
The Marxist cabal.
Operational Plans
Go after the key and central figures that are running the Marxist plan and take them down. (One George Soros is equivalent to 10,000 social justice warriors. ) Do not waste your time on the enablers, and the vast bulk of society. Do not hurt innocents, or the misinformed. Protect where possible, but stick to your mission parameters.
A word of caution.
If this is your preferred avenue of approach, and I have been unable to talk you out of it, then take the necessary precautions.
1. Go "X-ray" leading up to any action. Zero internet. Zero cell phone. Zero electronics. Communicate face to face or not at all. There is an over-reliance on electronic communication monitoring systems. In war, you go full X-ray.
2. Tell no one what your plans are. No one. Not even your dog. Missions are secret, for a reason.
3. Leave no records, or justification of your actions. They should speak for themselves. You do not need to hope for death and leave some kind of manifesto to prove yourself. You are not some ego deprived, basket head-case. You do not need to justify your actions.
4. If you want to target a person, consider other means aside from (noisy and easy to trace) firearms. For "surgical" strikes, nothing beats poison, radiation or "accidents". Remember Antonin Scalia. It's worked great for the progressive cabal. Adopt their strategy.
5. Any target worth your effort will be protected. Either by personal surveillance, guards, or other means. If not, then they are just plain foolish in their arrogance.
6. Threaten no one. Avoid arguments. Be as low-key and innocuous as possible. Be the Scarlet Pimpernel.
With that understood by most of the readers here, I’m sure you can all see how these RFL (Red Flag Laws) may eventually become the confiscation we’ve been warned about all along. RFL allow the state to use almost any reason they desire to go to your home, enter it and take your firearms away from you. All they have to do is justify it to themselves.
Make an angry, politically-charged Facebook post? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.
Make a Twitter post that “authorities” interpret as being Islamophohic? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.
You get in an argument with your woman and piss her off? A RFL can be used to confiscate your guns. It has happened.
Spare me the talking points on the legal limits of RFL at the present time. All they needed to do for now is get the laws into place. Rest assured they will be administratively and bureaucratically tweaked and adjusted so that it gets EASIER for the boys wearing the Oakleys to kick your door in, and those bureaucratic and administrative tweaks will make it harder and more expensive for you to get your guns back. Assuming that you ever get them back at all.
RFL are the tool that willll be used to get guns away from anyone and everyone that those in charge don’t want to have them.
All the talk that’s been had in your group about being quiet about your guns… Put that into action now. Ditch the NRA stickers, stop the good old boys gun discussions down at the local watering hole, remove the vanity pics from Facebook (why do you still have FB?). No one needs to know about your guns if they don’t live in your house. It won’t be easy to change those habits, but it’s time now.
The legal framework for taking your guns away simply for being a wrong-thinker is in place. The local Kommissar has his eyes open and the police will follow their orders to knock on your door when they get the order.
-American Partisan
Study Materials
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. If you are going to sit and stay put and be passive, then put on the “neutral” camouflage and go with the flow. If you are going to flee, then prep and make the leap. And, of course, if you are going to strike against the progressive cabal study.
If you are desirous of taking matters into your own hands, be realistic about it. It will not be like any television show, or movie that you have watched. It will be up front and personal. It will NOT go the way you planned, and it will NOT be pleasant.
Think. Think very carefully if you really want to do this. Bugging out and high-tailing it to a foreign land is a much easier and less risky thing to do.
In the early stages of SHTF, the government will still be functional and they will have the resources to track you down and kill you dead. Realize this. They will protect their elite members and protected classes of people and will strike back harshly at you and yours… their inferiors.
Realize it, and take the appropriate measures.
Advantage lies in secrecy, surprise, planning, and backup plans. Trust no one. Plan on the worst possible outcome, and keep frosty and alert.
War is not like a video game. It is up front, in your face and personal. You had best steel yourself for this reality if you are even going to contemplate fighting and hurting others. It’s nasty, nasty business. It really is.
If you are not ready to kill someone with a knife, up close and personal, then you are not ready to do anything. Option three is not for you. You should reconsider options one or two.
Life isn’t fair. Deal with it.
When one anonymous phone call can cause police to descend on your house, seize your firearms, and shoot you if you resist, then you no longer live in a nation of laws.
- Staff at Amerika
I have a friend here in China named Ronald. He’s from South Africa.
He fled his home nation when the social Marxists came to power and started to implement their war on “white people”. (Within months of Barrack Obama giving 7 billion dollars to South Africa to “improve their energy grid”. Who’d have thought?)
He lost just about everything that he owned. But… he’s alive. He has a roof over his head and trying to make it at 65 years old in a strange land with strange customs.
But at least he doesn’t have to worry about gangs of black urban youth riding technicals, crashing through his doorway and abusing his family and friends.
His point of view is that while things are a real struggle for him at this time, it is far better for him now in China that were he to have stayed in South Africa. He’s a lucky man and has his nut.
The holy grail of nuts.
Conclusion
Don’t put too much faith in Donald Trump and the Republican crew to reverse centuries of progressive Marxism. They are floundering. They are not doing anything. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that they do not have that ability.
As a result all this is just leading youse guys along.
As Bill Barr slowly and efficiently covers up the seditious plot and other crimes committed by the FBI and DOJ during the Obama years, it is not unreasonable to wonder how far down the scale this moves the political center. Twenty-five years ago, most dissidents would have thought this level of corruption was improbable, if not entirely impossible. The typical normie was still sure the next election would bring reformers, who would chase off the crooks and clean up the system...
One thing we know is that dissident ranks are growing. Even the Left is admitting it. The popularity of dissident sites, podcasts and video shows are at record highs. More important, the general sense within dissident ranks is that reform is impossible...
Whatever you may think of Trump, the result of the last three years is proof that elections don’t matter. This shameless refusal by public officials to apply the law to Washington insiders makes a mockery of the rule of law. Throw in the stunning dishonesty of the mass media and the metastasizing surveillance state and it is impossible for even the most gullible to remain a civic nationalist.
-Z man blog via Remus
Do not be caught off guard. You are a man and have responsibilities.
Newsflash: Red Flag Laws are already being enforced across the country, even in some die hard Red States.
My advice to Armed Patriots is still the same:
DUMP ALL Social Media
Do NOT advertise anything about Firearms on your vehicle or person
Keep your Personal Business to yourself
NEVER willingly install Listening Devices in your House such as SIRI and ALEXA
Big Brother is listening and watching 24/7.
Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!
-The Tactical Hermit
Take your responsibilities seriously and make the hard and difficult choices.
Choose one of the following three options and go full blast at it. You do not have forever. Now is the time. You are the person. Be smart. Be frosty. Be serious.
Stay and accept a life as a serf in a two-tiered society.
Flee for greener pastures.
Fight the bastards, but be smart about it.
The BIG GAME is coming.
" this past weekend i was at the local having a pint. out of no where there was a commotion by the pool tables behind me. i looked and there stood a kid 17-18ish, yelling at a guy standing with his hair in a ponytail.
he had a slight smirk on his face. he never said a word, he just stood staring back with a shit eating grin.
eventually the manager walked over, and ended up kicking the kid out.
the manager came back sat next to me and the bartender walked over. i looked at the manager and said, “that kid was gonna get pounded if it went to blows.” the bartender (an Irish guy and former hell raiser) nodded and the manager quickly agreed. “OH YEAH!!!!” manager spent a year in prison for involuntary man slaughter. guy pulled a gun on him, he took the gun and he shot the man in the face, point blank.
when he told me the story he did it in the most chilling voice i’d ever heard from his mouth.
guys that fight, NEVER talk shit. there’s a disagreement and either a fight begins or does not. when a fist lands on your face, that’s the primary sign you are in a fight. there’s a certain way i fight if i KNOW it’s gonna down. don’t ask, i ain’t telling.
“when you are short on everything but the enemy, you are in combat.” -murphey’s laws of combat.
guy ended up coming up to the bar to get a drink. i looked over at him and said, “god dammit i was hoping you were gonna unload on him.” he smiled and said, “nah, i only fight men.” i told the bartender i was covering his beer. he shook my hand, thanked me and i asked his name.
“Mike, you.”
i answered, “Danny. nice to meet you. stay the fuck up Dude.”
he turned and walked back to his game of pool.
stay up.
- ITLR: The Barking Doggy
“… if Barr & Durham fail to deliver a bale of indictments, they will be putting a bullet in the head of this republic. There will be no hope of restoring trust in the system …” There’s more.
“What is most perilous for our country now, would be to journey through
a second epic crisis of authority in recent times without anybody
facing the consequences of crimes they might have committed. The result
will be a people turned utterly cynical, with no faith in their
institutions or the rule of law, and no way to imagine a restoration of
their lost faith within the bounds of law”.
The first epic crisis was the finance debacle of 2008,
“… fraudsters and swindlers in that orgy of banking malfeasance were never marched into a courtroom, never had to answer for their depredations, and remained at their desks in the C-suites collecting extravagant bonuses”.
The FBI, the Department of Justice, the CIA, the FISA
Court, the Department of State, et al, originated and assisted this
clunky coup attempt and continue to cover up the misdeeds of their
participants. Piles of actionable evidence have been part of the public
record for some time now, yet we still await reason to believe the Barr
and Durham investigations are being conducted in good faith. Given
events thus far an objective observer would bet the other way.
As Mr. Kunstler points out, trust, perhaps
legitimacy itself, is slipping away from DC. Consider their serial
crimes, not merely unpunished but flouted as insider jokes. Consider
the malicious partisanship and sponsored assaults by DC’s core agencies,
openly applauded in DC as brave and heroic. Consider past and ongoing
“legislating from the bench” specifically intended to undo the express
will of the people. The emerging message is plain enough now to be
unmistakable. Our votes don’t count. Because we don’t count.
Bonus
Most SHTF and Prepper articles concentrate on self-preservation. Now, Self-preservation is important, but it will not take our Republic back. Always remember that. Fighting a Defensive war is a losing proposition.
NO ONE ever wins a war fought on the Defensive.
Highlights from Part one. Staple this to your Brain.
1) Government identification records are the clerical basis for mass murder and other atrocities: No, not every government ID scheme leads to genocide and expatriation. But for the collectivists of both the German Reich and the USSR, each victim’s identity card was both part of the initial targeting and the final “production record”.
2) Get to the forest early if you want to live: If you think they will be coming for you, you are probably right. Plan not to be where they know you work and live. Act early if you want to maximize your chances. You and your family will die if you are at your government-approved address.
3) The Bad People will have lots of help from your neighbors:The most disturbing moment for me in the KGB museum was not in the execution or interrogation/torture cells. It was realizing, while moving through the excellent exhibits on the mass deportations of Lithuanians after “liberation” by the Soviets in 1944, that most of the deportees (many of whom were subsequently executed or starved or died of exposure and disease) had been betrayed to the NKVD/KGB by their neighbors.
4) “Fascism” is not the only mortal enemy of freedom and life; the real enemy is collectivism in any form: At each of the memorials, one could tell the provenance of any signage by its reference to “fascism”. Mostly, such markings were from the Soviet era, during which — not coincidentally — many more millions of innocent human beings were killed by the “enlightened” Communists than had been slaughtered by the Hitlerites and their collaborators. While it is too much to expect the Soviets to acknowledge these facts, it is essential that freedom-minded folks grok that collectivism, in any form, can and usually does lead to the mass grave.
5) Never report en masse when ordered to do so: Nothing good ever happens to folks who do.
6) Food and ammunition will be the vital shortages you must address in order to live: Empty weapons and bellies a successful resistance does not make.
7) The Bad People will torture and kill those who help you: Get used to the idea. Retribution killing is a standard totalitarian play. Try to avoid jeopardizing your allies to the extent possible, but know that they too will be swept into the whirlwind.
8) The Bad People will torture and kill your family
members:Sippenhaft ain’t just a chapter in Vanderboegh’s long-awaited novel. The KGB museum was filled with execution orders with notations indicating that not only had the subject been killed per order of the Party, but that “special measures” had or would be taken against the victim’s family.
9) You must be prepared to fight until victory or death: Once you go to the woods, you are there for the duration. The Baltic “forest brothers”stayed out until they were killed or captured. More on them in the next part of this report.
10) If you think it can’t happen here, you are wrong. The Polish and Lithuanian Jews who were ground into dust by the Einsatzgruppenthought the same thing. So did the Lithuanians who couldn’t believe that the Communists under Stalin and subsequent regimes would hold their passionate patriotism against them.
Almost all of those folks who believed “it couldn’t happen” died.
A few survived by running into the woods, or by bearing up under the brutal realities of the Gulag, year after year after year.
Each of them knows the single biggest lesson from Lithuania: naked, brute force can and does triumph over kindness, love of kin and country, and simple human decency — often for decades or more.
Lose your illusions.
While there is still time.
Stay Alert, Armed and Dangerous!
SHTF Related Index
This is a collection of my posts related to SHTF (Shit Hit The Fan), CWII (American Civil War 2), Fourth Turning (Strauss–Howe generational theory)
and other posts related to the very sad and sorry tatters that America
is today. Actually, I am a little stunned that I have written so much
about these matters. But America today is very ill and there are things
that really should be said.
Here are the posts.
SHTF and Related Index
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Well, do you know? Most people don’t, and if you were to poll Joe-and-suzy average on the street, you would find that just about no-one has ever heard of it. Yet, it is THE most important amendment to the United States Constitution. In fact, I would argue that the United States is what it is today due to ignoring this amendment.
Yes… yes… yes…
We all know that the Bill of Rights functionally no longer exists. It doesn’t, and it hasn’t existed for over a hundred years. I’m not going to insult the reader with the facts, it has long since been documented time and time again…
The sole purpose of the ATF is infringe on the Second Amendment.
The Utah Data Collection Center would not exist if the Fourth Amendment was being enforced.
Judicial “Plea Bargains” circumvented both the Sixth and Seventh Amendment Protections.
The DHS and TSA has severely degraded Fifth Amendment protections.
The Tenth Amendment was eviscerated when the Southern States lost the American Civil War.
The Preamble to the Bill of Rights is ignored.
The facts are there, plain as day. There is no need to parse individual details. Those doing so are either [1] Living in an Ivory Tower bubble, [2] Mentally retarded, or [3] Shrills for the Oligarchy. There is no other excuse.
The United States was set up to be free of regulation from government. The founders believed that a people should be unhampered, and unfettered by links, and chains of an oppressive government. Not only did they hate regulations, but they felt that the United States government should have ZERO ability to regulate anything.
I argue here, that just about everything related to the “War on Drugs”, the “War on Poverty”, regulations for “Climate Change”, and just about every single liberal progressive social engineering effort (from cake baking, to LGBT bathrooms), would be stopped dead in it’s tracks, if the Ninth Amendment were being followed.
We now inhabit a world that demonizes Thomas Jefferson and elevates Frederica Wilson. Is there any way out of this mess that doesn’t involve a spaceship?
- From the editors, at Taki's Magazine
What is the Ninth Amendment?
The Ninth Amendment
The ninth amendment states that though only some rights are specifically listed in the Constitution, those rights not specifically listed are not denied to the people. It was designed to further protect the rights of the people by preventing the government from creating restrictions on unlisted rights.
-Wikipedia
I like that sentence…
“It was designed to … prevent the government from creating restrictions … on citizens.”
The exact text reads:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Ah, it’s pretty clear, don’t ya think. Just because the Constitution list the freedom to speak as a Right, this amendment says that there are many, many other Rights that Americans have.
The Ninth Amendment was James Madison’s attempt to ensure that the Bill of Rights was not seen as granting to the people of the United States only the specific rights it addressed.
In recent years, some have interpreted it as affirming the existence of such “unenumerated” rights outside those expressly protected by the Bill of Rights.
-Legal Information Institute
The FDA example.
For instance… consider this RIGHT that is not enumerated within the Constitution;
The RIGHT to eat and drink whatever you want.
Or, in other words, the RIGHT to take what ever medicine or substance and ingest it. If you want to drink alcohol, then the government should not get involved. If you want to smoke crazy-weed, it’s none of the government’s business. I you wanted to take a large dosage of vitamin “D”, go ahead.
That’s what freedom is all about.
A person living in freedom, as delineated by the Ninth Amendment would not have to contend with…
Regulations on “Obama-School-Lunch” composition.
All FDA restrictions, and drug schedules.
Regulations on the manufacture of home-made moonshine.
Regulations on “Magic Mushrooms”, “demon weed”, and “tobacco”.
Even, regulations on eating Tide Pod’s.
Freedom, real freedom, is the ability to enjoy or even harm yourself unencumbered by laws, regulation, or the busybody next door.
Thus, I argue, that the Ninth Amendment clearly says that the RIGHT to eat and drink what you want shall not be restricted, infringed or forbidden by the government.
Thus, the enormous federal bureaucracy (the FDA) that restricts access to food, drugs, and drinks DOES NOT CONSTITUTIONALLY HAVE THE POWER to ban, restrict or reduce access to anything. The only power that they have is advisory.
Or, are you going to use the twisted logic that banning access to local plants falls under the “commerce clause” in the Constitution?
Ah. I can hear the squeals from the busybodies in the audience! Look over there… Jeff Sessions is really going to clamp down on that “demon weed”, and look over there…! Nancy Pelosi is all hot and bothered…”what about the children?”!!!!
Jeff Sessions meme regarding smoking marijuana. In a free country, people have the liberty to practice freedom. That means that you can live your life on your own terms. Free of regulation, laws, or the busybody down the street.
Today, we need the Ninth Amendment more than ever before. With larger and larger number of Radical Muslims taking seats in Congress, it won’t be long until pork products will be banned in America, and Islamic food preparation methods will be mandated across the land.
People, the government is NOT our parents.
The United States government was intended to be a mechanism of government, a machine that we the people controlled. Why in Heaven’s name would we create a government that would hurt, harm or restrict our Rights? Hum?
Another Example, the EPA…
Today, most Americans have no idea what the concept of “property” means. They think it is a house. A house that you make mortgage payments to a bank, and yearly tax checks to the government. A house that when you die, your heirs must fight the government to determine how of of “your” property you get to keep in the family.
Nonsense!
Property is anything that you own that no-one can tax, regulate, inspect, investigate, or seize.
Under that definition, most Americans don’t have any property.
It’s true, and I don’t want to rub your face in the doggie-do-do, but that’s a fact. Everything that you “own” can today be seized, inspected, or taxed by the all powerful United States government. Including your very own body. Everything.
And, since you don’t own anything, the government can tell you what you can or cannot do with it. People, if you actually owned property, no one could tell you what to do with it, nor could they tax it either.
Not making a pond, cutting down a tree, or growing grass
I argue that the Ninth Amendment protects your RIGHTS to own property.
The RIGHT to own property that cannot be taxed, inspected, regulated or seized by any government agent.
Which brings me to one of the favorite militarized branches of the progressive left; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Or, are you going to use the twisted logic that telling you what you can do on your property falls under the “commerce clause” in the Constitution?
Rights retained by the people.
The Federalists contended that a bill of rights was unnecessary. They believed that everyone understood that God made man and gave him Rights. Therefore, we could have a kind and just government that did not need to enumerate any Rights given by God. They believed that the government would always protect the Rights of man.
Such fools. Such simpletons!
They argued that if you started to list the Rights given to man by God, that you would have to list every single Right. Or else the government would insist that only those Rights listed would count as Rights.
Well, they were correct. That is how the government works today.
Madison adverted to this argument in presenting his proposed amendments to the House of Representatives. He said…
“It has been objected also against a bill of rights, that, by enumerating particular exceptions to the grant of power, it would disparage those rights which were not placed in that enumeration; and it might follow by implication, that those rights which were not singled out, were intended to be assigned into the hands of the General Government, and were consequently insecure.
This is one of the most plausible arguments I have ever heard against the admission of a bill of rights into this system; but, I conceive, that it may be guarded against. I have attempted it, as gentlemen may see by turning to the last clause of the fourth resolution.”
It is clear from its text and from Madison’s statement that the Amendment states are but a rule of construction. He made clear that a Bill of Rights might not by implication be taken to increase the powers of the national government. Whether it was in areas not enumerated, or in any other fashion. Further, the simplicity of the amendment, does not contain within itself any guarantee of a Right or a proscription of an infringement of a Right.
In 1965 the Amendment was construed to be positive affirmation of the existence of rights which are not enumerated but which are nonetheless protected by other provisions.
Justice Goldberg devoted several pages to the Ninth Amendment in one of her rulings…
“The language and history of the Ninth Amendment reveal that the Framers of the Constitution believed that there are additional fundamental rights, protected from governmental infringement, which exist alongside those fundamental rights specifically mentioned in the first eight constitutional amendments. . . .
To hold that a right so basic and fundamental and so deep-rooted in our society as the right of privacy in marriage may be infringed because that right is not guaranteed in so many words by the first eight amendments to the Constitution is to ignore the Ninth Amendment and to give it no effect whatsoever.
Moreover, a judicial construction that this fundamental right is not protected by the Constitution because it is not mentioned in explicit terms by one of the first eight amendments or elsewhere in the Constitution would violate the Ninth Amendment. . . .
Nor do I mean to state that the Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of right protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government.
Rather, the Ninth Amendment shows a belief of the Constitution’s authors that fundamental rights exist that are not expressly enumerated in the first eight amendments and an intent that the list of rights included there not be deemed exhaustive.”
- 381 U.S. at 488, 491, 492. Chief Justice Warren and Justice Brennan joined this opinion. Justices Harlan and White concurred, id. at 499, 502, without alluding to the Ninth Amendment, but instead basing their conclusions on substantive due process, finding that the state statute “violates basic values implicit in the concept of ordered liberty” (citing Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325 (1937)). Id. at 500.
Therefore, although neither Douglas’ nor Goldberg’s opinion sought to make the Ninth Amendment a substantive source of constitutional guarantees. Which is unfortunate. Instead, both read it as indicating a function of the courts to interpose a veto over legislative and executive efforts to abridge other fundamental rights.
Never the less, the text to the Ninth Amendment is quite clear…
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Other Rights that fall under the Ninth Amendment…
Here’s some other Rights that the Ninth Amendment would normally be protecting were it enforced…
Right to Privacy.
The Right to exist.
The Right to own property without infringement.
The Right to eat and drink freely.
Right to Internet Freedom.
Right for the Freedom of Thought.
The Right of DNA privacy.
The Freedom to be forgotten.
The Freedom to be forgiven (Felons).
The Freedom to have opinions.
The Rights of those not yet born.
The Right to be left alone.
All of which were non-enumerated Rights that Americans enjoyed in 1776. Which, unfortunately today, Americans no longer have.
An average citizen here in 1800 would go years, decades even, without seeing one single minion of the federal government, anywhere, not only his entire day, but for his entire life.
- From Aesop at Raconteur Report
Conclusion
I argue that the Ninth Amendment is severely under-utilized.
I further argue that this amendment would render much of the regulatory agencies in the United States obsolete, as they all operate under the assumption that Americans only have enumerated Rights. Not any non-enumerated Rights no matter what the Ninth Amendment says.
The presence of any regulatory agency presupposes that there are ZERO non-enumerated Rights.
Supreme Court decisions that involve the Ninth Amendment have implied that only the enumerated Rights (in the Bill of Rights) are all that is needed for American citizens to have. Their mention of the Ninth Amendment is only in passing without any substantive effect on governance. Hopefully this will change in the future.
That being said. I’m not going to hold my breath. The swamp is big, enormous and very powerful. The ONLY way that the nation can recover from decades upon decades of abuse is to “nuke it from orbit” and start all over fresh.
Sometimes, when things are so bad, you just don’t take any chances. You get far, far away from the danger, and then you eliminate it completely. This scene has long since became a meme that is used in many different situations. It is not intended to be taken literally, but rather suggestive of how to handle a particular issue.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are
some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you
might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up
in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society
within communist China. As there are some really stark differences
between the two.
Posts about the Changes in America
America is
going through a period of change. Change is good… that is, after it
occurs. Often however, there are large periods of discomfort as the
period of adjustment takes place. Here are some posts that discuss this
issue.
More Posts about Life
I have
broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones
actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little
different, in subtle ways.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
This story was copyrighted in 1951 by Ray Bradbury, and presented here under Article 22 of China’s Copyright Law. Ray Bradbury is one of my personal heroes and his writings greatly influenced me in ways that I am only just now beginning to understand.
Introduction
For years I had amassed a well worn, and dusty collection of Ray Bradbury paperbacks that I would pick up and read for pleasure and inspiration. Later, when I left the United States, and moved to China, I had to leave my treasured books behind. Sigh.
It is very difficult to come across Ray Bradbury books in China. When ever I find one, I certainly snatch it up. Cost is no object when it comes to these masterpieces. At one time, I must have had five books containing this story.
Credit to the wonderful people at Mother Earth News for posting it where a smuck like myself can read it within China. And, of course, credit to the great master; Ray Bradbury for providing this work of art for our inspiration and pleasure.
Full Text
Here is the full text of the masterpiece. I will let the reader read it and enjoy it.
The Pedestrian
To enter out into that silence that was the city at eight o’clock of a misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in pockets, through the silences, that was what Mr. Leonard Mead most dearly loved to do.
He would stand upon the corner of an intersection and peer down long moonlit avenues of sidewalk in four directions, deciding which way to go, but it really made no difference; he was alone in this world of A.D. 2053, or as good as alone, and with a final decision made, a path selected, he would stride off, sending patterns of frosty air before him like the smoke of a cigar.
Sometimes he would walk for hours and miles and return only at midnight to his house. And on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows.
Sudden gray phantoms seemed to manifest upon inner room walls where a curtain was still undrawn against the night, or there were whisperings and murmurs where a window in a tomblike building was still open.
Mr. Leonard Mead would pause, cock his head, listen, look, and march on, his feet making no noise on the lumpy walk.
For long ago he had wisely changed to sneakers when strolling at night, because the dogs in intermittent squads would parallel his journey with barkings if he wore hard heels, and lights might click on and faces appear and an entire street be startled by the passing of a lone figure, himself, in the early November evening.
On this particular evening he began his journey in a westerly direction, toward the hidden sea.
There was a good crystal frost in the air; it cut the nose and made the lungs blaze like a Christmas tree inside; you could feel the cold light going on and off, all the branches filled with invisible snow.
He listened to the faint push of his soft shoes through autumn leaves with satisfaction, and whistled a cold quiet whistle between his teeth, occasionally picking up a leaf as he passed, examining its skeletal pattern in the infrequent lamplights as he went on, smelling its rusty smell.
“Hello, in there,” he whispered to every house on every side as he moved. “What’s up tonight on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9? Where are the cowboys rushing, and do I see the United States Cavalry over the next hill to the rescue?”
The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in midcountry.
If he closed his eyes and stood very still, frozen, he could imagine himself upon the center of a plain, a wintry, windless Arizona desert with no house in a thousand miles, and only dry river beds, the streets, for company.
“What is it now?” he asked the houses, noticing his wrist watch.
“Eight-thirty P.M.? Time for a dozen assorted murders? A quiz? A revue? A comedian falling off the stage?”
Was that a murmur of laughter from within a moon-white house? He hesitated, but went on when nothing more happened.
He stumbled over a particularly uneven section of sidewalk.
The cement was vanishing under flowers and grass.
In ten years of walking by night or day, for thousands of miles, he had never met another person walking, not once in all that time.
He came to a cloverleaf intersection which stood silent where two main highways crossed the town.
During the day it was a thunderous surge of cars, the gas stations open, a great insect rustling and a ceaseless jockeying for position as the scarabbeetles, a faint incense puttering from their exhausts, skimmed homeward to the far directions.
But now these highways, too, were like streams in a dry season, all stone and bed and moon radiance.
He turned back on a side street, circling around toward his home.
He was within a block of his destination when the lone car turned a corner quite suddenly and flashed a fierce white cone of light upon him.
He stood entranced, not unlike a night moth, stunned by the illumination, and then drawn toward it.
A metallic voice called to him: “Stand still. Stay where you are! Don’t move!” He halted. “Put up your hands!”
“But-” he said.
“Your hands up! Or we’ll Shoot!”
The police, of course, but what a rare, incredible thing; in a city of three million, there was only one police car left, wasn’t that correct?
Ever since a year ago, 2052, the election year, the force had been cut down from three cars to one.
Crime was ebbing; there was no need now for the police, save for this one lone car wandering and wandering the empty streets.
“Your name?” said the police car in a metallic whisper.
He couldn’t see the men in it for the bright light in his eyes.
“Leonard Mead,” he said.
“Speak up!”
“Leonard Mead!”
“Business or profession?”
“I guess you’d call me a writer.”
“No profession,” said the police car, as if talking to itself.
The light held him fixed, like a museum specimen, needle thrust through chest.
“You might say that, ” said Mr. Mead.
He hadn’t written in years. Magazines and books didn’t sell any more.
Everything went on in the tomblike houses at night now, he thought, continuing his fancy.
The tombs, ill-lit by television light, where the people sat like the dead, the gray or multicolored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them.
“No profession,” said the phonograph voice, hissing. “What are you doing out?”
“Walking,” said Leonard Mead.
“Walking!”
“Just walking,” he said simply, but his face felt cold.
“Walking, just walking, walking?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Walking where? For what?”
“Walking for air. Walking to see.”
“Your address!”
“Eleven South Saint James Street.”
“And there is air in your house, you have an air conditioner, Mr. Mead?”
“Yes.”
“And you have a viewing screen in your house to see with?”
“No.”
“No?” There was a crackling quiet that in itself was an accusation.
“Are you married, Mr. Mead?”
“No.”
“Not married,” said the police voice behind the fiery beam, The moon was high and clear among the stars and the houses were gray and silent.
“Nobody wanted me,” said Leonard Mead with a smile.
“Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to!”
Leonard Mead waited in the cold night.
“Just walking, Mr. Mead?”
“Yes.”
“But you haven’t explained for what purpose.”
“I explained; for air, and to see, and just to walk.”
“Have you done this often?”
“Every night for years.”
The police car sat in the center of the street with its radio throat faintly humming.
“Well, Mr. Mead,” it said.
“Is that all?” he asked politely.
“Yes,” said the voice. “Here.” There was a sigh, a pop. The back door of the police car sprang wide. “Get in.”
“Wait a minute, I haven’t done anything!”
“Get in.”
“I protest!”
“Mr. Mead.”
He walked like a man suddenly drunk. As he passed the front window of the car he looked in. As he had expected, there was no one in the front seat, no one in the car at all.
“Get in.”
He put his hand to the door and peered into the back seat, which was a little cell, a little black jail with bars. It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there.
“Now if you had a wife to give you an alibi,” said the iron voice.
“But-“
“Where are you taking me?”
The car hesitated, or rather gave a faint whirring click, as if information, somewhere, was dropping card by punch-slotted card under electric eyes. “To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.”
He got in. The door shut with a soft thud.
The police car rolled through the night avenues, flashing its dim lights ahead. They passed one house on one street a moment later, one house in an entire city of houses that were dark, but this one particular house had all of its electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.
“That’s my house,” said Leonard Mead.
No one answered him.
The car moved down the empty river-bed streets and off away, leaving the empty streets with the empty side-walks, and no sound and no motion all the rest of the chill November night.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.
Posts about the Changes in America
America is going through a period of change. Change is good… that is, after it occurs. Often however, there are large periods of discomfort as the period of adjustment takes place. Here are some posts that discuss this issue.
More Posts about Life
I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.
Stories that Inspired Me
Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.
Articles & Links
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
This is going to come as a surprise to many people, but it’s the sad truth. The world today has fractured into two decidedly unique factions. Both factions are polar opposites. There is the progressive globalist oligarchy, and there are conservative traditionalists. This is the entire world, mind you. Not just the United States.
The factions are as clear as night and day. They stand unique and are self-evident to anyone who hasn’t lived under a rock for the last twenty years. And, here, yeah, here, we talk about this situation.
Today the world is polarized. It’s like the polarization of the United States, only on steroids. As, today, this includes the entire globe.
No, it’s not Republicans against Democrats. No, it’s not. No, it’s not “democracy” on one side and “communism” on the other. That is a very out-of-date way of looking at the world. The world has greatly changed, or evolved, since then. Today, things are quite different.
Today, there are the conservative traditionalists on one side, and the progressive globalists folk on the other.
They are diametrically opposed on so many issues that it is a fallacy to think that there is any bridge of commonality between them.
One side believes that the purpose of government is to protect the family, traditions, and lifestyle of the nation. The other side believes that the purpose of government is to enact change towards a utopia for all.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Of course looking at the world in this manner is considered heretical. Americans have been so dumbed down that they don’t know how many amendments are in the Bill of Rights, what Rights are guaranteed in the first amendment, or where Boston Massachusetts is (People in Arkansas think it’s bout 100 miles East of Memphis.) So this is all going to be a surprise…
The United States
Let’s start with the United States. As that is where the bulk of my readership resides.
Today, the United States, I am sorry to say, is functionally a progressive globalist oligarchy.
Of course, the reader is free to disagree. You can hold up that torn-up, tattered, and soiled American Constitution, and point out the words “Republic government” in the body of the text, but that was changed by amendment. (The 12th and the 17th to be exact.) As what has happened many, many times in the past. I guess that many true-believers never got the memo, eh?
I discuss this matter elsewhere.
I am sorry to hold this belief. You know, I want to believe that the American Constitution will endure. Others, such as myself agree. We do not like what the United States has become. The United States is a progressive globalist oligarchy.
A progressive oligarchy is rule by the wealthy elite over a manipulated mob. The mob is fractured into smaller subgroups of “mini-mobs” (for lack of a better term) which are best kept Balkanized and driven by a fear of outsiders.
It’s a reluctant reality, no doubt. With many citizens in direct opposition to the direction and policies of the nation. But, whether you like it or not, the United States, as a nation is functionally fully immersed in the progressive globalist agenda.
The schools, from elementary to university, are all progressive.
The government, aside from a handful of elected officials, are all progressive.
The mainstream media, the advertising media, and Hollywood are all progressive.
Industry, what still exists, are mostly progressive.
Budgets, finance, and banking are all progressive.
Science, and academia are all progressive.
Judicial appointments, and most enforcement activity, are mostly progressive. With some Circuit Courts, such as the ninth, completely immersed in progressive ideology.
Of course, there are always exceptions.
The lone non-progressive media outlet; FOX helps to offset the progressive steam-roller. There are also a handful of independent conservative media outlets, though it’s pretty difficult to find them online as they are shadow-banned by American search engines. There is President Trump, and his handful of his”wild cats”. There are factories and industries that won’t pull a “Gillette” or promote diversity hijabs.
Yet, today, America has fully implemented progressive globalist policies…
Gender is an artificial construct.
Children should be raised by the government.
Education and work are not merit based.
Color of skin, race and gender define diversity quotas.
Non-working people should get fully paid government benefits.
Balkanization of the USA is preferred and funded.
Conventionally, this is referred to as the “American culture wars”. The thing is, it is not limited to the Untied States. The war is raging all over the globe. From the “Yellow Vest” protests in France, to the “Far Right” protests in Germany.
Rather than get sucked into a long and lengthy discussion about the culture wars in America, let’s just keep it simple. Let’s just simply agree that [1] there is a cultural war that is [2] on-going. [3] How it will pan out is unknown.
What is known, however, is that for the last ten years the United States has been a fully-enabled progressive-socialist oligarchy. This is true and in defiance to the United States Constitution as written. This is true, even though huge swaths of the public refuse to accept this horrible reality.
Today, like it or not, America is a Progressive nation.
America today is the result of many, many years of progressive change. However, the last ten years have been instrumental in making America that land that it is today; a progressive utopia owned and controlled by the global elite; the oligarchy of the West.
China
Lets look at China.
It’s common knowledge that China is communist. We know this, because the progressive American mainstream media has told us this. We know this because this was the case as recent as the 1980’s. We know this because Mr. Mao proudly committed to communist ideals back in the 1940’s. We know this because his picture is still on the Chinese currency.
And… and, we believe this is still the case, well because, we don’t know any better.
However, that has all changed. You know, there have been many, many changes since Richard Nixon was in office. A lot has happened since the 1960’s. First, communist China collapsed in the 1970’s. (Though, it didn’t get the American media attention that it deserved. It’s almost like the American media were pining away for the success of communism.) Communist Cambodia collapsed shortly afterwards, followed by the collapse of the communist Soviet Union.
In the tail half of the last century, just about every communist nation imploded in upon itself. With the exception of Cuba and North Korea.
Of course, the American mainstream media wouldn’t like to admit any of this. In their minds, it is still useful (for distraction purposes) to manipulate the more mainstream and conservative members of their (shrinking) audience. They do this by treating Americans as fools and playing Don Quixote chasing “communist” windmills.
It serves their “Neocon” audiences.
What they have left out, in their news casts and discussion panels, was that communism in China was a terrible failure. When communism was implemented in China, it caused devastation, deaths, starvation, and the destruction of centuries of culture and society. Not just a few deaths, mind you. But whole-scale mass starvation. Not just the destruction of one or two museums, but most of the history of China. Not just the unwritten traditions, but really all aspects of Chinese life was adversely corrupted.
We well know about how the Soviet Union and that brand of communism fell. What was little reported was how the Chinese were able to avert a similar catastrophe. In China, they had heroes who experimented with non-Communist methods to bring about economic success. Mr. Deng and his Chinese version of Reaganomics was the most successful.
China, due to Mr. Mao and his advisors, was riding the bullet train towards catastrophic collapse.
In the 1970’s serious and drastic action needed to be taken to undo the ravages of communism. So numerous leaders “stepped up to the plate”. Each one acted as a hero in an attempt to stop the collapse of the Chinese government, and the resulting foreign intervention.
(You all know, don’t you, that once the Chinese nation collapsed, that rich and wealthy American elite would offer to “rebuild” the nation. You know, out of kindness…)
So the Chinese all stepped up. One of the most famous was Mr. Deng. He and his stunning successes are known all over China. He implemented wide-scale Ronald Reagan economic policies. Only this time, he didn’t have Mr. Bush Sr. snapping at his heels. He didn’t have a media making fun of his actions calling it “Zombie Economics”, and he didn’t have Beijing reverse his polices as soon as they started to bear fruit.
All of which happened in the United States.
You see, back then, China was in a state of an emergency. It was a serious and a dangerous time. Thus, anyone trying to play political games for their own personal benefit, did so at the peril of the entire nation and race.
So, Mr. Deng was permitted to implement a Chinese-version of Reaganomics. He was given a small and tiny fishing village. He was given the tiny hamlet of Shenzhen to use as a “test bed”. And, it took off. The growth was astounding.
Downtown Shenzhen China when Mr. Deng took over, and what it looks like today. This is what the “miracle” of Reaganomics does, and it was this force that was used to completely transform China. However, in doing so, they HAD to move away from communism. For Reaganomics is wholly incompatible with communism.
Today, Shenzhen is populated by 14 million busy inhabitants. To put that in perspective, New York has pretty much had a constant population of 4 million people over the last three decades.
Seeing the success of this, and other initiatives, too numerous to mention here, we have seen an evolution of China.
China moved from hard-line communist to something else.
The Chinese refer to this new way of doing things as “Socialist with Chinese characteristics“, but what it really and functionally is is something quite different. We, as Americans, can easily recognize the policy positions as near identical clones to Mr. Ronald Reagan’s “free market” policies. Though, the progressive mainstream media would NEVER admit to it. Though the hard-line Neo-cons would never say anything positive to their “dog and pony” show that narrates a communist enemy that needs to be opposed at every turn.
Statue of Deng Xiaoping at Lianhuashan Park. Mr Deng brought Reaganomics to China., and single handedly helped to move China away from rigid formal communism to the nation that it is today.
Today, China is [1] a single-party government. The government is [2] nationalist with [3] “China First” objectives. They [4] believe in free-market economics, and [5] vigorously defend the traditionally conservative Chinese social way of life.
China is a traditional conservative nation.
Not, American conservative, mind you. They are Chinese conservative. Which means that they hold many of the same beliefs and ways of doing things that an American Conservative would agree with. But not all of them.
Mother and Father are parents.
Father works and supports the family.
Mother takes care of the home and children.
Education is important, and merit based.
Success is achieved through hard work, and merit.
Vices are normal and need social outlets.
Any person who does not agree to the above are ill and need to be medically corrected and isolated from society.
As such, the Chinese family and relationships look like they came right out of the American 1950’s. The man goes out and works hard, has a beer or two with his buddies after work, and then comes home to his family. Yes. It’s Fred Flintstone style. Yes. Wally and the Beaver style. Yes. The Brady Bunch style.
China is a very conservative traditional nation that is run as a single party with nationalist objectives. It is always and foremost “China first” and they vigorously defend their culture and way of life against all assaults, especially progressive and Muslim assaults.
And when the man comes home from a hard day’s work, he will give 100% of his pay to his wife. She will use this money to take care of the household, invest in the education of the children, and maintain the social standing of their family with the rest of society.
She in turn, will have his house clothes washed and laid out on the bed for him. His slippers will be ready for him when he gets inside, and after he takes his after work shower, he will find a nicely laid out dinner waiting for him. Often (depending on the person) with a alcoholic libation waiting for him.
China is a Traditional Nation.
Here is a handy chart that I composed describing the differences between American Progressive Liberal belief, American conservative belief and Chinese beliefs. It goes a long way to illustrate how close modern China is to the traditional American Conservatism. As well as how far removed it is from the progressive reality of America today, and the communist ideal that China came from.
Issue
Progressive
Conservative
Chinese
Welfare
Entitled
Must Work
Must Work
Immigration
Entitled
Show Value
Show value
Taxes
High
Low
Low
Muslims
Welcome
Keep out
Keep out
Food / Drugs
Ban & Tax
Own Risk
Own Risk
Guns
Full ban
Right to own
Full ban
Military
Wars all over
Last Resort
Last Resort
Healthcare
Government
Privatize
Regulated
While most of America is enjoying the progressive themed Hollywood movies (women in leadership roles, people with superpowers granted to them through luck, and diversity in every scene), the Chinese produce movies and videos around more traditional themes. The music, even the more up-beat, aren’t as harsh. The women are sweeter, and they aren’t wagging their enormous trashcan jugged assess at the screen.
Culture and society are a reflection of what the nation is. In a like vein, Hollywood is a reflection of what America is today. To understand what China is like, all you need do is pay attention to their culture…
To decide if a given culture or society is progressive or traditional, all one need to do is watch their movies and listen to their music.
By comparing media, entertainment, and culture you can get a glimpse of a nation in “snapshots of culture”. With that in mind, and with the 2019 Chinese pop video excerpt above, compare that to American culture below…
In America, overt sex, huge asses and aggressive behavior on the behalf of women are considered the norm. It is considered to be beautiful, attractive and desirable. The above is from the Black Entertainment Television network and depicts Cardi B.
Today, America culture is firmly progressive as are most all American media outlets.
Russia
I could go on and on along this vein. Let’s consider Russia, for instance. They too used to be communist. Used to. But of course, we know how the former Soviet Union broke up and now we have the Russian federation. What of it?
They are a conservative, and traditional nation.
The President of the Russian Federation with the Russian version of Saint Nick. In a conservative nation, no one is afraid to say “Merry Christmas”, or associate with religious icons. This is in contrast to the Obama America with industry has effectively (via Obama effort) made saying “Merry Christmas” a terrible thing and an insult.
Well, contrary to what you might read in the progressive American media, Russia also is now a traditional conservative nation. You will not find fat welfare mothers on the dole in Russia. You will not find kids getting good grades in schools because they were diverse. You will find that it is ok to drink and engage in vices, and that families will revolve around a father and mother.
Grass-roots protestors against Muslim immigration. They do not tolerate it as they rightfully view it as an assault on their communities, their way of life, and their religious beliefs.
They will not tolerate Muslims. Nor will they tolerate Gays, LGBQ or radical fat feminists. They have zero tolerance for this. Being on the dole is a shameful thing in Russia, and you could get yourself beat senseless if you try to push the issue. Russia today is a very traditional nation with zero tolerance for progressive values and ideas.
President Putin wishing all of Russia a “Merry Christmas” and a happy holidays. This announcement was reacted to poorly by the Muslim communities in Eastern Europe as a sign of how old-fashioned and dangerous Russia is.
To “hammer” this understanding down. Let’s compare a traditional Russian conservative; Mr. Putin, to a Progressive Oligarch; Obama. It’s an easy comparison. But, let’s take the time to compare and contrast. I think that it helps us get a better understanding of the differences between a conservatively run traditional nation (regardless of the political structure) and a progressive one.
First, let’s see how Mr. Putin conducts his meetings…
Now, let’s look at the American President, Barrack Obama. Here’s a great GIF that got tons, and I do mean tons, of accolades from all over America about how stunning and “manly” Obama is. Here he is dancing “Gundam Style”.
The UK & England
Leaving Russia, let’s go to England. What do you, the reader suppose their leanings are?
Well, the UK and all of England is very progressive.
You can tell by reading the various newspapers out of the region as well as the various problems that they are dealing with. It is considered “progressive” to import non-assimilatable foreigners who refuse to work. It is considered to be a sign of progressive realities to ban knives, suppress news of Pakistani rape grooming, and to permit the Balkanization of the nation.
As a result, you can commonly see the prevalence of alternative lifestyles, and the welcome integration of progressive values and progressive censorship. This includes such things as hard-line fundamentalist Muslims to LGBQ mega-queer indoctrination in the public education system.
Progressive England today. They tolerate new progressive values that allow child brides, and female genital mutilation. They enjoy making fun of traditional Christian values, and openly and brazenly promote diversity efforts towards changing the nation.
The progressive leadership in Britain believes that this is the natural order of things. That their world will change and become a great place for diversity; for a utopia where the people can live within the new life… a progressive life.
Poland
We can go on and on. Poland, unfortunately for them, joined the EU before they discovered what a trap it was. When the progressive EU demanded that Poland accept non-Christian Muslims, Poland said NO!
“With regards to Britain, we have already told them on several occasions they need to deport, not tolerate, radical migrants. “If a radical Muslim cleric in a mosque calls on his brothers in the faith … to fight the infidels, well, I think that there are grounds to expel such an imam.”
When the EU said that the Muslim religion was the same as the Christian religion and Catholicism, Poland said Fuck-you.
“Other countries have led to a situation in which those trained on Islamic State territory in Syria, Iraq – young people with French, Belgian, Dutch, British, German citizenship – return to Europe … and somehow [the authorities] were incapable of monitoring them,”
When the EU wanted Poland to permit diversity quotas, and overhaul their education and media to police against (anti-progressive) dissent, the Polish government told them to pound sand. In fact, the government told the EU that they report to the people of Poland, and not to some bureaucrats far away in Brussels. No matter what the EU contracts want to enforce.
Their assessment of the European situation is an accurate one. The migration of Muslims from the Middle East to Poland is not one of assimilation. They are migrating to Poland which is over 90% Catholic and refuse to integrate. They instead intend to breed like cockroaches, live off the public dole, and impress their ideas of society on those around them.
Welcome to Poland where women doing housework is considered to be very sexy…
In a truly conservative society, the Muslim immigration issue is a dangerous assault on the values, life and society of the host nation. It is unacceptable, and will not be permitted to happen. Not in Poland.
For in Poland, not only are they Christian, but they are very traditional. As such traditional women are looked up with respect and even their physical labor is considered to be sexy…
Poland is a traditional conservative nation.
Other Nations
Do you see where I am going with this? If you look at the other nations, on an individual basis, if you look at them in regards to their own traditional values, it becomes quite clear. There is a globalist progressive oligarchy that has pretty much effectively taken over most of the West.
Progressive
Traditional
France
Romania
UK
Switzerland
Sweden
Denmark
Canada
Brazil
Germany
Iceland
What does this mean
The traditional notions of America being the land of “Democracy” against the evil Communists is wholly outdated. The “cold war” ended with Ronald Reagan. He finished off the success and rule of communism.
Yet, the oligarchs would have none of this. They argue that it wasn’t implemented properly. Maybe Pol Pot wasn’t harsh enough. Maybe they weren’t diverse enough. Maybe they weren’t ruthless enough. They write about this, and announce their intentions quite openly.
For instance…
Make no mistake, the globe is forming into two sides. Sides, mind you, that are so diametrically opposed in fundamental belief systems that the ability to coexist will not be possible.
Here is a map of the world today. The conservative traditionalist nations are colored in RED, and the “enlightened” progressive globalist oligarchy are in BLUE. Most other nations are unknown in this regard, and are left bare and uncolored.
This is a partial map showing known polarization around the globe. Traditional conservative nations are colored in red and progressive socialist nations controlled by an oligarchy are in blue. There is evidence that many Muslim nations are also traditional, and conservative, but they differ in some fundamental ways and deviate in such a way that they are not included in this calculus. In short, if you look at the map, you can easily see that the former “free world” of “democracy” have all devolved into mob-ruled oligarchies under the progressive socialist banner.
The Implications
The implications of such a realization are astounding. By looking at the globe in this manner, we can clearly see that philosophy and ideologies are what frame the way that the globe operates today.
Almost every democracy has devolved into mob-rule controlled by a rich oligarchy.
Almost every former communist nation has evolved into a traditional conservative nation.
The oligarchy owns the media in the regions they control. As such they try to keep the “cold war” alive through fear to control their people.
Oligarchies help each other out. It is almost like they share the same blood-lines or something.
Conservative nations tend to be populist and nationalistic. They only make agreements that serve their own interests.
Important Note
These are only my opinions. Perhaps, you the reader, have other ideas. That is fine. This is nothing more than a very simplistic overview of but one equation of a very complex calculus. For all that I did was simply map out conservative belief structures against progressive belief structures globally.
The reader should note that there are cultural differences that also come into play. For instance, a conservative American would believe that everyone should own firearms, while a conservative Chinese would believe that civilian ownership of firearms should be banned.
To the American, it might seem that it really isn’t conservative at all.
After all, the right to self-defense is a role liberty enshrined in the Bill of Rights. But to the Chinese that seems strange, as in China, all children are given basic military training at an early age. By the time they are 16 they know how to work together as a team, and how to perform the most basic of military disciplines. When the time comes to undergo more rigorous training, they can opt out with parental consent. However, with consent, they are able to learn the more martial skills expected of a soldier.
While the implementation of the right of self-preservation differs, both conservatives maintain the importance given in this liberty. How it is implemented is different, that’s all.
In American conservatism, the individual has the Right to exercise that right and train on his own dime. In Chinese conservatism, everyone must learn how to protect themselves and the nation if called upon to do so.
The Chinese believe that being trained to defend yourself, and to fight for your country is a necessary skill. It is one that is instilled in Chinese children at an early age. In America, Conservatives that the right of self-defense (both personal and for society to prevent tyrannical governments) is an option that is given as a Right, but it is up to the individual to exercise that Right.
Never the less, both the American and the Chinese conservative would agree that a family is comprised of a man and a woman. They would both agree that the man is the head of the home, and that the wife would raise the children and take care of the home.
These facts are global, and are persuasive throughout cultures as diverse as the pygmies in Papua New Guinea to the urban upwardly mobile in Moscow.
How to Survive
Now, this being stated, it becomes evident that there are populations of people (often enormous populations) that are trapped within a nation where they do not belong.
For instance, there are the progressive lesbian feminists of Hong Kong that hate conservative Chinese rule. There are the followers of Donald Trump that are known as “Deplorables” that live within the United States. There are the “Gender Queers” that want to live in Norway. What are they all to do?
Unless you are careful, there will be an upset. It will be disturbing and might even be cataclysmic…
There are but three courses of action. And, there are ONLY three paths that one can take.
Shut up and adapt. If you live in a society that does not accept white heterosexual males, then you pretend to be a member of an “approved” group or culture, and adopt homosexual behaviors to blend in.
Leave. To can migrate to a nation or region where there are others that share the same values that you have. Whether they are progressive or conservative.
Enact Change. Change is very uncomfortable. Especially since the two ideologies are so different, I rightly fear that conflict is pretty much a foregone conclusion. If you wish to stay and enact change, then you MUST be willing to sacrifice everything for your ideology. There is no half-steps in this effort. You must either be 100% committed or not. There are no “shades of grey” in this matter.
What ever course of action you, the reader might decide to take (if you are in this situation), you must commit to it 100%. There will be no success for any half-way measures or any half-hearted attempts.
American women making a point about how liberated they are in the new progressive reality. They show and act in a way that defines them, and as such they are beloved by the beta males that cater to their professed needs.
I personally believe that people feel comfortable around people who share the same ideals and philosophies that they do. In my mind, as a boy who grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I witnessed first hand how the feminist movement devastated American traditional households. I saw how society changed. And, it hasn’t been for the best.
For me, I find that the conservative culture in China quite refreshing. I know that it is long gone from America, and will never return unless serious changes are made. In the meantime, it is wonderful to be around people who share the same values and lifestyles that I do.
A Chinese mother with her son at the airport. Compare how they live, walk, act and behave with a similar family in an American airport. American women would describe this as a scene out of the fictional movie “A Hand Maid’s Tale”. But I find it just hyperbole and nonsense spouted forth by the pathetically jealous.
Finally, let me share this micro-video of a Chinese gal singing. The culture in conservative nations tend to be softer, more polite and respectful. While the culture in progressive nations tends toward the loud, the brash and the crass.
2019 Chinese music video in the form of an abbreviated micro-video.
Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this
post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss
growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with
the society within communist China. As there are some really stark
differences between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified
about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.
Stories that Inspired Me
Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that
are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a
personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome
to come and enjoy a read or two as well.
Keith Kaplan
CEO, TradeSmith
The BBC’s editors yesterday printed the article (above) — but sprinkled it with links (see picture below) which powerfully proved the critics’ point that the BBC is biased against China.In effect, the BBC said “we’re not anti-China — by the way, here’s a link to an article showing how China is a dystopian hellscape! And another one. And another one. And another one. And . . “.It’s hard not to laugh.
E-Hang’s electric VT-30 travels 300km in 100 minutes. With eight propellers, two fixed wings, and a propeller at the rear, it achieves a balance of hybrid lift and push, so needs no runway. Its tri-redundant, fly-by-wire controls can be flexibly altered for multiple modes, implying a much higher safety level for the aircraft. 
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