Tuesday, February 9, 2021

"Same Old, Same Old"

"Same Old, Same Old"
By Bill Bonner

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."
- Ernest Hemingway

RANCHO SANTANA, NICARAGUA – "Today, we’re putting aside our travel tales and turning to more important matters – the future of the nation, that is. For a president, there are only two things that really count: Protecting the citizens’ wealth… and protecting their freedom. Typically, presidents do neither. Instead, they eat away at them, like termites hollowing out a log. They waste the nation’s wealth on jackass programs… inflate the currency… and make enemies all over the world, with their wars, sanctions, bullying, and meddling. With those basics in mind, it is probably not too early to look at what the new Biden team has in store for us. In short: Same old, same old.

Plus Ça Change: Looking back a few weeks, we wonder… What was all the election bruhaha about? What difference did it make who was elected? We forecast that it would make none. And as to the basics, we were right. Nothing much has changed.

War? If anything, the Biden Bunch is likely to make a bigger mess of things than the Trump gang. To his everlasting credit, Donald Trump was the first American president in nearly 50 years not to start a new war. But Biden has already signaled that he won’t cancel Trump’s sanctions… that Russia and China will continue to be regarded as adversaries… and that those in the military/industrial/Deep State complex can begin building new vacation homes.

Lest we forget, as a senator and then as vice president, Biden played his part in getting Democrat support for the War on Terror, the invasion of Iraq, and the other military misadventures of the last 20 years. He and the “queen of the warmongers,” Hillary Clinton, pushed the bombing of Libya and the war in Serbia before that.

Professional Warmongers: And now, the liberal media says Biden is bringing professionalism back to American foreign policy. Yes, he’s replacing Trump’s amateurish incompetents with seasoned war criminals and career cronies. The rascals are taking refuge in the nation’s capital. Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Neera Tanden, and Michèle Flournoy – smart scalawags, every one of them.

Wasting no time, the retreads and has-beens from the Clinton and Obama days are back on the job… desperately trying to remain relevant (and keep the cash flowing) by throwing their weight around. CNN reports: "US deploying B-1 bombers to Norway to send a message to Russia." "The US Air Force is deploying B-1 bombers to Norway for the first time in a move that sends a clear message to Moscow that the US military will operate in the strategically important Arctic region and demonstrate that it will defend allies in the area against any Russian aggression close to the country’s border."

Going Big: As for the other part of the formula – inflation – nothing has changed there, either. The Biden boys and girls are going to “go big,” just like the Trumpistas before them. It’s hard to exaggerate the biglyness of Trump’s inflationary push. During his reign, the spending… the deficit… the budget… the debt… and the money-printing all expanded more than ever. Not even in wartime was so much monetary and fiscal inflation added to the system.

And if Donald Trump had somehow managed a recount, and gotten another four years in office, it would inevitably be more of the same – more spending, more deficits, more debt, and more money-printing. The Donald was all for it.

And so is Joe Biden. The bigness of Biden’s plan is so loony that even the loons themselves are beginning to wonder about it. Here’s Breitbart: "Leading Liberal Economist Sounds Alarm Over Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Covid Bill." "One of the world’s leading liberal economists dealt Joe Biden a blow in recent days, warning that the president’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief legislation could ignite an inflationary conflagration.

Olivier Blanchard, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and perhaps the most cited economist in the world, spelled out his case against the Biden bill in a series of tweets on Saturday. Blanchard’s argument is that the size of the stimulus injected into the economy would be too large, especially when added to the measures taken last year. The additional spending power created by the additional $1.9 trillion budget deficit would drive up prices and force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates."

But to hear the “experts” tell it, printing-press money is just the panacea that America needs. The only question, for them, is, “How much?”

Bird on a Wing: They believe they can use government spending – funded by fake money – to stimulate the U.S. economy… to rescue American families from poverty… to redress the wrongs of the patriarchy, white supremacy, Big Business, greed, and nature… and even to save the planet from the evils of carbon dioxide. And they believe (according to the now-popular Modern Monetary Theory fantasy) that the only real limit is consumer price inflation.

When the cost of living rises above their target, they say they’ll let the printing presses cool down… and raise taxes to control inflation. But as we know, that’s not going to happen. Those who live by the printing press die by the printing press, with more and more “liquidity” (aka fake money) needed just to stay in the same place. Yes, Dear Reader, it’s “inflate or die.” And Joe Biden, like Trump before him, will continue to inflate the American economy.

And what’s this? Agricultural commodities are up 13% over the last 12 months. Metals are up 18%. The buzzard of consumer price inflation hath but a short way to fly… And as we reported yesterday, lo… the bird is on the wing. Stay tuned…"

“A Strange Game” (Part Two)

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
"War Games", 1984

“A Strange Game” (Part Two)
by Jim Quinn

"In Part One of this article I laid out the dire situation we find ourselves facing, as the illegitimate Biden administration inflicts the coup de grace to our dying empire of debt. I will now provide a possible framework of resistance and methods of undermining the corrupt pillaging system we call government.

The concept of passive resistance has existed in various forms for centuries and has been used effectively in toppling enemies. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a concept I had never heard before in Doug Lynn’s article "Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair: Hover Through the Fog and Filthy Air". The passage below references “Irish Democracy” as a method for bringing an authoritarian regime to their knees.

More regimes have been brought, piecemeal, to their knees by what was once called “Irish Democracy”- the silent, dogged resistance, withdrawal, and truculence of millions of ordinary people - than by revolutionary vanguards or rioting mobs. The premise behind “Irish Democracy” is that the State lacks the enforcement power to have its way with millions upon millions of rebels. It’s Mohandas Gandhi’s strategy, albeit without his overt confrontations with the institutions of government. “You can ignore the State and do as you please, as long as you keep your head down.”

Removing the overt confrontations makes “Irish Democracy” much safer than any other form of rebellion. The State needs conspicuous, targetable rebels. It cannot use terror of its forces without someone to turn into an “example.” No conspicuous rebels means nothing for the State to crucify for the edification of the public.

The description of Irish Democracy was put forth by Yale professor James C. Scott in his book, “Two Cheers for Anarchism“: “Quiet, anonymous, and often complicitous, lawbreaking and disobedience may well be the historically preferred mode of political action for peasant and subaltern classes, for whom open defiance is too dangerous. One need not have an actual conspiracy to achieve the practical effects of a conspiracy.”

Widespread non-coordinated resistance to the mandates and dictates of a totalitarian state can succeed, as millions of individual actions result in having an overwhelming cumulative negative impact on the state’s functioning. As Scott reflects, the state needs conspicuous targetable enemies, which we have clearly seen, as this fledgling communist regime continues to promote the white supremacist insurrection fabrication and Trump’s guilt in provoking pretend Vikings to steal podiums and take selfies in Pelosi’s office.

The goal of these mendacious totalitarians is to provoke Trump supporters into a violent response, so they can usher in their Domestic Terrorism Act (Patriot Act 2.0) and implement a modern-day techno gulag solution. We cannot take the bait. It is time to arrange our affairs in such a way that denies the State their claimed piece of your pie, while doing so in such a way the State does not scrutinize your “unlawful” acts. Ignoring ridiculous decrees, demands, and laws are the duty of every right-thinking American.
As the cancel culture social justice warriors seek their next prominent victim to crucify across their media empire, it behooves us “little people” to deny them the satisfaction of ruining our lives. They want nothing more than to de-platform you, get you fired from your job, and destroy your reputation. This is where Irish Democracy, Going Galt, and numerous other variations of these strategies, along with heeding the wisdom Sun Tzu, need to be utilized to defeat our now firmly entrenched enemy.

There are no white hats coming to save us. It is now up to millions of truculent, disagreeable, angry, deplorable citizens to undermine the establishment and force this empire built on a foundation of unpayable debt to collapse. It might seem like a daunting task, but each individual act of resistance is like a grain of sand added to the unstable pile. No one knows which grain will trigger the catastrophic failure of the system. We are all capable of becoming the straw that broke the camel’s back.

John Galt’s speech in Ayn Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged" is over 33 thousand words, but these passages capture the essence of Going Galt: “For twelve years, you have been asking: Who is John Galt? This is John Galt speaking. I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. I am the man who has deprived you of victims and thus has destroyed your world, and if you wish to know why you are perishing - you who dread knowledge - I am the man who will now tell you.

You have heard it said that this is an age of moral crisis. You have said it yourself, half in fear, half in hope that the words had no meaning. You have cried that man’s sins are destroying the world and you have cursed human nature for its unwillingness to practice the virtues you demanded. Since virtue, to you, consists of sacrifice, you have demanded more sacrifices at every successive disaster. In the name of a return to morality, you have sacrificed all those evils which you held as the cause of your plight. You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed reason to faith. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty.

You will win when you are ready to pronounce the oath I have taken at the start of my battle -and for those who wish to know the day of my return, I shall now repeat it to the hearing of the world: I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

The key point is to deprive the Marxist/Deep State/Oligarchy of victims who they can use to further their warped, non-sensical, totalitarian agenda of control, force and wealth extraction for the greater good - of the oligarchs. They create a crisis with their laws, regulations, legislation, mandates, executive orders, and decrees and then make it far worse with their “solutions”, while demanding more sacrifices by the little people to keep their sinking ship afloat. This is their Achilles heel.

If millions of individuals Go Galt and Starve the Beast, one transaction at a time, withdrawing our consent because we believe those governing us are illegitimate, the State lacks the enforcement power and means to punish people they cannot find or identify as criminals. This is guerilla warfare in a modern technological dystopian world. Each of us has different life circumstances, financial capacity, and constraints, but everyone can contribute something to toppling our oppressors. Here are some thoughts. I am sure you can creatively add to this list:

• Reduce your taxable footprint as much as possible, rendering as little to Caesar as possible. Spending less deprives them of sales tax.
• Do home improvement projects yourself and buy supplies from local retailers, rather than big box mega-stores.
• Don’t buy anything from Amazon. If you are still on Facebook or Twitter, depart for a platform that does not censor. Don’t use Google for searches. Cancel Netflix and Amazon Prime.
• Boycott any organization pushing the BLM agenda or critical race theory.
• Take a course or two at the local tech school in electrical, plumbing, or other practical skill, so you can do it yourself.
• No matter how small your plot of land, learn to grow some food – the more the better. See if hydroponics is possible. Deny the mega-food industry your business.
• Make friends with local farmers, source meat, eggs, corn, milk, etc. from them and pay in cash. The government cannot track the transaction.
• If you need to utilize a contractor, landscaper, painter, etc. find a local guy and pay in cash. They often will give a discount and the government will not get their slice.
• If your circumstances warrant, bartering with locals can satisfy the needs of both parties and keeps the government out of your business.
• Only frequent small family-owned restaurants and always pay in cash, including the tip for your waitress. The government will absolutely get their slice if you pay using a credit card.
• If you have money in a Wall Street bank, withdraw it and put it in credit union or small local bank.
• Do not carry any credit card debt. Pay down your mortgage. Do not borrow to buy a new car. Buy a used car.
• Reduce your driving, not to save the environment, but to deny the State gasoline taxes and toll revenue.
• If possible, own some precious metals, in preparation for the inevitable collapse of the USD. Crypto currencies may also be a hedge but may be too risky for most people.
• Learn how to communicate with allies using encrypted messaging.
• Don’t wear a mask or get the experimental DNA altering jab. Ridicule those who do.
• The IRS is a dysfunctional, understaffed, bureaucratic calamity of an organization. You are small potatoes. They don’t have the resources to check whether your return is accurate. If the Fed can print $4 trillion out of thin air, why do they need your taxes anyway. Act accordingly.
• If you live in an urban area, and have the means, get the hell out, preferably to a rural area inhabited by like- minded people.
• If you live in a blue state or blue county, and can do so, move to a red state or red county. As states raise income tax rates, move to states with little or no income taxes. PA governor Wolf just proposed increasing the state income tax by 46% to give my money to teachers’ unions. Florida is looking awfully inviting.
• With federal, state and local taxes surely going to rise, if you are near retirement, and can afford to, just drop out now and stop paying income taxes.
• As these Going Galt actions are sure to infuriate those wielding power, make sure you are armed, have firearms training, and have a sufficient supply of ammo. Be mentally prepared to defend your homestead.

Some of these actions are easier than others, but they would all contribute to an undetected rebellion against the State. If you are interested in going full Galt, this article from Marc Moran (aka Hardscrabble Farmer) - "Five Things To Do When Going Galt" - details his family’s journey from being trapped in the Matrix to the freedom of controlling your own destiny – also known as the liberty to live life as you choose.

None of what I’ve described is easy, but direct confrontation would be futile, as the majority of sheep would support the government because they are incapable of critical thought, distracted by their technological gadgets, and fearful of their own shadows. Since there is no doubt we are already at war, as the new regime has already classified us as domestic terrorists, we should heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu in confronting the enemy.

“If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.” - Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” - Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

If ever an opponent had a choleric temper it is the Marxist regime currently in power, with the hateful Pelosi, wrathful Schumer, venomous AOC, angry Biden, malevolent Harris, and malicious Deep State apparatchiks easily irritated and can be goaded into making irrational decisions. Their arrogance, lack of self-awareness, and continuous barefaced hypocrisy, leaves them exposed to ridicule and scorn on a daily basis, which makes them angrier and more susceptible to contempt and mockery from their opponents.

There is no need to interrupt the enemy when they continue to issue executive orders and pass legislation which will have disastrous consequences. Even though the Reddit guys eventually had their asses handed to them, they proved a strategized sneak attack by the little guys could create havoc and disarray on Wall Street. The entire episode tore back the curtain and revealed the game is perpetually rigged in favor of billionaire hedge fund managers and the Wall Street cabal.
This war is winnable if we use Irish Democracy and Going Galt tactics and out-think our narcissist, intellectually deficient, liberal arts major enemies. The danger is when they become frustrated by being out-smarted and out-maneuvered, they will lash out violently against men who just want to be left alone to live their lives as free men. When the financial system implodes, and it certainly will, they will attempt to scapegoat the deplorables.

If they endeavor to violently enforce their mandates, they will unleash hardened men who will give no quarter in inflicting their vengeance upon those who chose not to leave them to peacefully liver their lives. The electrical grid and government computer systems are highly susceptible to attack. Strategic strikes of truckers could create food shortages in a matter of days in Democrat run urban enclaves of peaceful protests.

The 300 million guns in this country are owned by men who know how to use them. These political animals will pay a dear price for awakening the inner Outlaw Josey Wales in millions of angry men. This unattributed quote captures what will happen when they push us too far.
“The most terrifying force of death comes from the hands of ‘Men who wanted to be left Alone’. They try, so very hard to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it.

They know the moment they fight back, the lives as they have lived them, are over. The moment the ‘Men who wanted to be left Alone’ are forced to fight back, it is a small form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be.

Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these ‘Men who wanted to be left Alone’, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror.

TRUE TERROR will arrive at the Left’s door, and they will cry, scream, and beg for mercy, but it will fall upon deaf ears.”
The corrupt establishment will do anything to suppress sites like the Burning Platform from revealing the truth. The corporate media does this by demonetizing sites like mine by blackballing the site from advertising revenue. If you get value from this site, please keep it running with a donation. [Jim Quinn - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal at the website.

"How It Really Is"

 

"A situation too weird for 99.99% of people to adequately explain."

"Simpler Taxes Long Promised, Never Delivered"

"Simpler Taxes Long Promised, Never Delivered" 
by Tom Purcell

"I love winter. I love snow. I love making a roaring fire in my fireplace on a chilly day. But I hate one thing about this time of year: taxes. February is rough for the self-employed. It's rough because my 1099 forms - official records of how much my clients paid me last year - arrive in the mail. As the 1099s roll in, I hope and pray I made less than I know I did - because my tax "contributions" are always way more than I thought they would be. I'd like to meet the genius who used "contribution" in place of "mandatory tax liability." He's probably the same guy who calls our nearly $28 trillion national debt an "investment."

As a former English major, I've never been fond of math and accounting. But from February through April 15, tax day, I have to do my best at both. That's because our income tax system is complex. It's complex because drunk people (members of Congress) designed it so that a bureaucracy (the IRS) converts the incomprehensible (tax law) into the unfathomable (complex tax regulations) to punish productive Americans (the self-employed), all in the name of good fun.

I hire a certified public accountant to calculate my tax contributions. But my CPA makes me sort and tally all of my expenses first. From Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, I toss every bill, receipt, expense, etc., into a large cardboard box - because these little slips of paper, which are deductions against my tax burden, are like currency to me.

Beginning in February, I spend hours sorting through last year's slips with one goal in mind: to get my earnings from the prior year as low as legally possible, so my income tax bill doesn't give me a heart attack, which I cannot afford anymore because my "self-employed health insurance policy" has a deductible that's soared higher than the value of my 2020 Toyota Tacoma!

About this time every year, I curse Republicans, who have talked about simplifying the tax system throughout my adult life. "Vote us into power and the tax code is the first thing we're going to fix!" they always promise. "You'll be able to complete your tax return on the back of a postcard!" they say with a wink. "We're going to make filing so easy we'll put tax lawyers in the unemployment line!" they say, laughing.

And I laugh and laugh. Because when they're voted into power, Republicans do little to nothing to simplify the ever-more-complicated tax code that causes the self-employed to worry about heart attacks, which I can afford even less because my 2021 premium jumped again and I had to switch to an even higher-deductible plan.

Now the Democrats control the White House, the House and the Senate. They promise to tax only the rich and leave the rest of us alone. And I laugh and laugh - as I brace for new tax complexities that will cause me even more grief.

I'd love to go skiing on gorgeous snow-covered hills and forget about the tax agitations that are already dragging me down. But I'm afraid to spend the money to go skiing - because, like every year, my tax bill is going to be way higher than I thought it would be. Gosh, I hate this time of the year."

"Debt and the Demise of the Middle Class"

"Debt and the Demise of the Middle Class"
by Charles Hugh Smith

"What exactly is the Middle Class and what unique role does it serve in the economy? Given that the Middle Class is constantly invoked by politicos and economists, you'd think the status quo had a solid understanding of the Middle Class. Alas, it isn't that simple.

The conventional view defines the middle class by income, education or type of labor being performed. These are all superficial attributes and ignore what actually differentiates the working class from the middle class. Yes, the middle class tends to earn more, have higher educational credentials and perform white-collar labor rather than blue-collar labor. But getting a higher education credential and increased pay doesn't automatically provide a middle class role in the economy, nor does performing white-collar work. None of these automatically moves the individual up the social mobility ladder from near-zero ownership of capital (working class) to meaningful ownership of productive capital (middle class).

As I explained in "The Top 10% Is Doing Just Fine, The Middle Class Is Dying on the Vine", the middle class is fundamentally a means of transforming labor into capital via savings and investment. The traditional ladder of social mobility from the working class to the middle class is one of capitalizing work: time and savings are invested in higher education, in effect capitalizing future labor by increasing productivity.

In other words, what separates the working class from the middle class is the middle class is able to transform their labor into capital while the labor of the working class only funds consumption. The working class is defined not by credentials, type of labor or credentials but by limited access to the means to transform their labor into capital.

In the classical Marxist view, there is a bright line between labor and capital: the proletariats labor in the factories owned by the capitalist industrialists who depend on monopoly capital controlled by the commercial/investment banks. The class of small business - tradecrafts, commerce, professionals, etc. - is merely a wedge between the dominant classes of labor and capital.

In this view, the exploitation of labor is the dominant force of capitalism. While labor is indeed exploited in many cases, the dynamic that this schema misses is the essential role of middle class credit/debt and consumption in generating profits for the big owners of capital. Low-wage workers benefit their employers but not the banks or those who profit from selling goods and services to higher-wage workers - the middle class.

Debt is immensely profitable, and so low-income workers are a limited pool of profitability. The financial services are expert at ripping off the working class with payday loans, check-cashing services, sky-high used auto loans, rapacious late fees and overdraft charges, but again, there is only so much blood that can be extracted from low-wage workers.

The higher, more secure wages of the middle class offer a bonanza of longer-term profits from debt taken on by the middle class: student loans to gain the credentials deemed necessary for middle class membership; auto loans, the larger the better for the aspirational consumption enabled by fatter paychecks, mortgages to buy homes, and consumer debt for all the consumption the middle class can afford: ski trips, cruises, fine dining, etc. In other words, modern capitalism stagnates without a vibrant, creditworthy middle class that borrows and spends freely, for profits flow from high levels of debt and aspirational consumption that low-wage, insecure precariats cannot afford.

But here's the rub: most of the middle class debt stems from the aspiration to transform labor into capital via higher education (student debt) and home ownership (mortgages). As middle class wages lose purchasing power and incomes become more precarious (as employers offload healthcare and pension costs onto employees and shift workers from employees to gig-contract workers), the ability of the middle class to borrow and consume more falters.

Even worse, these time-honored avenues to ownership of productive capital are no longer reliable. Higher education credentials no longer guarantee stable, ample wages, and home ownership in a housing-bubble-addicted economy is less a means of saving and more a chip in the bubble-economy casino.

Debt serfdom awaits the aspirants to middle class ownership of productive capital. While debt payments are guaranteed, the rewards for taking on the debt are contingent and prone to sudden collapses in demand for credentials and assets purchased with debt. Debt only works for the middle class if incomes and income security rise due to improving productivity and access to productive capital. Both productivity and access to productive capital are eroding, and so what made sense in past generations - borrowing for university educations and homes-are increasingly pathways to debt-serfdom.

The status quo "solution" to the decline of middle class ownership of income-producing capital is an economy that is now totally dependent on speculative bubbles. The idea here is as assets bubble ever higher, those in the middle class who own these assets will reap capital gains that will offset their declining purchasing power and income security.
Unfortunately, this "solution" has only enriched the top 10%, as the bottom 90% collect a near-zero 3% of all income from capital, which indicates that 1) the bottom 90%, which includes the middle class, own near-zero income-producing capital and 2) what capital they do own is either rapidly depreciating "stuff" (vehicles, appliances, etc.) that generates zero income or dead-money assets such as family homes that cost a fortune but produce no income and are no longer reliable investments, as the next bubble burst might evaporate the phantom homeowners equity generated by the serial housing bubbles.
As the middle class stagnates, so do the banks and producers of goods and services, and the lower-wage working class who labors in services and low-productivity producers. As the middle class awakens to the fact that the rungs of social mobility are broken, a systemic breakdown is predictable, a topic Jay Taylor and I discuss in the "Upcoming Revolt of the Middle Class" (22 min)
Unfortunately for those at the top who've benefited immensely from speculative bubbles, speculative bubbles don't create a vibrant middle class - they push what's left of the middle class off a cliff."

"The (New Normal) War On Domestic Terror"

"The (New Normal) War On Domestic Terror"
by CJ Hopkins

"If you enjoyed the Global War on Terror, you’re going to love the new War on Domestic Terror! It’s just like the original Global War on Terror, except that this time the “Terrorists” are all “Domestic Violent Extremists” (“DVEs”), “Homegrown Violent Extremists” (“HVEs”), “Violent Conspiracy-Theorist Extremists” (“VCTEs”), “Violent Reality Denialist Extremists” (VRDEs”), “Insurrectionary Micro-Aggressionist Extremists” (“IMAEs”), “People Who Make Liberals Feel Uncomfortable” (“PWMLFUs”), and anyone else the Department of Homeland Security wants to label an “extremist” and slap a ridiculous acronym on.

According to a “National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin” issued by the DHS on January 27, these DCEs, HVEs, VCTEs, VRDEs, IMAEs, and PWMLFUs are “ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority” and other “perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.” They are believed to be “motivated by a range of issues, including anger over Covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, police use of force,” and other dangerous “false narratives” (e.g., the existence of the “deep state,” “herd immunity,” “biological sex,” “God,” and so on).

“Inspired by foreign terrorist groups” and “emboldened by the breach of the US Capitol Building,” this diabolical network of “domestic terrorists” is “plotting attacks against government facilities,” “threatening violence against critical infrastructure” and actively “citing misinformation and conspiracy theories about Covid-19.” For all we know, they might be huddled in the “Wolf’s Lair” at Mar-a-Lago right now, plotting a devastating terrorist attack with those WMDs we never found in Iraq, or generating population-adjusted death-rate charts going back 20 years, or posting pictures of “extremist frogs” on the Internet.

The Department of Homeland Security is “concerned,” as are its counterparts throughout the global capitalist empire. The (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror isn’t just a war on American “domestic terror.” The “domestic terror” threat is international. France has just passed a “Global Security Law” banning citizens from filming the police beating the living snot out of people (among other “anti-terrorist” provisions). In Germany, the government is preparing to install an anti-terror moat around the Reichstag. In the Netherlands, the police are cracking down on the VCTEs, VRDEs, and other “angry citizens who hate the system,” who have been protesting over nightly curfews. Suddenly, everywhere you look (or at least if you are looking in the corporate media), “global extremism networks are growing.” It’s time for Globocap to take the gloves off again, root the “terrorists” out of their hidey holes, and roll out a new official narrative.

Actually, there’s not much new about it. When you strip away all the silly new acronyms, the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror is basically just a combination of the “War on Terror” narrative and the “New Normal” narrative, i.e., a militarization of the so-called “New Normal” and a pathologization of the “War on Terror.” Why would GloboCap want to do that, you ask?

I think you know, but I’ll go ahead and tell you.

See, the problem with the original “Global War on Terror” was that it wasn’t actually all that global. It was basically just a war on Islamic “terrorism” (i.e., resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology), which was fine as long as GloboCap was just destabilizing and restructuring the Greater Middle East. It was put on hold in 2016, so that GloboCap could focus on defeating “populism” (i.e., resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology), make an example of Donald Trump, and demonize everyone who voted for him (or just refused to take part in their free and fair elections), which they have just finished doing, in spectacular fashion. So, now it’s back to “War on Terror” business, except with a whole new cast of “terrorists,” or, technically, an expanded cast of “terrorists.” (I rattled off a list in my previous column.)

In short, GloboCap has simply expanded, recontextualized, and pathologized the “War on Terror” (i.e., the war on resistance to global capitalism and its post-ideological ideology). This was always inevitable, of course. A globally-hegemonic system (e.g., global capitalism) has no external enemies, as there is no territory “outside” the system. Its only enemies are within the system, and thus, by definition, are insurgents, also known as “terrorists” and “extremists.” These terms are utterly meaningless, obviously. They are purely strategic, deployed against anyone who deviates from GloboCap’s official ideology… which, in case you were wondering, is called “normality” (or, in our case, currently, “New Normality”).

In earlier times, these “terrorists” and “extremists” were known as “heretics,” “apostates,” and “blasphemers.” Today, they are also known as “deniers,” e.g., “science deniers,” “Covid deniers,” and recently, more disturbingly, “reality deniers.” This is an essential part of the pathologization of the “War on Terror” narrative. The new breed of “terrorists” do not just hate us for our freedom… they hate us because they hate “reality.” They are no longer our political or ideological opponents… they are suffering from a psychiatric disorder. They no longer need to be argued with or listened to… they need to be “treated,” “reeducated,” and “deprogrammed,” until they accept “Reality.” If you think I’m exaggerating the totalitarian nature of the “New Normal/War on Terror” narrative, read this op-ed in The New York Times exploring the concept of a “Reality Czar” to deal with our “Reality Crisis.”

And this is just the beginning, of course. The consensus (at least in GloboCap circles) is, the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror will probably continue for the next 10 to 20 years, which should provide the global capitalist ruling classes with more than enough time to carry out the “Great Reset,” destroy what’s left of human society, and condition the public to get used to living like cringing, neo-feudal peasants who have to ask permission to leave their houses. We’re still in the initial “shock and awe” phase (which they will have to scale back a bit eventually), but just look at how much they’ve already accomplished.

The economic damage is literally incalculable… millions have been plunged into desperate poverty, countless independent businesses crushed, whole industries crippled, developing countries rendered economically dependent (i.e., compliant) for the foreseeable future, as billionaires amassed over $1 trillion in wealth and supranational corporate behemoths consolidated their dominance across the planet.

And that’s just the economic damage. The attack on society has been even more dramatic. GloboCap, in the space of a year, has transformed the majority of the global masses into an enormous, paranoid totalitarian cult that is no longer capable of even rudimentary reasoning. (I’m not going to go on about it here… at this point, you either recognize it or you’re in it.) They’re actually lining up in parking lots, the double-masked members of this Covidian cult, to be injected with an experimental “vaccine” that they believe will save the human species from a virus that causes mild to moderate symptoms in roughly 95% of those “infected,” and that over 99% of the “infected” survive.

So, it is no big surprise that these same mindless cultists are gung-ho for the (New Normal) War on Domestic Terror, and the upcoming globally-televised show trial of Donald Trump for “inciting insurrection,” and the ongoing corporate censorship of the Internet, and can’t wait to be issued their “Freedom Passports,” which will allow them to take part in “New Normal” life - double-masked and socially-distanced, naturally - while having their every movement and transaction, and every word they write on Facebook, or in an email, or say to someone on their smartphones, or in the vicinity of their 5G toasters, recorded by GloboCap’s Intelligence Services and their corporate partners, subsidiaries, and assigns. These people have nothing at all to worry about, as they would never dream of disobeying orders, and could not produce an original thought, much less one displeasing to GloboCap, if you held a fake apocalyptic plague to their heads.

As for the rest of us “extremists,” “domestic terrorists,” “heretics,” and “reality deniers,” (i.e., anyone criticizing global capitalism, or challenging its official narratives, and its increasingly totalitarian ideology, regardless of our specific DHS acronyms), I wish I had something hopeful to tell you, but, the truth is, things aren’t looking so good. I guess I’ll see you in a quarantine camp, or in the psych ward, or an offshore detention facility… or, I don’t know, maybe I’ll see you in the streets."
Related:
"UK Government Considering Knocking On Doors Of Vaccine Refusniks, Report" "To determine why people are refusing the vaccine and then “see what might convince them” to change their minds."

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Dolmen Ridge"

Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Dolmen Ridge"

Musical Interlude: Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Gnomusy (David Caballero), "Footprints On The Sea"

Monday, February 8, 2021

"Be Like The Bird..."

"What matter if this base, unjust life
Cast you naked and disarmed?
If the ground breaks beneath your step,
Have you not your soul?
Your soul! You fly away,
Escape to realms refined,
Beyond all sadness and whimpering.
Be like the bird which on frail branches balanced
A moment sits and sings;
He feels them tremble, but he sings unshaken,
Knowing he has wings."

– Victor Hugo

The Poet: Stephen Levine, "Half Life"

"Half Life" 

 "We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream,
barely touching the ground,
our eyes half open,
our heart half closed.
Not half knowing who we are,
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room,
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.
Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say,
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.
Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love." 

~ Stephen Levine

"Americans Have Never Been More Dissatisfied With How The Country Functioning Than They Are Right Now"

Full screen recommended.
"Americans Have Never Been More Dissatisfied With 
How The Country Functioning Than They Are Right Now"
by Epic Economist

"Are you satisfied with life in America right now? Consider the overall situation of the country, not just politics, but all the fundamental aspects to the functioning of our country. Are you satisfied with how our society is operating right now? We have just left one of the most turbulent years in all U.S. history and 2021 hasn't really started on a positive note either. The health crisis is still lingering and our economy remains deadlocked. It seems like we're all stuck in the worst economic crisis of the past 70 years, with businesses dying and unemployment continuously soaring. Demonstrations of social discontentment are being taken to the streets on an almost daily basis and our population appears to be more divided than ever. All of these challenges have taken a great toll on our collective perception of the future of our nation, and according to a recent Gallup survey, the overall public satisfaction is currently at extremely low levels. That's what we discuss in this video.

A new survey performed by Gallup found that Americans’ satisfaction with the way the country functions is collectively at its lowest level in almost two decades of the company's measurement. The average amount of respondents who affirmed to be satisfied with these seven areas has dropped to 39% at the start of 2021. As a matter of comparison, a year ago that rate was at 53%, the highest average in over a decade amid a strong economic outlook and before the health crisis struck in the U.S. Now, not only is average public satisfaction with the broad contours of the nation at dramatically low levels, but Americans' satisfaction with each aspect of the index is at or near its lowest since 2001, which reflects declines of seven to 17 percentage points in the past year. 

Almost 70 million Americans, or about 40% of the labor force, have filed for unemployment benefits since the burst of the outbreak. At this stage, nearly 10 million people remain out of work, and as our economy is still struggling to recover from the associated slowing of economic activity, while political tensions keep rising, it's understandable why Americans' views of the country are very different today than a year ago. Sadly, this year has not started on a very positive note either. The outlook for 2021 remains hazy. The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits continues to be at nearly four times the pre-outbreak levels, as the new round of lockdowns is triggering a high number of layoffs. 

Long-term unemployment is approaching a historical peak for roughly 40% of jobless workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Several labor economists have been arguing that this is a particularly dangerous period of unemployment for jobless workers since it means that their household income is significantly compromised for a prolonged period of time. Last month, only 49,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy, in contrast to the 227,000 jobs shed in December 2020. Given that there are about 10 million fewer jobs than before the recession, the director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute, Heidi Shierholz says that it could take approximately 29 years to get back to pre-recession levels at the current pace of job growth.

Although unemployment benefits can offer a safety net for out-of-work employees, not all qualify to collect them. In fact, according to a report published last week just 30% of unemployed individuals are being reached by the unemployment system. That is to say, approximately three out of every four jobless workers aren’t receiving aid - or about 8 million of the 11 million unemployed Americans. 

In short, the trillions created out of thin air to allegedly boost the economy, for the most part, have ended up in the financial markets and only added to our already alarming national debt. The biggest part of that sum never made its way through those who needed the most. Instead, it has put our country on a highway to hyperinflation, which will only deteriorate our living standards in the long run, aggravate debt problems, and debase the value of our currency. 

In view of all this, it's perfectly comprehensible why Americans are feeling so pessimistic about the future of the nation. All of our institutions seem to be crumbling before our eyes, and the foundation of our economy is greatly shaken. The more authorities fail to properly assist our workers, the longer this painful recession will stretch. If you thought we were entering brighter days in 2021, we're sorry to say that everywhere we look there is still gloominess on the horizon." 

"No Job Creation Only Debt Creation; Great Reset Will Not Save You; Evictions Ramp Up; Trade Deficit"

Jeremiah Babe,
"No Job Creation Only Debt Creation; Great Reset Will Not Save You;
Evictions Ramp Up; Trade Deficit"

Chuck Wild, "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten”

Chuck Wild, "Liquid Mind, Dream Ten”

"Liquid Mind" (aka Chuck Wild) originally wrote this music to deal with the anxiety and stress of overwork and the serious illness of friends. The gentle ebb and flow of the music has an immediate "slowing down" effect, providing a serene escape from tension-filled days. Ideal for stress relief, falling asleep at night and to enhance meditative and therapeutic practices. There are few composers with as much love for slowness in their music as Wild. Chuck draws from classical and pop influences as varying as Beethoven and Brian Eno, Bartok and Rachmaninoff, Bach, Chopin and Fauré, Duruflé and Brahms."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row. A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebula to star clusters, all embedded in an extended patch of gaseous wisps in the greater Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The brightest three stars on the far left are indeed the famous three stars that make up the belt of Orion. Just below Alnitak, the lowest of the three belt stars, is the Flame Nebula, glowing with excited hydrogen gas and immersed in filaments of dark brown dust. 
Below the frame center and just to the right of Alnitak lies the Horsehead Nebula, a dark indentation of dense dust that has perhaps the most recognized nebular shapes on the sky. On the upper right lies M42, the Orion Nebula, an energetic caldron of tumultuous gas, visible to the unaided eye, that is giving birth to a new open cluster of stars. Immediately to the left of M42 is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man that houses many bright blue stars. The above image, a digitally stitched composite taken over several nights, covers an area with objects that are roughly 1,500 light years away and spans about 75 light years.”

"Sometimes You Do..."

"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
~ "Harper Lee", "To Kill a Mockingbird"

“The Individual vs. The Illusion Of Consensus Reality”

“The Individual vs. The Illusion Of Consensus Reality”
by Jon Rappoport

“This is such a supercharged subject, I could start from a dozen places. But let’s begin here: the individual is unique, because he is he. He is unique because he has his own ideas, because he has his own desires, because he has his own power. That power belongs to no one else. In particular, it doesn’t belong to the State. The State will try, will always try to suggest that it is granting power to the individual, but this is a lie. It’s an illusion broadcast with ill-intent. While everyone else is trying to manufacture connections to the group, under the banner of a false sense of community, the individual is going in the opposite direction.

Philip K Dick: “Insanity - to have to construct a picture of one’s life, by making inquiries of others.”

Consensus reality is the reality of sacrifice. It is coagulating energy, form, content, substance that takes on amorphous shapes studded with slots into which people can fit themselves.

The independent individual thinks what he wants to think. Over time, he keeps graduating into new, more nearly unique levels of what he wants to think. He rises above the group. He rises to his own thoughts.

There is no subject and no substance which is not infiltrated by consensus reality. Wherever you look, you will encounter it. The group is the basis of consensus reality, and the group pact extends everywhere. The group fears a sector where only individual thought can tread. That would be dangerous to the illusion. “Well, we’ve got things well in hand in most places, but over there and over here we’re not in charge. A different kind of reality pervades.” No, that doesn’t work for the group. The exceptions would blow a hole in the rule.

“Stay away from the corner of Lexington Avenue and 34th Street. Something too weird is going on there. We come in and try to inject consensus on that spot and it doesn’t work. Our “sharing” energy bounces off that corner. We may have to call in the troops to surround the place and cordon it off.” Alert! Alert! Consensus reality is breaking down in Sector 328-A! Locate the problem! This is an emergency! Bring in the news team to shore up the illusion! Turn on the hypnosis machines! Group consensus is fraying and fragmenting in Area 768-B! Call the professors and pundits! Discredit the individual! Call him a monster! Do something fast!"

Consensus reality is an illusion in the sense that you can see it and I can see it, but we didn’t sign up for it. That’s the catch. Take any area of life, and I mean any, and that’s the case. Wherever there is tight consensus, perception ensues. That’s the whole point. “We, the group, aren’t fooling around. When we sign a pact among ourselves, we intend everybody to see what we decide is there to see.”

So you, the individual, can opt out. That doesn’t necessarily mean the consensus disappears; you can still see it, but you see it without accepting it. You can see the oasis in the desert, which is a mirage, but because you have your own bottle of water, you don’t have to run toward the mirage and fall down on your knees and try to drink from the pool.

Philip K. Dick: “Because today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups… increasingly, we are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated electronic mechanisms… And this is an astounding power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know. I do the same thing.”

The strong and free individual evolves. He doesn’t stay the same. He doesn’t know everything worth knowing today. He knows enough, but not everything. He continues to emerge with new ideas, new energy, new invention. He becomes larger. He gains more power.

When the illusion of consensus reality attains a level beyond mere slogan, it enters the realm of systems. This is its most convincing format. A system appears to be watertight. Each one of its parts has relations with the whole. This is interesting, because that mirrors what a group is. Each member is a part that connects to the whole. Consensus as a system is like a game of chess that plays the same moves over and over. Game one is the same as game two, three, four… That’s where its illusion of power comes from.

The individual, though, doesn’t proceed according to systems. He isn’t moving from one closed context to another. That’s the group. The individual may retain the same general principles over time, but what he does and thinks strikes out into new territories. Because he creates. There is no individual without creating.

Consensus is the coin of the realm. It is forced from the top, and it is signed up for at the bottom. One hand washes the other. Societies may begin through consensus, but if they have any courage, they shift focus to the job of pulling away coercive restraints on the individual. Regardless, the individual asserts his freedom. It is his to begin with, not the group’s. No one gives it to him.

American society is moving rapidly to an inverse, an upside down structure, in which freedom is looked upon as a privilege grudgingly accorded in the absence of a reason to take it away. The prevalent official attitude is: consensus must be strengthened. It must dominate the landscape.

Through vast experience, the free individual knows that consensus has no theoretical limits. Group-perceptions about the way things are can give birth to the most universally “proven objective truths.” In his explorations, the individual may even find that a demonstrated law of nature is nothing more than a consensus. And, therefore, an illusion.

The group has conception of Normal. Normal is like a message passed around, from hand to hand, and when you look at it closely, for content, it dissolves. There was really nothing there. This is similar to what happens when physicists probe further and further into matter, looking for smaller and smaller particles, and come up with an enormous amount of empty space.

The group consensus is the illusion. Finally, there is mindless hive-action covering a vacuum. This is also what occasionally happens to people who have hidebound political ideologies. The people on the Left move further and further to the Left, and the people on the Right move further and further to the Right. Finally, they are both so distant from government they meet and stare at each other in shock. At that point, they are just individuals.

From my unfinished manuscript, "The Magician Awakes": “You keep saying it doesn’t matter. Sometimes you say it out loud and sometimes it’s just a very strong thought that could cut through a melon. You repeat it over and over—”it doesn’t matter.” You’re sitting there with the most powerful thing in the universe, your imagination, and yet it doesn’t matter. New worlds are waiting for you. But you don’t pull the trigger.

“You go to meetings. What are these meetings? Who’s there? What do you talk about, the end of the world? Your problems? The conversations seem to be endless…”

“But society runs on groups! It must have groups!” And what? The individual must give in and join and belong? That’s the conclusion? I’m afraid not. Consensus reality is a cartoon that is trying to become as real as steel. What deconstructs the steel and exposes the cartoon? There is only one thing that can do that. Nothing and no one else is going to do that. The individual does it."

Gregory Mannarino, "The Fed. Promises Unlimited Asset Purchases Forever! Market Hits New Records"

Gregory Mannarino,
"The Fed. Promises Unlimited Asset Purchases Forever!
 Market Hits New Records"

The Daily "Near You?"

Fairport, New York, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

Free Download: Aldous Huxley, "The Doors of Perception"

“There are things known and there are things unknown,
and in between are the doors of perception”
- Aldous Huxley 

Freely download "The Doors of Perception", by Aldous Huxley, here:

"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"

"Why the New Paradigm Was Inevitable"
by Jeff Thomas

"Just as people go through a lifespan that consists of different stages, so empires tend to follow a pattern of stages. They tend to start off slowly, making progress as a result of industriousness, understanding that progress is dependent upon hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit. This is important to understand, as it’s the one essential in the growth of a nation. No nation becomes an empire through complacency or a lack of productivity. Welfare states do not become empires, although most empires end up as welfare states. So, if that’s the case, what is the progression? And more importantly, what does this mean, considering the dramatic changes that are now unfolding in much of the world?

Prosperity: As stated, prosperity is created through a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit throughout a significant portion of the population. This is what brings about wealth creation – a condition in which people invest their time and money in a business enterprise that reaps profit. The profit is then re-invested to expand upon that success.

In the early stages of prosperity, those who create the wealth are revered, as the goods and services they create benefit all, even those who may be less ambitious or less imaginative and may never become business leaders themselves. But inevitably, there will be those who seek to prosper to the exclusion of others. This trend was seen around 1900 in the US – a time when the country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs figured out that, if they banded together, they could buy both political parties. That would mean that, regardless of which party held power, the government could be counted on to pass laws that would protect their monopolies and make success increasingly more difficult for the competition.

Wealth Disparity: Of course, the objective of this would be that there would be a small number of individuals and corporations at the very top, who would be in a position to split up the pie amongst themselves and throw the crumbs to those beneath them. Over time, this would lead to those at the very top becoming inordinately wealthy, well beyond what would be normal for their level of investment. And very few new individuals and corporations would be able to break into this cabal. Only those who could add to the size of the pie would be allowed in.

Resentment: Not surprisingly, this, over time, would lead to resentment amongst those who were left out of the loop. When this became generational, with minimal change, the "greedy rich" would become the most hated segment of the population. Those who come to understand that they will never be able to advance to the top layer would come to regard themselves as "disenfranchised."

This in turn results, eventually, in the awareness that the "little man" represents the majority of voters, which is then capitalized upon by opportunistic political candidates. Increasingly, there are cries by political hopefuls for the one percent to be taxed. With every election these promises are renewed. And each time out, greater demands are made by the politicians.

Of course, the one percent are already running the show on both sides of the aisle and can make sure that they are taxed very little, if at all. But someone must be made to cough up, so politicians go after the middle class, taxing them increasingly until, after decades of increases, they are squeezed to the limit. As Vladimir Lenin said, "The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."

At this point the wealth disparity is at a peak and the resentment turns to anger. Those, who for decades have been promised a "fair share," realize that they have instead been sold out. And here’s where it gets interesting. Traditionally, once the population became resentful enough that the system was in jeopardy, those few who comprised the ruling elite were likely to essentially say, "Let them eat cake." This, ultimately, would lead to their downfall. But today, we have the illusion of democracy, which allows for a different paradigm.

Collectivism: From the time of the French Revolution onward, we have had the construct of collectivism to work with. Rather than defy the little man, defeat him by being seen to agree with him. Create political figures who call out for a re-engineering of society: "An equal outcome for all. Take the wealth from the wealthy who stole it and give it back to the little man." Such platitudes sell well when resentment has hit its peak. But the secret benefit for the ruling elite is that the new breed of politician works for the one percent, just as politicians always have.

And collectivism benefits the one percent even more than any free-market system could. Under it, the little man is not raised up, as promised. Instead, the middle class is beaten down to the same level as the little man, creating uniform poverty. As Winston Churchill stated, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

Therefore, it should come as no surprise to us that, when an empire such as the US begins to unravel, the ruling elite who actually own the country are ready and eager to create a transition that will appear to benefit the little man but will, instead, enslave him to a greater degree than he ever could have imagined. So, it should come as no surprise to us that in recent months, the US has witnessed a carefully orchestrated drama in which the poster boy for the greedy rich – the US president – goes down in flames. And the heroes of the play appear center stage, providing a litany of collectivist promises that will bring cheers from the populace. And so the trap is sprung. A totalitarian future disguised as a panacea.

As P.T. Barnum said, "There’s a sucker born every minute," and there is no greater sucker than a voter who actually believes that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. His vain hope is that, even though every collectivist government in history has failed to deliver on its promises and has, instead, resulted in uniform misery, this time it will be different, and the new government will deliver on the now-hackneyed empty promises. The new paradigm was as inevitable as it will be long-lived and ultimately destructive."
“All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice.”
- George Orwell, "1984"

"How It Really Is"

FEB 08, 2021 - 3:44: "Mob Threatens Arson During 'F*ck The Police' March In DC"  "Anti-police, BLM activists marched through the streets of Washington DC Saturday night, where they yelled at police and harassed outdoor diners while chanting various slogans such as "Black lives, they matter here," and "if we don't get it, burn it down." Members of Antifa were present, joining up with the organizing group, "They/Them Collective," which describes themselves as "An anarcho abolitionist collective house based in occupied Piscataway land here for queer, enby, trans, BBIPOC liberation."

"We Work In The Dark..."

"We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But if a man's character is his fate, this fight is not a choice but a calling. Yet sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter, breaching the frazzled fortress of our mind, allowing the monsters without to turn within. We are left alone staring into the abyss; into the laughing face of madness."
- "Fox Mulder", "The X-Files"