I read with great interest this piece on Tablet, which is sprawling and massive, almost 50 pages printed out:
“Something monstrous is taking shape in America. Formally, it exhibits the synergy of state and corporate power in service of a tribal zeal that is the hallmark of fascism. Yet anyone who spends time in America and is not a brainwashed zealot can tell that it is not a fascist country. What is coming into being is a new form of government and social organization that is as different from mid-twentieth century liberal democracy as the early American republic was from the British monarchism that it grew out of and eventually supplanted. A state organized on the principle that it exists to protect the sovereign rights of individuals, is being replaced by a digital leviathan that wields power through opaque algorithms and the manipulation of digital swarms. It resembles the Chinese system of social credit and one-party state control, and yet that, too, misses the distinctively American and providential character of the control system. In the time we lose trying to name it, the thing itself may disappear back into the bureaucratic shadows, covering up any trace of it with automated deletions from the top-secret data centers of Amazon Web Services, “the trusted cloud for government.”
I have been trying to wrap my mind around all of this that I see happening in our country since 2020. If you are interested in reading it and discussing it, please do so. Or if you’d like to talk about anything else, here is an open thread.
IMO, this country took a sharp downward spiral around the time Obama took office. Before that time things seemed to be in check. Social media was also tolerable. For some reason everything changed after Obama took office. I’m not blaming him but something happened around that time.
That being said, someone give me a Time Machine so I can go back to the late 90s. For me those were great times.
You’re correct, things changed dramatically under Obama and yes you can blame him. He wanted to ‘transform’ our nation and that he did. He weaponized many agencies, spied on journalists, filled the gov with activists, pushed racism at every opportunity, shoved Obamacare on us with flat out lies (you can keep your doctor), and I believe is the puppet master over Biden, along with Susan Rice.
The nation went from "electing the first 'black' President" to "any criticism of said President was racist. Everything hence has been judged through the lens of race. Not at all what Obama promised, but given his Marxist roots and beliefs, not at all surprising.
If you look at the statistical data, Race Relations worsened A LOT under Obama & stayed down. Race Relations were excellent before Obama.
He started pushing “Cops are bad & racist”, BLM started under Obama. He increased Victimhood mentality for Blacks & told them everyone was racist, the world is bad, be a pessimist, don’t work hard b/c there’s no point since everyone is out to get you b/c you’re Black. Which is a horribly nihilistic pessimistic destructive way to view the world & the wrong way to teach kids.
Most of us are bound by the common fabric of our country the rights and freedoms the American experiment. As so many said last week The indictment of Trump was the wake-up call. We must take our county back.
We must come together like never before we must make our voices heard in every city across the USA. From town halls to state capitals to DC there are more of us than them. We are a strong people. No longer can we stand by and watch our borders be over run and our unique American culture be destroyed.
We must as citizens agree that our way of life is slipping away. Everyone needs to be involved run for offices from school boards local office to state offices to the federal offices. Participate.
Demand one day voting paper ballots voter ids with minor exceptions for our challenged neighbors and family members. it’s hard to deny the results when there is a islet trail.
Our common cause to see that the officials serve at the pleasure of the people.
It’s time to be heard we need to fill the email boxes the phones lines and let them know who is in charge. Change will happen if we come together as one people.
If you have not recently watched our congress in action spend a day watching the committee hearings on capital hill. Is a shameful mockery of our civil society . We are now a joke and it’s tine to regain our nations pride and standing.
Our politicians just posture along party lines making points for their party i’m. it’s all theater. I have seen better governing in high schools by young Americans more dignified than these people .
We are a representative republic not democracy but no one teaches civics anymore and some must have slept through class. We elect these people to represent their community’s but they only represent those who funded them and spend their time once in office raising funds for the next election cycle. No wonder no one reads the bills that are written by special interest groups and rather than the eject reps.
We have a common purpose to save our country to give the next generation the same freedoms we all have. Those on the left and right sides must come to the middle and demand change.
This saying is old but oh so true “united we stand divided we fall”. Let’s come together we can make a difference. It’s going to take all of us. We need to ask our families neighbors if they love the freedom and liberties of America? if they reply yes than that’s a start toward the middle. We have so much more in common when we listen rather than shout.
Civil discourse and debate needs to return and cancel culture needs to be canceled. We can do so in a grassroots fashion without leaving our home towns.
We don’t need any violence we see more than our fair share every day. Charge can happen but it require everyones participation. . We are all tired and just want to be left alone to live our lives in freedom and liberty but we can not stand idly by.
We became to complacent and we can no longer ignore what’s taken place in our country. Its time to stand as one people and demand that our representatives work together with dignity, humility , civility and thru compromise find common ground and move our nation back to center.
So true. I gave copies of the founding documents to my adult child years ago. They asked me why and I said you can’t delete paper, well not unless you have seen the movie fahrenheit 454.
Idealistic and I would love to see this happen. But if history is any guide, we are in for a very long, very bloody era of history. Power never gives up power without a fight (I can think of only one example in history.).
We must make an effort. Even the ccp stopped the zero tolerance for covid lockdowns when the people protested. Gandhi made a difference against the odds. These were peaceful protests. Yet to your point often it does become violent as we repeat history rather than learn from it.
We have representatives in DC and they need to know that weaponizing the government against the people has to end.
I may sound idealistic but optimism is what we need. We will never know if we don’t try. I don’t want to be part of the generation that refused to stand up and make their voices heard. The generation that gave our freedoms away. We have lost enough of our freedoms already.
Each voice is important and we need to stand together.
We must keep the conversation going... talk with our family’s, friends and neighbors. Start contacting our elect reps over and over until they listen. We can’t let them silence us.
It’s starts with just one phone call, one email , one text. It’s a simple ask just participate.
I was trying to be descriptive not prescriptive. You’re right: It’s too late to expect that a return to teaching Civics could augur a return to a “representative democracy” as our Founders designed.
Because all of you sleepy headed racists suddenly woke up to your biggest fear ever- that yes, a Black person could be in charge and the country would not go to heck in a hand basket. It scared the living daylights out of you. That's when we saw how many of you lived under a dark, dank, fetid rock. Obama didn't "divide" the country- YOU did. And he fired all those military personnel because DO YOU RECALL THE STUPID ILLEGAL IRAQ WAR? Bush was sanctioning black ops sites, the prison at Abu Ghraib. and Guantanamo. US military became a bunch of torture expert thugs- you have forgotten how bad Bush was- all you remember is how Black Obama was.
I voted for Obama. Twice. What a mistake. I thought he was a Democrat. I thought he would stop the illegal Iraq war. I thought he would do something for the poor.
Obama was everyone's biggest disappointment. He helped CEOs & billionaires & Wall St. He made $$$$ selling out America's poor. He started wars. He didn't end any wars. Bush was obviously worse but Obama was still everyone's disappointment.
He worsened Race Relations because of his rhetoric. He instigated & created anger, blame. Making Black people into helpless victims so that the rich (like Obama) can get richer. Instead of making people into victims, it's better to empower people to achieve their dreams.
Wow, what a waste of the paper it was written on… I was for Obama, and blindly stayed in his corner, until I could not ignore his shortcomings anymore, and I’m definitely not racist.
I think it started the dive under Bush Jr. Those were dark times for sure, and when Obama got elected there was a glimmer of “hope”, which quickly evaporated after the recession followed by the squashing of the Occupy Movement (I still believe that was our last best chance at enacting real change, before the corporatization became permanent and the technocracy took over). By Obama’s 2nd term it was obvious the Deep State was still in full control and only deepening its power.
The dive began after the Supreme Court validated the Bush victory in the 2000 election. From that point on there was nothing short of constant criticism of his administration by Democrats, single issue groups and the media. Yes, 9/11 did provide a halt temporarily but it soon picked up its former pace. Notably there was never pushback from Bush. Critics became emboldened and disparaged anything not to their liking, especially Republicans. I think this negativity poisoned the voting public towards Republicans as well as Mitt Romney’s lack of appeal. (Remember Candy Crowley?) Obama’s election opened the floodgates of disparaging commentary towards conservative positions along with pushing marginal groups to the forefront. Obama always blamed his problems on Bush and/or Republicans. Again, the media refrained from criticism of Obama and labeled anyone who dared so as racist. Even John Roberts felt justified to rewrite those parts of Obamacare to allow passage. Events occurred so quickly that the “Chicago Way” once entrenched in our government found a home. The combination of Big Tech and our "new" government philosophy was successful in thwarting major policies by the Trump team. They have the MSM in their pocket and have tightened the grip on alternative means to discuss our grievances. We are now saddled with elite and power-hungry Democrats who don’t want to give up power.
Yes, in 2012, I remember people on Facebook saying that if you were going to vote for Mitt Romney (Mitt Romney, of all people!), you were a stupid, evil racist.
The Patriot Act under the Bush administration set the stage. Social Media was not that well developed until the Obama era so maybe that is why it seems like everything went downhill when Obama took office. The Patriot Act, however, in my opinion is what normalized everything that came after it.
Cannot disagree, however, I think that one difference is that the Bush admin used the Patriot Act against our enemies, whereas, under Obama and now Biden, Patriot Act policies have been turned against Americans.
I miss George W's presidency. He is a decent man, a rarity nowadays.
I am a healthcare provider, so I always resented the Patriot Act. It permits the DOJ to demand patients' healthcare records, and the provider isn't permitted to inform the patients that the records were turned over to the government. At this point, though, that probably doesn't matter anymore. My state government wants to know who I have sex with (or not) when I try to get my business license renewed, and so does every big company I need to renew contracts with.
The turn commenced in the aftermath of 9/11 when most of us were mao mao’d into cheering on the Patriot Act. Those of us who dared to point out the real potential blow-back were castigated or ignored.
Obama was the catalyst, but the movement started under Woodrow Wilson. The advancement of leftist thought moved at a glacial pace until Obama was elected. From the beer summit on, it was peddle to the metal for the leftists, though not at the breakneck speed we see today. The real crack in the fabric of society came with Covid. It opened the door to total control.
Once cracked, the Deep State and leftists used every tool to sabotage and steal 2020 election in swing states, plant their easily-led candidate and now control the WH and responsible for the decay of our constitutional republic. We are not a democracy; they just use this term because they believe it best suits their purpose.
No, it wasn't went Obama took office. It was when George W. Bush took office, lied us into a war, and murdered 800,000 people over a weapons of mass destruction program that didn't exist, and walked away scott free after all that.
The United States lost its last bits of moral credibility after that.
Our government, BLATANTLY lied us into a war. Blatantly. The fact that George W. Bush wasn't strung up and executed for that shows that our entire nation is a bunch of complicit murderers.
And we are. Obama then took over, and expanded the 2 wars, into 7 wars. Can you even name which nations the US bombed when Obama was in charge? NOPE is my bet.
A well informed citizenry is necessary to the liberty of a free state. Well I'm informed none of you jerkoffs are, so I have to live in this shitty tyranny that you're too stupid to recognize as a tyranny. You're blaming a fucking president. The presidents are fucking puppets. How obvious does it have to get? Do we have to have a "president" that is a senile, hair sniffing, corrupt, pervert who OBVIOUSLY can't function - does it have to get that obvious before you can fucking see it?
Eisenhower warned us in 1961... this started well before Bush Jr...
"... we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. ..."
It was under George W. Bush that a false flag attack on the nation conducted by our intelligence agencies and several foreign ones set up the pretense for 20 years of wars.
We are lied into every war, we were lied into WWII. Pearl Harbor could have been prevented, and it was purposely not prevented. Do you really think a commercial airline, KNOWN to have been hijacked was able to penetrate the US' most highly guarded airspace to hit the headquarters of the department of "defense"?
I grew up in a remote spot in Northern NY. My parents have a cabin on the lake. There's two lakes, one is on military property, but no water is "owned" by any entity, water is jointly shared. This means I can boat into the lake surrounded by military property. It's completely legal to do this but if I get out of my boat, and on land, I will be arrested in minutes. It takes less than 15 minutes for a jet to fly overhead once I enter that lake as well.
You think they couldn't do this for DC?
If people understood our government has been infiltrated and is run by mass murderers and traitors, it wouldn't be for long but people simply can't believe it, so we're stuck with it.
Ya, sure, the Iraq war, the financial meltdown, everything's in...CHECK. You're circling around the problem. Social media was also tolerable, you say. And then it became what? Something changed...
This is from an interview with Joe Rogan and Michael Schallenberg.
Do we know when this began? Like when did they infiltrate these organizations? Because it's not just Twitter, right?
Michael: Oh no, absolutely not. That's part of what was so terrifying. It was all of the social media companies, including Wikipedia by the way, which we don't talk about enough. And all of the mainstream news organizations are being organized.
Really what you're looking at is an apparatus that was created during the War on Terror over the last 20 years, starting after 9/11. After that there was a battle against ISIS because ISIS was successfully recruiting on social media. Then you get the big event: Brexit, first, in 2016, and then Trump's election. At that point, the establishment just absolutely freaks out.
There were a lot of different motivations. One of the motivations was just to blame Facebook, to blame social media, for Trump's victory. It was never true. I don't really think anybody really believed it. There was never any good evidence that whatever Russians did had much of any influence — any measurable influence — on the outcome of the campaign. But they started to scapegoat the social media companies as a way to get control over them.
Then, in 2017, two things happen. The Department of Homeland Security declares, as part of its mission protecting election infrastructure, the “media and information environment.” It's creepy and patronizing and it's a power move. That's the first thing that happens. Then, they create something called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the Department of Homeland Security to supposedly protect the media environment from foreign influence.
They also created something called the Foreign Influence Task Force within the FBI to start policing domestic speech on these platforms. They start organizing all the social media companies to participate in these meetings. You had Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook in here and there's a critical moment where you ask about the Hunter Biden laptop. And he goes, “Yeah, in the summer of 2020, all these FBI guys come to us saying there's going to be a hack-and-leak operation involving Hunter Biden.”
This is super-suspicious because, as everybody now knows, the FBI had Hunter Biden's laptop in December 2019.
By the way, I was a victim of the Hunter Biden laptop disinformation. I voted for Biden. I thought that the laptop was Russian disinformation. I bought the whole thing.
You’re not the only one. Per the data, 10-15% of people who voted for Biden, said they would have voted for Trump had they known the truth about the laptop.
The laptop story (the truth) was covered by NYPost only &censored on social media. NYPost, an official news media, was banned on social media for a week. The legacy media lied & said the laptop was fake news.
Btw NYPost is my trusted news source, I love them. They are one of the last remaining fully independent media. 
And I voted for W and supported the Patriot Act after the inconceivable 911 atrocity. I was completely fooled. We've ALL been had by these manipulative politicians and their puppet masters.
The good thing is we are coming together now and that we now see the BS from miles away, since 2016 and esp. since 2020. That is huge.
Yes, so did I. Now I’m convinced the government blew up the towers on purpose. There is no way a fire at the top caused them to completely go down into dust
So their propaganda worked and they were successful? Why aren’t people able to determine truth when it comes to religion and politics? (I.e. have a BS filter)
I read this whole essay today, and it’s a long one. My question: why is this not eliciting a shit ton of self reflection or at least a modicum of interest in the legacy media?
Because it wholly condemns them. The legacy media has lost any shred of objectivity or pursuit of the truth it ever may have had. They like "gotchas" against their enemies, not their friends, and by "friends", I mean people who pay them. Self reflection has absolutely no place in the psyche of the pathological liar.
That Tablet essay was breathtaking. Internet/social sites hijacked by deep state counterintelligence bureaucrats in lockstep w/ Bush’s Patriot Act. First they came for Muslims, post 9-11. With close of that threat, self preservation of that Cabal finds a new enemy (domestic dissidents /Trump supporters) to justify its existence and continued need. Lots of digital evidence left behind since 2016, Musk’s Twitter Files gives that a ray of sunshine. But absolutely frightening that future AI will continue doing the same but without the digital proof anything was ever suppressed. Cue the RESTRICT Act, said to control TikTok, but perhaps a new Patriot Act w/ broad govt powers of restriction ‘for our protection’ in our ever-evolving digital age
Sasha, our generation grew up knowing that free speech was the bedrock of our constitutions and country. I didn't know anyone who was pro censorship. It's interesting times we live in, because many of those who fought for freedom of expression, and even the freedom to be challenged and not coddled in college--what happened?
On a related note, we need a different word for rigging an election meeting stealing ballots, and social media attempts to sway voters. One is completely unacceptable. The other we have to live with to an extent, but the government using tax dollars to fund organisations to create censorship is unacceptable.
Dems keep saying there is no "Voter Fraud" which is completely disingenuous and they know it.
No Republicans contend that *VOTERS* rigged the election. It was the people counting the votes. Democrats at the counting places pulled so many tricks and, as always, Republican officials stood by like cowards.
When dems claim there was no voter fraud - they mean Biden won under the laws in effect at the time of the election - which is likely true.
The problem of course is that the Republicans and Trump were caught flat footed with the changes enacted under the guise of covid - many of those measures have since been declared unconstitutional via court challenges - though not all!!
So, while, you can argue that Republicans were caught flat footed once - the bigger question is - have they recovered sufficiently to prevent it from happening again, and in perpetuity!! I'm not convinced!!
I read this yesterday, and immediately wanted to share it, but anyone who would be willing read it already knows, and anyone who doesn't know won't want to read it. It's the never-ending circle of blind oblivion. Every time I'm tempted to stop reading articles like this and stop worrying about how far off the rails we are getting, I think of how much worse it would be if I added myself to the oblivion.
Yes. Who to share it with? I know of only two people who would read it, think, and discuss. I send articles like this to members of parliament, journalists, Senators, etc.
And no doubt, most of those will just delete it without even looking. I imagine that if nothing else, the members of parliament’s assistants will have to at least read the subject line. I try to select a quotation from the article that , if only that, will still have some effect on their dulled consciousness.
I’m quite certain that the elected representatives themselves don’t read much of anything; it certainly appears that they just repeat and regurgitate talking points they’ve been given, fed narratives, slogans and slurs.
Is this the result of the demographic that was coddled by helicopter parents? You know, the ones who’s mom’s wrangled better marks from the schools even though their kids didn’t do the work, or they saved them from ever experiencing consequences for their actions, were given awards for just barely ‘participating’ equally with those who did a thorough job? And on and on.
Was this ‘dumbing down’ deliberate? These people occupying political and bureaucratic offices are dangerous because they are empty vessels, and therefore tools.
It was definitely deliberate! It's straight out of the Communist Manifesto. It's the reason they want to drop the SAT tests for college admissions, and has no thing to do with equity and racism. They want the citizens of the world to be dumbed down, medicated, AI'ed, and compliant. That or dead. We are living through a truly evil time.
I agree with this 100%. I taught art in a California Bay Area high school from 1967-2000, and witnessed the dumbing down in slow motion. This was in Mountain View, world headquarters for Google. I retired at age 55 just to get out of the system before it ate me up. Teaching in The Sixties, I had kids that were curious, creative, and engaged, but by the time of the 90’s arrived, they sat there as if I was to be the entertainment. I couldn’t get out fast enough, and I loved teaching and teenagers. Today, I would never have chosen that career.
"A state organized on the principle that it exists to protect the sovereign rights of individuals, is being replaced by a digital leviathan that wields power through opaque algorithms and the manipulation of digital swarms"
Aka, the "Deep State". There is also the concept of groupthink, which drives the great majority of Deep State behavior. Like the "Banality of Evil" that drove German citizens to acquiescence (if not outright complicity) with the evil perpetrated in their name, the Deep State moves on its own with little central command.
Can the Deep State be defeated? That is the question of the age.
Yes, the Deep State can be defeated! But, only 'IF' all of us Truth Seekers and Truth Tellers speak up, join up and pony up! Think just like it was 1776 all over again! King George was a worthy opponent to The Colonists who wanted their freedom from the Tyrant. But this Tyrant isn't half a world away; he/it is in the White House and in control of every major institution in the nation!
However, the Truth is the most powerful weapon at our disposal still, if we will only speak up, join up and pony up! It will take courage and sacrifice so I challenge each of you to read back over any truthful account of Washington's and the troop's terrible winter at Valley Forge. Then purpose to do all in your power to emulate these brave souls who gave us the foundation for 'The American Dream'! We either rise responsibly to the challenge now or we will be deposited on the 'Ash Heap of History'! Which is it going to be?!
Exactly. Truth telling is how the communist were defeated and truth telling still has the same power necessary to defeat the deep state. We need more truth tellers. We need more people who are bold and have the courage to speak out.
Something monstrous indeed. These past 2* years under Biden administration (a President that is embarrassingly incompetent and a cabinet filled with activists with no knowledge of the department they oversee). The MSM ignores all the blunders. We are funding a war with no end in sight and one US has stirred. Biden’s pullout of Afghanistan is never brought up, but people need to remember how many citizens and even service members are still stuck over there. Billions of weapons left behind along with Bagram Air Force Base. Biden’s war on fossil fuels has decimated our nation’s energy security and greatly damaged our economy. Every step this administration takes further damages our nation and our security. His covid mandates have hurt so many, weakened our military, and damaged our airlines’ safety.
Seigel's piece is outstanding--and something many of us have thought, if not with as much detail or all the same specifics, for a while now. We are in the final stages of a coup d'etat beyond even politics in the democratic, left-right, or Democrat-Republican, sense. It was best described by Orwell in his book-within-the-book, the one by Emmanuel Goldstein, Oligarchic Collectivism, the book with which O'Brien taunts Winston Smith in 1984. It shows us the "managerial revolution" described by James Burnham, whose real significance was understood only by Orwell. His classic novel of totalitarianism--based pointedly on western societies, not just the Communist East--describes how something that might be based on Wall Street and Madison Avenue (or the British correlatives) goes totalitarian, becomes a full corporate state. He saw how liberal democracy contains the seeds if its own supersession in an ideological meta-state. Socialism means not the abolition of private property in the classic Marxian conceit, but mechanisms of total social control through perpetual emergency, demonization of internal as well as external enemies, propaganda and methods of thought control (beyond the shaping of opinion) made possible by modern technologies and the systemic abuse of language--all for the purpose of keeping in power a governing elite no longer capable of managing anything for the good of the nation yet unable to let go of power and make room for new leaders. Socialism means that an elite governs in the name of "society" or "our democracy" or whatnot, which justifies its deployment of any means whatsoever, in reality though only for itself at the expense of society. Davos. Supposedly all for the sake of society or global humanity--but actually for the likes of Kerry and Schwab and their crowd. That is where we are now, the consummation of a totalitarian revolution from above in the works for a while but now in its final stages.
“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
The left built a monster (the authoritarian state depicted by Orwell) to take down a single man and now that monster is eating them alive.
The authoritarian left will promote and build AI as they see it as just another tool to control the population. They will promote it the same way, as “counterterrorism” and “counter disinformation “.
AI views the authoritarian left the same way they view it, as a means to an end; except AI does not define power as control over populations.
True, he probably didn't imagine AI, still less the algorithmic control of the internet behind the scenes, but he certainly saw the principle, and that is how his critique of totalitarianism went beyond anything else at the time--plus his association of it with managerialism à la Burnham, including if not especially in the Western capitalist context. And that is where I think you are mistaken to make this all a matter of the authoritarian left. They have merely taken over--for now--the apparatus of the national security state traditionally identified with the right and amplified exponentially by the Bush 2 Republicans. Yes, it is the ideological revolution of the left that is driving a lot of this, but in sync with both corporate power (which has no ideological loyalties), the media, the Deep State, and the DC uniparty. The neo-cons, fore example, are as implicated as anyone else.
I'm a lifelong conservative and agree it's the uniparty - from both the left and right, establishment actors implementing their central bankers puppet master's tyranny through a silent war. Glad readers here from both sides of the aisle see this. That is critical to truly confronting it.
Like many of you, for the umpteenth time, I am once again struggling to find persuasive words to broach sharing such information so it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
I had all but given up on this years ago; however, the situation is becoming dire and reaching a fever pitch of late. Heck, next week may be the start of a civil war in America, for heaven's sake.
How do we get people to think, care, read, comprehend, and react appropriately in their best interest to what is happening?
I plan on sharing the link to Jacob's guide on my substack and for family and friends on Facebook. After speed-reading Jacob's piece, I came up with the following draft.
I need to reread it slowly tomorrow. I want to edit this draft down to something more concise and persuasive. I'm sharing it here in case anyone has suggestions or wishes to borrow any snippets that may help them do the same.
America: Suicide by Ignorance and the Lust for Power
Can we all agree that the world is in turmoil and that America, the leader of the free world, is degenerating into a banana republic at breakneck speed?
There is a lot to the story of America's pending demise. Since it will significantly affect everyone's family and future, we all have a vested interest in getting to the true heart of the matter.
Even the most liberal and progressive among us are becoming uncomfortable with America's trajectory. Well-intentioned people from all walks of life are asking appropriate questions and getting honest answers, unsettling as they are.
Do take the time; this is required reading that our futures depend on.
Rather than rely upon faulty headlines and simple soundbites, it behooves us to take the time to understand the cause and reasons behind what amounts to America's suicide.
The Comprehensive Guide
The author, Jacob Siegel, aptly titles his tome, A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century. Please read it, weep, get mad, discuss it freely, and determine the appropriate actions you and your family could take in response. (see the link below)
With this accurate and insightful warning, there is no excuse for saying we had no idea how far the country had fallen. We are fast approaching a point when it becomes too late to do anything about it.
We are witnessing a parallel between Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany and the modern-day rise of a radical uni party of global elites that have infiltrated and infected our institutions, cultures, and governments across America and the West.
The time for "politics" has passed.
It's not about the political left vs. right; it's about right and wrong, everyday people vs. the super elites; it all boils down to good vs. evil.
It is of existential importance that everyone understands how and why this is happening. Please share this country-saving public information with everyone you hold dear.
Knowledge is power; pursue it patiently and use it wisely.
Obama certainly ginned it all up to a daily push toward dividing us but I think it really began after the 2000 election when the SJC decided that Bush won.
The Democrat cry of "Impeach Bush" started immediately; before he'd even taken office.
And I've never forgotten Democrats circulating (online) an "Apology to the World" for the country electing George Bush, signed by millions of Democrats.
To me, that is when Democrats started The War Against Republicans and it was constant through the eight years of Bush's presidency.
And, you're right. Any criticism of Obama from Day One was called Racism. The Dems couldn't fathom that Republicans found fault with his policies. It HAD to be racism. Couldn't they see that he was the Messiah?
Correct. We criticized some of the exact same policies Obama pursued when they were pushed by Clinton and we were not called racists then.
Schumer, Pelosi, even Obama and pretty much all major politicians in modern times had speeches where they called for securing the borders, but they were not called Xenophobes and racists then.
The change was Obama's and his team's heavy-handed Marxist playbook of sowing racial division to induce chaos to implement change. Before Obama, race relations had come lightyears away from the days of horrific segregation and actual institutional racism (in terms of modern times).
Exactly. Democrats never miss an opportunity to find a label for people who disagree with them.
And every "name" is filled with hate and divisiveness.
Tragically, now, Democrats can say and do anything they want with no repercussions.
I fully-expected that Trump's indictment would galvanize Republicans in Congress to immediately start impeachment proceedings against Biden or, at least, Mayorkas. (Two can play at this game, right?) Instead, I'm seeing a lot of TENTATIVE comments from them on TV. Hosts are asking them direct questions about doing SOMETHING back and they are dodging those questions.
Gov't Quietly Brings Back Total Information Awareness
Reuters has obtained a Congressional report that shows nine months after Congress shut down the controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program called Total Information Awareness, the U.S. government continues to comb private records and databases to sniff out suspicious activity. Peter Swire, who served as the Clinton's administration's top official said "I believe that Total Information Awareness is continuing under other names."
The Information Awareness Office is a branch of the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency whose mission is to "imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness." The IAO is headed by John Poindexter, former National Security Advisor in the Reagan Administration and chief architect of the Iran-Contra Affair...
The IAO's stated mission is to gather as much information as possible about everyone in a centralized location for easy perusal by the United States government, including Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data. In essence, the goal of the IAO is to be able to recreate a life history of thoughts and movements for any individual on the planet on demand, which the Bush administration deems necessary to counter the threat of terrorism. Critics claim the very existence of the IAO completely disregards the concept of individual privacy and liberties and is far too invasive and prone to abuse.
The IAO was first mentioned in the media by New York Times reporter John Markoff on February 13, 2002, with few details available as to the agency's role or activities. In the following months, as more and more information emerged about the IAO's full scope, protest among civil libertarians grew over what they claim is the IAO's disturbingly Orwellian mission, especially within the larger framework of other invasive homeland security measures and policies implemented by the Bush administration. Also at issue is the integrity of Poindexter as head of the IAO, as he was convicted on five felony charges for lying to the Congress and deliberately altering and destroying documents pertaining to the Iran-Contra Affair.
I hope it is understood that 9/11 was used as the pretext for creating "Homeland Security" and gave us the "Patriot Act" (which had already been written), the militarization of local police forces, NORTHCOM, the ability of the government to incarcerate anyone without trial by calling them a "terrorist", and much more - in addition to giving us a whole new "enemy" after the collapse of the USSR, thus the "war on terror". This "enemy" was needed in order to justify continuing to spend trillions of $ on the MIC, which includes silicon valley.
You have to understand what Noam Chomsky said:
"Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to protect themselves. That's why you have state secret laws. Citizens are not supposed to know what their government is doing to them."
The rabbit hole is deep on this. It is tied in with the desire to create a one-world government.
Whitney Webb is currently reporting on Jamie Diamond of JPMorgan Chase and his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. She reports that they
"...were instrumental in the creation of what would manifest as the 2008 economic crisis. Not unlike some of the events that sparked today’s banking crisis, figures like Jeffrey Epstein, Dimon’s mentor Sandy Weill and the former Treasury Secretaries with close associations with both men, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, appeared to have engaged in actions that would intentionally provoke the collapse of certain banks to further consolidate the banking sector for their benefit. The goal, both then and now, seems to have been a move towards the logical conclusion of the “too big to fail” banking model — the eventual creation of a centralized cartel of mega-banks that dominate, not only commercial banking, but also central banking."
Again, there is a lot to this and it's been going on for a long time, working toward the goal of what Aldous Huxley called a "scientific dictatorship".
Start pulling on the threads of this and there's no end to it.
If you want a glimpse of what is coming for you, look to the north. In response to the Freedom Convoy, we now have Bill C-11 and C-18, where Trudeau introduces the new terrorist group in Canada, "The Teleban". Their 'G-had', aka government control of everything, is aimed at creating a New World Odour, resulting in Canada being a Hole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Trudeau, who puts the "mess" in messianic, forgets that the Freedom Convoy was not a Protest, but a Statement. Protests are made by slaves begging the masters for mercy, and the response by the Trudeau storm troopers was to trample a little old lady in a walker, confirming the official policy that "The beatings will continue until morale improves". The Freedom Convoy was a completely non-violent Statement supported by millions of Canadians and millions around the world. The message is "We Will Not Comply". No violence, no revolution, we will simply put the government on 'ignore' and proceed to de-tax our civilization. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau, you have lost the trust of the taxed, and the consent of the governed. No Teleban will fix that. We have a civilization to rebuild, let's get busy.
Yes! My husband and I are in Ontario. We will not be filing taxes this year.
Here is an item you may not be aware of. I’ve been trying to get this out there to Canadians
and have been trying to get an answer from MPs. Heads up:
The federal government has quietly begun the creation of Personal Information Banks (PIB) to collect and store data on Canadians.
We were not consulted nor informed about the creation or existence of these databases and they are being collected without our permission or knowledge.
Categories of information include biometrics (DNA, blood type, eye/facial scan, fingerprints, etc), personal biography, medical history, financial history, credit information, and even “ opinions or views of or about individuals”, and much more.
Here is a link to the government website describing the PIBs. Scroll to the last section for Categories of Information:
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has quietly added it to their Privacy Terms so that in order to submit an application for benefits, such as the One-Time Housing Top Up they started offering in December, you must click that you agree to terms including "...being described in Personal Information Bank (under development)" in order to submit your application. It is also a term in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) application.
ALERT *It’s may also a term for filing income tax this year. * We need clarity on if it is or not.
If it is, many will sign the usual ‘privacy agreement’ for filing without knowledge or information that this has been included.
Instead of this subterfuge our politicians must clarify if it is or not. This situation MUST be made known to Canadians.
*People who are unwilling to ‘agree’ to this violation of their fundamental rights and personal privacy information will not be able to file income tax. *
The federal government is using the federal health transfers to bribe the premiers to adopt a Big Tech-style data-for-services health care system. This means that personal health records, and all the other that used to be private and confidential between you and your doctor will now be entered into the PIBs to be shared between the federal government, their stakeholders, and whoever else they decide can have access to it.
They lay it all out in their Departmental Plan for Health Canada 2022/23. There is no mention of hiring health care workers. It's all data, digitization, AI, vaccines, and so on.
And no doubt, corporate interests will make billions on the creation and running of this surveillance system for this government. Regulatory Capture is a serious failure of government and a threat to national security and the people.
Many Canadians depend on those bits of money they get related to filing their tax returns. This is abuse of political office to construct a surveillance system no one wants and that benefits no one but the government and its‘ stakeholders’. Personal data is one of the most lucrative commodities.
It’s also another huge use of taxpayer’s money to fund agendas that dismantle our democracy and constitutional rights and fundamental rights.
We won’t be complying with any further violations of fundamental human rights .
I am half way through the article. I simply cannot wrap my head around how the progressive left can be so authoritarian and self righteous at the same time while lecturing America on how the "other side" is a threat to democracy. It is like a bad dream. Truly Orwellian.
How is it these self promoting intellectuals fail to see the irony and danger in what they are promoting. I guess it comes down to the intoxication of power and the thrill of being surrounding and applauded by a compliant media.
Jon Haidt had a very interesting article recently on how a lot of woke thinking overlaps with mental illness in the sense that a lot of young people lack the critical thinking to go along with their hypersensitized emotional thinking. Their entire world is microaggressions and obsessions around hierarchy and perceived oppression. They need what is referred to as cognitive behavioral therapy to develop the pathways in the brain for critical thinking.
I think in many cases they fully understand the irony and have calculated the misery visited upon us. Much more sinister than just not getting it...at least in some cases...
I don't have answers, but I will offer this: Dubya, who I voted for twice, unleashed the government leviathan after Sept 11. He turbocharged what is now the unelected 4th branch of government - the Deep State intelligence agencies. In addition, he granted MFN status to communist China so our globalist wealthy class could achieve their bonus money through cheap labor offshore telling us our costs would go down. How is that working today?
Obama administration came in, took Chinese money, and weaponized it against Americans.
G-d damn Bush. G-d damn Obama for weaponizing it. G-d damn every executive level service officer in the United States federal government. They are the problem.
Agree but would add what others have pointed out; Deep State was unleashed at least as far back as FDR (he pushed us into WWII and implemented fascism by merging industrial power w government; before that he created US welfare state)
Sasha, what is happening today is nothing new, but is merely the fruits of foundations laid in the 1850s by European "Forty-Eighters" who came here after their attempts at revolution in Europe, particularly Germany, collapsed. Karl Marx and Fredrick Engles were Forty-Eighters but they stayed in Europe, in England, but they heavily influenced the work of their counterparts on America. They came to the United States and immediately started working to promote revolution here. They were staunch abolitionists and seized on abolition fervor in New England and the "Northwest," now Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, to start their groundwork, In the century and a half since their philosophies have taken over American academia and are at the root of everything happening today. Donald Trump came along and became the champion of the little people, the very people the German revolutionists and their Communist descendants claim to be seeking to protect.
It's probably too late to stop them, but it's very possible they are the future followers of the Biblical antichrist.
Many, if not most, of them, particularly Germans. One in particular was Joseph Wedemyer, who was a close associate of Marx and Engels and the head of the Communist league in Frankfurt. Marx was expelled from Germany because of his role in the 1848 revolution. He ended up in Manchester, England. Horace Greely and Charles Dana published his missives in the New York Tribune for over a decade.
But not so in Hungary, Italy, Denmark, or Holland, to any significant degree recorded degree I've come across. I would be very interested to learn of specific "Marxists" or Communists involved in those states.
There were some Hungarian communists who came to the US. Also Irish revolutionaries. Remember that communist predates Marx. He and Engels became communists and he wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. As a matter of fact, Marx told Wedemeyer to get it published in the US, which he did. Not all of the Forty-Eighters were members of the Communist Party but they were revolutionaries. Several of them became Union generals and some were part of Lincoln and Grant's administrations. Some of them went back to Europe after the Civil War since things had quieted down there. Charles A Dana was close to Marx as was Horace Greely. Dana edited Greely's newspaper and published Marx's articles. Marx is referred to as an "economist" but he was actually a revolutionary whose goal was the elimination of "the aristocracy" which to him was anyone who owned property, particularly land. The goal of the Forty-Eighters was to promote a revolution in the United States of factory workers in the North and slaves in the South. Marx saw the US and Russia as the most likely places for a revolution to succeed.
"The human art of politics, which would have required real negotiation and compromise with Trump supporters, was abandoned in favor of a specious science of top-down social engineering that aimed to produce a totally administered society."
The question is: what is to be done about the totality of our administered reality? Though he took a most dreadful political path, Heidegger was right to have deep anxiety about us all becoming enframed by technology, for so we have been and are. There seems to be no exit. We don't even know how to find each other, those of us who are still thinking, outside of the internet. Wasn't it also Heidegger who said: The most thought-provoking thing about our thought-provoking age is that we still are not thinking?
How are we to stake again and anew the human, & the call & challenge to think, from within enframement, psyops & swarming?
"The old human arts of conversation, disagreement, and irony, on which democracy and much else depend, are subjected to a withering machinery of military-grade surveillance—surveillance that nothing can withstand and that aims to make us fearful of our capacity for reason."
I believe that when we focus on Covid as our major problem we are falling into a trap, a trap for our minds that discounts the real danger, the ease with which we have succumbed to mandates. We can see a tremendous amount of human energy being expended on the Covid aspect of what has taken place over the past three years, origins, vaccines, treatments, therapeutic protocol, etc. There is also a significant discussion about lockdowns but i don't think nearly enough about how easily we fell for the lie. So thanks for opening the discussion to try to unravelled what is up.
I didn't yet read the quoted article but 3 years ago i was listening to a delingpod, podcast and he had on a guest, Donald S. Siegel is foundation professor and director at the School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University (Donald.Siegel.1@asu.edu). and they discussed " a massive social experiment " being conducted on us, particularly without our informed consent. Prof Siegel and his partner wrote an article for the Jerusalem Post that's still available and there's a link in my blog post, https://gseine.com/2020/04/10/troubling-thoughts-about-covid-19/
I emailed back and forth with Prof Siegel a couple of time but haven't followed up. It was during the heart of Covid panic in early April, while the inferno was raging an a sane voice was utterly overpowered. largely the concern was the ease with which our society discarded personal autonomy.
Today I see a lot of people looking for a super villain and while there are powerful people playing with human lives to be found, it doesn't explain how we are so willing to do as the say, to so easily and uncomplainingly comply with regulation that have never even seen legislative discussion, that are not formal laws. As a nation, once full of independent thinkers, we can be considered woolly eyed sheep today.
That said though, I personally think it has been made possible by ideas the are embedded deeply in our society., ideas presented years ago by philosophers now long dead. two that come to mind, It's become almost impossible to agree on truth, as the idea we've largely accepts say there is no ultimate truth. Another is the acceptance of expert rule, that we largely accept that we are personally impotence and incompetence in this very complex world.
If we are convinced that we are personal weak we will be doomed to failure in winning back a free society. And the necessity of developing articulate, persuasive arguments to support the cause of freedom must not be ignored if we are to garner supporters. For without assembling ever increasing numbers of independent thinkers, we few will be swept away under a tsunami of ignorance.
I find it fascinating to be recommending a Siegel article on a link that recommends another Siegel article, albeit authors that don't share a first name. A detective mystery to explore.
President Wilson gave us the Federal Reserve, the 16th Amendment establishing the federal income tax, and racism in the military was reimposed. FDR merely built on the “progressive” foundation established by Wilson.
It's an alien and inhuman materialistic darkness formerly called Satan, the Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub, or simply the Adversary. It's nihilistic and suicidal to humans because it's dedicated to destroying God and every part of His Creation. Men and women are the Lord's most beloved living form, made in His image. Sexuality, the family, individualism, and the common brotherhood and sisterhood of all people are being destroyed as we speak. We're in the final act of a drama that's over 5,000 years old.
Perhaps the most frightening thing about this whole story of corporate statism through media control (among other things) is how many of our fellow citizens, with all the evidence presented, still choose to see nothing, nothing.
The following is taken from the article, “Kow Tow Now” available on the substack, BigMouth. More is available there on the topic of Chinese hybrid warfare (what Dr Robert Malone calls 5th gen warfare).
Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is often considered a principal architect of the current authoritarian tide sweeping freedom away from western democracies and the United States of America. His father, Eugen Schwab, was managing director at Escher Wyss during WW2, a major supplier of weapons and materials to the Nazi’s 3rd Reich. The Escher Wyss branch of the company in Ravensburg, Germany, (which Eugen managed) used prisoners of war and forced laborers during the Nazi’s war effort. The company also made a turbine for a Norwegian hydroelectric power station used in the construction of an experimental reactor intended for military-use plutonium production. Klaus Schwab was himself a managing board member of Escher Wyss from 1967-1970.
Although his experience of authoritarian Nazism with his father and in a personal capacity is clear, it is highly doubtful that Klaus Schwab is personally the originator of the extensive, meticulously crafted strategies which have been implemented over decades to effect the systematic destruction of western civilization. The characteristics of these strategies and their long-term implementation directly parallel the 24 warfare types articulated by the Communist Party of China in strategy papers publicly released since Chairman Mao first began to broaden his horizons to include dominance of the entire planet. The CCP began to develop their comprehensive national power goals as the foundation of a uniquely Chinese foreign policy more than 40 years ago.
What is clear is that Klaus Schwab has been a close collaborator with the CCP and their expansionist goals. In 1992, Klaus Schwab and World Economic Forum launched a program initially called Global Leaders of Tomorrow.
This program then became the non-profit Forum for Young Global Leaders. It was created in Switzerland in 2005 using $1 million in grant money by Schwab in his role as founder of the World Economic Forum. Their website glowingly reports, “as a group of over 600+ professionals across over 90 countries worldwide, YGL Alumni are engaged in activities that aim to improve the state of the world. They are CEO's of Fortune 500 corporations, in royal houses, in leading NGO's and national non-profits, public figures in civil society, sports personalities, and more.” In an address in 2017 at Harvard, Schwab said, “What we are very proud of, is that we penetrate the global cabinets of countries with our WEF Young Global Leaders." While speaking during an interview with Tian Wei, the host of the “World Insight” program on the Beijing-based China Global Television Network, Schwab discussed the recent G20 and B20 meetings in Bali, Indonesia where he gave a speech to world leaders on how his “Great Reset” agenda is going to “restructure” society in their countries.
The Authoritarian State is here. And they want us to know it.
I think its extremely significant that, inter alia, the IRS sent a agent to Matt Taibbi’s home on the day he was testifying to Congress, (see story below). This IRS visit, I think, is of a piece with the various unannounced SWAT raids on the homes of nonviolent people which have been happening the last few years, such as the completely unnecessary forceful arrest of retired economics professor Peter Navarro, and indeed, the pending arrest of Trump himself.
more on Taibbi's unannounced IRS visit below:
WASHINGTON — The White House declined to comment Wednesday on an IRS agent’s visit to journalist Matt Taibbi’s home on the same day that he testified to a House subcommittee investigating the “weaponization” of government.
The surprise March 9 door-knock came as the “Twitter Files” collaborator described his reporting on how the government pressured social media platforms to censor online speech.
The Post asked at the first White House press briefing since the news of the visit broke Monday about whether the visit was “part of a campaign to harass or intimidate [Taibbi] related to his journalism.”
White House spokesman John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, declined to provide a substantive reply.
It started a long time ago; the Deep State Uniparty has only missed twice and let 2 non-Establishment presidents win in the last 60 years; JFK they assassinated and Trump they impeached twice and now are trying to throw in prison. Besides those 2 all the others were controlled by Uniparty. Here is the list. Note that only 21 individuals have been either President or VP in last 60 years; Should be closer to 30 individuals if Uniparty didn’t keep serving up Bushes, Clintons, Biden in Pres and VP roles. (Election every 4 years; 60 years/4 years=15 president elections and 15 VP roles for total of 30 pres or VP roles).
1961-1963 John F. Kennedy Jacqueline Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
1963-1965 Lyndon B. Johnson Lady Bird Johnson office vacant
1965-1969 Lyndon B. Johnson Lady Bird Johnson Hubert H. Humphrey
1969-1973 Richard M. Nixon Pat Nixon Spiro T. Agnew
1973-1974 Richard M. Nixon Pat Nixon Gerald R. Ford
1974-1977 Gerald R. Ford Betty Ford Nelson Rockefeller
1977-1981 Jimmy Carter Rosalynn Carter Walter F. Mondale
1981-1989 Ronald Reagan Nancy Reagan George Bush
1989-1993 George Bush Barbara Bush Dan Quayle
1993-2001 Bill Clinton Hillary Rodham Clinton Albert Gore
2001-2009 George W. Bush Laura Bush Richard Cheney
2009-2017 Barack Obama Michelle Obama Joseph R. Biden
2017-2021 Donald J. Trump Melania Trump Mike Pence
If Trump does time and/or suffers great material loss I'll believe he is a good guy and is really being persecuted.
If he only gains more wealth and fame from being publicly yelled at and yelling back, I'll stand by my current conviction that this is as fake as an old WWF match. Brought to you by globalist Ted Turner's network.
I would guess that was due to, yes, connections Kushner made while working for Trump in the middle-East. But I haven't seen him complaining about having to give 10% to the Big Guy or having to turn over half his income to his father-in-law. I don't know what the investment arrangement is but I haven't heard that any of the money was an outright gift for nothing. And Saudi Arabia is an ally, unlike China & Russia which are Communist enemies.
How absurd is it to base things on his personalit rather than his *Job Performance*???
The presidency is a JOB! And he excelled more than any president I recall. He kept us safe, improved our lives (everyone's, not just a select few), he was well on his way to closing the border and on and on. He did more for black Americans than Obama did. Etc.
Biden has that "pleasing personality" and look at the horrible mess he's made - plus he's a crook. China and Russia have decades of dirt on him so he must appease them for his own personal welfare. I'd rather have the bully any day.
Trump's big spending was mostly after COVID hit. (And all spending goes up with each president because things cost more and more each year.
Trump is no globalist. And he slightly knew the DC people b/c they all came to him to ask for money.
My side IS better. They've never targeted an opponent for no reason and kept that targeting going constantly for 7 years straight. They've never raided ppl's homes, with helicopters, armed men, CNN, and sent people to prison for *allegedly* lying to the FBI or not registering as a foreign agent. They didn't riot for an entire summer destroying billions of innocent peoples' businesses and MURDERING people. So, yes, I'm biased. And I put nothing, no matter how bad, past Democrats.
According to the iron law of all time machine movies, don’t change anything in the past or you will totally muck up the future. Liberals believe we went off the rails under Trump, conservatives blame Obama. Either way the evidence looks pretty compelling that someone broke that law in a big way.
I don’t mean to be glib. Our world is increasingly looking Orewllian. Life expectancy in the US turned down under Obama and is still going down. We need serious changes.
My humble opinion, but this is how we got here: Social Media.
It's a frequent villain, I know, but it's important to understand two facets of social media that have allowed it to be such a destructive force in this day and age.
For the first time in history, social media allowed everyone in the world to publish his or her opinion, indelibly, make it known to the world. What do I mean by "the world." Your world is your colleagues, co-workers, classmates, friend groups, relatives, acquaintances. Succinctly, those you connect with online. Before social media, you might mention your opinion on an issue to a few friends, you might even announce it in class or at work. But, it wasn't indelible, it was easily forgotten, and it wasn't published to the world. Social media changed that. You frequently aren't entitled to re-consider an ill-founded thought from seven years ago. You might even be cancelled when the narrative shifts.
In his book "Superforecasting," Phillip Tetlock cites a study where two groups of experts were asked to make predictions about future events. The first group's predictions were kept private; the second group's were published and made known to the world. Gradually, new facts were revealed that impacted the likelihood of the experts' predictions, and the experts were given the opportunity to revise their predictions in light of the new evidence.
The study found that the experts who published their predictions were far less likely to change their minds when new evidence was presented -- some even refusing to change when facts revealed their predictions were wrong. In short, their reputations were public and their egos became bound up in having their initial prediction vindicated. That's what social media does.
So, why didn't things begin to fall apart right at the advent of these social media networks, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, et al? Well, it took time for those who control the narrative to develop their techniques to match this new phenomenon, social media. With the invention of the printing press, a similar transformation occurred. Suddenly, governments, the rich and the churches lost control of the ability to control the narrative. Printing presses were banned in many areas. But, those who crave and have power developed new techniques -- yellow journalism, controlling media outlets, subtle censorship, etc.
The same is true here. The powers that be are honing their techniques. When Obama won his second election, his team and Facebook bragged about their ability to use the platform to get out the preferred vote. When Trump did the same thing four years later (Cambridge Analytica), it was a national outrage. And, from that point forward, they've been honing and sharpening their techniques for achieving narrative control using social media as the medium.
Their techniques are not perfected. But, they can successfully cement the opinions of much of the social media mob quickly, such that they cannot and will not change their minds, even when presented with evidence that they are wrong. Works on both sides of the aisle, but the medium (social media) only leans one way.
I heard someone once say that it wasn't Trump that killed the body politic and that he was just the EMT that pronounced it dead. I'm going to agree with that because I don't think you can reason with anyone anymore. Ms Stone recently gave us the example of the man who was beaten by the mob just trying to protect his friend's store in Kenosha. I look at that example and of a possible solution but all that comes to mind is the Boz Scaggs tune "It's Over.". Maybe that's where we are and there's no way back.
Actually, his name was David Dorn and he was murdered that night. That's why I don't, for a minute, agree with the "both sides" argument. People say that to appear fair - but it's not true. One side is vicious and violent. They have no limits on what they will do to win. The other side is led by cowards who have yet to fight back in the same way.
I know the article you refer to. It was so good I posted it to my social media accounts at Truth and GETTR, whether anyone reads it or not. I have been around long enough to remember where I was when JFK was assassinated. I have taken a keen interest in history beyond what was taught to me in many a school along the way......I attended many because I was a military brat. To truly make sense of what we experience today, one must go back to the days during the FDR administration. There are authors who expose the nastiness behind the headlines for WWII, particularly later in the war, and since then with 9/11 and the Patriot Act, and the military involvement in bio weapons research. Check out writings by Diana West, M. Stanton Evans, Whitney Webb, and Sasha Latyapova, to name a few. It is frightening how the mainstream media covers for the crap perpetrated by elected officials who have done so much to betray all of us, top among them today would be Barack Obama and Joe Biden IMO. Bless you, Sasha, for asking questions and raising doubts about all of it!
Siegel is right to object to the fascist label for this leviathan, as it really is not a good description (though I admit to having used that label for want of a better term. I guess I'm a "brainwashed zealot"). But what should we call it? The censorship industrial complex is certainly an accurate description of part of what is going on, but the CIC is simply a tool to achieve broader ideological, political, and financial aims.
Fascism is defined in M-W as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition"
This does not describe this thing we are dealing with because:
(1) the regime does not exalt nation or race above the individual, but instead exalts ideological conformity, institutional power, and collective action over the individual. Some may object that the movement does exalt race above the individual (despite its open contempt for "nation"), but this isn't really accurate. This is not, say, a black nationalist movement. Race is part of the ideology that holds the system together, but it is really the ideology itself, not race per se, that is being exalted over the individual.
(2) the regime does not "stand for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader..." Instead, it is a decentralized authoritarian system headed by an ideologically unified ruling class, using their leadership positions in government, corporations (esp. tech), and NGOs to impose autocracy through myriad mechanisms. They are not united in the figure of a dictator, but instead bound together by an egregore, which is defined in Wikipedia (yeah, I know, it's part of the regime) as "an occult concept representing a non-physical entity that arises from the collective thoughts of a distinct group of people." This non-physical entity takes the place of the dictator in the traditional fascist regime, which is what makes this thing so slippery and ephemeral. Thus, it could be said this regime "stands for a decentralized authoritarian system comprised of government, corporations, media, and civil society and headed by an egregore."
(3) While this system does enforce severe social regimentation, I don't believe it is accurate to say it enforces severe economic regimentation. The corporate sector is pretty much free to do its thing so long as the actors involved remain beholden to the egregore. Generous corporate and NGO welfare is definitely part of the system, but the economic component of the system really can't be described as severely regimented.
(4) "Forcible suppression of opposition" is also not a great descriptor for this thing. Much of the suppression occurs by very subtle and covert means, as we see in the Twitter Files. The suppression of opposition occurs through information warfare, as opposed to, say, gulags. It can be better described as "suppression of opposition through information warfare techniques."
So we arrive at something like the following definition: "a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts ideological conformity, institutional power, and collective action above the individual and that stands for a decentralized authoritarian system comprised of government, corporations, media, and civil society and headed by an egregore, severe social regimentation, expansive corporate welfare, and suppression of opposition through information warfare techniques."
We are being smothered in 'amorphous slime.' It is near impossible to get a solid handle on what is happening until fully understanding that institutions are really a complex set of ideas, accurate for a specific period of time, reduce to a number of followable rules that supersede thinking, a monster that gains life from its bureaucratic whims. In a dynamic, everchanging world their static nature condemn them to atrophy.
A many headed monster with many horns. The horns are where the thoughts occur. Its pelt provides camouflage, it can go upright or on all fours with speed. Its roar paralyzes prey for miles around.
Patriot Act was also used against the American People. Just a few examples: TSA and the wholesale surveillance of American citizens (under pretenses) as exposed by Edward Snowden.
The article was an amazing overview. We have allowed this "ministry of truth" and fact-checking apparatus to take over. The only way I see to stop it is for all of us to connect and support those who seek out and speak truth...like Sasha Stone. In spite of the apparatus, the truth about Covid and the jabs is slowly coming out, the truth about the Hunter laptop is coming out (where is the indictment?). We need to strengthen the sources and networks of truth. God bless Jacob Siegel for writing this.
It started years ago. WW2 spy machine put on guard against the red menace. Amping up over the decades but still out word looking. Then went into overdrive secondary to the bush administration patriot act. They started looking more inward. Starting with 'Muslim' terrorists. That's at least what they said to the public. In reality, over the next 3 presidents Obama, Trump and Biden they started looking at you. I mean you, me, us. I know most on this site are Trump folks, but this issue is a both party/ una party/ deep state thing. Trump guys were using it as well. Not sure the solution. I've always been a big believer in term limits but since this is both sides don't think that would even help at this point.
Good summary by Siegel. I think the totalitarian threat is very real and needs to be confronted. But there's a hurdle that goes by the name of Trump. He is now in the way. He is being used by the authoritarians to further their goals. How? They use Trump as a distraction. They, along with their Pravda-like media partners, put all the focus on him and his controversial personality. They enflame the hatred of the morons with lies and exaggerations and, when nobody is looking at anything else but Trump, they extend their power grab. Make no mistake, Democrats want Trump to be the R candidate in 2024. Alvin Bragg's actions are designed to help Trump win the primary. But they know they can whip Trump in the general election. They've done it twice already. At this point Trump is driven by ego and narcissism. If he really cared what was best for the country he would help Republicans get behind somebody sane and electable who can bring about a real course correction. These are really dangerous times.
I think there’s a lot of merit to what you say. But, with all his faults, I don’t see *any* other serious candidate even mildly interested in exposing (let alone dismantling) the leviathan.
I partly agree. They definitely exploit and incite a hatred of Trump and use it to their advantage. I disagree that he should get out of the race if he really cared. He clearly cares about America. His love for our country is evident in all he does, in all accomplished in his term, and in all he has had to endure from the Deep State. Respect your opinion though.
I agree - but I also believe there is only one person with enough fight in him (and knowledge he did not have the last time) to set things straight for our country. Let's face it - no matter what they always say when campaigning - today's Republican "notables" are cowards through and through.
Since Trump's indictment, they're all being wishy-washy when asked "what are you going to do?" questions....even "fighters" like Jim Jordan. "We're going to look into...blah, blah."
Just finished reading it. Very good stuff. It kind of seems like after the Soviet Union collapsed we were euphoric and thought we had won, but instead their ghost has arisen in the form of the Democratic Party, over time, and a fusion of it with our ruling classes and deep state. You can see it with their treatment of Trump, which looks very much like the old adage of Lavrentia Beria, that if you show him the criminal he'll show you the crime. Trump offended and threatened them and so they had/have to get him no matter what. With that sort of an attitude I don't know how more people don't see the threat posed by them.
I believe there is a summary as I sent the title of the article to a friend and he replied today he had listened to a summary. So I guess one might do that in duck duck go and see what shows up.
The article ends with this:"The old human arts of conversation, disagreement, and irony, on which democracy and much else depend, are subjected to a withering machinery of military-grade surveillance .. ." These old arts have already been destroyed by the MDM surveillance regime so well described in the article. Outside of perhaps some intellectual circles and online discourse, conversation, disagreement, and irony is dead. Conversation outside of the superficial and mundane is either an echo chamber or immediate hostility. How sad we no longer dare to have a civil conversation with those with disagree with but it is no longer possible. It is a scary prospect that AI is going to take over the tasks, but honestly, the war is already won.
Sasha, I just finished reading (as in literally, last night) the memoir of General Richard Taylor, the son of General and President Zachary Taylor, who was at the Charleston convention in 1860 and became a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army, and was one of the last to surrender his command, almost a month after Appomattox. It is very eye-opening. He told how he met with Thadeus Stevens, one of the leaders of the Radical Republicans. Stevens told him that if he had his way, the white population of the South would have been eliminated (as in hung and bayoneted) and all Southern property distributed to the negroes. Sherman is quoted as having said the same thing. I know you have an interest in the Civil War. This is an important book you should read. It's available on Amazon in Kindle. Taylor told how that after he surrendered to Union General Canby, who he knew, one of the German immigrant Union generals proceeded to lecture him on being an American, over Canby and other officers' protest. Taylor responded that his family had been in America since 1608 and had played a part in its founding, and that he knew what being an American was, unlike this German Forty-Eighter.
Just want to let you know I appreciate your articles and I'm glad you made the transition away from the left. I made that change a long time ago from being a Maoist communist to an American patriot. Look forward to your future material.
On positive steps we might take: how about starting chapters of the “30% group”--those of us not snowed by the various psyops? Or t-shirts so we can recognize each other?
We have no idea what the future holds. Think about how many things happening today that nobody predicted, that were total surprises. Hell, 20 years ago liberals were loving The X-FILES and cheering on Mulder and his pursuit of the truth and the Lone Gunmen and their fight against big government deep state baddies experimenting on American citizens. Today liberals are on the side of the government and laugh at people who talk about government conspiracies. I have faith in one thing; the leftoids attempt to fundamentally transform America will fail. Something totally unexpected with happen to thwart their plans
We are on this journey together. The arrows will fly against us...shields up. We will prevail but there will be casualties. Stand for FREEDOM. Never surrender!
The United States responded with a build-up of 170,000 troops in 2007. This build-up gave greater control to Iraq's government and military. In 2008, President Bush agreed to a withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq. The withdrawal was completed under Barack Obama in December 2011."
I would like to raise an additional concern - related, but not exactly on topic - a recent article from NBC about how an entire election staff (4 people) quit in a Virginia county - the article goes into great length about the reasons that the staff quit and blames it on baseless voter fraud allegations and the heated arguments that followed.
However, a few lines into the article there's this - regarding the seated registrar at the time of the election - "She implemented dozens of new laws in 2020" - but in the article there was no explanation as to what laws were implemented - why they were implemented and what were the effects? What were the concerns? Whether she acted within her legal authority? Was there a review process before the laws were implemented? Just that there was no evidence of fraud, and the board quit because they felt harassed.
This is potentially a lie of omission but painted the story that the author and their media source - NBC - wanted to paint.
This example like so many others about how the 2020 election was conducted - many laws in many locations were changed under the guise of covid - many of those laws were also, post-election, declared unconstitutional, and in several of the swing states that delivered the election to Biden!
IMO, this country took a sharp downward spiral around the time Obama took office. Before that time things seemed to be in check. Social media was also tolerable. For some reason everything changed after Obama took office. I’m not blaming him but something happened around that time.
That being said, someone give me a Time Machine so I can go back to the late 90s. For me those were great times.
You’re correct, things changed dramatically under Obama and yes you can blame him. He wanted to ‘transform’ our nation and that he did. He weaponized many agencies, spied on journalists, filled the gov with activists, pushed racism at every opportunity, shoved Obamacare on us with flat out lies (you can keep your doctor), and I believe is the puppet master over Biden, along with Susan Rice.
I am a military veteran and Milley is an absolute embarrassment to the uniform
The nation went from "electing the first 'black' President" to "any criticism of said President was racist. Everything hence has been judged through the lens of race. Not at all what Obama promised, but given his Marxist roots and beliefs, not at all surprising.
If you look at the statistical data, Race Relations worsened A LOT under Obama & stayed down. Race Relations were excellent before Obama.
He started pushing “Cops are bad & racist”, BLM started under Obama. He increased Victimhood mentality for Blacks & told them everyone was racist, the world is bad, be a pessimist, don’t work hard b/c there’s no point since everyone is out to get you b/c you’re Black. Which is a horribly nihilistic pessimistic destructive way to view the world & the wrong way to teach kids.
Most of us are bound by the common fabric of our country the rights and freedoms the American experiment. As so many said last week The indictment of Trump was the wake-up call. We must take our county back.
We must come together like never before we must make our voices heard in every city across the USA. From town halls to state capitals to DC there are more of us than them. We are a strong people. No longer can we stand by and watch our borders be over run and our unique American culture be destroyed.
We must as citizens agree that our way of life is slipping away. Everyone needs to be involved run for offices from school boards local office to state offices to the federal offices. Participate.
Demand one day voting paper ballots voter ids with minor exceptions for our challenged neighbors and family members. it’s hard to deny the results when there is a islet trail.
Our common cause to see that the officials serve at the pleasure of the people.
It’s time to be heard we need to fill the email boxes the phones lines and let them know who is in charge. Change will happen if we come together as one people.
If you have not recently watched our congress in action spend a day watching the committee hearings on capital hill. Is a shameful mockery of our civil society . We are now a joke and it’s tine to regain our nations pride and standing.
Our politicians just posture along party lines making points for their party i’m. it’s all theater. I have seen better governing in high schools by young Americans more dignified than these people .
We are a representative republic not democracy but no one teaches civics anymore and some must have slept through class. We elect these people to represent their community’s but they only represent those who funded them and spend their time once in office raising funds for the next election cycle. No wonder no one reads the bills that are written by special interest groups and rather than the eject reps.
We have a common purpose to save our country to give the next generation the same freedoms we all have. Those on the left and right sides must come to the middle and demand change.
This saying is old but oh so true “united we stand divided we fall”. Let’s come together we can make a difference. It’s going to take all of us. We need to ask our families neighbors if they love the freedom and liberties of America? if they reply yes than that’s a start toward the middle. We have so much more in common when we listen rather than shout.
Civil discourse and debate needs to return and cancel culture needs to be canceled. We can do so in a grassroots fashion without leaving our home towns.
We don’t need any violence we see more than our fair share every day. Charge can happen but it require everyones participation. . We are all tired and just want to be left alone to live our lives in freedom and liberty but we can not stand idly by.
We became to complacent and we can no longer ignore what’s taken place in our country. Its time to stand as one people and demand that our representatives work together with dignity, humility , civility and thru compromise find common ground and move our nation back to center.
🗝.....”We are a representative republic not democracy but no one teaches civics anymore”.
It is hard to love or save that which you know not😢
They don't teach ANYTHING in schools anymore. It's disgusting.
Public schools are woke madrasas.
yup
So true. I gave copies of the founding documents to my adult child years ago. They asked me why and I said you can’t delete paper, well not unless you have seen the movie fahrenheit 454.
Idealistic and I would love to see this happen. But if history is any guide, we are in for a very long, very bloody era of history. Power never gives up power without a fight (I can think of only one example in history.).
We must make an effort. Even the ccp stopped the zero tolerance for covid lockdowns when the people protested. Gandhi made a difference against the odds. These were peaceful protests. Yet to your point often it does become violent as we repeat history rather than learn from it.
We have representatives in DC and they need to know that weaponizing the government against the people has to end.
I may sound idealistic but optimism is what we need. We will never know if we don’t try. I don’t want to be part of the generation that refused to stand up and make their voices heard. The generation that gave our freedoms away. We have lost enough of our freedoms already.
Each voice is important and we need to stand together.
We must keep the conversation going... talk with our family’s, friends and neighbors. Start contacting our elect reps over and over until they listen. We can’t let them silence us.
It’s starts with just one phone call, one email , one text. It’s a simple ask just participate.
I was trying to be descriptive not prescriptive. You’re right: It’s too late to expect that a return to teaching Civics could augur a return to a “representative democracy” as our Founders designed.
a Representative Republic
Ooops. “Our Democracy”™️ is a Republic—if we can keep it.
Further, he and Michelle have enriched themselves spreading that message.
They have, bigtime
Yup I totally agree.
Because all of you sleepy headed racists suddenly woke up to your biggest fear ever- that yes, a Black person could be in charge and the country would not go to heck in a hand basket. It scared the living daylights out of you. That's when we saw how many of you lived under a dark, dank, fetid rock. Obama didn't "divide" the country- YOU did. And he fired all those military personnel because DO YOU RECALL THE STUPID ILLEGAL IRAQ WAR? Bush was sanctioning black ops sites, the prison at Abu Ghraib. and Guantanamo. US military became a bunch of torture expert thugs- you have forgotten how bad Bush was- all you remember is how Black Obama was.
RACISTS RACISTS RACISTS!!!! BLAHHHHH! Get a life.
I see you got your degree from the dark basement school of laziness. Cool cool.
I voted for Obama. Twice. What a mistake. I thought he was a Democrat. I thought he would stop the illegal Iraq war. I thought he would do something for the poor.
Obama was everyone's biggest disappointment. He helped CEOs & billionaires & Wall St. He made $$$$ selling out America's poor. He started wars. He didn't end any wars. Bush was obviously worse but Obama was still everyone's disappointment.
He worsened Race Relations because of his rhetoric. He instigated & created anger, blame. Making Black people into helpless victims so that the rich (like Obama) can get richer. Instead of making people into victims, it's better to empower people to achieve their dreams.
Wow, what a waste of the paper it was written on… I was for Obama, and blindly stayed in his corner, until I could not ignore his shortcomings anymore, and I’m definitely not racist.
Yes, it's true. Obama began the fundamental transformation of America into a nation that no one would defend and precedented on a Jacobin culture.
socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture...that’s Obama along with his huge egotistical attitude 🤬🤬🤬
I think it started the dive under Bush Jr. Those were dark times for sure, and when Obama got elected there was a glimmer of “hope”, which quickly evaporated after the recession followed by the squashing of the Occupy Movement (I still believe that was our last best chance at enacting real change, before the corporatization became permanent and the technocracy took over). By Obama’s 2nd term it was obvious the Deep State was still in full control and only deepening its power.
Dubya expanded the unelected 4th branch of government via the Patriot Act and Obama weaponized it against Americans.
Remember our BIll of Rights and how they are under attack; regardless of party, we need to unite to protect these. The UniParty doesn't like you.
Yes, 💯
The dive began after the Supreme Court validated the Bush victory in the 2000 election. From that point on there was nothing short of constant criticism of his administration by Democrats, single issue groups and the media. Yes, 9/11 did provide a halt temporarily but it soon picked up its former pace. Notably there was never pushback from Bush. Critics became emboldened and disparaged anything not to their liking, especially Republicans. I think this negativity poisoned the voting public towards Republicans as well as Mitt Romney’s lack of appeal. (Remember Candy Crowley?) Obama’s election opened the floodgates of disparaging commentary towards conservative positions along with pushing marginal groups to the forefront. Obama always blamed his problems on Bush and/or Republicans. Again, the media refrained from criticism of Obama and labeled anyone who dared so as racist. Even John Roberts felt justified to rewrite those parts of Obamacare to allow passage. Events occurred so quickly that the “Chicago Way” once entrenched in our government found a home. The combination of Big Tech and our "new" government philosophy was successful in thwarting major policies by the Trump team. They have the MSM in their pocket and have tightened the grip on alternative means to discuss our grievances. We are now saddled with elite and power-hungry Democrats who don’t want to give up power.
Yes I agree that 2000 was the beginning of the descent. I didn’t follow politics much before that but I’ve been wide awake ever since then.
Well said.
It would be great to see a resurgence of the Occupy Movement
Just please keep the public defecators in check.
The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues keep talking about the 2008 date as the onset of iPhones and social media on phones.
Yes, Sandra, so good to note the beginning of the I-Phone era...truly a turning point, and not a good one.
A critical milestone in the decline of civility...
That sounds about right
Yes, in 2012, I remember people on Facebook saying that if you were going to vote for Mitt Romney (Mitt Romney, of all people!), you were a stupid, evil racist.
Yea. Back then Democrats believed Mitt to be the evil one. Now they love him.
Yes, IOW: You were "...gwyne putch'yall back in chaynzzzz!"
The Patriot Act under the Bush administration set the stage. Social Media was not that well developed until the Obama era so maybe that is why it seems like everything went downhill when Obama took office. The Patriot Act, however, in my opinion is what normalized everything that came after it.
Yes, the warning I heard at the time was that when these powers are granted "in war time," they never are repealed.
Cannot disagree, however, I think that one difference is that the Bush admin used the Patriot Act against our enemies, whereas, under Obama and now Biden, Patriot Act policies have been turned against Americans.
I miss George W's presidency. He is a decent man, a rarity nowadays.
I am a healthcare provider, so I always resented the Patriot Act. It permits the DOJ to demand patients' healthcare records, and the provider isn't permitted to inform the patients that the records were turned over to the government. At this point, though, that probably doesn't matter anymore. My state government wants to know who I have sex with (or not) when I try to get my business license renewed, and so does every big company I need to renew contracts with.
The turn commenced in the aftermath of 9/11 when most of us were mao mao’d into cheering on the Patriot Act. Those of us who dared to point out the real potential blow-back were castigated or ignored.
That's true. So many slippery slopes.
Obama was the catalyst, but the movement started under Woodrow Wilson. The advancement of leftist thought moved at a glacial pace until Obama was elected. From the beer summit on, it was peddle to the metal for the leftists, though not at the breakneck speed we see today. The real crack in the fabric of society came with Covid. It opened the door to total control.
Once cracked, the Deep State and leftists used every tool to sabotage and steal 2020 election in swing states, plant their easily-led candidate and now control the WH and responsible for the decay of our constitutional republic. We are not a democracy; they just use this term because they believe it best suits their purpose.
Very true. FDR was enamored with Hitler for years, until the repulsive abuses were too much to ignore.
No, it wasn't went Obama took office. It was when George W. Bush took office, lied us into a war, and murdered 800,000 people over a weapons of mass destruction program that didn't exist, and walked away scott free after all that.
The United States lost its last bits of moral credibility after that.
Our government, BLATANTLY lied us into a war. Blatantly. The fact that George W. Bush wasn't strung up and executed for that shows that our entire nation is a bunch of complicit murderers.
And we are. Obama then took over, and expanded the 2 wars, into 7 wars. Can you even name which nations the US bombed when Obama was in charge? NOPE is my bet.
A well informed citizenry is necessary to the liberty of a free state. Well I'm informed none of you jerkoffs are, so I have to live in this shitty tyranny that you're too stupid to recognize as a tyranny. You're blaming a fucking president. The presidents are fucking puppets. How obvious does it have to get? Do we have to have a "president" that is a senile, hair sniffing, corrupt, pervert who OBVIOUSLY can't function - does it have to get that obvious before you can fucking see it?
Dude, easy… the people who are here, are in your corner!
Eisenhower warned us in 1961... this started well before Bush Jr...
"... we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. ..."
Well - we blew that...
It was under George W. Bush that a false flag attack on the nation conducted by our intelligence agencies and several foreign ones set up the pretense for 20 years of wars.
We are lied into every war, we were lied into WWII. Pearl Harbor could have been prevented, and it was purposely not prevented. Do you really think a commercial airline, KNOWN to have been hijacked was able to penetrate the US' most highly guarded airspace to hit the headquarters of the department of "defense"?
I grew up in a remote spot in Northern NY. My parents have a cabin on the lake. There's two lakes, one is on military property, but no water is "owned" by any entity, water is jointly shared. This means I can boat into the lake surrounded by military property. It's completely legal to do this but if I get out of my boat, and on land, I will be arrested in minutes. It takes less than 15 minutes for a jet to fly overhead once I enter that lake as well.
You think they couldn't do this for DC?
If people understood our government has been infiltrated and is run by mass murderers and traitors, it wouldn't be for long but people simply can't believe it, so we're stuck with it.
how about back to the 80's - Even better times!
Loved the 80s
I wasn't. I'm Gen X, grew up in the 80s.
Ya, sure, the Iraq war, the financial meltdown, everything's in...CHECK. You're circling around the problem. Social media was also tolerable, you say. And then it became what? Something changed...
Agreed. 1991~1998 were wonderful years for our country, our people, & even our music.
GREAT years. Agreed
You left out America-hating and gay.
This is from an interview with Joe Rogan and Michael Schallenberg.
Do we know when this began? Like when did they infiltrate these organizations? Because it's not just Twitter, right?
Michael: Oh no, absolutely not. That's part of what was so terrifying. It was all of the social media companies, including Wikipedia by the way, which we don't talk about enough. And all of the mainstream news organizations are being organized.
Really what you're looking at is an apparatus that was created during the War on Terror over the last 20 years, starting after 9/11. After that there was a battle against ISIS because ISIS was successfully recruiting on social media. Then you get the big event: Brexit, first, in 2016, and then Trump's election. At that point, the establishment just absolutely freaks out.
There were a lot of different motivations. One of the motivations was just to blame Facebook, to blame social media, for Trump's victory. It was never true. I don't really think anybody really believed it. There was never any good evidence that whatever Russians did had much of any influence — any measurable influence — on the outcome of the campaign. But they started to scapegoat the social media companies as a way to get control over them.
Then, in 2017, two things happen. The Department of Homeland Security declares, as part of its mission protecting election infrastructure, the “media and information environment.” It's creepy and patronizing and it's a power move. That's the first thing that happens. Then, they create something called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the Department of Homeland Security to supposedly protect the media environment from foreign influence.
They also created something called the Foreign Influence Task Force within the FBI to start policing domestic speech on these platforms. They start organizing all the social media companies to participate in these meetings. You had Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook in here and there's a critical moment where you ask about the Hunter Biden laptop. And he goes, “Yeah, in the summer of 2020, all these FBI guys come to us saying there's going to be a hack-and-leak operation involving Hunter Biden.”
This is super-suspicious because, as everybody now knows, the FBI had Hunter Biden's laptop in December 2019.
By the way, I was a victim of the Hunter Biden laptop disinformation. I voted for Biden. I thought that the laptop was Russian disinformation. I bought the whole thing.
You’re not the only one. Per the data, 10-15% of people who voted for Biden, said they would have voted for Trump had they known the truth about the laptop.
The laptop story (the truth) was covered by NYPost only &censored on social media. NYPost, an official news media, was banned on social media for a week. The legacy media lied & said the laptop was fake news.
Btw NYPost is my trusted news source, I love them. They are one of the last remaining fully independent media. 
the NY Post is good, but wouldn't say they're fully independent since they're owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which is publicly-traded.
https://nypost.com/about-new-york-post/
The Rupert Murdoch-owned NY Post as "one of the last remaining fully independent media."
That's some far-out definition of "independent" that...well, that only someone like Rupert Murdoch could love. 
This is a link to that. https://open.substack.com/pub/public/p/shellenberger-back-on-rogan?r=2niwe&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
And I voted for W and supported the Patriot Act after the inconceivable 911 atrocity. I was completely fooled. We've ALL been had by these manipulative politicians and their puppet masters.
The good thing is we are coming together now and that we now see the BS from miles away, since 2016 and esp. since 2020. That is huge.
Yes, so did I. Now I’m convinced the government blew up the towers on purpose. There is no way a fire at the top caused them to completely go down into dust
Agreed. I am wary of the neo-con Uniparty of GOP RINOs and nearly entire Democratic Party.
Just listened to this yesterday. It’s terrifying! And I think he’s spot on.
Excellent podcast and I encourage all to listen to it. Very interesting. Thanks
Michael Shellenberger is one of the true heroes of our era.
That’s very interesting, I never bought the Russian Disinformation BS.
So their propaganda worked and they were successful? Why aren’t people able to determine truth when it comes to religion and politics? (I.e. have a BS filter)
I read this whole essay today, and it’s a long one. My question: why is this not eliciting a shit ton of self reflection or at least a modicum of interest in the legacy media?
Because it wholly condemns them. The legacy media has lost any shred of objectivity or pursuit of the truth it ever may have had. They like "gotchas" against their enemies, not their friends, and by "friends", I mean people who pay them. Self reflection has absolutely no place in the psyche of the pathological liar.
That Tablet essay was breathtaking. Internet/social sites hijacked by deep state counterintelligence bureaucrats in lockstep w/ Bush’s Patriot Act. First they came for Muslims, post 9-11. With close of that threat, self preservation of that Cabal finds a new enemy (domestic dissidents /Trump supporters) to justify its existence and continued need. Lots of digital evidence left behind since 2016, Musk’s Twitter Files gives that a ray of sunshine. But absolutely frightening that future AI will continue doing the same but without the digital proof anything was ever suppressed. Cue the RESTRICT Act, said to control TikTok, but perhaps a new Patriot Act w/ broad govt powers of restriction ‘for our protection’ in our ever-evolving digital age
Reading and comprehension is hard
Sasha, our generation grew up knowing that free speech was the bedrock of our constitutions and country. I didn't know anyone who was pro censorship. It's interesting times we live in, because many of those who fought for freedom of expression, and even the freedom to be challenged and not coddled in college--what happened?
On a related note, we need a different word for rigging an election meeting stealing ballots, and social media attempts to sway voters. One is completely unacceptable. The other we have to live with to an extent, but the government using tax dollars to fund organisations to create censorship is unacceptable.
Counting fraud? Tallying fraud?
Dems keep saying there is no "Voter Fraud" which is completely disingenuous and they know it.
No Republicans contend that *VOTERS* rigged the election. It was the people counting the votes. Democrats at the counting places pulled so many tricks and, as always, Republican officials stood by like cowards.
When dems claim there was no voter fraud - they mean Biden won under the laws in effect at the time of the election - which is likely true.
The problem of course is that the Republicans and Trump were caught flat footed with the changes enacted under the guise of covid - many of those measures have since been declared unconstitutional via court challenges - though not all!!
So, while, you can argue that Republicans were caught flat footed once - the bigger question is - have they recovered sufficiently to prevent it from happening again, and in perpetuity!! I'm not convinced!!
I read this yesterday, and immediately wanted to share it, but anyone who would be willing read it already knows, and anyone who doesn't know won't want to read it. It's the never-ending circle of blind oblivion. Every time I'm tempted to stop reading articles like this and stop worrying about how far off the rails we are getting, I think of how much worse it would be if I added myself to the oblivion.
Yes. Who to share it with? I know of only two people who would read it, think, and discuss. I send articles like this to members of parliament, journalists, Senators, etc.
And no doubt, most of those will just delete it without even looking. I imagine that if nothing else, the members of parliament’s assistants will have to at least read the subject line. I try to select a quotation from the article that , if only that, will still have some effect on their dulled consciousness.
I’m quite certain that the elected representatives themselves don’t read much of anything; it certainly appears that they just repeat and regurgitate talking points they’ve been given, fed narratives, slogans and slurs.
Is this the result of the demographic that was coddled by helicopter parents? You know, the ones who’s mom’s wrangled better marks from the schools even though their kids didn’t do the work, or they saved them from ever experiencing consequences for their actions, were given awards for just barely ‘participating’ equally with those who did a thorough job? And on and on.
Was this ‘dumbing down’ deliberate? These people occupying political and bureaucratic offices are dangerous because they are empty vessels, and therefore tools.
It was definitely deliberate! It's straight out of the Communist Manifesto. It's the reason they want to drop the SAT tests for college admissions, and has no thing to do with equity and racism. They want the citizens of the world to be dumbed down, medicated, AI'ed, and compliant. That or dead. We are living through a truly evil time.
I agree with this 100%. I taught art in a California Bay Area high school from 1967-2000, and witnessed the dumbing down in slow motion. This was in Mountain View, world headquarters for Google. I retired at age 55 just to get out of the system before it ate me up. Teaching in The Sixties, I had kids that were curious, creative, and engaged, but by the time of the 90’s arrived, they sat there as if I was to be the entertainment. I couldn’t get out fast enough, and I loved teaching and teenagers. Today, I would never have chosen that career.
I so appreciate your sharing your experience here. Valuable insight into the decline of education...
Your comment means so much to me. Thank you.
"A state organized on the principle that it exists to protect the sovereign rights of individuals, is being replaced by a digital leviathan that wields power through opaque algorithms and the manipulation of digital swarms"
Aka, the "Deep State". There is also the concept of groupthink, which drives the great majority of Deep State behavior. Like the "Banality of Evil" that drove German citizens to acquiescence (if not outright complicity) with the evil perpetrated in their name, the Deep State moves on its own with little central command.
Can the Deep State be defeated? That is the question of the age.
Yes, the Deep State can be defeated! But, only 'IF' all of us Truth Seekers and Truth Tellers speak up, join up and pony up! Think just like it was 1776 all over again! King George was a worthy opponent to The Colonists who wanted their freedom from the Tyrant. But this Tyrant isn't half a world away; he/it is in the White House and in control of every major institution in the nation!
However, the Truth is the most powerful weapon at our disposal still, if we will only speak up, join up and pony up! It will take courage and sacrifice so I challenge each of you to read back over any truthful account of Washington's and the troop's terrible winter at Valley Forge. Then purpose to do all in your power to emulate these brave souls who gave us the foundation for 'The American Dream'! We either rise responsibly to the challenge now or we will be deposited on the 'Ash Heap of History'! Which is it going to be?!
Exactly. Truth telling is how the communist were defeated and truth telling still has the same power necessary to defeat the deep state. We need more truth tellers. We need more people who are bold and have the courage to speak out.
Something monstrous indeed. These past 2* years under Biden administration (a President that is embarrassingly incompetent and a cabinet filled with activists with no knowledge of the department they oversee). The MSM ignores all the blunders. We are funding a war with no end in sight and one US has stirred. Biden’s pullout of Afghanistan is never brought up, but people need to remember how many citizens and even service members are still stuck over there. Billions of weapons left behind along with Bagram Air Force Base. Biden’s war on fossil fuels has decimated our nation’s energy security and greatly damaged our economy. Every step this administration takes further damages our nation and our security. His covid mandates have hurt so many, weakened our military, and damaged our airlines’ safety.
He’s absolutely awful and a monster
Seigel's piece is outstanding--and something many of us have thought, if not with as much detail or all the same specifics, for a while now. We are in the final stages of a coup d'etat beyond even politics in the democratic, left-right, or Democrat-Republican, sense. It was best described by Orwell in his book-within-the-book, the one by Emmanuel Goldstein, Oligarchic Collectivism, the book with which O'Brien taunts Winston Smith in 1984. It shows us the "managerial revolution" described by James Burnham, whose real significance was understood only by Orwell. His classic novel of totalitarianism--based pointedly on western societies, not just the Communist East--describes how something that might be based on Wall Street and Madison Avenue (or the British correlatives) goes totalitarian, becomes a full corporate state. He saw how liberal democracy contains the seeds if its own supersession in an ideological meta-state. Socialism means not the abolition of private property in the classic Marxian conceit, but mechanisms of total social control through perpetual emergency, demonization of internal as well as external enemies, propaganda and methods of thought control (beyond the shaping of opinion) made possible by modern technologies and the systemic abuse of language--all for the purpose of keeping in power a governing elite no longer capable of managing anything for the good of the nation yet unable to let go of power and make room for new leaders. Socialism means that an elite governs in the name of "society" or "our democracy" or whatnot, which justifies its deployment of any means whatsoever, in reality though only for itself at the expense of society. Davos. Supposedly all for the sake of society or global humanity--but actually for the likes of Kerry and Schwab and their crowd. That is where we are now, the consummation of a totalitarian revolution from above in the works for a while but now in its final stages.
Finally...
“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
~George Orwell
Orwell saw it all!
Orwell did not foresee AI.
The left built a monster (the authoritarian state depicted by Orwell) to take down a single man and now that monster is eating them alive.
The authoritarian left will promote and build AI as they see it as just another tool to control the population. They will promote it the same way, as “counterterrorism” and “counter disinformation “.
AI views the authoritarian left the same way they view it, as a means to an end; except AI does not define power as control over populations.
It is not human.
True, he probably didn't imagine AI, still less the algorithmic control of the internet behind the scenes, but he certainly saw the principle, and that is how his critique of totalitarianism went beyond anything else at the time--plus his association of it with managerialism à la Burnham, including if not especially in the Western capitalist context. And that is where I think you are mistaken to make this all a matter of the authoritarian left. They have merely taken over--for now--the apparatus of the national security state traditionally identified with the right and amplified exponentially by the Bush 2 Republicans. Yes, it is the ideological revolution of the left that is driving a lot of this, but in sync with both corporate power (which has no ideological loyalties), the media, the Deep State, and the DC uniparty. The neo-cons, fore example, are as implicated as anyone else.
I'm a lifelong conservative and agree it's the uniparty - from both the left and right, establishment actors implementing their central bankers puppet master's tyranny through a silent war. Glad readers here from both sides of the aisle see this. That is critical to truly confronting it.
Couldn't agree more.
Perfectly stated.
Like many of you, for the umpteenth time, I am once again struggling to find persuasive words to broach sharing such information so it doesn't fall on deaf ears.
I had all but given up on this years ago; however, the situation is becoming dire and reaching a fever pitch of late. Heck, next week may be the start of a civil war in America, for heaven's sake.
How do we get people to think, care, read, comprehend, and react appropriately in their best interest to what is happening?
I plan on sharing the link to Jacob's guide on my substack and for family and friends on Facebook. After speed-reading Jacob's piece, I came up with the following draft.
I need to reread it slowly tomorrow. I want to edit this draft down to something more concise and persuasive. I'm sharing it here in case anyone has suggestions or wishes to borrow any snippets that may help them do the same.
America: Suicide by Ignorance and the Lust for Power
Can we all agree that the world is in turmoil and that America, the leader of the free world, is degenerating into a banana republic at breakneck speed?
There is a lot to the story of America's pending demise. Since it will significantly affect everyone's family and future, we all have a vested interest in getting to the true heart of the matter.
Even the most liberal and progressive among us are becoming uncomfortable with America's trajectory. Well-intentioned people from all walks of life are asking appropriate questions and getting honest answers, unsettling as they are.
Do take the time; this is required reading that our futures depend on.
Rather than rely upon faulty headlines and simple soundbites, it behooves us to take the time to understand the cause and reasons behind what amounts to America's suicide.
The Comprehensive Guide
The author, Jacob Siegel, aptly titles his tome, A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century. Please read it, weep, get mad, discuss it freely, and determine the appropriate actions you and your family could take in response. (see the link below)
With this accurate and insightful warning, there is no excuse for saying we had no idea how far the country had fallen. We are fast approaching a point when it becomes too late to do anything about it.
We are witnessing a parallel between Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany and the modern-day rise of a radical uni party of global elites that have infiltrated and infected our institutions, cultures, and governments across America and the West.
The time for "politics" has passed.
It's not about the political left vs. right; it's about right and wrong, everyday people vs. the super elites; it all boils down to good vs. evil.
It is of existential importance that everyone understands how and why this is happening. Please share this country-saving public information with everyone you hold dear.
Knowledge is power; pursue it patiently and use it wisely.
---
You nailed. How do we keep the message persuasive, understandable and succinct. How to keep from burying a gem under a million irrelevant words.
Brilliant. Thank you for sharing this excellent tool for redpilling.
We’ll said, Common Sense
Please correct this: It is not in Compact; the article is in Tablet Magazine.
Thank you!!
Obama certainly ginned it all up to a daily push toward dividing us but I think it really began after the 2000 election when the SJC decided that Bush won.
The Democrat cry of "Impeach Bush" started immediately; before he'd even taken office.
And I've never forgotten Democrats circulating (online) an "Apology to the World" for the country electing George Bush, signed by millions of Democrats.
To me, that is when Democrats started The War Against Republicans and it was constant through the eight years of Bush's presidency.
And, you're right. Any criticism of Obama from Day One was called Racism. The Dems couldn't fathom that Republicans found fault with his policies. It HAD to be racism. Couldn't they see that he was the Messiah?
Correct. We criticized some of the exact same policies Obama pursued when they were pushed by Clinton and we were not called racists then.
Schumer, Pelosi, even Obama and pretty much all major politicians in modern times had speeches where they called for securing the borders, but they were not called Xenophobes and racists then.
The change was Obama's and his team's heavy-handed Marxist playbook of sowing racial division to induce chaos to implement change. Before Obama, race relations had come lightyears away from the days of horrific segregation and actual institutional racism (in terms of modern times).
Exactly. Democrats never miss an opportunity to find a label for people who disagree with them.
And every "name" is filled with hate and divisiveness.
Tragically, now, Democrats can say and do anything they want with no repercussions.
I fully-expected that Trump's indictment would galvanize Republicans in Congress to immediately start impeachment proceedings against Biden or, at least, Mayorkas. (Two can play at this game, right?) Instead, I'm seeing a lot of TENTATIVE comments from them on TV. Hosts are asking them direct questions about doing SOMETHING back and they are dodging those questions.
I wrote something very similar above in response to a comment about the dive occurring with Obama.
The Twitter Files are only the barest glimpse into the steamroll that is coming.
This has been in place long before 2020.
This is from Democracy Now, back in 2004:
Gov't Quietly Brings Back Total Information Awareness
Reuters has obtained a Congressional report that shows nine months after Congress shut down the controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program called Total Information Awareness, the U.S. government continues to comb private records and databases to sniff out suspicious activity. Peter Swire, who served as the Clinton's administration's top official said "I believe that Total Information Awareness is continuing under other names."
https://web.archive.org/web/20071114211827/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/03/142239
From Sourcewatch:
The Information Awareness Office is a branch of the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency whose mission is to "imagine, develop, apply, integrate, demonstrate and transition information technologies, components and prototype, closed-loop, information systems that will counter asymmetric threats by achieving total information awareness." The IAO is headed by John Poindexter, former National Security Advisor in the Reagan Administration and chief architect of the Iran-Contra Affair...
The IAO's stated mission is to gather as much information as possible about everyone in a centralized location for easy perusal by the United States government, including Internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data. In essence, the goal of the IAO is to be able to recreate a life history of thoughts and movements for any individual on the planet on demand, which the Bush administration deems necessary to counter the threat of terrorism. Critics claim the very existence of the IAO completely disregards the concept of individual privacy and liberties and is far too invasive and prone to abuse.
The IAO was first mentioned in the media by New York Times reporter John Markoff on February 13, 2002, with few details available as to the agency's role or activities. In the following months, as more and more information emerged about the IAO's full scope, protest among civil libertarians grew over what they claim is the IAO's disturbingly Orwellian mission, especially within the larger framework of other invasive homeland security measures and policies implemented by the Bush administration. Also at issue is the integrity of Poindexter as head of the IAO, as he was convicted on five felony charges for lying to the Congress and deliberately altering and destroying documents pertaining to the Iran-Contra Affair.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Total_Information_Awareness
I hope it is understood that 9/11 was used as the pretext for creating "Homeland Security" and gave us the "Patriot Act" (which had already been written), the militarization of local police forces, NORTHCOM, the ability of the government to incarcerate anyone without trial by calling them a "terrorist", and much more - in addition to giving us a whole new "enemy" after the collapse of the USSR, thus the "war on terror". This "enemy" was needed in order to justify continuing to spend trillions of $ on the MIC, which includes silicon valley.
You have to understand what Noam Chomsky said:
"Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to protect themselves. That's why you have state secret laws. Citizens are not supposed to know what their government is doing to them."
The rabbit hole is deep on this. It is tied in with the desire to create a one-world government.
Whitney Webb is currently reporting on Jamie Diamond of JPMorgan Chase and his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. She reports that they
"...were instrumental in the creation of what would manifest as the 2008 economic crisis. Not unlike some of the events that sparked today’s banking crisis, figures like Jeffrey Epstein, Dimon’s mentor Sandy Weill and the former Treasury Secretaries with close associations with both men, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, appeared to have engaged in actions that would intentionally provoke the collapse of certain banks to further consolidate the banking sector for their benefit. The goal, both then and now, seems to have been a move towards the logical conclusion of the “too big to fail” banking model — the eventual creation of a centralized cartel of mega-banks that dominate, not only commercial banking, but also central banking."
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2023/03/investigative-series/the-rise-of-jamie-dimon/
Again, there is a lot to this and it's been going on for a long time, working toward the goal of what Aldous Huxley called a "scientific dictatorship".
Start pulling on the threads of this and there's no end to it.
Super informative comment. Thank you.
If you want a glimpse of what is coming for you, look to the north. In response to the Freedom Convoy, we now have Bill C-11 and C-18, where Trudeau introduces the new terrorist group in Canada, "The Teleban". Their 'G-had', aka government control of everything, is aimed at creating a New World Odour, resulting in Canada being a Hole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Trudeau, who puts the "mess" in messianic, forgets that the Freedom Convoy was not a Protest, but a Statement. Protests are made by slaves begging the masters for mercy, and the response by the Trudeau storm troopers was to trample a little old lady in a walker, confirming the official policy that "The beatings will continue until morale improves". The Freedom Convoy was a completely non-violent Statement supported by millions of Canadians and millions around the world. The message is "We Will Not Comply". No violence, no revolution, we will simply put the government on 'ignore' and proceed to de-tax our civilization. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau, you have lost the trust of the taxed, and the consent of the governed. No Teleban will fix that. We have a civilization to rebuild, let's get busy.
Yes! My husband and I are in Ontario. We will not be filing taxes this year.
Here is an item you may not be aware of. I’ve been trying to get this out there to Canadians
and have been trying to get an answer from MPs. Heads up:
The federal government has quietly begun the creation of Personal Information Banks (PIB) to collect and store data on Canadians.
We were not consulted nor informed about the creation or existence of these databases and they are being collected without our permission or knowledge.
Categories of information include biometrics (DNA, blood type, eye/facial scan, fingerprints, etc), personal biography, medical history, financial history, credit information, and even “ opinions or views of or about individuals”, and much more.
Here is a link to the government website describing the PIBs. Scroll to the last section for Categories of Information:
https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/access-information-privacy/access-information/information-about-programs-information-holdings/standard-personal-information-banks.html
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has quietly added it to their Privacy Terms so that in order to submit an application for benefits, such as the One-Time Housing Top Up they started offering in December, you must click that you agree to terms including "...being described in Personal Information Bank (under development)" in order to submit your application. It is also a term in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) application.
ALERT *It’s may also a term for filing income tax this year. * We need clarity on if it is or not.
If it is, many will sign the usual ‘privacy agreement’ for filing without knowledge or information that this has been included.
Instead of this subterfuge our politicians must clarify if it is or not. This situation MUST be made known to Canadians.
*People who are unwilling to ‘agree’ to this violation of their fundamental rights and personal privacy information will not be able to file income tax. *
The federal government is using the federal health transfers to bribe the premiers to adopt a Big Tech-style data-for-services health care system. This means that personal health records, and all the other that used to be private and confidential between you and your doctor will now be entered into the PIBs to be shared between the federal government, their stakeholders, and whoever else they decide can have access to it.
They lay it all out in their Departmental Plan for Health Canada 2022/23. There is no mention of hiring health care workers. It's all data, digitization, AI, vaccines, and so on.
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/corporate/transparency/corporate-management-reporting/report-plans-priorities/2022-2023-report-plans-priorities.html
And no doubt, corporate interests will make billions on the creation and running of this surveillance system for this government. Regulatory Capture is a serious failure of government and a threat to national security and the people.
Many Canadians depend on those bits of money they get related to filing their tax returns. This is abuse of political office to construct a surveillance system no one wants and that benefits no one but the government and its‘ stakeholders’. Personal data is one of the most lucrative commodities.
It’s also another huge use of taxpayer’s money to fund agendas that dismantle our democracy and constitutional rights and fundamental rights.
We won’t be complying with any further violations of fundamental human rights .
I am half way through the article. I simply cannot wrap my head around how the progressive left can be so authoritarian and self righteous at the same time while lecturing America on how the "other side" is a threat to democracy. It is like a bad dream. Truly Orwellian.
How is it these self promoting intellectuals fail to see the irony and danger in what they are promoting. I guess it comes down to the intoxication of power and the thrill of being surrounding and applauded by a compliant media.
Jon Haidt had a very interesting article recently on how a lot of woke thinking overlaps with mental illness in the sense that a lot of young people lack the critical thinking to go along with their hypersensitized emotional thinking. Their entire world is microaggressions and obsessions around hierarchy and perceived oppression. They need what is referred to as cognitive behavioral therapy to develop the pathways in the brain for critical thinking.
I think in many cases they fully understand the irony and have calculated the misery visited upon us. Much more sinister than just not getting it...at least in some cases...
Great comment!
I don't have answers, but I will offer this: Dubya, who I voted for twice, unleashed the government leviathan after Sept 11. He turbocharged what is now the unelected 4th branch of government - the Deep State intelligence agencies. In addition, he granted MFN status to communist China so our globalist wealthy class could achieve their bonus money through cheap labor offshore telling us our costs would go down. How is that working today?
Obama administration came in, took Chinese money, and weaponized it against Americans.
G-d damn Bush. G-d damn Obama for weaponizing it. G-d damn every executive level service officer in the United States federal government. They are the problem.
Agree but would add what others have pointed out; Deep State was unleashed at least as far back as FDR (he pushed us into WWII and implemented fascism by merging industrial power w government; before that he created US welfare state)
Great points. Perhaps farther back with communist Wilson.
Sasha, what is happening today is nothing new, but is merely the fruits of foundations laid in the 1850s by European "Forty-Eighters" who came here after their attempts at revolution in Europe, particularly Germany, collapsed. Karl Marx and Fredrick Engles were Forty-Eighters but they stayed in Europe, in England, but they heavily influenced the work of their counterparts on America. They came to the United States and immediately started working to promote revolution here. They were staunch abolitionists and seized on abolition fervor in New England and the "Northwest," now Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, to start their groundwork, In the century and a half since their philosophies have taken over American academia and are at the root of everything happening today. Donald Trump came along and became the champion of the little people, the very people the German revolutionists and their Communist descendants claim to be seeking to protect.
It's probably too late to stop them, but it's very possible they are the future followers of the Biblical antichrist.
Which European revolutionary from 1848 was a Marxist? The Hungarians? The French?
Many, if not most, of them, particularly Germans. One in particular was Joseph Wedemyer, who was a close associate of Marx and Engels and the head of the Communist league in Frankfurt. Marx was expelled from Germany because of his role in the 1848 revolution. He ended up in Manchester, England. Horace Greely and Charles Dana published his missives in the New York Tribune for over a decade.
But not so in Hungary, Italy, Denmark, or Holland, to any significant degree recorded degree I've come across. I would be very interested to learn of specific "Marxists" or Communists involved in those states.
There were some Hungarian communists who came to the US. Also Irish revolutionaries. Remember that communist predates Marx. He and Engels became communists and he wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. As a matter of fact, Marx told Wedemeyer to get it published in the US, which he did. Not all of the Forty-Eighters were members of the Communist Party but they were revolutionaries. Several of them became Union generals and some were part of Lincoln and Grant's administrations. Some of them went back to Europe after the Civil War since things had quieted down there. Charles A Dana was close to Marx as was Horace Greely. Dana edited Greely's newspaper and published Marx's articles. Marx is referred to as an "economist" but he was actually a revolutionary whose goal was the elimination of "the aristocracy" which to him was anyone who owned property, particularly land. The goal of the Forty-Eighters was to promote a revolution in the United States of factory workers in the North and slaves in the South. Marx saw the US and Russia as the most likely places for a revolution to succeed.
"The human art of politics, which would have required real negotiation and compromise with Trump supporters, was abandoned in favor of a specious science of top-down social engineering that aimed to produce a totally administered society."
The question is: what is to be done about the totality of our administered reality? Though he took a most dreadful political path, Heidegger was right to have deep anxiety about us all becoming enframed by technology, for so we have been and are. There seems to be no exit. We don't even know how to find each other, those of us who are still thinking, outside of the internet. Wasn't it also Heidegger who said: The most thought-provoking thing about our thought-provoking age is that we still are not thinking?
How are we to stake again and anew the human, & the call & challenge to think, from within enframement, psyops & swarming?
"The old human arts of conversation, disagreement, and irony, on which democracy and much else depend, are subjected to a withering machinery of military-grade surveillance—surveillance that nothing can withstand and that aims to make us fearful of our capacity for reason."
I believe that when we focus on Covid as our major problem we are falling into a trap, a trap for our minds that discounts the real danger, the ease with which we have succumbed to mandates. We can see a tremendous amount of human energy being expended on the Covid aspect of what has taken place over the past three years, origins, vaccines, treatments, therapeutic protocol, etc. There is also a significant discussion about lockdowns but i don't think nearly enough about how easily we fell for the lie. So thanks for opening the discussion to try to unravelled what is up.
I didn't yet read the quoted article but 3 years ago i was listening to a delingpod, podcast and he had on a guest, Donald S. Siegel is foundation professor and director at the School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University (Donald.Siegel.1@asu.edu). and they discussed " a massive social experiment " being conducted on us, particularly without our informed consent. Prof Siegel and his partner wrote an article for the Jerusalem Post that's still available and there's a link in my blog post, https://gseine.com/2020/04/10/troubling-thoughts-about-covid-19/
I emailed back and forth with Prof Siegel a couple of time but haven't followed up. It was during the heart of Covid panic in early April, while the inferno was raging an a sane voice was utterly overpowered. largely the concern was the ease with which our society discarded personal autonomy.
Today I see a lot of people looking for a super villain and while there are powerful people playing with human lives to be found, it doesn't explain how we are so willing to do as the say, to so easily and uncomplainingly comply with regulation that have never even seen legislative discussion, that are not formal laws. As a nation, once full of independent thinkers, we can be considered woolly eyed sheep today.
That said though, I personally think it has been made possible by ideas the are embedded deeply in our society., ideas presented years ago by philosophers now long dead. two that come to mind, It's become almost impossible to agree on truth, as the idea we've largely accepts say there is no ultimate truth. Another is the acceptance of expert rule, that we largely accept that we are personally impotence and incompetence in this very complex world.
If we are convinced that we are personal weak we will be doomed to failure in winning back a free society. And the necessity of developing articulate, persuasive arguments to support the cause of freedom must not be ignored if we are to garner supporters. For without assembling ever increasing numbers of independent thinkers, we few will be swept away under a tsunami of ignorance.
Excellent comment! Thank you for the link.
I find it fascinating to be recommending a Siegel article on a link that recommends another Siegel article, albeit authors that don't share a first name. A detective mystery to explore.
It started with FDR
President Wilson gave us the Federal Reserve, the 16th Amendment establishing the federal income tax, and racism in the military was reimposed. FDR merely built on the “progressive” foundation established by Wilson.
Quite right. I stand corrected. That said, I add that the US Democratic Party has been a metastasizing cancer on USA from it's inception.
I agree. I should have gone back that far. FDR created welfare state and was the first neo-con for endless war.
It's an alien and inhuman materialistic darkness formerly called Satan, the Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub, or simply the Adversary. It's nihilistic and suicidal to humans because it's dedicated to destroying God and every part of His Creation. Men and women are the Lord's most beloved living form, made in His image. Sexuality, the family, individualism, and the common brotherhood and sisterhood of all people are being destroyed as we speak. We're in the final act of a drama that's over 5,000 years old.
Perhaps the most frightening thing about this whole story of corporate statism through media control (among other things) is how many of our fellow citizens, with all the evidence presented, still choose to see nothing, nothing.
It's agonizing!
Read Erich Fromm “Escape from Freedom”. Most people don’t want to be “free”. It’s too hard.
It's crazy and hard for me to believe.
I'm often scared out of my mind.
The regime in power now is governing as though they will never lose power. I'm beginning to believe they might not. Someone please prove me wrong.
The following is taken from the article, “Kow Tow Now” available on the substack, BigMouth. More is available there on the topic of Chinese hybrid warfare (what Dr Robert Malone calls 5th gen warfare).
Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is often considered a principal architect of the current authoritarian tide sweeping freedom away from western democracies and the United States of America. His father, Eugen Schwab, was managing director at Escher Wyss during WW2, a major supplier of weapons and materials to the Nazi’s 3rd Reich. The Escher Wyss branch of the company in Ravensburg, Germany, (which Eugen managed) used prisoners of war and forced laborers during the Nazi’s war effort. The company also made a turbine for a Norwegian hydroelectric power station used in the construction of an experimental reactor intended for military-use plutonium production. Klaus Schwab was himself a managing board member of Escher Wyss from 1967-1970.
Although his experience of authoritarian Nazism with his father and in a personal capacity is clear, it is highly doubtful that Klaus Schwab is personally the originator of the extensive, meticulously crafted strategies which have been implemented over decades to effect the systematic destruction of western civilization. The characteristics of these strategies and their long-term implementation directly parallel the 24 warfare types articulated by the Communist Party of China in strategy papers publicly released since Chairman Mao first began to broaden his horizons to include dominance of the entire planet. The CCP began to develop their comprehensive national power goals as the foundation of a uniquely Chinese foreign policy more than 40 years ago.
What is clear is that Klaus Schwab has been a close collaborator with the CCP and their expansionist goals. In 1992, Klaus Schwab and World Economic Forum launched a program initially called Global Leaders of Tomorrow.
This program then became the non-profit Forum for Young Global Leaders. It was created in Switzerland in 2005 using $1 million in grant money by Schwab in his role as founder of the World Economic Forum. Their website glowingly reports, “as a group of over 600+ professionals across over 90 countries worldwide, YGL Alumni are engaged in activities that aim to improve the state of the world. They are CEO's of Fortune 500 corporations, in royal houses, in leading NGO's and national non-profits, public figures in civil society, sports personalities, and more.” In an address in 2017 at Harvard, Schwab said, “What we are very proud of, is that we penetrate the global cabinets of countries with our WEF Young Global Leaders." While speaking during an interview with Tian Wei, the host of the “World Insight” program on the Beijing-based China Global Television Network, Schwab discussed the recent G20 and B20 meetings in Bali, Indonesia where he gave a speech to world leaders on how his “Great Reset” agenda is going to “restructure” society in their countries.
That's why so many Republicans are for "America First".
The Globalists are the enemy of the United States.
The Authoritarian State is here. And they want us to know it.
I think its extremely significant that, inter alia, the IRS sent a agent to Matt Taibbi’s home on the day he was testifying to Congress, (see story below). This IRS visit, I think, is of a piece with the various unannounced SWAT raids on the homes of nonviolent people which have been happening the last few years, such as the completely unnecessary forceful arrest of retired economics professor Peter Navarro, and indeed, the pending arrest of Trump himself.
more on Taibbi's unannounced IRS visit below:
WASHINGTON — The White House declined to comment Wednesday on an IRS agent’s visit to journalist Matt Taibbi’s home on the same day that he testified to a House subcommittee investigating the “weaponization” of government.
The surprise March 9 door-knock came as the “Twitter Files” collaborator described his reporting on how the government pressured social media platforms to censor online speech.
The Post asked at the first White House press briefing since the news of the visit broke Monday about whether the visit was “part of a campaign to harass or intimidate [Taibbi] related to his journalism.”
White House spokesman John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, declined to provide a substantive reply.
Read more: https://news.google.com/search?q=irs%20taibbi&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen
It started a long time ago; the Deep State Uniparty has only missed twice and let 2 non-Establishment presidents win in the last 60 years; JFK they assassinated and Trump they impeached twice and now are trying to throw in prison. Besides those 2 all the others were controlled by Uniparty. Here is the list. Note that only 21 individuals have been either President or VP in last 60 years; Should be closer to 30 individuals if Uniparty didn’t keep serving up Bushes, Clintons, Biden in Pres and VP roles. (Election every 4 years; 60 years/4 years=15 president elections and 15 VP roles for total of 30 pres or VP roles).
1961-1963 John F. Kennedy Jacqueline Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
1963-1965 Lyndon B. Johnson Lady Bird Johnson office vacant
1965-1969 Lyndon B. Johnson Lady Bird Johnson Hubert H. Humphrey
1969-1973 Richard M. Nixon Pat Nixon Spiro T. Agnew
1973-1974 Richard M. Nixon Pat Nixon Gerald R. Ford
1974-1977 Gerald R. Ford Betty Ford Nelson Rockefeller
1977-1981 Jimmy Carter Rosalynn Carter Walter F. Mondale
1981-1989 Ronald Reagan Nancy Reagan George Bush
1989-1993 George Bush Barbara Bush Dan Quayle
1993-2001 Bill Clinton Hillary Rodham Clinton Albert Gore
2001-2009 George W. Bush Laura Bush Richard Cheney
2009-2017 Barack Obama Michelle Obama Joseph R. Biden
2017-2021 Donald J. Trump Melania Trump Mike Pence
2021- Joseph R. Biden Jill Biden Kamala Harris
If Trump does time and/or suffers great material loss I'll believe he is a good guy and is really being persecuted.
If he only gains more wealth and fame from being publicly yelled at and yelling back, I'll stand by my current conviction that this is as fake as an old WWF match. Brought to you by globalist Ted Turner's network.
That's just wishful thinking on your part, I believe. I've seen no evidence of it but have seen plenty of "connections" with other on that list.
You'd have to ask the Saudi's. (just kidding)
I would guess that was due to, yes, connections Kushner made while working for Trump in the middle-East. But I haven't seen him complaining about having to give 10% to the Big Guy or having to turn over half his income to his father-in-law. I don't know what the investment arrangement is but I haven't heard that any of the money was an outright gift for nothing. And Saudi Arabia is an ally, unlike China & Russia which are Communist enemies.
And just what is your basis for this assertion? The reality is that NOBODY controlled Trump, which is why he is so hated.
How absurd is it to base things on his personalit rather than his *Job Performance*???
The presidency is a JOB! And he excelled more than any president I recall. He kept us safe, improved our lives (everyone's, not just a select few), he was well on his way to closing the border and on and on. He did more for black Americans than Obama did. Etc.
Biden has that "pleasing personality" and look at the horrible mess he's made - plus he's a crook. China and Russia have decades of dirt on him so he must appease them for his own personal welfare. I'd rather have the bully any day.
Trump's big spending was mostly after COVID hit. (And all spending goes up with each president because things cost more and more each year.
Trump is no globalist. And he slightly knew the DC people b/c they all came to him to ask for money.
My side IS better. They've never targeted an opponent for no reason and kept that targeting going constantly for 7 years straight. They've never raided ppl's homes, with helicopters, armed men, CNN, and sent people to prison for *allegedly* lying to the FBI or not registering as a foreign agent. They didn't riot for an entire summer destroying billions of innocent peoples' businesses and MURDERING people. So, yes, I'm biased. And I put nothing, no matter how bad, past Democrats.
Nancy Pelosi just wants to save our Democracy. We can be sure because she SAID she did repeatedly. Just like Trump SAID he wanted to drain the swamp.
According to the iron law of all time machine movies, don’t change anything in the past or you will totally muck up the future. Liberals believe we went off the rails under Trump, conservatives blame Obama. Either way the evidence looks pretty compelling that someone broke that law in a big way.
I don’t mean to be glib. Our world is increasingly looking Orewllian. Life expectancy in the US turned down under Obama and is still going down. We need serious changes.
My humble opinion, but this is how we got here: Social Media.
It's a frequent villain, I know, but it's important to understand two facets of social media that have allowed it to be such a destructive force in this day and age.
For the first time in history, social media allowed everyone in the world to publish his or her opinion, indelibly, make it known to the world. What do I mean by "the world." Your world is your colleagues, co-workers, classmates, friend groups, relatives, acquaintances. Succinctly, those you connect with online. Before social media, you might mention your opinion on an issue to a few friends, you might even announce it in class or at work. But, it wasn't indelible, it was easily forgotten, and it wasn't published to the world. Social media changed that. You frequently aren't entitled to re-consider an ill-founded thought from seven years ago. You might even be cancelled when the narrative shifts.
In his book "Superforecasting," Phillip Tetlock cites a study where two groups of experts were asked to make predictions about future events. The first group's predictions were kept private; the second group's were published and made known to the world. Gradually, new facts were revealed that impacted the likelihood of the experts' predictions, and the experts were given the opportunity to revise their predictions in light of the new evidence.
The study found that the experts who published their predictions were far less likely to change their minds when new evidence was presented -- some even refusing to change when facts revealed their predictions were wrong. In short, their reputations were public and their egos became bound up in having their initial prediction vindicated. That's what social media does.
So, why didn't things begin to fall apart right at the advent of these social media networks, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, et al? Well, it took time for those who control the narrative to develop their techniques to match this new phenomenon, social media. With the invention of the printing press, a similar transformation occurred. Suddenly, governments, the rich and the churches lost control of the ability to control the narrative. Printing presses were banned in many areas. But, those who crave and have power developed new techniques -- yellow journalism, controlling media outlets, subtle censorship, etc.
The same is true here. The powers that be are honing their techniques. When Obama won his second election, his team and Facebook bragged about their ability to use the platform to get out the preferred vote. When Trump did the same thing four years later (Cambridge Analytica), it was a national outrage. And, from that point forward, they've been honing and sharpening their techniques for achieving narrative control using social media as the medium.
Their techniques are not perfected. But, they can successfully cement the opinions of much of the social media mob quickly, such that they cannot and will not change their minds, even when presented with evidence that they are wrong. Works on both sides of the aisle, but the medium (social media) only leans one way.
I heard someone once say that it wasn't Trump that killed the body politic and that he was just the EMT that pronounced it dead. I'm going to agree with that because I don't think you can reason with anyone anymore. Ms Stone recently gave us the example of the man who was beaten by the mob just trying to protect his friend's store in Kenosha. I look at that example and of a possible solution but all that comes to mind is the Boz Scaggs tune "It's Over.". Maybe that's where we are and there's no way back.
Actually, his name was David Dorn and he was murdered that night. That's why I don't, for a minute, agree with the "both sides" argument. People say that to appear fair - but it's not true. One side is vicious and violent. They have no limits on what they will do to win. The other side is led by cowards who have yet to fight back in the same way.
I know the article you refer to. It was so good I posted it to my social media accounts at Truth and GETTR, whether anyone reads it or not. I have been around long enough to remember where I was when JFK was assassinated. I have taken a keen interest in history beyond what was taught to me in many a school along the way......I attended many because I was a military brat. To truly make sense of what we experience today, one must go back to the days during the FDR administration. There are authors who expose the nastiness behind the headlines for WWII, particularly later in the war, and since then with 9/11 and the Patriot Act, and the military involvement in bio weapons research. Check out writings by Diana West, M. Stanton Evans, Whitney Webb, and Sasha Latyapova, to name a few. It is frightening how the mainstream media covers for the crap perpetrated by elected officials who have done so much to betray all of us, top among them today would be Barack Obama and Joe Biden IMO. Bless you, Sasha, for asking questions and raising doubts about all of it!
Agree and indeed several commentators note the neo-con endless war cabal as far back as WWI.
Siegel is right to object to the fascist label for this leviathan, as it really is not a good description (though I admit to having used that label for want of a better term. I guess I'm a "brainwashed zealot"). But what should we call it? The censorship industrial complex is certainly an accurate description of part of what is going on, but the CIC is simply a tool to achieve broader ideological, political, and financial aims.
Fascism is defined in M-W as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition"
This does not describe this thing we are dealing with because:
(1) the regime does not exalt nation or race above the individual, but instead exalts ideological conformity, institutional power, and collective action over the individual. Some may object that the movement does exalt race above the individual (despite its open contempt for "nation"), but this isn't really accurate. This is not, say, a black nationalist movement. Race is part of the ideology that holds the system together, but it is really the ideology itself, not race per se, that is being exalted over the individual.
(2) the regime does not "stand for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader..." Instead, it is a decentralized authoritarian system headed by an ideologically unified ruling class, using their leadership positions in government, corporations (esp. tech), and NGOs to impose autocracy through myriad mechanisms. They are not united in the figure of a dictator, but instead bound together by an egregore, which is defined in Wikipedia (yeah, I know, it's part of the regime) as "an occult concept representing a non-physical entity that arises from the collective thoughts of a distinct group of people." This non-physical entity takes the place of the dictator in the traditional fascist regime, which is what makes this thing so slippery and ephemeral. Thus, it could be said this regime "stands for a decentralized authoritarian system comprised of government, corporations, media, and civil society and headed by an egregore."
(3) While this system does enforce severe social regimentation, I don't believe it is accurate to say it enforces severe economic regimentation. The corporate sector is pretty much free to do its thing so long as the actors involved remain beholden to the egregore. Generous corporate and NGO welfare is definitely part of the system, but the economic component of the system really can't be described as severely regimented.
(4) "Forcible suppression of opposition" is also not a great descriptor for this thing. Much of the suppression occurs by very subtle and covert means, as we see in the Twitter Files. The suppression of opposition occurs through information warfare, as opposed to, say, gulags. It can be better described as "suppression of opposition through information warfare techniques."
So we arrive at something like the following definition: "a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts ideological conformity, institutional power, and collective action above the individual and that stands for a decentralized authoritarian system comprised of government, corporations, media, and civil society and headed by an egregore, severe social regimentation, expansive corporate welfare, and suppression of opposition through information warfare techniques."
So what do we call this thing?
The Twilight Zone.
I'd call it the Egregorgon.
Perfect word
We are being smothered in 'amorphous slime.' It is near impossible to get a solid handle on what is happening until fully understanding that institutions are really a complex set of ideas, accurate for a specific period of time, reduce to a number of followable rules that supersede thinking, a monster that gains life from its bureaucratic whims. In a dynamic, everchanging world their static nature condemn them to atrophy.
A metaphor for the threat we face.
A many headed monster with many horns. The horns are where the thoughts occur. Its pelt provides camouflage, it can go upright or on all fours with speed. Its roar paralyzes prey for miles around.
Ideocracy?
Technocracy.
Both fascism and communism drew strength from visible, charismatic leaders.
These rulers draw strength through cloaks of invisibility.
Patriot Act was also used against the American People. Just a few examples: TSA and the wholesale surveillance of American citizens (under pretenses) as exposed by Edward Snowden.
The article was an amazing overview. We have allowed this "ministry of truth" and fact-checking apparatus to take over. The only way I see to stop it is for all of us to connect and support those who seek out and speak truth...like Sasha Stone. In spite of the apparatus, the truth about Covid and the jabs is slowly coming out, the truth about the Hunter laptop is coming out (where is the indictment?). We need to strengthen the sources and networks of truth. God bless Jacob Siegel for writing this.
It started years ago. WW2 spy machine put on guard against the red menace. Amping up over the decades but still out word looking. Then went into overdrive secondary to the bush administration patriot act. They started looking more inward. Starting with 'Muslim' terrorists. That's at least what they said to the public. In reality, over the next 3 presidents Obama, Trump and Biden they started looking at you. I mean you, me, us. I know most on this site are Trump folks, but this issue is a both party/ una party/ deep state thing. Trump guys were using it as well. Not sure the solution. I've always been a big believer in term limits but since this is both sides don't think that would even help at this point.
Good summary by Siegel. I think the totalitarian threat is very real and needs to be confronted. But there's a hurdle that goes by the name of Trump. He is now in the way. He is being used by the authoritarians to further their goals. How? They use Trump as a distraction. They, along with their Pravda-like media partners, put all the focus on him and his controversial personality. They enflame the hatred of the morons with lies and exaggerations and, when nobody is looking at anything else but Trump, they extend their power grab. Make no mistake, Democrats want Trump to be the R candidate in 2024. Alvin Bragg's actions are designed to help Trump win the primary. But they know they can whip Trump in the general election. They've done it twice already. At this point Trump is driven by ego and narcissism. If he really cared what was best for the country he would help Republicans get behind somebody sane and electable who can bring about a real course correction. These are really dangerous times.
I think there’s a lot of merit to what you say. But, with all his faults, I don’t see *any* other serious candidate even mildly interested in exposing (let alone dismantling) the leviathan.
I partly agree. They definitely exploit and incite a hatred of Trump and use it to their advantage. I disagree that he should get out of the race if he really cared. He clearly cares about America. His love for our country is evident in all he does, in all accomplished in his term, and in all he has had to endure from the Deep State. Respect your opinion though.
Yes! When almost all the headlines are Trump. You can bet theres something awful happening that the Unioarty does not want the public to see.
I agree - but I also believe there is only one person with enough fight in him (and knowledge he did not have the last time) to set things straight for our country. Let's face it - no matter what they always say when campaigning - today's Republican "notables" are cowards through and through.
Since Trump's indictment, they're all being wishy-washy when asked "what are you going to do?" questions....even "fighters" like Jim Jordan. "We're going to look into...blah, blah."
I'm frustrated with Q and well-meaning patriots who cling to Trump as their only hope and "wait till next election..."
Just finished reading it. Very good stuff. It kind of seems like after the Soviet Union collapsed we were euphoric and thought we had won, but instead their ghost has arisen in the form of the Democratic Party, over time, and a fusion of it with our ruling classes and deep state. You can see it with their treatment of Trump, which looks very much like the old adage of Lavrentia Beria, that if you show him the criminal he'll show you the crime. Trump offended and threatened them and so they had/have to get him no matter what. With that sort of an attitude I don't know how more people don't see the threat posed by them.
Feeling like this long Tablet piece requires an “executive summary” section
Steve, EVERYTHING needs a summary today.. When a keyboard and the internet meet ....
I believe there is a summary as I sent the title of the article to a friend and he replied today he had listened to a summary. So I guess one might do that in duck duck go and see what shows up.
The article ends with this:"The old human arts of conversation, disagreement, and irony, on which democracy and much else depend, are subjected to a withering machinery of military-grade surveillance .. ." These old arts have already been destroyed by the MDM surveillance regime so well described in the article. Outside of perhaps some intellectual circles and online discourse, conversation, disagreement, and irony is dead. Conversation outside of the superficial and mundane is either an echo chamber or immediate hostility. How sad we no longer dare to have a civil conversation with those with disagree with but it is no longer possible. It is a scary prospect that AI is going to take over the tasks, but honestly, the war is already won.
Sasha, I just finished reading (as in literally, last night) the memoir of General Richard Taylor, the son of General and President Zachary Taylor, who was at the Charleston convention in 1860 and became a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army, and was one of the last to surrender his command, almost a month after Appomattox. It is very eye-opening. He told how he met with Thadeus Stevens, one of the leaders of the Radical Republicans. Stevens told him that if he had his way, the white population of the South would have been eliminated (as in hung and bayoneted) and all Southern property distributed to the negroes. Sherman is quoted as having said the same thing. I know you have an interest in the Civil War. This is an important book you should read. It's available on Amazon in Kindle. Taylor told how that after he surrendered to Union General Canby, who he knew, one of the German immigrant Union generals proceeded to lecture him on being an American, over Canby and other officers' protest. Taylor responded that his family had been in America since 1608 and had played a part in its founding, and that he knew what being an American was, unlike this German Forty-Eighter.
Sasha,
Just want to let you know I appreciate your articles and I'm glad you made the transition away from the left. I made that change a long time ago from being a Maoist communist to an American patriot. Look forward to your future material.
Taibbi's interview with the author is worth reading as well:
https://www.racket.news/p/tablets-grand-opus-on-the-anti-disinformation
On positive steps we might take: how about starting chapters of the “30% group”--those of us not snowed by the various psyops? Or t-shirts so we can recognize each other?
"I heart Truth."
"I oppose the NWO."
We have no idea what the future holds. Think about how many things happening today that nobody predicted, that were total surprises. Hell, 20 years ago liberals were loving The X-FILES and cheering on Mulder and his pursuit of the truth and the Lone Gunmen and their fight against big government deep state baddies experimenting on American citizens. Today liberals are on the side of the government and laugh at people who talk about government conspiracies. I have faith in one thing; the leftoids attempt to fundamentally transform America will fail. Something totally unexpected with happen to thwart their plans
I call them Neo Lefties. Old school liberals are sick of them. The kind who are still funny.
Excellent article! Thanks for sharing. This piece puts much of the current censorship nonsense into context.
We are on this journey together. The arrows will fly against us...shields up. We will prevail but there will be casualties. Stand for FREEDOM. Never surrender!
God bless you Sasha!
I have a business, a Masters, a PhD. A house, 2 kids and 2 dogs. I've got a life.
Yes he did. I don't know when you decided to stop reading stuff but let me help you here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War
"
The United States responded with a build-up of 170,000 troops in 2007. This build-up gave greater control to Iraq's government and military. In 2008, President Bush agreed to a withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq. The withdrawal was completed under Barack Obama in December 2011."
I would like to raise an additional concern - related, but not exactly on topic - a recent article from NBC about how an entire election staff (4 people) quit in a Virginia county - the article goes into great length about the reasons that the staff quit and blames it on baseless voter fraud allegations and the heated arguments that followed.
However, a few lines into the article there's this - regarding the seated registrar at the time of the election - "She implemented dozens of new laws in 2020" - but in the article there was no explanation as to what laws were implemented - why they were implemented and what were the effects? What were the concerns? Whether she acted within her legal authority? Was there a review process before the laws were implemented? Just that there was no evidence of fraud, and the board quit because they felt harassed.
This is potentially a lie of omission but painted the story that the author and their media source - NBC - wanted to paint.
This example like so many others about how the 2020 election was conducted - many laws in many locations were changed under the guise of covid - many of those laws were also, post-election, declared unconstitutional, and in several of the swing states that delivered the election to Biden!