This is truly terrifying. And what’s more terrifying is just the sheer number of people I personally know that have no idea that this is going on. I have family members and friends that look at me like I have 3 heads whenever I start talking about the censorship industrial complex. It’s unclear to me if they’re willfully ignorant to what’s happening or simply afraid. One thing is for sure, they don’t have much interest in looking too closely under the covers. They would rather order everything they need off of Amazon & watch the real housewives of Beverly Hills. God help us all.
I think a big part of it is that it’s so damn confusing, and which my be by design. To really get a handle on this I’ve listened to likely 100 hours of audio and close to 1,000 pages of text.
It reminds me of the 2nd most disturbing conspiracy I know of, something that literally not a single conspiracy theorist I’ve ever met has even heard of, which is the Inslaw PROMIS affair, something so confusing that it wasn’t until I got Vicuna, the open source AI, to write a summary for me did I have a way to quickly explain what the hell I was talking about.
From all that I learned a valuable lesson: Real conspiracies are too crazy for normal people, not crazy enough for conspiracy theorists, and too confusing for both groups.
I have noticed this too. Conspiracy theorists like QAnon believe the most outlandish things and know nothing about concrete evidence like the Powell memo. My "favorite" is that nobody at all has heard about the King family winning a wrongful death suit about Martin's assassination. I read the trial transcript on the King family web site. About a dozen highly credible witnesses testified to an assassination conspiracy. It's very convincing. And nobody knows.
As for the MLK thing, I do know about that one, saw a deep dive on that recently.
Ever notice that no conspiracy theorists bring that up? I fixate on Inslaw because it has hundreds of pages of court filings and congressional records, and GHWB even dodged a question on it, yet to my knowledge not even Alex Jones has mentioned it in his entire career.
If you want to get really paranoid, go to Wikipedia and look up the talk page on Inslaw. Find posts on “Rgr09”
This Wikipedia user somehow edits every single conspiracy theory that the CIA may have actually done. Notice, he never messes with 9/11, or the Moon landings, or QAnon. This user seems fine with those conspiracy theories (because they aren’t real) yet tries to purge everything related to Inslaw, and CIA drug smuggling, etc.
Now search for the P2 or Propaganda Due conspiracy. An actually well documented and massive Italian Masonic/Vatican Bank conspiracy from the 1970-80s. It’s mind blowing.
Everything that was going on in Europe around that time is very troubling: Propoganda Due, The Brabant Killers, everything related to Operation Gladio, etc. But the thing that always baffles me is that none of the “Wake up sheeple!” Crowd ever talks about them. Probably 10,000 times more green ink has been spilled about chemtrails than the actual dirty tricks the CIA pulled from 1949 to the end of the Cold War.
By Powell memo, I assume you are referring to Lewis Powell memo to the US Chamber of Commerce.
It's interesting that you mention that. I'm lucky enough to have a supervisor at work who is voracious a reader as I am. We were just discussing the current movement of censorship on college campuses this past Monday when he mentioned the Powell memo, which I had read long ago. After he left my office I poked around the internet and found an article written only two days ago, published in "Inside Higher Ed."
It's a rather amusing, if not maddening piece, about how the real goal of conservative attacks on higher ed really have nothing to do with first amendment issues, or as fronts against "ideological indoctrination" (from the article). The author, Linda Stomato, proffers that the real reason for these attacks is conservative efforts are to "obscure a less visible motive: to support free market ideas (like that's a bad thing) and advance corporate interests and those of other powerful market actors." She uses the Powell memo as the foundation of her opinion. The thrust of her piece is that these attempts by conservatives are nothing more than an attempt at silencing the voices of subject matter experts who may have views hostile to the free market.
I find it amusing that she laments these attempts as basically an affront to the idea of free expression on college campuses, without realizing the irony of her efforts to silence conservative criticisms on college campuses.
This is what I'm finding in a disproportionate number of journals and periodicals. The concepts she's espousing have been so ingrained and pushed since the 60's. In my opinion, there is no way to combat that at this juncture. We just have to hold on, rage against the dying of the light as long as we can, and retreat to our bunkers when the proverbial scat starts flying in earnest.
Link provided if you wish to peruse the piece. It's a quick read.
Note to Linda Stomato (to paraphrase Obama): the 60's and 70's are calling and they want the economic policies back...
No one can reasonably question the conclusion that it is the left that is focused on advancing corporate interests and those of other powerful actors - for that is the route to near absolute power. Kinetic military force as a path to power is SO old school.
I wanted to create some small infographics to make it easy for people to understand. But to do that I have to have a deep understanding of this. And like you, I've spent hundreds of hours reading, listening and uncovering more complexity. It's nice to see other people doing the same, I often feel alone in this.
Yeah trying to have it be small probably wouldn’t work, there’s just too much going on, too many threads. I’ve found open source AI can be excellent at summarizing stuff if you use the correct prompts, for example I got a really good concise summary of John Brennan’s role in Russiagate that someone unfamiliar with who he even was could quickly understand, but the problem is the training data for those isn’t updated in real time, and this is an emerging story. The only AI’s that are kept up to date are Bing/Sydney and Google Bard, but the various paywalls would block them from making an accurate summary.
If you find it of interest, I’d suggest following what the open source community has been cooking up. Yannic Kilcher on Youtube is pretty revered among those who want AI to be free, his channel is definitely worth checking out. To all worried that AI will just be used for control by government or large corporations, a memo was leaked from Google that said their AI competitor wasn’t Microsoft, it was the open source machine learning community, and the executive suggested Google work with them, not against them. Clearly I’m a guy who loves AI and of all the things related to the CIC, I’m actually least worried about the AI aspect. The deep state doesn’t have direct access to Deepmind or uncensored GPT. If they did, they literally could have seized the entire internet already.
The legal basis for the fight against the Censorship Industrial Complex can be confusing, too. You need to understand the First Amendment, and then you need to understand that the government is making an end-run around it by using its regulatory muscle to force big tech to bend to its wishes. In effect, they are outsourcing First Amendment violations to private entities. If the evidence from the Twitter Files wasn't so specific and overtly blunt, there might not even be a legal challenge like Missouri v. Biden.
I think many now "feel" it, but like deer in the headlights, they don't know yet how to make sense of it. They're still sucking on the MSM teat to be reassured all's well in the (Western) world. Hence golfing etc.
Denial is a big factor. COVID was instructive. I'm not sure if it is the embarrassment of admitting you were wrong, and vehemently so or the fear that comes from loss of faith. A combination i suspect.
The word hypernormalization was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach in the United States. He introduced the word in his book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s.[3][4] He says that everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society.[5] Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fakeness was accepted by everyone as real, an effect that Yurchak termed hypernormalisation.
The spectacular collapse of the Soviet Union was completely unexpected by most Soviet people and yet, as soon as people realized that something unexpected was taking place, most of them also immediately realized that they had actually been prepared for that unexpected change. Millions became quickly engrossed, making the collapse simultaneously unexpected, unsurprising, and amazingly fast.
Congratulations to your employment with the Ministry of Truth. We feel it will be a long and productive partnership. There however are a few things you must know. The first is,
There is no Ministry of Truth.
Should you be asked if there is a Ministry of Truth, possible responses or "You nuts?", muttering "tinfoil hat", or silently take a drag on your cigarette then exhale while staring over the head of your interlocutor.
My anecdotal experience with people who were in cults is that the individuals believe they are engaging with people who have 'truth'. Doesn't matter if it's religious, political, medical, social. It's very similar to fanboyism. It's the same mind virus. You're convinced you're right and that the people you're with are right and one day you (hopefully) realize you've been conned into believing nonsense.
Doesn't this describe almost everybody? Save, perhaps, the mentally ill? I presume you're convinced that you're right and that the people on this thread and elsewhere who agree with you are also right. N'est-ce pas?
Someday it might occur to YOU: I've been conned into believing nonsense. If you're lucky. Truth, fanboyism, and the same mind virus.
I've gotten stuck. It took a lot to get unstuck. I've been conned. Painful process for sure.
Mostly it took admitting I made a mistake and being open to learning from errors in judgement and coming to terms with my own destructive beliefs. But the majority of people seem incapable of this. Are they too easy too fool and too arrogant to admit they've been had? Or are they just scared and lack the courage to deal with their fears? Maybe both?
and with the decline of religion it does fill a void. so when the high priests ae called out, it is not dissent is is blasphemy. (jsut has a new name mal/disinfomaion)
To me it is scary-shocking that humans have been so easily directed to the hive/machine. Whatever you think about being raised in a home that participated in an organized religion, when you are an adult, accept or reject it. The organized part. But what the hell has gone wrong with people? Empathy. Loyalty. Liberty. Did I say, Liberty (aka, Free Will)? Sheesh.
Maybe not so shocking. To some extent religion is probably hard wired into us. MAns search for meaning and so forth. So something has to fill the void. But I think COVID broke people. They were scared in a way I have never seen before in all my years and they did not have anyone to to having abandoned the old gods. So they dug in wih the expets who told them what to do and he magic rituals of masking et al would save them. Wo be unto them who would speak against their Truth.
The funny part is that I am Catholic myself, though I am well aware of the history of the church and its trepidations. But to your point the thing I have always believed in was freedom, and liberty. I am heartbroken at how it has been abandoned
I posted this on Matt's follow-up post in the comments section, but I'd like to repeat it -- that's how strongly I feel about it:
"I was black-pilled all the way back during the Al Gore concession speech when I realized, "Damn, they're all the same." Now that I am so angry and certain that millions of equally angry people exist, I believe that their fascism might be stopped.
They've lost any semblance of dignity or humanity, and they're pushing it too far. Unless they kill us all because of that bloody money-laundering operation in Ukraine, we might have a chance. Unless, of course, we let them get away with everything."
Your family members and friends need to be told, over and over again, what's going on. Matt's articles need to be forwarded, screen grabs of Tucker's tweet (104M views 'til now) needs to be shared. We must pull our weight. All of us.
What he basically said was, "News is full of lies," "you're being manipulated," and he elaborated on how the news media's manipulation works. Then he spoke about the limits of what one can say in the media and how you get fired from the media if you cross those limits. Then he announced that he would be on Twitter, "bringing his new show there."
It was worth joining Twitter for the Twitter Files. I think joining to see what Tucker has to say is also worth it. You can be very selective on Twitter if you want. And I got off Facebook and was never on Instagram, etc. I am on Twitter (I am considered "cool" because I had an account before my kids did, LOL). I never used it until Elon took it over. It has its uses, just as Substack does. The short format is horrible, but, again, it has its uses.
I actually think they really do know but they can't face it and use denial to protect themselves from the grim reality. Many of them believe they will be spared or even favored if they simply comply. It's the story of the useful idiots to a T. It's an amazing thing to see.
It does require a level of abstract thinking. That lots of people have no interest in. Until they feel direct pain from something its just noise. There are always a smaller group of dissenters that put it all together.
Some folks ignore the warning signs, then the in-your-face stuff and still when to weak to move will not seek medical help because they do not want negative feedback. They would rather die, and they do.
Democracy, like communism, relies on this equation: good-willed people + good information --> better society. Unfortunately, a better world relies on the sum of two things that don’t add up because they don’t exist.
I’ve seen this with friends and family as well. My belief is that these folks (“they”) have already been brainwashed and have simply given up. The “method” in which the CIC has changed the way they think about these kinds of things is very affective. Very scary. They are “fish” swimming in water who do not even understand what water is. I’ve given up on many of them. Don’t even get into a dialogue because it is a waist of time.
Many of these people are just living their lives, raising their kids, etc. My extremely smart son is in this boat. They are just not political to the point they hate it and avoid it. Then there are people like my wife who use Facebook and Google and are fed nothing but MSM material. So, she knows nothing about things like the Twitter Files. When I tell her or say anything bad about Biden, she just shuts down. She has TDS so badly and knows how bad the Biden administration is, but he is "not Trump." She has health issues so she doesn't go out and really doesn't know how bad the inflation is (and the inflation is, unlike in many cases where presidents inherit crap economies, Biden created this crappy economy from scratch and from day one of his term). I guess I should say his horrible administration has done this because he has no idea what day it is. There are a lot of people like my wife. They are getting only MSM pushed by Facebook and Google (she wouldn't know Twitter if it bit her and I actually agree with her on Twitter, LOL). It is crazy and so frustrating to deal with good people who are so unaware of what is going on. Our savings has literally vanished the past couple of years. I have known her since she was 25 and she is now 63 and she has voted only once, in a primary that I convinced her to vote in. I am sure she will never vote again. That was a lot of words to say that the tech companies have kept the MSM relevant, by all rights, they should all be gone by now, but they gained control of the Internet. They are as strong as they were when pushing for overthrows of the evil Guatemala government during Eisenhower's term. Today, it is all about Ukraine. In both cases, it was bullshit and went against true American values (what people think are America's values). But, money talks, that is all that matters. MSM being propped up by Big Tech is just a crazy notion, but here we are.
Ask CHatGPT to write you something critical of socialism based on its history and you will get a response that the history is irrelevant because those mistakes would not be made by modern socialists.
It helps (a little) whenever I hear how stupid AI still is. Maybe, for the time being, it will be like outsmarting (most non-human) animals that have strength and speed.
Wow. My penultimate job in the Navy (ca 2003) was serving as Carrier Strike Group Info Warfare commander (IWC). Lots to explain about what the meant - I'll skip it - but bottom line is that I watched from the second row as Navy and DoD migrated toward this hybrid warfare concept. I've read (literally) hundreds of articles on IO/IW, but this is the first one that drills into the core issues (the rationale for traditional kinetic-warfare services migrating the fight to a much more interconnected info environment) that make this so critical. Bottom line: first time anyone (as far as my literature review goes) has connected the dots in the way that reveals some of the truth. Latter is there, hiding in plain sight, and this outstanding piece is a UV Light/Luminol test. Not going to thrill some folks...
I’m fine when these “tactics and techniques” are used by US Special Forces against our enemies. What is coming to light just recently, is that these “tools” are now pointed at US citizens for political gain. Frightening.
Agree entirely. My 2nd order concern is that the circle diagram at the start of the piece illustrates how, once operating in the information environment, the lines between titled forces and civ/academic/commercial entities in non kinetic engagement by military will result either in some level of fratricide due to non sync or will yield unintended results. Info is ubiquitous and moves orders of magnitude faster than kinetics, but mil planning is still rooted in a relatively linear engagement flow. To the degree it is defined (or not), Hybrid warfare is little more than an acquisition cloud. I'm starting (?) to ramble, and I do agree with you entirely. My unease is in the diffusion of unity and focus in conflict.
More practically, I see this everyday when speaking to people. Those who have been “captured” by the Hybrid Warfare tools are easily distinguished from those who somehow have built protection around themselves from this evil menace. There exists today, two diametrically opposed realities, leading to the diffusion of unity and conflict you note.
Sadly I think, we are leaning more to Brave New World, content to be sheep because we are well fed, anesthetized and desensitized to the fate of domestic animals. No need for a crushing boot on the face when the masses are more than willing to be compliant.
We have over 2 million fellow citizens in prison, cops shooting dead over 1,000 per year, and a growing 'deaths of despair' and homelessness crisis. We have Brave New World for the priveledged Professional Managerial Class, and 1984 for the working class and dispossessed.
I think you have it backwards, the masses have the bread and circuses and they are duly obedient (think 80+ million Biden votes in '20). It is the dissidents, not the masses, that have to fear the jackboot.
My point was that there is still plenty of jack boot crushing going on in our society. It is not Brave New World drug-laced ice cream orgy porgies for all. Plenty of people are getting emotionally, spiritually, and physically crushed by the system. And they don't even have to be dissidents, all they have to be is surplus un-needed labor to feel the jackboot.
"Plenty of people are getting emotionally, spiritually, and physically crushed by the system."
But they, smart and stupid alike, can't agree often on what, exactly, is doing the crushing. Case in point is simply the dismal state of economics, and even of science, especially replication crises. IMO, it's not just the media problem, it's unprecedented modern complexity. That is probably a new thing, like neither novel.
The 2008 financial crisis seemed complex, but it really wasn't. It was a straightforward fraud smothered with bafflegab.
In Dwight Eisenhower's celebrated military industrial complex speech he warned of government being taken over by technocrats spewing incomprehensible jargon. The basic issues of values aren't complicated.
And it will be just enough to win. The biggest tell is when they stop counting after they determine how many vote are needed (ballots) to win the state. So obvious, but fraud is a "conspiracy theory."
yes for sure, but there are some 1984 characteristics like this expose revealing our new aspiring Ministry of Truth and the useful roles of Emmanuel Goldsteins like Trump, Tucker, and even Elon or Rogan.
but never forget to add a large splash of Idiocracy!
1984 for the Morlocks, Brave New World for the Eloi.
Besides, who says that Ingsoc wasn't popular? Just because that Winston Smith weirdo thought he was such hot stuff. Fortunately we have therapy that fixed him right up. He was led to happiness.
The opposite of freedom is also freedom. I don’t mean that ironically. Being terrified of freedom, the condition of most Americans, means that you are in a perpetual quest for leaders. Having no freedom means that you are freed from making decisions, and thus freed from responsibility. That’s the main infrastructure of fascism, and religion as well, which is fascism by divine proxy.
Great comment. This is why most people will exchange basic liberty for the protection of government. It's Thomas Sowell's, among others, argument against the welfare state as it breeds a culture of dependence.
Yes! We've cultivated a state of perpetual childhood. I have a friend who talks about coming home from work, pouring herself a glass of wine, and getting "in her jammies."
Excellent points about this dimension of human nature, thank you. We're deluded by the perpetual promise of a competent democracy.
Another one is selfishness: Those who care about others help others but too often at the expense of their own power, while those who care about themselves seek power at the expense of others. As power begets power, the latter snowballs. There are no real checks and balances.
But it's even worse than that. Nearly all power is based on technology, while technology increases inexorably. In the past, conditions would eventually lead to a "blow up", and revolution of some kind would flatten the field of power and allow a cleansing. But in the unlimited computing / networking / database / deepfaking / AI age we may well be at a technological watershed where this will no longer be possible.
Thus, for the vast majority, in the long run -- even if we arrested AI, itself, from power -- the "useless" are likely doomed to death, and the "useful" to slavery. Time to get deadly serious about how we avoid this. No mere social revolution will do the trick.
Reminds me of 1 Samuel. God never intended his people to be governed by anyone other than Himself - but us simpletons demanded otherwise:
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. 10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”
I read that the US government now has so many institutions dedicated to "perception management" and regulating "disinformation" that it created a new agency within the ODNI to oversee all of them.
The Foreign Malign Influence Center, which was created September 23 of last year, but apparently was only made public recently after The Intercept inquired.
It's so thematic, based as it is on the epic falsity of the ginned-up Russiagate vegan nothingburger that it remains. And metastasizes otherworldly and exponentially from there. My nihilism is not for nought.
Yes, evening news with Lester Holt @ NBC was silent about the Comer press conference.
The Second memo (issued by the House Oversight Committee) addressing the bank activity and how the money transfers were accomplished is pretty amazing.
It's one of those documents that Nancy Pelosi would make a show of tearing in half or would be thrown back in Comer's face like that horrid woman who reputedly represents the U.S. Virgin Islands.
This stuff is Pulitzer Prize level reporting. Except it and other such reporting is being banned and smeared. It is a crazy world. Some truth is bad, don't you know.
Eisenhower knew first hand how things could get out of control. His CIA director, Allen Dulles, organized a coup in Guatemala, leading to years of civil war. Dulles was at it again in Jakarta, Indonesia. He failed with the Bay of Pigs, and some believe he was involved in JFK's assassination.
That is actually named after his equally wicked brother Sec of State John Foster Dulles. . In Gil Scot Heron’s epic B-Movie he says: “John Foster Dulles” ain’t nothing but an airport now”.
Some think he may have still been running the CIA after being fired. I guess he had many in the agency who were loyal to him, according to a book I'm reading, "The Devil's Chessboard", by David Talbot, a book about Allen Dulles. The guy had no conscious.
Psychopaths as a rule do not. (Have a conscience.) One of many books I've read on the matter since having November 22, 1963 indelibly seared on my 12 year old consciousness on that very day, and to this very day..
I was just starting middle school in "63. The principal broadcast the news over the school intercom. It kind of freaked me out. You're not the first to say Dulles was a psychopath.
And don’t forget his involvement in the 1953 Iranian coup and subsequent installation of the Shah. We’re still paying for that. The blowback really hasn’t ceased since.
Literally every war and engagement we have been in since Ike left office was set up by Ike and the Dulles brothers and the complaint and totally involved media. Some things never change, but people think Ike was a great president.
Pretty sure Mr. Biden warned pf the Military Industrial Complex in his farewell address, and Canadian PM, Mark Carney said the most immediate threat to Canada was China, they are telling you to your face what is being facilitated.
"Some believe." Well that's a corker of a statement. Jaysus H Crisco! Motive and means, say hello to Occam's Razor. Add the Joint Chiefs of Staff and you win the prize.
I also recommend The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War, by Stephen Kinzer. Really good book about how evil the Dulles brothers and Ike were.
Why do you think Dulles had such a hatred for communists? His loyalty appears to be towards multinational corps. He was a longtime Wall St. corp. lawyer. Is communism not good for business? He was deeply involved with the CFR, Council on Foreign Relations (Deep State?)
I recently learned of the Council on Foreign Relations, which both Dulles brothers were very involved, going back to the 1920's & 1930's. I think Allen was actually president at one time. Both of them were very connected to Wall St. and large corporations. The benefits of the coups in Iran and Guatemala seem to have been short lived for Dulles and his friends in the CFR. It's interesting that Allen Dulles was worried about ideas, according to David Talbot, author of "The Devil's Chessboard". He said ideas can float in the wind and spread everywhere. What kind of ideas did he help create in the middle east after the Iran coup and other middle east policies the federal govt. has instituted? Is that where al-Qaida got its motives?
The people who most need to read this are in the cult of believing everything they're told - doesn't matter whether it's from LA Times, CNN the FBI or the PTA.
Can this be turned around? I don't believe it can. There are too many people not questioning this cultural rot. Look how un-American so many of us have become. Too arrogant to admit we got things wrong and too pig headed to see that we don't have to be anymore.
Just what media outlets should we expect to report on it? In the last 30 years many really important events have occurred that most don't know about. Actually, since the turn of the 20th century. There is a whole lot of real history never discussed unless you find books written by diggers that no one buys. Or drop the cool aid and watch The Blaze Wednesday & Friday Specials. This one is from 2019 I believe.
If the Body Politic is akin to the human body then it appears that the US Government is now akin to a giant metastasized tumor attacking that body politic.
It also appears that the government has set up an entire industry that would be a perfect career opportunity for all of those people who grew up snitching to teacher or the boss or any authority figure whose ass they could Velcro their lips to in an effort to make themselves look like something more than useless weasels.
It's always amazing when those studious little shits in government come up with a new system to screw us that we have to pay for with our tax dollars.
Maybe we need a nationwide town hall meeting where we succinctly explain to them that their snitch-y little hall monitor asses work for us & not the other way around.
Sometime ago I said this, but I seriously think we would be better off with a random name of a Constitutionally qualified person being drawn out of a hat to be our President. Why not? Of course, that would not set well with TPTB. Think of all the money that would not be made.
I read a book written by a friend's husband in which the pres was selected through a drawing because no one want to be that person. Everyone of a certain age was in each drawing based on the first letter of their last name. There were villans in the book. Gates was one of them.
The UK's House of Lords was sort of like this. Getting a perpetual title happened so long ago that usually the family fortune has long been lost. The Lord or Lady is more or less a random ordinary member of society. So it was actually more democratic than the House of Commons.
That may be why the House of Lords of deprived of most of its power.
Excellent analysis. I dream of a day we can have an interactive timeline of the russiagate narrative, with key actions/articles/principles aligned in time, interactive, with filtering and rigorous footnoting.
I like this idea. But, I am not sure we will ever get a real history of many events today because too many people are so invested in the lies that they (the lies) will outlive us all and never be admitted to. I think confessions such as William Westmorland's will, for the most part, never happen again. The two prime examples are the false persecutions of Donald Trump and the Covid fiasco. With Covid, individual players like Fauci might be discredited, but the overall farce will never be known or reported on. No one would publish it, for one. If in some corner of the Internet, it will be censored, discredited, and otherwise never seen. I find this extremely sad, but a fact of today's world and those few that control 95% of the Internet
The other thing we still don't know about is the assassination of JFK. And there are probably many others we don't even know we don't know about. I absolutely cannot imagine what it is like to be Donald Trump, seeing all those lies every day and not being able to do anything about it. It doesn't matter if I like Trump or not, I know what is wrong. And those doing the wrong know what they are doing and don't care.
Thousands of people's careers were destroyed by going off script about Covid. Even though they were later proved right doesn't matter. Nameless and named people, some we don't know about like doctors in the trenches. Reporters like Alex Berenson. Scientists like Robert Malone. Hundreds or thousands of doctors who weren't even allowed to write off label prescriptions (something that is done every day for medications that aren't useful for Covid. How many unnecessary deaths were there? The list just goes on and on. Add in the Ukraine war narrative, maybe one day, we might find out the actual truth on this one. We do know about the Iraq war narrative lies, so maybe there is hope there. But Russiagate? I doubt we will ever get the truth on that by anyone who is considered by big tech and big media as credible. Even after the Russiagate lies were exposed, people still believe it is true and, many who know the truth think the greater good was done by the telling of those lies. With stuff like that happening, the truth can never be told.
If those analyses are taken together with the substantiated portions of GOP memos from Trump's presidency, the Mueller report, and DOJ OIG Horowitz's report (https://oig.justice.gov/node/16547), there's a lot more verifiable / verified meat to put on the russiagate narrative bones.
This is truly terrifying. And what’s more terrifying is just the sheer number of people I personally know that have no idea that this is going on. I have family members and friends that look at me like I have 3 heads whenever I start talking about the censorship industrial complex. It’s unclear to me if they’re willfully ignorant to what’s happening or simply afraid. One thing is for sure, they don’t have much interest in looking too closely under the covers. They would rather order everything they need off of Amazon & watch the real housewives of Beverly Hills. God help us all.
I agree. Even smart people in my circle have no clue as to the mess we’re in. They spend their time golfing and prefer to get their news from MSM.
I think a big part of it is that it’s so damn confusing, and which my be by design. To really get a handle on this I’ve listened to likely 100 hours of audio and close to 1,000 pages of text.
It reminds me of the 2nd most disturbing conspiracy I know of, something that literally not a single conspiracy theorist I’ve ever met has even heard of, which is the Inslaw PROMIS affair, something so confusing that it wasn’t until I got Vicuna, the open source AI, to write a summary for me did I have a way to quickly explain what the hell I was talking about.
From all that I learned a valuable lesson: Real conspiracies are too crazy for normal people, not crazy enough for conspiracy theorists, and too confusing for both groups.
I have noticed this too. Conspiracy theorists like QAnon believe the most outlandish things and know nothing about concrete evidence like the Powell memo. My "favorite" is that nobody at all has heard about the King family winning a wrongful death suit about Martin's assassination. I read the trial transcript on the King family web site. About a dozen highly credible witnesses testified to an assassination conspiracy. It's very convincing. And nobody knows.
As for the MLK thing, I do know about that one, saw a deep dive on that recently.
Ever notice that no conspiracy theorists bring that up? I fixate on Inslaw because it has hundreds of pages of court filings and congressional records, and GHWB even dodged a question on it, yet to my knowledge not even Alex Jones has mentioned it in his entire career.
If you want to get really paranoid, go to Wikipedia and look up the talk page on Inslaw. Find posts on “Rgr09”
This Wikipedia user somehow edits every single conspiracy theory that the CIA may have actually done. Notice, he never messes with 9/11, or the Moon landings, or QAnon. This user seems fine with those conspiracy theories (because they aren’t real) yet tries to purge everything related to Inslaw, and CIA drug smuggling, etc.
Now search for the P2 or Propaganda Due conspiracy. An actually well documented and massive Italian Masonic/Vatican Bank conspiracy from the 1970-80s. It’s mind blowing.
Everything that was going on in Europe around that time is very troubling: Propoganda Due, The Brabant Killers, everything related to Operation Gladio, etc. But the thing that always baffles me is that none of the “Wake up sheeple!” Crowd ever talks about them. Probably 10,000 times more green ink has been spilled about chemtrails than the actual dirty tricks the CIA pulled from 1949 to the end of the Cold War.
By Powell memo, I assume you are referring to Lewis Powell memo to the US Chamber of Commerce.
It's interesting that you mention that. I'm lucky enough to have a supervisor at work who is voracious a reader as I am. We were just discussing the current movement of censorship on college campuses this past Monday when he mentioned the Powell memo, which I had read long ago. After he left my office I poked around the internet and found an article written only two days ago, published in "Inside Higher Ed."
It's a rather amusing, if not maddening piece, about how the real goal of conservative attacks on higher ed really have nothing to do with first amendment issues, or as fronts against "ideological indoctrination" (from the article). The author, Linda Stomato, proffers that the real reason for these attacks is conservative efforts are to "obscure a less visible motive: to support free market ideas (like that's a bad thing) and advance corporate interests and those of other powerful market actors." She uses the Powell memo as the foundation of her opinion. The thrust of her piece is that these attempts by conservatives are nothing more than an attempt at silencing the voices of subject matter experts who may have views hostile to the free market.
I find it amusing that she laments these attempts as basically an affront to the idea of free expression on college campuses, without realizing the irony of her efforts to silence conservative criticisms on college campuses.
This is what I'm finding in a disproportionate number of journals and periodicals. The concepts she's espousing have been so ingrained and pushed since the 60's. In my opinion, there is no way to combat that at this juncture. We just have to hold on, rage against the dying of the light as long as we can, and retreat to our bunkers when the proverbial scat starts flying in earnest.
Link provided if you wish to peruse the piece. It's a quick read.
https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/05/09/launch-long-game
Note to Linda Stomato (to paraphrase Obama): the 60's and 70's are calling and they want the economic policies back...
No one can reasonably question the conclusion that it is the left that is focused on advancing corporate interests and those of other powerful actors - for that is the route to near absolute power. Kinetic military force as a path to power is SO old school.
How is see it?
Today's democrats are the Republicans of the 70's and 80's.
The defenders of the narrative love to conflate anyone not agreeing with them with flat-earthers and the like.
I wanted to create some small infographics to make it easy for people to understand. But to do that I have to have a deep understanding of this. And like you, I've spent hundreds of hours reading, listening and uncovering more complexity. It's nice to see other people doing the same, I often feel alone in this.
Yeah trying to have it be small probably wouldn’t work, there’s just too much going on, too many threads. I’ve found open source AI can be excellent at summarizing stuff if you use the correct prompts, for example I got a really good concise summary of John Brennan’s role in Russiagate that someone unfamiliar with who he even was could quickly understand, but the problem is the training data for those isn’t updated in real time, and this is an emerging story. The only AI’s that are kept up to date are Bing/Sydney and Google Bard, but the various paywalls would block them from making an accurate summary.
This is interesting because I’ve been using ai in my research but also as part of my research becasue we haven’t unpacked it’s role in all of this.
If you find it of interest, I’d suggest following what the open source community has been cooking up. Yannic Kilcher on Youtube is pretty revered among those who want AI to be free, his channel is definitely worth checking out. To all worried that AI will just be used for control by government or large corporations, a memo was leaked from Google that said their AI competitor wasn’t Microsoft, it was the open source machine learning community, and the executive suggested Google work with them, not against them. Clearly I’m a guy who loves AI and of all the things related to the CIC, I’m actually least worried about the AI aspect. The deep state doesn’t have direct access to Deepmind or uncensored GPT. If they did, they literally could have seized the entire internet already.
Yes, very complex.
Which is the way the CIC keeps most people out.
They are just simply too self absorbed to put any real thought into this.
The legal basis for the fight against the Censorship Industrial Complex can be confusing, too. You need to understand the First Amendment, and then you need to understand that the government is making an end-run around it by using its regulatory muscle to force big tech to bend to its wishes. In effect, they are outsourcing First Amendment violations to private entities. If the evidence from the Twitter Files wasn't so specific and overtly blunt, there might not even be a legal challenge like Missouri v. Biden.
I think many now "feel" it, but like deer in the headlights, they don't know yet how to make sense of it. They're still sucking on the MSM teat to be reassured all's well in the (Western) world. Hence golfing etc.
Denial is a big factor. COVID was instructive. I'm not sure if it is the embarrassment of admitting you were wrong, and vehemently so or the fear that comes from loss of faith. A combination i suspect.
But I do like to play golf.
The word hypernormalization was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach in the United States. He introduced the word in his book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s.[3][4] He says that everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society.[5] Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fakeness was accepted by everyone as real, an effect that Yurchak termed hypernormalisation.
The spectacular collapse of the Soviet Union was completely unexpected by most Soviet people and yet, as soon as people realized that something unexpected was taking place, most of them also immediately realized that they had actually been prepared for that unexpected change. Millions became quickly engrossed, making the collapse simultaneously unexpected, unsurprising, and amazingly fast.
Congratulations to your employment with the Ministry of Truth. We feel it will be a long and productive partnership. There however are a few things you must know. The first is,
There is no Ministry of Truth.
Should you be asked if there is a Ministry of Truth, possible responses or "You nuts?", muttering "tinfoil hat", or silently take a drag on your cigarette then exhale while staring over the head of your interlocutor.
"Smart people?"
A Tour de Force article.
More than worth the price of the subscription. We are in your debt, IMHO.
Thomas Herring, PE
How do you know you're in a cult when you're in a cult?
When individual thought is persecuted, and individual action is prevented.
When you try to leave, and you suddenly find out it's not allowed.
I know someone who got taken to a Unification Church camp. She had to break out through the fence.
Possibly not airtight, (Is the mob a cult? Interesting question.) but as close to the "sine qua non" of a cult as I've ever seen put into words.
1. The cult is the sole source of truth.
2. Criticism of cult beliefs leads to expulsion.
3. Expelled members are shunned.
On the other hand, some receive invitations for a full interview on 60 Minutes.
Not if 60 Minutes is an arm of the cult.
When they breakout the kool-aid I should think.
That's an unfortunate exit strategy.
It's not an exit strategy. It's not even a strategy.
Good point but i believe a fair amount of people in the cult know that they are, at least in the beginning, the cult gives them what they want.
My anecdotal experience with people who were in cults is that the individuals believe they are engaging with people who have 'truth'. Doesn't matter if it's religious, political, medical, social. It's very similar to fanboyism. It's the same mind virus. You're convinced you're right and that the people you're with are right and one day you (hopefully) realize you've been conned into believing nonsense.
Doesn't this describe almost everybody? Save, perhaps, the mentally ill? I presume you're convinced that you're right and that the people on this thread and elsewhere who agree with you are also right. N'est-ce pas?
Someday it might occur to YOU: I've been conned into believing nonsense. If you're lucky. Truth, fanboyism, and the same mind virus.
I've gotten stuck. It took a lot to get unstuck. I've been conned. Painful process for sure.
Mostly it took admitting I made a mistake and being open to learning from errors in judgement and coming to terms with my own destructive beliefs. But the majority of people seem incapable of this. Are they too easy too fool and too arrogant to admit they've been had? Or are they just scared and lack the courage to deal with their fears? Maybe both?
I think this is where "politics" has gone --- cult. We can't have any aspect of our lives that is not invaded by politics --- and why, for God's sake?
Totally agree that it is giving people "what they want," because, how else do they validate their existence. Pathetic.
and with the decline of religion it does fill a void. so when the high priests ae called out, it is not dissent is is blasphemy. (jsut has a new name mal/disinfomaion)
To me it is scary-shocking that humans have been so easily directed to the hive/machine. Whatever you think about being raised in a home that participated in an organized religion, when you are an adult, accept or reject it. The organized part. But what the hell has gone wrong with people? Empathy. Loyalty. Liberty. Did I say, Liberty (aka, Free Will)? Sheesh.
Maybe not so shocking. To some extent religion is probably hard wired into us. MAns search for meaning and so forth. So something has to fill the void. But I think COVID broke people. They were scared in a way I have never seen before in all my years and they did not have anyone to to having abandoned the old gods. So they dug in wih the expets who told them what to do and he magic rituals of masking et al would save them. Wo be unto them who would speak against their Truth.
The funny part is that I am Catholic myself, though I am well aware of the history of the church and its trepidations. But to your point the thing I have always believed in was freedom, and liberty. I am heartbroken at how it has been abandoned
I think people have a very basic war instinct, just like ants and bees. I seem to recall brain scan research that supports this.
lolol
I posted this on Matt's follow-up post in the comments section, but I'd like to repeat it -- that's how strongly I feel about it:
"I was black-pilled all the way back during the Al Gore concession speech when I realized, "Damn, they're all the same." Now that I am so angry and certain that millions of equally angry people exist, I believe that their fascism might be stopped.
They've lost any semblance of dignity or humanity, and they're pushing it too far. Unless they kill us all because of that bloody money-laundering operation in Ukraine, we might have a chance. Unless, of course, we let them get away with everything."
Your family members and friends need to be told, over and over again, what's going on. Matt's articles need to be forwarded, screen grabs of Tucker's tweet (104M views 'til now) needs to be shared. We must pull our weight. All of us.
I'm not on Twitfest, to what do you refer re: Carlson's tweet?
What he basically said was, "News is full of lies," "you're being manipulated," and he elaborated on how the news media's manipulation works. Then he spoke about the limits of what one can say in the media and how you get fired from the media if you cross those limits. Then he announced that he would be on Twitter, "bringing his new show there."
Thank you, Trygve. I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
Oh boy, Tucker truths coming to Twitter. And to think I will miss them all - never joined, no need to. Still no need.
It was worth joining Twitter for the Twitter Files. I think joining to see what Tucker has to say is also worth it. You can be very selective on Twitter if you want. And I got off Facebook and was never on Instagram, etc. I am on Twitter (I am considered "cool" because I had an account before my kids did, LOL). I never used it until Elon took it over. It has its uses, just as Substack does. The short format is horrible, but, again, it has its uses.
Psst... (I know... right?) lol
Holy Uniparty Power Grab, Batman!!!!!!
I actually think they really do know but they can't face it and use denial to protect themselves from the grim reality. Many of them believe they will be spared or even favored if they simply comply. It's the story of the useful idiots to a T. It's an amazing thing to see.
It does require a level of abstract thinking. That lots of people have no interest in. Until they feel direct pain from something its just noise. There are always a smaller group of dissenters that put it all together.
Some folks ignore the warning signs, then the in-your-face stuff and still when to weak to move will not seek medical help because they do not want negative feedback. They would rather die, and they do.
The path of least resistance is well-trod.
Democracy, like communism, relies on this equation: good-willed people + good information --> better society. Unfortunately, a better world relies on the sum of two things that don’t add up because they don’t exist.
I’ve seen this with friends and family as well. My belief is that these folks (“they”) have already been brainwashed and have simply given up. The “method” in which the CIC has changed the way they think about these kinds of things is very affective. Very scary. They are “fish” swimming in water who do not even understand what water is. I’ve given up on many of them. Don’t even get into a dialogue because it is a waist of time.
Many of these people are just living their lives, raising their kids, etc. My extremely smart son is in this boat. They are just not political to the point they hate it and avoid it. Then there are people like my wife who use Facebook and Google and are fed nothing but MSM material. So, she knows nothing about things like the Twitter Files. When I tell her or say anything bad about Biden, she just shuts down. She has TDS so badly and knows how bad the Biden administration is, but he is "not Trump." She has health issues so she doesn't go out and really doesn't know how bad the inflation is (and the inflation is, unlike in many cases where presidents inherit crap economies, Biden created this crappy economy from scratch and from day one of his term). I guess I should say his horrible administration has done this because he has no idea what day it is. There are a lot of people like my wife. They are getting only MSM pushed by Facebook and Google (she wouldn't know Twitter if it bit her and I actually agree with her on Twitter, LOL). It is crazy and so frustrating to deal with good people who are so unaware of what is going on. Our savings has literally vanished the past couple of years. I have known her since she was 25 and she is now 63 and she has voted only once, in a primary that I convinced her to vote in. I am sure she will never vote again. That was a lot of words to say that the tech companies have kept the MSM relevant, by all rights, they should all be gone by now, but they gained control of the Internet. They are as strong as they were when pushing for overthrows of the evil Guatemala government during Eisenhower's term. Today, it is all about Ukraine. In both cases, it was bullshit and went against true American values (what people think are America's values). But, money talks, that is all that matters. MSM being propped up by Big Tech is just a crazy notion, but here we are.
They’re basically telling us “our totalitarianism will be the BEST totalitarianism—no worries about that!”
Ask CHatGPT to write you something critical of socialism based on its history and you will get a response that the history is irrelevant because those mistakes would not be made by modern socialists.
It helps (a little) whenever I hear how stupid AI still is. Maybe, for the time being, it will be like outsmarting (most non-human) animals that have strength and speed.
Ah yes, chatbots... garbage in, garbage out.
Agreed. That *does* seems to be the new, go-to cog-dis resolution I've been seeing.
May I have my totalitarianism with mocha?
Right becasue the other guys got it wrong. We fixed that.
Wow. My penultimate job in the Navy (ca 2003) was serving as Carrier Strike Group Info Warfare commander (IWC). Lots to explain about what the meant - I'll skip it - but bottom line is that I watched from the second row as Navy and DoD migrated toward this hybrid warfare concept. I've read (literally) hundreds of articles on IO/IW, but this is the first one that drills into the core issues (the rationale for traditional kinetic-warfare services migrating the fight to a much more interconnected info environment) that make this so critical. Bottom line: first time anyone (as far as my literature review goes) has connected the dots in the way that reveals some of the truth. Latter is there, hiding in plain sight, and this outstanding piece is a UV Light/Luminol test. Not going to thrill some folks...
I’m fine when these “tactics and techniques” are used by US Special Forces against our enemies. What is coming to light just recently, is that these “tools” are now pointed at US citizens for political gain. Frightening.
Agree entirely. My 2nd order concern is that the circle diagram at the start of the piece illustrates how, once operating in the information environment, the lines between titled forces and civ/academic/commercial entities in non kinetic engagement by military will result either in some level of fratricide due to non sync or will yield unintended results. Info is ubiquitous and moves orders of magnitude faster than kinetics, but mil planning is still rooted in a relatively linear engagement flow. To the degree it is defined (or not), Hybrid warfare is little more than an acquisition cloud. I'm starting (?) to ramble, and I do agree with you entirely. My unease is in the diffusion of unity and focus in conflict.
More practically, I see this everyday when speaking to people. Those who have been “captured” by the Hybrid Warfare tools are easily distinguished from those who somehow have built protection around themselves from this evil menace. There exists today, two diametrically opposed realities, leading to the diffusion of unity and conflict you note.
War is Freedom
Slavery is Peace
Ignorance is Strength
Sadly I think, we are leaning more to Brave New World, content to be sheep because we are well fed, anesthetized and desensitized to the fate of domestic animals. No need for a crushing boot on the face when the masses are more than willing to be compliant.
We have over 2 million fellow citizens in prison, cops shooting dead over 1,000 per year, and a growing 'deaths of despair' and homelessness crisis. We have Brave New World for the priveledged Professional Managerial Class, and 1984 for the working class and dispossessed.
I think you have it backwards, the masses have the bread and circuses and they are duly obedient (think 80+ million Biden votes in '20). It is the dissidents, not the masses, that have to fear the jackboot.
My point was that there is still plenty of jack boot crushing going on in our society. It is not Brave New World drug-laced ice cream orgy porgies for all. Plenty of people are getting emotionally, spiritually, and physically crushed by the system. And they don't even have to be dissidents, all they have to be is surplus un-needed labor to feel the jackboot.
"Plenty of people are getting emotionally, spiritually, and physically crushed by the system."
But they, smart and stupid alike, can't agree often on what, exactly, is doing the crushing. Case in point is simply the dismal state of economics, and even of science, especially replication crises. IMO, it's not just the media problem, it's unprecedented modern complexity. That is probably a new thing, like neither novel.
The 2008 financial crisis seemed complex, but it really wasn't. It was a straightforward fraud smothered with bafflegab.
In Dwight Eisenhower's celebrated military industrial complex speech he warned of government being taken over by technocrats spewing incomprehensible jargon. The basic issues of values aren't complicated.
good points, both of you.
Human damage is the tell. And, the self-soothing "It's happening to them but it can never happen to me everything is going to be fine."
Let's start making book right now that Biden will get EVEN MORE VOTES next time around.
And it will be just enough to win. The biggest tell is when they stop counting after they determine how many vote are needed (ballots) to win the state. So obvious, but fraud is a "conspiracy theory."
yes for sure, but there are some 1984 characteristics like this expose revealing our new aspiring Ministry of Truth and the useful roles of Emmanuel Goldsteins like Trump, Tucker, and even Elon or Rogan.
but never forget to add a large splash of Idiocracy!
1984 for the Morlocks, Brave New World for the Eloi.
Besides, who says that Ingsoc wasn't popular? Just because that Winston Smith weirdo thought he was such hot stuff. Fortunately we have therapy that fixed him right up. He was led to happiness.
Brave new world applies to the middle classes. 1984 is for the working classes and it's brutal!
I think free government-provided soma would be helpful. :/
With a massive dose of Franz Kafka.
This is an amazing work of journalism.
Thank you!
This is a GREAT piece. Absolutely excellent.
“We are guided by the irrational.”
Luis Buñuel
The opposite of freedom is also freedom. I don’t mean that ironically. Being terrified of freedom, the condition of most Americans, means that you are in a perpetual quest for leaders. Having no freedom means that you are freed from making decisions, and thus freed from responsibility. That’s the main infrastructure of fascism, and religion as well, which is fascism by divine proxy.
Great comment. This is why most people will exchange basic liberty for the protection of government. It's Thomas Sowell's, among others, argument against the welfare state as it breeds a culture of dependence.
Yes! We've cultivated a state of perpetual childhood. I have a friend who talks about coming home from work, pouring herself a glass of wine, and getting "in her jammies."
Excellent points about this dimension of human nature, thank you. We're deluded by the perpetual promise of a competent democracy.
Another one is selfishness: Those who care about others help others but too often at the expense of their own power, while those who care about themselves seek power at the expense of others. As power begets power, the latter snowballs. There are no real checks and balances.
But it's even worse than that. Nearly all power is based on technology, while technology increases inexorably. In the past, conditions would eventually lead to a "blow up", and revolution of some kind would flatten the field of power and allow a cleansing. But in the unlimited computing / networking / database / deepfaking / AI age we may well be at a technological watershed where this will no longer be possible.
Thus, for the vast majority, in the long run -- even if we arrested AI, itself, from power -- the "useless" are likely doomed to death, and the "useful" to slavery. Time to get deadly serious about how we avoid this. No mere social revolution will do the trick.
Reminds me of 1 Samuel. God never intended his people to be governed by anyone other than Himself - but us simpletons demanded otherwise:
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them. 10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men[a] and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”
A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring...
Thanks. The above passage is from 1 Samuel 8.
Hard to narrow it down to just 50.
I read that the US government now has so many institutions dedicated to "perception management" and regulating "disinformation" that it created a new agency within the ODNI to oversee all of them.
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/this-civilization-is-mentally-ill?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=120490689&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email
The Foreign Malign Influence Center, which was created September 23 of last year, but apparently was only made public recently after The Intercept inquired.
https://theintercept.com/2023/05/05/foreign-malign-influence-center-disinformation/
It's so thematic, based as it is on the epic falsity of the ginned-up Russiagate vegan nothingburger that it remains. And metastasizes otherworldly and exponentially from there. My nihilism is not for nought.
Holy cow - this is SO MUCH research! Very much appreciate the work that went into this. Phew!
There seems to be a news black-out on Comer's press conference this morning, laying out the details of the Biden money-laundering scheme.
Yes, evening news with Lester Holt @ NBC was silent about the Comer press conference.
The Second memo (issued by the House Oversight Committee) addressing the bank activity and how the money transfers were accomplished is pretty amazing.
It's one of those documents that Nancy Pelosi would make a show of tearing in half or would be thrown back in Comer's face like that horrid woman who reputedly represents the U.S. Virgin Islands.
An absolutely brilliant and indispensable piece of reporting. I'm awed at the work done here and the service it will provide to future journalism.
This stuff is Pulitzer Prize level reporting. Except it and other such reporting is being banned and smeared. It is a crazy world. Some truth is bad, don't you know.
Eisenhower knew first hand how things could get out of control. His CIA director, Allen Dulles, organized a coup in Guatemala, leading to years of civil war. Dulles was at it again in Jakarta, Indonesia. He failed with the Bay of Pigs, and some believe he was involved in JFK's assassination.
.... and got an airport named after him for his troubles. Tells you what we value, eh?
Dull, Duller, Dulles
Your latin is showing
The airport is named after his brother, Sec. of State John Foster Dulles, who was also not a peach of a human being.
nor was their uncle. name escapes me but he was a henchman for woodrow wilson. Palmer I believe
Wow, I didn't know that, nor did I realize he came from a family of utter POS's. Glad he wasn't lonely, but I hope he's burning in hell.
but he was the dull one
That is actually named after his equally wicked brother Sec of State John Foster Dulles. . In Gil Scot Heron’s epic B-Movie he says: “John Foster Dulles” ain’t nothing but an airport now”.
wrong dulles - his brother got the airport
Was also head of the Warren Commission AFTER being fired as head of the CIA by JFK.
Some think he may have still been running the CIA after being fired. I guess he had many in the agency who were loyal to him, according to a book I'm reading, "The Devil's Chessboard", by David Talbot, a book about Allen Dulles. The guy had no conscious.
Psychopaths as a rule do not. (Have a conscience.) One of many books I've read on the matter since having November 22, 1963 indelibly seared on my 12 year old consciousness on that very day, and to this very day..
I was just starting middle school in "63. The principal broadcast the news over the school intercom. It kind of freaked me out. You're not the first to say Dulles was a psychopath.
And don’t forget his involvement in the 1953 Iranian coup and subsequent installation of the Shah. We’re still paying for that. The blowback really hasn’t ceased since.
Literally every war and engagement we have been in since Ike left office was set up by Ike and the Dulles brothers and the complaint and totally involved media. Some things never change, but people think Ike was a great president.
Pretty sure Mr. Biden warned pf the Military Industrial Complex in his farewell address, and Canadian PM, Mark Carney said the most immediate threat to Canada was China, they are telling you to your face what is being facilitated.
"Some believe." Well that's a corker of a statement. Jaysus H Crisco! Motive and means, say hello to Occam's Razor. Add the Joint Chiefs of Staff and you win the prize.
I also recommend The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War, by Stephen Kinzer. Really good book about how evil the Dulles brothers and Ike were.
Finishing reading "The Devil's Chessboard". A lot to take in. Was Dulles a Nazi or a sympathizer? I'll check out "The Ghost".
Why do you think Dulles had such a hatred for communists? His loyalty appears to be towards multinational corps. He was a longtime Wall St. corp. lawyer. Is communism not good for business? He was deeply involved with the CFR, Council on Foreign Relations (Deep State?)
I recently learned of the Council on Foreign Relations, which both Dulles brothers were very involved, going back to the 1920's & 1930's. I think Allen was actually president at one time. Both of them were very connected to Wall St. and large corporations. The benefits of the coups in Iran and Guatemala seem to have been short lived for Dulles and his friends in the CFR. It's interesting that Allen Dulles was worried about ideas, according to David Talbot, author of "The Devil's Chessboard". He said ideas can float in the wind and spread everywhere. What kind of ideas did he help create in the middle east after the Iran coup and other middle east policies the federal govt. has instituted? Is that where al-Qaida got its motives?
The people who most need to read this are in the cult of believing everything they're told - doesn't matter whether it's from LA Times, CNN the FBI or the PTA.
Can this be turned around? I don't believe it can. There are too many people not questioning this cultural rot. Look how un-American so many of us have become. Too arrogant to admit we got things wrong and too pig headed to see that we don't have to be anymore.
I'm afraid that you might be right.
Wow, Matt, this is is the gold standard of investigative reporting.
Watch your back. They will, at some point, be coming for you. All of us here are eyewitnesses to your courage.
At some point? The IRS showed up at this house unannounced. While he was testifying in Congress.
I mean really come for him. The IRS incident is what the Klan would call "a friendly visit."
That has not received the reporting it deserves.
Just what media outlets should we expect to report on it? In the last 30 years many really important events have occurred that most don't know about. Actually, since the turn of the 20th century. There is a whole lot of real history never discussed unless you find books written by diggers that no one buys. Or drop the cool aid and watch The Blaze Wednesday & Friday Specials. This one is from 2019 I believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si-vMj-FB88
Fuckers know that there will be consequences for attacking Taibbi.
No ass kissing, just truth.
Maybe try getting rid of that shitty attitude you have.
If the Body Politic is akin to the human body then it appears that the US Government is now akin to a giant metastasized tumor attacking that body politic.
It also appears that the government has set up an entire industry that would be a perfect career opportunity for all of those people who grew up snitching to teacher or the boss or any authority figure whose ass they could Velcro their lips to in an effort to make themselves look like something more than useless weasels.
It's always amazing when those studious little shits in government come up with a new system to screw us that we have to pay for with our tax dollars.
Maybe we need a nationwide town hall meeting where we succinctly explain to them that their snitch-y little hall monitor asses work for us & not the other way around.
Sometime ago I said this, but I seriously think we would be better off with a random name of a Constitutionally qualified person being drawn out of a hat to be our President. Why not? Of course, that would not set well with TPTB. Think of all the money that would not be made.
I read a book written by a friend's husband in which the pres was selected through a drawing because no one want to be that person. Everyone of a certain age was in each drawing based on the first letter of their last name. There were villans in the book. Gates was one of them.
It was done in Sparta too.
The UK's House of Lords was sort of like this. Getting a perpetual title happened so long ago that usually the family fortune has long been lost. The Lord or Lady is more or less a random ordinary member of society. So it was actually more democratic than the House of Commons.
That may be why the House of Lords of deprived of most of its power.
Excellent analysis. I dream of a day we can have an interactive timeline of the russiagate narrative, with key actions/articles/principles aligned in time, interactive, with filtering and rigorous footnoting.
I like this idea. But, I am not sure we will ever get a real history of many events today because too many people are so invested in the lies that they (the lies) will outlive us all and never be admitted to. I think confessions such as William Westmorland's will, for the most part, never happen again. The two prime examples are the false persecutions of Donald Trump and the Covid fiasco. With Covid, individual players like Fauci might be discredited, but the overall farce will never be known or reported on. No one would publish it, for one. If in some corner of the Internet, it will be censored, discredited, and otherwise never seen. I find this extremely sad, but a fact of today's world and those few that control 95% of the Internet
The other thing we still don't know about is the assassination of JFK. And there are probably many others we don't even know we don't know about. I absolutely cannot imagine what it is like to be Donald Trump, seeing all those lies every day and not being able to do anything about it. It doesn't matter if I like Trump or not, I know what is wrong. And those doing the wrong know what they are doing and don't care.
Thousands of people's careers were destroyed by going off script about Covid. Even though they were later proved right doesn't matter. Nameless and named people, some we don't know about like doctors in the trenches. Reporters like Alex Berenson. Scientists like Robert Malone. Hundreds or thousands of doctors who weren't even allowed to write off label prescriptions (something that is done every day for medications that aren't useful for Covid. How many unnecessary deaths were there? The list just goes on and on. Add in the Ukraine war narrative, maybe one day, we might find out the actual truth on this one. We do know about the Iraq war narrative lies, so maybe there is hope there. But Russiagate? I doubt we will ever get the truth on that by anyone who is considered by big tech and big media as credible. Even after the Russiagate lies were exposed, people still believe it is true and, many who know the truth think the greater good was done by the telling of those lies. With stuff like that happening, the truth can never be told.
I can understand your skepticism, but there is already an exhaustive list of Russiagate details.
Matt has a high-level romp through the deceptions here: https://www.racket.news/p/master-list-of-official-russia-claims
Taken together with CJR's Russiagate retrospective: https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-ed-note.php
And Technofog's excellent analysis of the depositions / testimony unearthed by Durham's probe: https://technofog.substack.com/p/john-durham-michael-sussmann-and
If those analyses are taken together with the substantiated portions of GOP memos from Trump's presidency, the Mueller report, and DOJ OIG Horowitz's report (https://oig.justice.gov/node/16547), there's a lot more verifiable / verified meat to put on the russiagate narrative bones.