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Bill Astore's avatar

As Orwell said, "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

We need to seize the present moment, else our past will be denied to us, and so too will a better future.

Thanks for doing this, Matt. As a historian, I salute you.

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anonmom's avatar

This site will be our slip of paper. Not to be dropped down the memory hole, however.

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DemonHunter's avatar

There’s a joke in there. Can’t recall where I heard it but went like this; in the Soviet Union the future was hard to predict but to predict the past was harder.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

So many of my covid-era links have just disappeared down the memory hole. (Perhaps most importantly, the article that stated trials for pregnant women would complete in January 2023 - this article was deleted after the "experts" approved the shots for pregnant women in 2021)

It would be great to have the actual documents instead of relying on somebody else hosting it.....

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WI Patriot's avatar

I have some CDs in my garage I like to listen to because the sound quality is better than streaming, or used to be. The albums in a milk crate are in the basement and mostly for the covers as the beer spills and cats have degraded the discs. When researching the 2020 election here in Wisconsin, I printed off a few articles because I feared they would eventually be memory holed or worse re-edited. Paper trails maybe the new hip thing.

Great idea Matt.

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Billy Masterson's avatar

"The data is sacred but the catalogue is holy"

(And it had best be a card catalogue)

See "Order of the Librarians Temporal" (a monastic order found in the sci fi novel, "Splendid Apocalypse, The Fall of Old Earth", their order is also associated with drinking red wine and owning personal weapons)

https://read.amazon.com/sample/B014N0S20W?f=2&l=en_US&r=f726ce12&rid=YH8XHCWPXG46CKEZ2Y95&sid=146-1165571-1161623&cid=A39NJMOJTX1THZ&ref_=litb_m

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scmcn's avatar

Kudos for introducing this essential information. 451 was a powerful read many decades ago. Rates up there with 1984, Brave New World, Stranger in a Strange Land

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Julinthecrown's avatar

Everything old is new again.

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Mark Blair's avatar

Agreed that covid is something that desperately needs one of these timelines. I tried to stick to well-sourced data throughout, and it is crazy how some people claim certain things were never said at all.

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Scuba Cat's avatar

I regret not keeping receipts.

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Dr. K's avatar

Matt, I think Project 451 is a marvelous name. And this is one of the most deserving, most important projects I have seen for a very long time. Most people that embark on this kind of thing soon give up, so I am fervently hoping that you are the exception. Many, many thanks for ths.

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Jeanette Cyr's avatar

I feel great respect for historical honesty—even the parts that make us less trusting or less proud matter. My Mom, with her Journalism degree & her fierce honesty, instilled that in me. Like a precious stone it’s the rareness of it that gives it value. I don’t want to overstate this but, until Matt & Walt came along, I’d lost most of that trust in journalism. I have never once sensed here that I was being manipulated. Racket is such a breath of fresh air.

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NormaJeanne's avatar

💯agree Jeanette. I subscribed to Matt from his Substack beginnings and have relied on the no-manipulation information I get here. This Project 451 is exactly what’s needed, especially now as forces unseen are being slowly exposed for the depths of their rot. I started caching informational docs myself in 2022 after things I had bookmarked disappeared offline, never to be found again. I wish I had a talent to contribute, but I will have to settle for being an enthusiastic supporter!

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Deb Alex's avatar

Me too 👍

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Jeanette Cyr's avatar

I’m with you NormaJeanne☀️

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Deb Alex's avatar

I have been following @themarketswork and @HansMahnke since they were at The Epoch Times, and now on SubStack as “Truth Over News”. In addition to Matt and Walt, they are my go to for honest, deep, facts with the receipts. I highly recommend their commentary.

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Debbz's avatar

Matt why not connect with https://datarepublican.com/ ? For help and for further tools she etc can develop to help??

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J. Matthews's avatar

Yes, this x 1000.

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Emmanuel Goldstein's avatar

You will own nothing, you will have no privacy, and you will be happy.

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Ellen's avatar

I can't help feeling the unsaid end of that is, "or else."

Eerily reminiscent, or at least suggestive, of "the beatings will continue until morale improves."

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Carlos's avatar

I couldn't love this more ...both as a fan of Ray Bradbury - and as the MOST EXASPERATED person in the world when people ask " really, do you have the source documents or news articles about when Seth Rich was murdered by Hilary and the DNC?" << allegedly>>

I know this database isn't exactly going to provide any of the above specifically - and people generally don't want their cognitive dissonance shattered...

But a man can dream, can't he?:)

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Cathy B's avatar

Carlos, I DO want to again see source documents on Seth Rich murder. So many heroes deserve their truth to be known.

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Carlos's avatar

as do I. I think his murder is one of the seminal moments in recent U.S. political history. Julian Assange let it slip that SETH was the leaker - the DNC was never hacked...

And the machine covered up everything.

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Daphne T's avatar

Seth's story has stuck with me since it happened. It feels disrespectful to his young life to not get the truth.

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Cathy B's avatar

That one "job" i had a bunch of links to the data and intelligence and now they are gone. I am so glad I downloaded as much as I did.

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An Inconvenient Truth's avatar

I'll be honest, that whole thing totally ran by me; I have no idea of its significance, but your saying that...well, gee; can you give a Cliff's Notes version??

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Carlos's avatar

Seth Rich worked for the DNC in Voter Data. He saw what the Clintons and the DNC were doing in the 16 Primary. Flat out - stealing votes - and setting up pop-up polling precincts - as well as closing polling precincts in highly progressive areas ( they closed 160 polling precincts in Puerto Rico - once the Mayor of San Juan and the two biggest unions endorsed Bernie). There is a ton of evidence that they stole 17 state primaries. Seth Rich took a few thumb drives to the DNC computers - and sent tons of data to WIKILEAKS. He was shot in DC less than 10 days later. Julian Assange offered a $25,000 reward to anyone who came forward with info about Seth's murder ( a big tell, the first time Julian ever (accidentally) revealed a SOURCE. All 72 CCTV cameras between where he was shot and the ER - did not have any footage showing what happened( miraculously, Donna Brazile and Muriel Bowser went to the ER room that night - though, Donna Brazile later said she was visiting family in, ahem, SEATTLE).That's right, the most surveilled city in the United States - 72 cameras that covered the area where Seth got shot, and then went to the ER- had NOTHING of substance on them. His "attackers " were never caught. It was claimed that it was a robbery - yet his watch, money, wallet - were left on his person. The FBI has had Seth's laptop in its possession since the summer of 2016. But there is nothing to see there, and if you DO think there is something - you're a racist conspiracy theorist who hates America and believes that slavery is a good thing, and that Taylor Swift is a delusional leftie ( << this last part is truth).

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An Inconvenient Truth's avatar

O.

M.

F.

G.

That said, I don't see how someone so strongly-affiliated with the status quo can be called a "leftie" in any meaningful way, otherwise the concept of "wingedness" has been completely and irretrievably shot to hell.

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Cathy B's avatar

Was there info on Pizzagate on the thumb drives?

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Carlos's avatar

Not to my knowledge. There was evidence of Hillary and the DNC stealing at least 15 primaries from Bernie - and fake polling precincts.

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Lance Richardson's avatar

Matt Taibbi, you are a damned national treasure.

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Mitch Barrie's avatar

Physical media are where it’s at, baby. They laffed at my large and growing collection of DVDs and my library of at least 500 physical books. “Okay, Boomer,” they sneered.

How long will they be laffing?

Sadly (well, maybe not so sadly, since I’m not a hoarder) I never got into the habit of keeping periodicals, which are arguably the materials most at risk.

During my college days you could read any newspaper on microfiche, and later we had Lexis-Nexis. Are they going the way of the dodo as well?

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Man, do I remember doing primary research with micro-fisch

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Mr. Bob's avatar

I disagree. Electronic books are much better... once they've been stripped of copy protection. You can store a library in your pocket and makes as many copies as you want.

Of course, removing copy protection is highly illegal, and Amazon just made it a lot more annoying (though far from impossible). But there are still enterprising lads who know how to do that sort of thing, and share the fruits of their labor with the rest of us.

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Michael's avatar

This is exactly right. Pirated ebooks are the shit.

I will never understand people who see the digital surveillance and memory hole regime as evil and dystopian yet consider pirating "bad".

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Sconnie's avatar

Digital files can be erased, scrambled and made impossible to read. Our tax dollars are paying people to do this right now. Your digital files are only safe if kept in a radiation-proof lead box.

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DaveL's avatar

I got a whole wall of them things--in English, French, Spanish, Russian... my wife must think I'm nuts.

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Ro Dann's avatar

Nonprofit organizations repay their volunteers by organizing mixers for them. Of course you could get a volunteer to do that organizing, events or special programming for volunteers to mix.

Also, I don’t know how you feel about him or if he’s available but Mark Crispin Miller is an authority on propaganda. He has his own memory type project but maybe there’s some overlap of focus

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badnabor's avatar

Wikipedia says that Mark "promotes conspiracy theories"! I never thought I would see the day that such a statement would be a glowing recommendation, but it is.

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Carlos's avatar

Mark C Miller is a fountain of truth telling amidst a sea of liars and the ill-informed.

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Ro Dann's avatar

The mixers could be all online

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Mel's avatar

I'm really looking forward to utilizing and contributing to this. Brilliant, Matt - thanks!

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A Mostly Analog Life's avatar

I kept a journal of sorts with my experiences, memes and the utterances of some of the worst authoritarians during the Pandemic. I have 365 pages filled and am onto the second such journal. It is really painful to go back and read what I (we) all endured. But I am so glad that I took the time to remember and to NEVER forget. This is an important project Matt. Bravo!

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Nick's avatar

Wrote lots of words in a dodgy old computer, hit save every time, but dudn't back it up. Well, one day the words just disappeared. File was still there, but no words.

Writing a physical journal is wise...

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NormaJeanne's avatar

That’s a book right there A…!

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Sara's avatar

It’s wonderful that you are doing this. I have been wishing for something like this for years. The Bradbury reference is perfect.

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Matthew Ernst's avatar

I love you Matt Taibbi . You’re our Murrow. Our light in the storm. Keep fighting.

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Bakelite72's avatar

Yes thank you, Matt.

This is precisely why for years now I have been expanding my already sizeable library of physical media that I love and value -- actual hard copies of books, DVDs/BluRays, and music CDs/MP3s. Some of us knew from the outset that this wonderful world of on-demand content and subscription service streaming access to everything, meant that "they" could a) alter content as they saw fit, b) restrict access [by pay walls, social credit score, etc], or c) remove any content outright at any time. I strongly urge everyone who cares about preserving history and cultural artifacts in their real, original forms, to join me in hoarding a collective "ark" to keep us tethered to reality as we descend into the Orwellian/Bradburian dystopic future being inexorably crammed down our throats. Watch out for those firemen!

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baker charlie's avatar

My son has a library of probably over at least a thousand books both English Classics and translations of classics. He also has copies of hundreds of movies, on DVD and hard disk.

On the other hand, I have gone for the 'how-tos'. I might never need to know how to tan leather, grow a serious medicinal garden, or maintain a boat, but I have books about it for the future people who might need to have that knowledge.

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Bakelite72's avatar

Yes, very important point re: 'how-to's'! Are you familiar with the Foxfire series of books? A high school teacher in Georgia (the US state) in the 1970s formed a group of students interested in preserving the traditional knowledge of Appalachia, and began sending them out to visit elderly people known for long practice in various "folk" arts and methods -- ranging from pottery and clothes-making, to food procurement and storage, to building a log cabin from scratch, and so many other useful skills that the vast majority of us have completely lost. What were originally articles in this group's self-published Foxfire magazine were later collected in books, which are still in print and easy to buy.

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Heyjude's avatar

In the preface of his biography of Leonardo da Vinci, Walter Isaacson noted how important Leonardo’s notebooks were for posterity. He correctly observed that while technology had changed over the 500 years, we could still read what had been committed to paper.

There are no computers commercially available that can read the data stored on the 8” floppy discs that were the standard 50 years ago. But I can still read the hard copy books that were published in 1975.

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Stunned Gen Xer's avatar

Same here

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Ellen's avatar

This is such a great idea - and a great service to the whole world. I've been noticing on ebooks lately that idiotic edits are made in older ones. Even proper names are changed in some instances.

This has been a terrible idea since Mr. Bowdler first thought how much better Shakespeare would be with all the naughty and / or vulgar bits excised.

It remains one.

Glad to have tons of actual books, even though ebooks are convenient for me just now, as I have been undergoing chemotherapy following lung surgery, and have been having to rest up a lot.

But I heartily object, and will so long as I live, to messing about with books as written by the actual authors.

Don't like it as is? Write your own %@!!!#$$&#!!! book, then!

Credit to the immortal Yosemite Sam ;)

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