"James Webb Just Found Something ALIVE Inside 3I/ATLAS - And It’s Getting Closer"

Full screen recommended.

The Martian, 10/2/25

"James Webb Just Found Something ALIVE

 Inside 3I/ATLAS - And It’s Getting Closer"

"For decades, we've peered into the cosmic abyss - not just in search of new planets or stars, but in hopes of finding something else. Something impossible. We've sent our machines - Voyager, Hubble, and now the James Webb Space Telescope - to pierce the cosmic darkness and reveal its deepest secrets.But what Webb discovered might not be a secret. It might be a message. And worse... it might be alive.

At first, 3I/ATLAS seemed like just another interstellar wanderer, a ghostly rock hurtling through the void. But it didn't just glow - it pulsed. Not chaotically, but with chilling precision, like a heartbeat. Like a signature. And what followed wasn't just a mystery... it was a warning. And at the very moment Voyager 1, our ancient messenger, attempted to synchronize with this pulsating object, their trajectories barely touched - and something changed. A whisper passed through the corridors of the Mission Control Centers.

To comprehend the scale of the threat, one had to peer into the very fabric of reality. And Webb peered into the abyss. Its images revealed not just beauty, but the true face of the Universe. And it is... geometric. Crystal-clear rows of lights. Impossible symmetry. Patterns repeating over billions of light-years. Scientists insisted it was a coincidence, but the coincidences multiplied. Too perfect.

And then the whispers of Voyager's strange contact merged with Webb's terrifying discovery. Chaos is an illusion. We are blind, touching the edge of an incomprehensible Order. But now we understand: this Order is not silent geometry. It breathes. And its heartbeat, this rhythmic pulse of 3I/ATLAS, is not just a message. It is proof that the Universe is not just strange. It is alien. And it has just answered our challenge."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jeremiah Babe, "The Biggest Wealth Transfer In History Is Closer Than You Think"

Jeremiah Babe, 10/2/25

"The Biggest Wealth Transfer 

In History Is Closer Than You Think"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Life In America Feels Like It's Falling Apart For Ordinary People"

Full screen recommended.

Epic Economist, 10/2/25

"Life In America Feels Like It's 

Falling Apart For Ordinary People"

"I've been watching a lot of content from everyday Americans lately, and there's an overwhelming sense that something fundamental has gone wrong in the system. These aren't political rants or conspiracy theories. These are just regular people sharing their daily struggles, and honestly, it's heartbreaking to see how many are barely holding on.

This isn't just about prices going up. When inflation rises faster than wages for years, families end up paying twice as much for groceries as they did not long ago, but their paychecks stay the same. People are working just as hard, but their money doesn't go as far. To make matters worse, grocery stores are making record profits. It's not only inflation—companies are raising prices even more. When someone is stunned by the cost of meat or sees a cabbage for fourteen dollars, it's because the economy has changed in a way that leaves them behind.

This frustration builds into something much deeper. Wake up, go to work, pay bills, and somehow end up broke every single week. No savings, no vacation, no breathing room. Just an endless cycle of working to survive with nothing left over. The mental toll is crushing. You can't escape it because it follows you everywhere. At work, you're thinking about money. Driving home, thinking about money. With your family, trying to sleep, it never seems to stop. This breaks people down slowly, day after day, until they're just exhausted by the weight of it all.

People don’t talk enough about how money affects mental health, but it’s real. For two months, when she thought her finances were stable, her mental health got much better. Nothing changed except her money situation. She went from just getting by to actually feeling good. When that stability was gone, her mental health got worse again. Some say money can’t buy happiness, but that’s easy to say if you’re not choosing between paying rent or seeing a doctor. If you’re sick and can’t afford care, money would make a huge difference. Life would still have challenges, but you wouldn’t have to worry about basic survival all the time.

In America, healthcare now feels like a privilege, not a right. Many people have serious health problems they just can’t afford to treat. One woman needs surgery on her arm, likely has nerve damage, and can barely lift it. She also needs a shoulder replacement, but can’t even pay for the doctor’s visit, let alone the surgery. Her doctor prescribes medicine, but insurance won’t cover it, so she faces a $500 monthly bill. She ends up going without care, living with pain and limited movement, because getting treatment would mean financial disaster.

People get even angrier when they see that the money is there. The country can help other nations and provide healthcare to their citizens, but Americans are dying because they can’t afford medicine for diabetes. Some are denied surgeries they truly need. This isn’t because there isn’t enough to go around. It’s about what matters most to those in charge. When healthcare is run for profit instead of for people, and CEOs benefit from others’ pain, the system isn’t broken. It’s working just as those at the top want it to..."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"I Fear It's Too Late To Stop What's Coming!"

Full screen recommended.

Steven Van Metre, 10/2/25

"I Fear It's Too Late To Stop What's Coming!"

"The last time the data was this bad, we were 

coming out of a financial crisis, not headed into one..."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"People Are Skipping Meals To Make The House Payment"

Full screen recommended.

Michael Bordenaro, 10/2/25

"People Are Skipping Meals To Make The House Payment"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Believe"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Believe"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about "5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear in silhouette. But the red emission region roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust lanes is what lends the Trifid its popular name.

Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, below and left of the emission nebula's center, appear in famous Hubble Space Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40 light-years across. Just too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, it almost covers the area of a full moon in planet Earth's sky."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Chet Raymo, “Telling Stories”

“Telling Stories”

by Chet Raymo

"When the pulse of the first day carried it to the rim of night, First Woman said to First Man, "The people need to know the laws. To help them we must write the laws for all to see"... And so she began, slowly, first one and then the next, placing her jewels across the dome of night, carefully designing her pattern so all could read it. But Coyote grew bored watching First Woman carefully arranging the stars in the sky: Impatiently he gathered two corners of First Woman's blanket, and before she could stop him he flung the remaining stars out into the night, spilling them in wild disarray, shattering First Woman's careful patterns."

This episode from the Navajo creation story of is from "How the Stars Fell Into the Sky", a children's book by Jerrie Oughton. It is a lovely story, full of ancient wisdom. For centuries, Navajo children heard the story at an elder's knee. The story was taken literally, or at least accepted with a willing suspension of disbelief. I heard a similar creation story in my youth - of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Serpent. I accepted the story with a willing suspension of disbelief.

All cultures, everywhere on Earth, have stories, passed down in scriptures, traditions or tribal myths, that answer the questions: Where did the world come from? What is our place in it? What is the source of order and disorder? What will be the fate of the world? Of ourselves? No people can live without a community story. The problem comes when the community story becomes so disconnected from empirical experience that it no longer commands a suspension of disbelief. For many of us in the West, that is the case with the creation stories that have undergirded Western civilization.

Today, a New Story exists for those who choose to accept it. It is the product of thousands of years of human curiosity, observation, experimentation, and creativity. It is an evolving story, not yet finished. Perhaps it will never be finished. It is a story that begins with an explosion from a seed of infinite energy. The seed expands and cools. Particles form, then atoms of hydrogen and helium. Stars and galaxies coalesce from swirling gas. Stars burn and explode, forging heavy elements - carbon, nitrogen, oxygen - and hurling them into space. New stars are born, with planets made of heavy elements.

On one planet near a typical star in a typical galaxy life appears in the form of microscopic self-replicating, carbon-based ensembles of atoms. Life evolves, over billions of years, resulting in ever more complex organisms. Continents move. Seas rise and fall. The atmosphere changes. Millions of species of life appear and become extinct. Others adapt, survive, and spill out progeny. At last, consciousness appears. One of the millions of species on the planet looks into the night sky and wonders what it means. Feels the spark of love, tenderness, responsibility. Makes up stories - of First Woman and Coyote, of Adam, Eve and the Serpent - eventually making up the New Story. The New Story places us squarely in a cosmic unfolding of space and time, and teaches our biological affinity to all humanity. We are inextricably related to all of life, to the planet itself, and even to the lives of stars.

It has been the task of many of us gathered here on this cyber porch to help wed the New Story to the spiritual quest, to create what Thomas Berry calls an "integral story." In his introduction to Kathleen Deignan's collection of Thomas Merton's nature writing, Berry writes: "Today, in the opening years of the twenty-first century, we find ourselves in a critical moment when the religious traditions need to awaken again to the natural world as the primary manifestation of the divine to human intelligence. The very nature and purpose of the human is to experience this intimate presence that comes to us through natural phenomena. Such is the purpose of having eyes and ears and feeling sensitivity, and all our other senses. We have no inner spiritual development without outer experience. Immediately, when we see or experience any natural phenomenon, when we see a flower, a butterfly, a tree, when we feel the evening breeze flow over us or wade in a stream of clear water, our natural response is immediate, intuitive, transforming, ecstatic. Everywhere we find ourselves invaded by the world of the sacred."

Berry reminds us that we will neither love nor save what we do not experience as sacred. The older creation stories locate the source of the sacred outside of the creation. The New Story, the scientific story of creation, provides unique opportunities to experience the creation itself as holy and good.

We should treasure the ancient stories for the wisdom and values they teach us. We can praise the creation in whatever poetic languages and rituals our traditional cultures have taught us. But only the New Story has the global authority to help us navigate the future. Of all the stories, it is certainly the truest. It is the only story whose feet have been held to the fire of exacting empirical experience.”

- http://www.sciencemusings.com/

"You Can’t Have It All"

Emily Levine, January 2019.

"You Can’t Have It All"

by Maria Popova

“Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love,” Rilke wrote in contemplating the most difficult and rewarding existential art: befriending our own finitude. I have been sitting with Rilke, awash in the tidal waves of sorrow and love, in the wake of losing my beloved friend Emily Levine (October 23, 1944 - February 3, 2019) - philosopher, comedian, universe-builder, beautiful soul - who made me fall in love with poetry long ago and without whom there would be no Universe in Verse and no Figuring. (Emily rightfully occupies the first line of the book’s acknowledgements.)

Ever since her terminal diagnosis in 2016, and up until just three weeks before her death, I had been taking Emily for what we came to call our “poetry retreats” - brief periodic respites by the ocean, where we would spend unhurried time in the company of a few other beloved women, reading poetry, cooking, conversing, and just being - with our joys, with our sorrows, with one another. Emily - the most erudite and intellectually voracious person I have ever known = introduced us to classics, many of which she knew by heart: Whitman, Eliot, Yeats, Plath, Rilke. But there was one contemporary poem she especially loved and read for us often: “You Can’t Have It All” by Barbara Ras, from her exquisite and exquisitely titled 1998 poetry collection "Bite Every Sorrow" (public library).

Now that Emily has returned her stardust to the universe she so cherished, and all the words seem too small to fill the void, poetry stands as the only mode of remembrance that can give shape and space to the amorphous largeness of feeling that is grief. In this sweetly lo-fi recording from one of our gatherings, punctuated by the sound of the ocean and the rustle of page-turning, Emily reads the poem that she, in the deepest sense, lived out and modeled for the rest of us with her largehearted life. 

- https://soundcloud.com/brainpicker/

"You Can't Have It All"

"But you can have the fig tree and its fat leaves like clown hands

gloved with green. You can have the touch of a single eleven-year-old finger

on your cheek, waking you at one a.m. to say the hamster is back.

You can have the purr of the cat and the soulful look

of the black dog, the look that says, If I could I would bite

every sorrow until it fled, and when it is August,

you can have August and abundantly so. You can have love,

though often it will be mysterious, like the white foam

that bubbles up at the top of the bean pot over the red kidneys

until you realize foam’s twin is blood.

You can have the skin at the center between a man’s legs,

so solid, so doll-like. You can have the life of the mind,

glowing occasionally in priestly vestments, never admitting pettiness,

never stooping to bribe the sullen guard who’ll tell you

all roads narrow at the border.

You can speak a foreign language, sometimes,

and it can mean something. You can visit the marker on the grave

where your father wept openly. You can’t bring back the dead,

but you can have the words forgive and forget hold hands

as if they meant to spend a lifetime together. And you can be grateful

for makeup, the way it kisses your face, half spice, half amnesia, grateful

for Mozart, his many notes racing one another towards joy, for towels

sucking up the drops on your clean skin, and for deeper thirsts,

for passion fruit, for saliva. You can have the dream,

the dream of Egypt, the horses of Egypt and you riding in the hot sand.

You can have your grandfather sitting on the side of your bed,

at least for a while, you can have clouds and letters, the leaping

of distances, and Indian food with yellow sauce like sunrise.

You can’t count on grace to pick you out of a crowd

but here is your friend to teach you how to high jump,

how to throw yourself over the bar, backwards,

until you learn about love, about sweet surrender,

and here are periwinkles, buses that kneel, farms in the mind

as real as Africa. And when adulthood fails you,

you can still summon the memory of the black swan on the pond

of your childhood, the rye bread with peanut butter and bananas

your grandmother gave you while the rest of the family slept.

There is the voice you can still summon at will, like your mother’s,

it will always whisper, you can’t have it all,

but there is this."

Complement with Emily’s splendid reading of “On the Fifth Day” by Jane Hirshfield, who often graced our poetry retreats with her Buddhist benediction of a presence, then revisit Mary Oliver - one of Emily’s favorite poets, whom she outlived by seventeen days - on the measure of a life well lived and how to live with maximal aliveness.

- https://www.themarginalian.org/

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "October"

“October”

"There’s this shape, black as the entrance to a cave.

A longing wells up in its throat

like a blossom

as it breathes slowly.

What does the world

mean to you if you can’t trust it

to go on shining when you’re

not there? and there’s

a tree, long-fallen; once

the bees flew to it, like a procession

of messengers, and filled it

with honey.

I said to the chickadee, singing his heart out in the

green pine tree:

little dazzler

little song,

little mouthful.

The shape climbs up out of the curled grass. It

grunts into view. There is no measure

for the confidence at the bottom of its eyes-

there is no telling

the suppleness of its shoulders as it turns

and yawns.

Near the fallen tree

something - a leaf snapped loose

from the branch and fluttering down - tries to pull me

into its trap of attention.

It pulls me into its trap of attention,

And when I turn again, the bear is gone.

Look, hasn’t my body already felt

like the body of a flower?

Look, I want to love this world

as thought it’s the last chance I’m ever going to get

to be alive and know it.

Sometimes in late summer I won’t touch anything, not

the flowers, not the blackberries

brimming in the thickets; I won’t drink

from the pond; I won’t name the birds or the trees;

I won’t whisper my own name.

One morning

the fox came down the hill, glittering and confident,

and didn’t see me - and I thought:

so this is the world.

I’m not in it.

It is beautiful."

- Mary Oliver

"This 4-Step Path Formula Inspired by Nietzsche Can Determine Most of Your Life"

"This 4-Step Path Formula Inspired by 

Nietzsche Can Determine Most of Your Life"

by Thomas Oppong

"Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the 19th century, dared to gaze into the abyss of existence. He strongly opposed the “herd mentality.” He thought religion, morality, and systemic values and beliefs prevented people from reaching their full potential. Nietzsche wrote extensively about his approach to life in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Genealogy of Morality. His challenge to humanity? Transcend your limitations and become the Übermensch, the ultimate human being.

Nietzsche thought the only way to become the very best version of yourself is to shatter the shackles of mediocrity. Forge your own epic destiny. “Do you want to have an easy life? Then always stay with the herd and lose yourself in the herd.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

But how does one become an Übermensch? What steps can you take to unleash the badass within? Before we get to that, let’s break down Nietzsche’s superhuman concept.

What is the Übermensch? The Übermensch is not a superhero or a god. It is an ideal, a way of being characterised by strength, independence, and a will to power. The Übermensch is not afraid of hardship or suffering, for they see these things as opportunities for growth. The conventions of society do not bind them, for they forge their path. And they are not content with mediocrity, for they strive to achieve greatness in all that they do. “You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes? -  Friedrich Nietzsche

How does one become an Übermensch? It’s a life path of self-discovery and self-creation. If you are called to the path of the Übermensch, there are no easy answers. Übermensch requires you to challenge everything you think you know about yourself and the world. If you are willing to put in the work, the rewards are beyond measure.

Step 1: Make peace with “amor fati”: “My formula for human greatness is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not in the future, not in the past, not for all eternity. Not only to endure what is necessary, still less to conceal it - all idealism is falseness in the face of necessity - , but to love it…” - Friedrich Nietzsche

The first step on the path to Übermensch-hood is to cultivate an amor fati. This Latin phrase means “love of fate.” The Übermensch accepts everything that happens to them, good or bad: the glorious sunrises and the winter cold, the whispered joys and the deafening sorrows. It’s the Übermensch’s secret weapon, transforming every experience, no matter how challenging, into fuel for epic growth.

Amor fati is not about resignation or passivity. It doesn’t mean ignoring pain or pretending it doesn’t exist. Or passively accept whatever life throws your way. It’s about acknowledging it, feeling it fully, and then choosing to rise above it. It’s the full embrace of life, knowing that every difficulty and setback is an opportunity to learn, grow, and become something more. It’s about actively choosing to affirm everything that happens to you, good or bad. Nietzsche believed that suffering is inevitable but also an opportunity for growth.

Think Viktor Frankl, the author of "Man’s Search For Meaning." He survived the horrors of Auschwitz and found meaning in the darkest depths of human suffering. It’s a testament to the power of amor fati, of finding the light even in the abyss. He famously said, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms  -  to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

When you embrace your challenges, you develop the strength and resilience to overcome them. You become the master of your destiny, no longer a victim of circumstance. When faced with difficulties, ask yourself, “What can I learn from this? How can I grow from this?”

Step 2: Confront your shadow: Becoming an Übermensch is a treacherous climb. One of the most formidable obstacles you’ll face is your own shadow. In Jungian psychology, the shadow is the repressed and unacceptable aspects of ourselves - our hidden desires, fears, and impulses. It’s the darkness we tuck away that whispers insecurities and holds us back. They can be internal, like self-doubt or external, like the pressure to conform to the expectations of others. But the Übermensch knows that the shadow is not something to be feared but rather something to be integrated.

Ignoring the shadow is a recipe for stagnation. To truly ascend to Übermensch heights, we must confront it head-on, not with fear but with unflinching courage. Denial is futile. Instead, observe your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Notice the patterns, the triggers that unleash your inner demons  -  envy, rage, jealousy. Don’t judge, just observe.

Get into your past, into experiences that might have shaped your shadow’s contours. Were you ridiculed? Abandoned? Abused? Understanding the roots of your darkness offers valuable insight and compassion. Once you know your shadows, accept them, not with resignation, but with understanding. Acceptance is the key to disarming the shadow’s power.

Channel your anger into passion, envy into ambition, and fear into caution. Transform your shadow from a monster to a powerful ally. As Nietzsche wrote, “The man who does not value himself cannot be valued.” The darkness can become the fertile ground for self-discovery and transformation. Think of it this way: the Übermensch isn’t someone without darkness but someone who has mastered their darkness.

Step 3: Become who you must be: “Call me whatever you like; I am who I must be.” 

- Friedrich Nietzsche

The Übermensch does not conform to the herd mentality. They do not conform to the expectations of others. Instead, they create their own values based on their unique experiences and perspectives. Creating your life code is a deliberate process of crafting principles that fuel your ascent to greatness. It’s the bedrock of your Übermensch self. What do you value most in life?

Your deep values are beyond what is expected of you. The first step is questioning everything - the expectations thrust upon you, the ideals deemed “normal.” Analyze them, dissect their origins, and see if they resonate with your inner compass.

Go into the depths of your being. Who are you, stripped bare of external definitions? What ignites your soul? What brings you a sense of awe and purpose? Explore your passions, your fears, your strengths, and weaknesses. Introspection informs the foundation of your values.

Once you know your values, you can live with integrity and authenticity. The Übermensch is not content with living a small life. They set goals that are so big that they seem impossible. But the Übermensch knows that anything is possible if you are willing to work for it. Immerse yourself in the words and lives of those who dared to forge their paths. Philosophers like Nietzsche, artists like Van Gogh, and scientists like Marie Curie offer valuable insights into their struggles and triumphs.

Step 4: Channel your will to power: “The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly,” Nietzsche said. Once values clear, the Übermensch is free to create themself anew. This is where the will to power comes into play, the driving force that propels us towards our highest potential.

The will to power is the driving force of the Übermensch. It’s the relentless pursuit of self-improvement and self-actualization - the desire to become the best version of yourself, physically, mentally, and spiritually. It’s about mastering yourself and pushing your limits.

Every setback is a chance to refine your skills, strengthen your resolve, and emerge stronger. It’s the alchemic process where the Will to Power shines brightest. Nietzsche reminds us that “the highest good is not to overcome others, but to overcome oneself.” The Übermensch is not defined by their victories over others but by their victories over themself.

The Übermensch isn’t just a doer but a creator. Channel your Will to Power into shaping your own life and your work. Don’t be afraid to experiment, to break boundaries, and to express yourself. As you learn and grow, your goals, your methods, and your understanding of self will transform. Embrace this fluidity, and never stop striving to become the best version of yourself. No one can build your bridge for you

“Nobody can build the bridge for you to walk across the river of life, no one but you yourself alone. There are, to be sure, countless paths and bridges and demi-gods which would carry you across this river, but only at the cost of yourself; you would pawn yourself and lose. There is in the world only one way, on which nobody can go, except you: where does it lead? Do not ask, go along with it.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

The final step to becoming the Übermensch is to live meaning, transforming the mundane into the extraordinary. Nietzsche encouraged us to “dance through life” to find joy and meaning in the very act of being. “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music,” he wrote. The Übermensch does not wait for life to happen; they create it. They are the artists of their own destiny, leaving behind a masterpiece. But the path to becoming the Übermensch is not for the faint of heart. It is long and full of setbacks.

But the rewards are immeasurable for those willing to take up the hammer. “No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself,” says Nietzsche. Before you go, remember: becoming the Übermensch is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a lifelong   way of life that is constantly evolving."

- https://postanly.substack.com/

"Mental Apocalypse: The Age of Filth – Carl Jung Saw It Coming"

Full screen recommended.

The Psyche, 10/2/25

"Mental Apocalypse: The Age of Filth –

 Carl Jung Saw It Coming"

"What if the real apocalypse isn’t outside us, but within us? In this video, we dive into Carl Jung’s prophetic warnings about the “age of filth” - a time when humanity would drown in distractions, illusions, and emptiness, while the soul withers in silence. Jung foresaw a mental apocalypse: the collapse of meaning, the rise of mass conformity, and the eruption of the repressed shadow into chaos and despair. Yet within this crisis lies an opportunity. By facing our inner darkness, reconnecting with archetypes, and awakening to the Self, Jung believed we could transform the apocalypse into a revelation - a rebirth of consciousness."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Jennifer Warnes, "Joan Of Arc"

Full screen recommended.

Jennifer Warnes, "Joan Of Arc"

"I have long adored this song by the late Leonard Cohen, and performed impeccably by Jennifer Warnes. This is the performance at "Night of the Proms" in Antwerp in 1992. I have edited the audio from the Famous Blue Raincoat 20th Anniversary edition."

"How It Really Is"

So, you look around in horrified astonishment at how totally insane it all really is, how the never ending bad news is everywhere you look, how truly hopeless it really is, and know there's nothing at all you can do about any of it, can't save anyone, can't even save yourself. So you remember what they said and how you need to be, and carry on...

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, 

but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”

- Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

“That millions of people share the same forms of 

mental pathology does not make these people sane.”

- Erich Fromm, "The Sane Society"

“Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing

 yourself when things are bad. That and vodka.”

- Jim Butcher, "Changes"

And yet, sometimes, at the end of another long day,

your defenses are just worn out and it feels like you're losing your mind,

and you lose control and it feels like this...

Until tomorrow, when you do it all over again...

And so it is, lol...

"Technototalitarianism, Part One"

"Technototalitarianism, Part One"
by Robert Gore

"Trojan Horse: It’s a small group, and MAGA’s not in it. In a sense, almost everything that has happened since Donald Trump began his second term in January has been a distraction. From what are we being distracted? While a few members of the alternative media have supplied the answers, by and large even the AM - many of whose members are Trump cheerleaders rather than impartial journalists or analysts - has taken the distraction bait. As usual, the mainstream media has been worse than worthless.

It is now clear that the control grid, a phrase popularized by the invaluable work of Catherine Austin Fitts, is being implemented. It is also clear that Trump has been a Trojan Horse to facilitate the implementation’s final steps. Trump is a nonstop distraction, generating headlines and controversy every time he opens his mouth. It would be headline-worthy if he ever shut up. Those observers who want to maintain objectivity and draw a bead on Trump ignore what he says and focus on what he does. That focus yields disturbing conclusions that bely MAGA’s quasi-religious enthusiasm.

MAGA is political novocaine for the painful evisceration of the remnants of American liberty. Its driving forces are animus towards political enemies and their causes, and Trump idolatry. Their commitment to liberty is rhetorical only. Thus, creeping totalitarianism has crept unhindered, because it has been endorsed by Trump and directed towards the enemies. A plausible hypothesis is that the totalitarians allowed Trump’s second term because they understood that precisely this dynamic would operate. (The shot to the ear, real or staged?) Even if they didn’t, and Trump’s electoral momentum was simply too powerful to stop, since his inauguration Trump has been their effective front man.

Totalitarian globalists and globalism have been convenient and politically profitable punching bags for the Trump movement. Open borders immigration, woke, climate change, cancel culture, DEI, transgenderism, escalating crime in Democrat-run cities, Russiagate, the rigged 2020 election, Biden’s infirmary, Harris’s ineptitude, the war in Ukraine, deterioration of the military, demonization of police forces, rampant hypocrisy, and the federal bureaucracy - the ultimate Democratic stronghold and font of largesse - have been among the most prominent targets.

The globalist sponsored COVID fiasco has been a little trickier. Trump spearheaded Operation Warp Speed’s development of what proved to be neither safe nor effective vaccines and wouldn’t shut up about it. Only recently has he changed his tune; he’s now expresses some skepticism. MAGA has hailed MAHA, declining uptake rates for the COVID vaccines and boosters, and increasing resistance to vaccines in general, while tiptoeing around Trump’s unrepentant endorsement of the COVID vaccines. It’s the definition of cognitive dissonance, especially as the vaccines’ long-term debilitating and deadly effects continue unabated. While Trump didn’t endorse totalitarian governmental and business vaccine mandates, he didn’t challenge lockdowns, and he donned the mask like virtually everyone else. COVID was an important precursor, a test run, for the control grid. How would the global population respond to incipient totalitarianism? Would there be resistance? The global population failed with flying colors.

All of the above political punching bags have been well-punched and now serve mostly as grist for the distraction mill, while imposition of the control grid proceeds quietly and insidiously with Trump’s overt and covert assistance. Some punching bags have become justifications for the control grid, notably immigration. Because the control grid is primarily technological, its nexuses of development have been Silicon Valley and Israel’s technology sector, joined at the hip in what has been a long and mutually beneficially relationship. That relationship only grows stronger as the control grid moves closer to reality.

If the COVID vaccines were a cause of MAGA cognitive dissonance, Trump’s relationship with the control grid’s leading Silicon Valley proponents prompts cognitive dissonance on steroids, and his relationship with Israel cognitive dissonance on steroids squared. On January 21, 2025, the day after Trump’s inauguration, Palantir Technologies, symbol PLTR, opened at $73.24. On August 12, it reached its intraday high (so far) of $190.00, a 159.24 percent gain in less than eight months.

The gain appropriately denotes Palantir’s place as one of the kingpins of Silicon Valley’s surveillance and analytics companies. Founded in 2003, it received seed funding from the CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel. Two of Palantir’s co-founders, Chairman Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp, are ardent Zionists, and Palantir supplies Israel with surveillance technology.

"We are one of a few companies in the world to stand up and announce our support for Israel, which remains steadfast. Palantir stands with Israel." - Palantir Letter to Shareholders Alexander C. Karp, 11/2/23

Thiel and Karp are not just paid-up Zionists, as Steering Committee members of the Bilderberg Group they are paid up globalists, and Thiel’s influence within the Trump administration is pervasive. Karp wields his influence and cash in Democratic circles, so the two have everyone covered. J.D. Vance’s out-of-nowhere rise was funded by over $13 million from Thiel, which even in hypercorrupt Washington buys a lot of influence.

As Trump began naming his nominees I reported that at least 10 people in influential positions were directly related to Palantir, Peter Thiel, and his foundations. This includes Vice President J.D. Vance; Elon Musk, head of DOGE; David Sacks, AI and Crypto Czar; U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick; Jim O’Neill, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Ken Howery, US Ambassador to Denmark; the aforementioned Jacob Helberg; and Michael Kratsios as a science adviser and director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. Since the release of my initial report we have learned more details connecting officials within Trump’s cabinet to Peter Thiel and Palantir. This includes within Elon Musk’s DOGE.

“Welcome to the Palantir World Order,” Derrick Broze, The Last American Vagabond, 4/24/25

Thiel and Musk are members of the PayPal Mafia, a group of PayPal employees and founders who went on to found or develop a host of technology companies, including LinkedIn, YouTube, and Yelp, in addition to Thiel’s Palantir and Musk’s Tesla and Space X. The other common thread between Thiel and Musk is information lust. They both want to collect, organize, and categorize as much data as they can about the American people, and, presumably, given their globalist ambitions, people around the world.

Looking back, Musk’s DOGE may have been less about efficiency and ferreting out waste and more about accessing the government’s computer systems, analyzing its AI platform, data harvesting, and intellectual property transfer. Dr. Naomi Wolf was the first to identify the many worrisome issues raised by Musk and DOGE’s largely unmonitored access to the government’s data, computer code, and AI and warn of the dangers, for which she was savaged on Musk’s X. Nobody outside of Musk’s inner circle knows exactly what DOGE came away with, nor are outsiders likely to ever find out.

Palantir takes its name from the all-seeing orbs in Lord of the Rings. The company is deeply involved with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was recently awarded a no-bid, “$30 million contract to develop a new software platform to expand its surveillance and enforcement operations, building on Palantir’s decade-long collaboration with ICE.”

WIRED reported in April that Palantir and DOGE were teaming up to develop a new “mega API” (application programming interface) for the IRS. This single API layer will be above all IRS databases and would use Foundry, “a Palantir platform that can organize, build apps, or run AI models on the underlying data.” That data could include taxpayer names, social security numbers, tax returns, and employment records. It could also be moved to the cloud for direct access. The project is led by Sam Corcos, a former SpaceX engineer.

While Trump supporters may have previously been concerned that the Biden Administration planned to hire thousands more IRS employees - an agency which many Americans despite (sic) - it seems that under the 2nd Trump administration Palantir will help make the agency more “efficient” than ever. So much for abolishing the IRS.

“Welcome to the Palantir World Order,” Derrick Broze, The Last American Vagabond, 4/24/25

It’s not an overstatement to say that data and the surveillance that generates vast amounts of it have been the primary objectives of the computer revolution. The equation is simple: surveillance plus data equal control. The government and Information Age companies have been joined at the hip since Hollerith cards. Palantir and Musk’s companies (Tesla automobiles are data gatherers and control nodes on wheels) are emblematic of what is now a public-private, totalitarian Death Star.

Recent developments are just the latest iterations of what Edward Snowden warned us about in 2013 and which incrementally progressed for decades prior to those warnings. The Patriot Act had kicked this insidious progression into overdrive. COVID totalitarianism was another big step. AI is the cherry on the sundae, allowing quick access and recall from vast data bases, exactly what’s required for total control. That’s why implementing AI, regardless of its staggering power consumption and a host of issues about its effects on humanity, is a technocratic obsession.

The best word for the public-private partnership and its turnkey control grid is technototalitarianism. Trump ensures that many of the people who might oppose it for reasons of political partisanship either enthusiastically cheer it or stifle their cognitive dissonance and ignore it. The technototalitarians do their part to shape the narrative.

If Thiel, Karp and Musk typify the surveillance and analytic components of the control grid, Larry Ellison is the embodiment of the data component, the control grid’s foundation. Ellison is the co-founder, chief technology officer, and executive chairman of multinational database giant Oracle Corporation. He was the chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014. He is the world’s second or first richest person, depending on the current values of Tesla and Oracle shares, with an estimated net worth just shy of $400 billion. Oracle’s name comes from a CIA project code-named “Oracle” that Ellison and Oracle co-founders Robert Miner and Ed Oates worked on at a consulting firm before striking out on their own in 1977. The CIA was the company’s first customer. Ellison is a typical techno-totalitarian.

“The single greatest step we Americans could take to make life tougher for terrorists would be to ensure that all the information in myriad government databases was copied into a single, comprehensive national security database,” Larry Ellison wrote in the New York Times in January of 2002.

“Creating such a database is technically simple. All we have to do is copy information from the hundreds of separate law enforcement databases into a single database. A national security database could be built in a few months,” Ellison explained. “A national security database combined with biometrics, thumb prints, hand prints, iris scans or whatever is best can be used to detect people with false identities.”

And Ellison has worked tirelessly to build that all-seeing database, suggesting that he had even given away for free much of the tech necessary for such infrastructure. He’d only charge the government for additional services and maintenance of the systems, of course.

As Jeffrey Rosen recounts in his 2004 book, "The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age," business was particularly booming at Oracle after September 11th. Rosen explains that the federal government accounted for a whopping 23 percent of Oracle’s licensing revenue in 2003, roughly $2.5 billion.

“Larry Ellison’s Oracle Started As a CIA Project,” Matt Novak, Gizmodo, 9/19/24

Ellison is Jewish and an ardent supporter of Israel. In 2014 he gave $10 million and in 2017 he gave $17 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a nonprofit organization that raises millions to subsidize Israel’s military by providing services and benefits for Israeli troops. Oracle has made acquisitions in Israel, in 2016 buying Ravello Systems, a cloud services firm, for around $500 million, and Crosswise, which specializes in cross-device marketing, for $50 million. Safra Catz, the billionaire executive vice chair and former CEO of Oracle, is an Israeli-American. In 2003, she demanded that “Oracle Stands with Israel” be displayed on the company’s screens worldwide. Ellison counts Benjamin Netanyahu among his closest friends. The Israeli Prime Minister and the centi-billionaire vacationed at Lanai, Ellison’s Hawaiian private island. Ellison even offered Netanyahu a seat on Oracle’s board (with a $450,000 salary).

Ellison is not just a data mogul, he and his son, David, are media moguls. David is the head of Skydance, the Ellisons’ media company, although the father still exercises effective control. Earlier this year, the Trump administration approved Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global, the media giant that owns CBS. Perhaps not coincidentally, Skydance agreed to settle Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes,” CBS’s marquee news and politics show, for $16 million. Steve Colbert described the move as a “big fat bribe” and a few days later Paramount canceled his long-running CBS show. David Ellison will reportedly make pro-Israel journalist Bari Weiss a top executive at CBS.

With control of Paramount, in addition to CBS, Skydance owns MTV, Comedy Central, Showtime, Nickelodeon, and Chanel 10 in Australia and Channel 5 in the UK. Before the end of this year, the Ellisons are expected to finalize control over Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN, HBO, and the Discovery Channel. After the acquisition, the Skydance empire will control a significant part of the mainstream media narrative.

On September 25, President Trump signed an executive order that allows TikTok to remain available in the U.S. through what’s essentially a forced sale to a group of mostly American investors headed by Larry Ellison. Ostensibly, concerns about its Chinese parent company - ByteDance - led to a bipartisan law passed last year to limit its Chinese ownership. However, the real impetus escaped public notice.

As Mike Gallagher - a former U.S. congressman and author of the revived and successful effort to ban TikTok—wrote in November 2023, the reason the U.S. needed to ban the most popular app among Gen Z was not because the algorithm caused young Americans to support China but because it caused them “to support Hamas.”

TikTok’s capacity to totally and instantaneously shatter decades of neoconservative propaganda revealed what Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, would label Israel’s “TikTok problem”: that the app exposes a generation of Americans to too much information unapproved by the CIA and Mossad.

“How Israel Captured TikTok,” Harrison Berger, The American Conservative, 9/21/25

TikTok specifically (43 percent of young Americans regularly get news from TikTok) and social and alternative media in general are why Israel is losing the generations after the Boomers. Now TikTok will be in the “safe” hands of Ellison and a number of other prominent Israel supporters, including Safra Catz, Rupert Murdoch, and Michael Dell. Oracle will take a rumored 15 percent and will manage the data and infrastructure of TikTok’s U.S. operations. Count on TikTok’s algorithms that select the news, messaging and images becoming much more Israel- and Trump-friendly, and count on the company losing a significant share of its youthful market. As long as its effectively censored, that will not bother the TikTok investment consortium.

AI may or may not do all the things that are touted as its future capabilities, but right now, it is ideally suited for the surveillance state. For the totalitarians, that’s the point of the AI “revolution” - it’s anti-revolutionary. It can almost instantaneously sort through enormous data bases—like all that information the National Security Administration has been collecting on us for years - and spit out information in a user-friendly form.

On Trump’s second day in office, he hosted Larry Ellison along with Sam Altman (protégé of Palantir chairman Peter Thiel) of OpenAI and Masayoshi Son of Softbank (which funds the Israeli firm Cybereason, see Webb’s “How an Israeli Spy-Linked Tech Firm Gained Access to the US Gov’t’s Most Classified Networks”) at the White House to announce The Stargate Project.

Ellison talked about AI and mRNA being used for good, to tailor remedies for cancer for individuals. Ellison stresses “unifying” data. Max Jones charged early this year that this “Interoperability” would allow “a seemingly decentralized group of vendors to become effectively centralized, as they gain the ability to seamlessly exchange data.” On Sept. 10, Jones notes: “The Pentagon-contracting company Open AI just signed a contract to purchase $300 billion in computing power from the CIA-contracting company Oracle. This is part of OpenAI’s ‘Stargate’ project to build out a huge amount of data centers all across the U.S., which will almost certainly be used to enable AI technology to surveil every aspect of your life. With that data, AI, in the hands of the national security state, will dictate whether you are likely to commit a crime like that which occurred today [Charlie Kirk assassination] - before you’ve committed it.”

“Billionaire Ellison, Major Backer of Israeli Military, Whose Oracle Was a CIA Spinoff, Moves on TikTok after It Was Targeted for Gaza Content,” Sam Husseini, 9/20/25

Ellison has said that mass AI surveillance will ensure that “Citizens will be on their best behavior.” Stargate’s backers are promising $500 billion in U.S. AI infrastructure investment by 2029. That Trump would make his announcement on his second day back in office and invite those backers to the White House indicates his enthusiasm for the project. He undoubtedly regards its “pre-crime” aspects as a feature, not a bug.

MAGA could never admit that their man is a charlatan, but the technototalitarians at this White House dinner June 5 are a small club (Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Sergey Brin, Shyman Sankar, and Safra Katz were among the attendees) and MAGA’s not in it. The never-ending stream of diversions—TARIFFS! ALASKA MEETING WITH PUTIN! CRIME IN WASHINGTON D.C.! THE FEDERAL RESERVE! ZOHRAN MAMDANI! VENEZUELAN DRUG CARTELS! CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATED! COMEY INDICTED! LEFT-WING EXTREMISTS! GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN! STAY TUNED FOR MUCH, MUCH MORE!—keep attention focused away from the impending, fully instituted Death Star control grid, and will do so until it’s too late to do anything about it. The technototalitarians have the world by the balls, they just haven’t squeezed too hard... yet."

Part Two: The Israel Connections 

Part Three: The Squeeze

- https://straightlinelogic.com/

"When Governments Do Something Right"

"When Governments Do Something Right"

by Radio Far Side

"What shall we discuss today? The world’s become so completely unhinged I’m having a hard time deciding which issues to play with. I suppose the most exciting news is the US federal government shut-down. Nothing says peace and prosperity more than an unfunded government. I guess that Big Beautiful Bill that added a trillion or two to the debt pile just wasn’t enough to satisfy that great salivating maw we lovingly call the “authorities”. Trump had this opportunity in his first term to rid the nation of 800,000 “non-essential” government employees. Will he be smarter this time? Not holding my breath.

For those outside the US, or who slept through civics class, it’s times like these that the US government runs out of lucre to operate non-essential functions, because the children in Washington D.C. haven’t yet agreed on the new budget, which normally takes effect on 1 October. What happens is one arm of the Uniparty or other gets their panties in a bunch over useless and wasteful spending (not their pet projects), or wants to make the president look bad because Congress can’t make a decision. In this case, it’s a little of both. So here’s what keeps going:

• Military & national security: Active-duty military, border patrol, air traffic control, intelligence agencies.

• Law enforcement: FBI, DEA, federal prisons, Secret Service, TSA.

• Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid: Benefits still go out (trust funds aren’t subject to annual appropriations).

• Postal Service: Funded separately through postage revenue.

• Air travel: Flights keep moving; controllers and TSA officers still work.

• Federal Reserve & Treasury debt payments: These are outside the normal appropriations process.

Basically, everything the government shouldn’t be doing keeps going, especially those in the banksters’ or Congress’ interests (see debt payments and payroll). Everything else has the plug pulled and workers furloughed for the duration of the shut down.

This is one of those rare moments in a nation’s history when freedom truly does ring. It never lasts for long; the bastids certainly don’t want folks getting used to real freedom. The fact that there are “non-essential” government functions is itself a cause to taxpayer revolt. I recall one of the most salient lines from the Declaration of Independence, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

Unfortunately, the blue goonies at the airport boarding areas are considered essential, though to whom we are not informed. I wonder how long a shut down would have to last to start cutting into “essentials”? Whatever that time is, lobby your Congresscritter to keep it going at least that long.

At this moment of fleeting triumph, we should bow our heads and remember the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and especially Big Balls, who was viciously attacked by a gang of bureaucrats angry that he was actually being effective in his position. There was a time, lo these brief few months ago, when it looked like Trump was serious about his campaign vows, back before the new slogan “War is Peace” took hold in those lofty marbled halls in New Rome.

Savor moments like this, folks. Gather your children and grandchildren around you and impress on them the joy of unfunded government. Take them outside to breathe the air free of EPA, and Departments of Education, of FCC and FDA. Embed in them the desire to prolong that feeling as long as possible, whenever the opportunity arises. Remind them that once upon a time, humans took care of themselves, without the need for legions of agents climbing all up in their bidness.

I’m tempted to go down to the embassy and see if it’s still functioning. Don’t know that it’s worth braving Jakarta traffic, though. It’s the only embassy in the city that looks like a prison, with a bomb-proof entry and concrete walls 12-feet high topped with concertina wire, and an office building with curious steel shades over all the windows on all 12 floors. By comparison, the Russian embassy is surrounded with a hedge and a wrought-iron fence. And they invite me to parties, unlike my own dour gang.

So, while we enjoy this brief moment of peace and prosperity, it behooves us to mark the occasion with something special. I’m whipping up a batch of Wolf-style Texas chili, with a hint of chipotle and adobo, and just a sprinkle of cocoa powder (secret ingredient), because it’s been 17 years since I’ve had such a delicacy, and well…that’s too long. I figure I’ll have more than enough to get into some old-time chili dogs while I’m at it, piled with finely diced onions and aged cheddar.

I consider shutting down the non-essentials is a fine beginning, but we need to dig into a lot of the “essentials,” as well. I once thought Trump was on the side of sanity and liberty, but clearly I was wrong. So, I’ll take the little break that’s offered and remember better days."

- https://radiofarside.substack.com/

Adventures With Danno, "Mega Savings Event at Kroger"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 10/2/25

"Mega Savings Event at Kroger"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Lisa The Russian, 10/2/25

"Russian Girl Shocked By Capitalist Food in Moscow!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

o

Full screen recommended.

Scottish Guy in Moscow, 10/2/25

"Classic Soviet Canteen Food Review - Russian Cuisine" 

"Today, I head to Stolovaya 57, one of the most famous Soviet-style canteens in Moscow, together with my friend Arina. We dive into some classic Russian cuisine - from hearty soups and salads to meaty mains and sweet desserts - and, of course, we couldn’t miss out on a shot (or two) of Russian vodka!  Stolovaya 57 isn’t just about food, it’s about stepping back in time to experience a piece of Soviet history that’s still alive in the heart of Moscow. If you’ve ever wondered what everyday Soviet dining looked like, this is the spot to see it."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Dan, I Allegedly, "Digital ID Is Coming - Once They Roll This Out, You’ll Never Be Free Again"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 10/2/25

"Digital ID Is Coming - 

Once They Roll This Out, You’ll Never Be Free Again"

"Digital ID is here, and the truth is downright scary. In today’s video, I’m diving into the unsettling push for digital IDs and how they threaten to strip away our privacy, track every move we make, and centralize control over our lives. From governments pushing mass surveillance to the dangers of centralized data, this is a wake-up call you don’t want to ignore. We’re talking about everything from biometric data and financial tracking to social media connections and even potential erosion of your freedom of movement. Trust me, you’ll want to hear this."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"3I/ATLAS Just Sent a Signal Toward the Moon – And It Answered Back"

Full screen recommended.

Infinity Loop, 10/3/25

"3I/ATLAS Just Sent a Signal Toward the Moon – 

And It Answered Back"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO6JWrsDZr4

o

Full screen recommended.

The Hidden Abyss, 10/1/25

"Unbelievable NASA Leak: JWST Data Fed 

To Quantum AI Confirms 3I/ATLAS Mars Impact Date"

"A line has been crossed, a secret unveiled, hinting at a future for Mars that few could have ever imagined. The world is on the cusp of understanding an unparalleled cosmic event, all thanks to an alleged Nasa leak that points to the James Webb Space Telescope and its unprecedented observational power. Coupled with the mind-bending abilities of quantum artificial intelligence, this leak reveals an absolute certainty: the asteroid 3 i atlas will strike Mars. The precision of this prediction is what truly stuns experts, and the shocking impact date is something you won't want to miss. Prepare for a deep dive into how our most advanced technology uncovered this dramatic celestial timetable."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Big Brother is Watching"

"Big Brother is Watching"

by Joel Bowman

“Every citizen, like every animal, is under continuous surveillance 

by the Thought Police, and under the constant threat 

of being vaporized for deviation from the Party line.”

~ George Orwell, "1984" (1948)

Buenos Aires, Argentina - "No matter where you go, there you are, standing at the End of the World. Casting a weary gaze across the legacy newscape – pitiless, shameless and awash in tales of war and of waste – your editor checks his sense of humor, does a quick family head count... and keeps his passports handy.

While on the subject of ubiquitous government surveillance, Big Brother is not just at your door... he’s on the couch streaming Netflix, having already helped himself to some snacks and, naturally, the wifi password. (Bank accounts, social credit score, carbon footprint, etc., to follow shortly.) Here’s the latest, from bootlicking establishment bullhorn, Reuters: "Britain to introduce compulsory digital ID for workers."

"LONDON - The British government said on Friday it would require every employee to hold a digital identity document, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s latest attempt to tackle illegal migration and reduce the threat from the populist Reform UK party." Did His Majesty’s loyal subjects catch that? The primary “threat” to the middle and working class of the United Kingdom, to British culture and the general interests of the common people, comes not from tens of thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into the country annually...

Nor does it stem from the fact that the majority of these people (~60%) come from just five countries – Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Eritrea, and Sudan – countries that don’t exactly overlap, culturally...Nor does it come from the fact that Starmer’s own government, according to official border “control” documents, returns less than 4% of those who land in the country illegally... The real threat, to the UK and (no doubt) “to democracy itself,” comes from... an opposition party that dares mention these inconvenient truths!

Said Keir “Two Tier” Starmer: “In the UK ... we have got a right-wing proposition that we have not had in this country before ... so the battle of our times is between patriotic national renewal ... versus something which is turning into a toxic divide.”

Starmer says the digital IDs will be “free of charge,” which is how you know you can’t afford it. According to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, all British citizens will be required to have a digital ID... although it will be “entirely their choice” whether they want to use them.

Got that, lowly subject? Just like Covid vaccine cards, the government’s digital dog tags are “mandatory,” such that you won’t be able to earn a living without one, but it’s totally your choice whether or not you want to use them. Asked whether the government would need to bother going through parliament – you know, all that pesky “check-and-balance” stuff – Nandy responded like the obedient, unquestioning automaton she is: “This is being done.”

Of course, the public is right to be concerned over unprecedented immigration levels, both legal and illegal. It’s a big part of the reason the Reform Party is pegged to be Labour’s main opposition heading into the next election (and why they will no doubt be branded fascist, racist, bigoted, Islamaphobic, etc., etc., etc., from now until then…)

When your editor moved to the UK, legally, back in the 1990s (to pursue a career as a rock ‘n’ roll star with the band Oasis... whom we’d never met), net immigration averaged “just” 100,000 per year. Today, that figure is over a million... and rising. (The five years pre-Covid averaged 600,000. After a brief dip during that first lockdown year, the number soon rebounded... to 900,000 in 2021... 1.2M in 2022... 1.3M in 2023...)

But will the UK government’s digital monitoring, snooping and leering really do anything to stem the tide of illegal immigrants, 88% of whom arrive on the tiny island by small boats, which are apparently beyond the capability of the once formidable British Navy to handle? Or is there something more sinister afoot?

Starmer’s Pull Factor: After all, Germany already has a national digital ID. So too does France... and Italy... and Spain. Did sweeping government surveillance and digitally integrated biometric IDs help neutralize one of the “key pull factors” enticing illegals onto their fair shores? To respond in order: No. No. No. Aaaaand... No.

With a quarter of a million illegal immigrants within its welcome mats borders as of 2024, Germany leads the continent in that dubious dishonor. It was followed, you will be shocked to discover, by France... Italy... the UK... and then Spain.

Adjusted for population, tiny Slovenia, nestled in the armpit of the Adriatic, right up there between Italy and Croatia, suffers the highest illegal immigration population per capita anywhere on the continent. Good thing the Slovenian government began issuing biometric national identity cards in 2022 then, eh? Right before documented illegal crossings doubled, from 30,000 to over 60,000, the very next year.

But then, if illegal immigration really is such a problem, as Starmer himself (now) freely admits, why not start by deporting the millions of illegal immigrants already in these countries? After all, it’s not as though the government doesn’t know where they are; one need only check the hotel addresses and free iPhone bills on the state welfare invoices... or simply follow the blaze of protests sweeping across the nation as frustrated locals, fed up with having their wives and daughters harassed in their own towns and public spaces, take to the once-safe streets to demand their country back.

There was a time when the Brits, upper lips firmly stiffened, had the common decency to reject the government’s cataloging, processing and harassing of innocent individuals. Crazy, but true. Before 1914, British citizens were able to travel freely around the European continent. When they did need a passport, to visit the Russian or Ottoman Empires, for example, they were little more than handwritten documents, often a single page, with a vague description of the bearer’s physical characteristics, height, hair, eye color, etc.

Then came the outbreak of WWI, and the kind of “temporary wartime measures” that tend to last a lifetime... and beyond. In 1915, citing threats of foreign espionage, the UK government made that most Faustian of pacts, trading “liberty for the promise of security,” and issued a standardized passport booklet, which contained not only the bearer’s signature, but also a photograph.

The requirements were seen as scandalous by the right-thinking British public, who were naturally outraged that they should be subjected to such an invasive, dehumanizing process. Members of Parliament and their toadies in the press assured their constituents that such impositions were merely “temporary measures,” and that they would be repealed in due course.

Only, as is so often the case with the government’s “temporary measures,” due course never came. After WWI was over, the League of Nations convened a number of international passport conferences, with the resulting trend toward international standardization and the “one world system” we have today.

And yet, still that feckless mantra of the Soft Cranium Brigade, “If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about” rings out around the world, from China to Singapore to Pakistan... Saudi Arabia to Qatar to Bahrain... Nigeria to Kenya to South Africa... where brainwashed citizens line up behind their dear leaders, confident they would never abuse their power, seemingly incurious as to why their delusional motto is never turned toward the government itself, notoriously secretive and forever assuring its citizens they’re on a “need to know” basis.

“Privacy for we,” shady world leaders and WEF puppets cry in creepy unison, “total transparency for thee.” Hmm… what could go wrong?"

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/

"These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."

– Alexander Fraser Tytler