Is That A Passport In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

The hysteria over Donald Trump's immigration orders is by far the most entertainment out of the US since last November.  The global reaction makes it even more entertaining.  It is very interesting to see the antics and finger-pointing worldwide.

We begin with Chuckie Schumer, New York senator and dual citizen with an Israeli passport, shedding crocodile tears, as if he truly cares about the plight of "refugees".  He is probably more terrified that Trump will ban dual citizens, forcing him to choose between his cushy life-long job on the backs of taxpayers and his beloved desert hell-hole that he obviously doesn't love enough to live there.

Next, we have the CEO of AirBnB volunteering other people's private property as free shelter for banned travellers.  Yes, it doesn't hurt to look good with false generosity when you have no liability, no loss and no ownership in the outcome.  In the spirit of his generous offer, I'd like to open his home for free to all "refugees" and people from the seven banned countries.  C'mon in!

Then there's China's official mouthpiece Xinhua pointing the finger at the Trump orders and gleefully featuring coverage of the protests at JFK airport.  Of course, there is no mention that China has some of the most strict immigration laws in Asia, enforces them ruthlessly and allows zero "refugees" inside their borders.  Oops, forgot about that part, did you?

The EU is jumping up and down hollering about the new US policies, with Hollande and others demanding that the European dictatorship get tough on Trump - or they would be jumping up and down except they might land on a "refugee" or two...hundred.  Sounds more like a case of passionately wanting someone else to share their misery.

Almost every single article I can find says that Trump banned Muslims, but when I read the Executive Order, it says all passport holders from seven countries in the Middle East know to harbor terrorists, regardless of political or religious backgrounds. Neither does the EO put a permanent ban on these countries...just three months.

Interestingly, Trump also ordered the Pentagon to come up with a plan in 30 days to defeat ISIS.  That would give him 60 days to effect the plan before the ban is lifted.  Hmmm...  He also said that he would not release details of the plan beforehand.  That makes sense, since FDR didn't hold a presser to announce that Allied forces would be landing at Normandy at dawn on the 6th or June, either.

To be fair, the seven banned countries are predominantly Islamic, though Indonesia was not included with a population about 79% Muslim.  So maybe the ban is political, not religious?  Banish the thought!

Trump has done nothing but his job, which is to execute the law of the land in the most effective and fiscally-responsible way.  Granted, no one has done that in the US for decades, but hey, it's still the law, folks.

If the Middle East had a virulent outbreak of hemorrhagic fever, I'm sure Chuckie Schumer and the Walking Dead...er, Democrats would be falling all over themselves to ban travellers from those countries.  Point of order, Mr. Chuckie, politically-induced mental illness is just as dangerous.

Though I am wary as hell of Trump, I must admit that his orders are perfectly reasonable and legitimate.  Unlike Obama, he's even (so far) using the EOs for their intended purpose: enforce the law, not make it.  Being an immigrant myself and having to abide by the laws and regulations of my resident country, I fully support what Trump is doing.  Just because none of his predecessors have bothered to enforce the law does not remove him from his sworn duty as president.

The looks on the faces of my Islamic friends here is classic when they tell me Trump has banned Muslims, and I respond that Indonesians are free to travel to the US any time they want, as long as they have a valid visa and follow the process.  It really does not compute, so effective has the Corporate Media been in rewriting the narrative.

Oh, there's one more thing.  If Trump was really serious, he'd ban Saudi Arabia too.  I guess that's too much to ask.

Ring Around The Rosy

When you type "images measles virus" into Google (or Dogpile as I prefer), you can find plenty of pictures of people with measles, but none of the virus itself.  Conversely, typing "images chicken pox virus" turns up dozens of photos and illustrations of the virus.  You might also want to look at the mumps virus and the rubella virus, both part of the Unholy Trinity of the MMR vaccine.

Now pop over to "German High Court Finds No Evidence of Measles Virus," which is rather ironic since one common name for the disease is German Measles.  There are several dozen variations on this news, so click around.

It would also be instructive to thumb through all the articles covering recent outbreaks of measles in supposedly "vaccinated" populations in the US.

Now before I launch into my anti-vaccine tirade, let's review how vaccines are supposed to work.

Viruses are basically packages of genetic material surrounded by a protein coat covered with "keys" that latch onto a cell's matching receptors or "locks."  Once the virus key opens the lock, the genetic material is injected into the cell, which is turned into a mini factory for making more viruses.

When a virus enters the body, special immune cells are manufactured with fake locks that capture the virus.  Once captured, the immune cell commits suicide and removes the invader.  If the virus overwhelms the immune response, the body gets sick.

A vaccine supposedly injects the virus' protein shell (without the genetic material) to stimulate the body's immune response.  Thus, (supposedly) the immune cells are already present if the actual virus invades, saving time and effort to fight the virus and - hopefully - beating the virus to the punch.

The current US requirements are for two injections of MMR between birth and 18 years of age for the average human.  The MMR "vaccine" costs about US$20/dose, so for let's say 200 million Americans who get the vaccine, that's roughly US$8 billion for the existing population =in revenues, with some millions of children starting the vaccination course every year.

Expand that worldwide to perhaps a billion or more doses and we're talking some real money here.

Based on the German court's findings, at least one-third of the $20 cost per dose is complete fiction, meaning no value was received for the money.  The producer had no cost and the buyers received no inoculation for measles, since there is no virus from which to get the protein coat, and the person getting the shot receives no immunity benefit with regards to measles.  The MMR vaccine has been around since 1971, so we are talking billions and billions of dollars for hot air.

This has two implications: the pharmaceutical industry has blatantly lied to the world for at least 40 years, and this calls into question the entire vaccine industry.  If the incidence of measles has decreased in that time, which it has, and the vaccine is entirely imaginary, then it implies that little more than good hygiene has led to better public health.

If, as the German court findings show, the pharmaceutical industry was willing to so blatantly lie about the measles vaccine, whVaat else are they lying about?  And more importantly, what exactly are they injecting into us if not the ingredients promised?

This single event calls into question the entire vaccine industry, the efficacy of vaccines and at least partially vindicates those of us who have railed against vaccines for years.  It also calls into question the motivations behind vaccinations and what exactly is contained in the witch's brew being pumped into us.

If it turns out that nothing more than good public health practices and regular hand-washing has been responsible for the reduction in measles, what does this say about the entire vaccine cabal?  And what exactly have we been paying for all these years?

Now would be a good time to go watch the documentary Vaxxed (again), which focuses on the damage done by the MMR vaccine.

It is well passed the time to start asking some questions.  We have been duped.  There is no doubt about that.  At this point, we don't even know what causes measles if it isn't a virus.  Most importantly, why do we unquestioningly allow our bodies to be injected with potions based solely on corporate promises and government mandates?

Google currently says:

"Measles is caused by a virus. It is spread when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or shares food or drinks. The measles virus can travel through the air. This means that you can get measles if you are near someone who has the virus even if that person doesn't cough or sneeze directly on you."

Yet Google search cannot produce a single picture of the virus.

The BGH (German High Court) found:

"In the trial, the results of research into so-called genetic fingerprints of alleged measles virus have been introduced. Two recognised laboratories, including the world’s largest and leading genetic Institute, arrived at exactly the same results independently.The results prove that the authors of the six publications in the measles virus case were wrong, and as a direct result all measles virologists are still wrong today: They have misinterpreted ordinary constituents of cells as part of the suspected measles virus."

Time to start Asking the Right Questions.

A Run On The Border

In order to get a US B-1 visa, my wife had to pay a $135 non-refundable fee, stand in line for two hours outside the embassy, go through a one-hour interview, wait a day to learn if she'd been approved, then waited three more days to get her passport back with the visa stamp.  All of that was after she had assembled a pile of documents to prove who she was and that she was legally married to me.

I, on the other hand, have gone every year for the past nine to file a request to stay one more year in Indonesia.  It costs about $700/year, requires about two weeks worth of paperwork, then an appointment at the Immigration Office to get photographed and fingerprinted, then a wait of two weeks more to receive my resident card and passport with visa.  Every five years, I have to go out of the country - usually Singapore - and re-enter.  No particular reason given.  To get my wife as my sponsor - a sponsor is required until five years after getting Permanent Residency - I had to file an equally large pile of paperwork showing what a good boy am I.

Now ask me if I give a rat's ass about Mexico whining that they can't send their criminals and terminal medical cases to the US hassle-free.

Furthermore, being from Texas, I've spent most of my life seeing people run the border, die in the sparsely populated and arid parts of Texas, get hit by cars trying to dash across freeways, and live in hovels with 20 or 30 other indocumentos so they could wire a few bucks home once a week.

I even shot a news story about a couple of dozen people who literally roasted to death in a truck trailer.  The coyote - people smuggler - had taken their money (usually about $300 each), then ditched the trailer on a rural road, where the people suffocated or died of heat stroke.  I don't recall if the coyote was ever caught, but I will bet that it wasn't a high priority.

When NAFTA, the North American Free-Trade Agreement, was first conceived, one of the selling points was that building up Mexico's economy with American factories would keep folks at home.  Didn't work.  Instead, the numbers grew at a constant pace.

You see, Mexico is a shithole, to be polite about it.  The Spanish upper-class owns everything and has all the money.  The indigenous Indians are viewed as scum and an annoyance, and the country is happy to pawn as many off on the US as they can to avoid an all-out revolution at home.

To be fair, Texas and Mexico were once a single country, and the jobs that Mexicans take in the States were once shunned by locals because they were low-paying and menial: dishwashers, bar backs, gardeners, etc.

Then the economy cratered because the corporations found that they could save a lot of money hiring cheap labor elsewhere.  Even after shipping products back to the States and paying the almost non-existent tariffs, it was still more profitable than complying with all the regulations and union demands back home.

Enter Donald Trump.

Ever since the US economy started collapsing, Americans have been more and more desirous of those menial jobs that the Mexicans used to take.  Any income is better than none.

Additionally, the Spanish Mexicans weren't going to spend any money on border stops leaving Mexico if they didn't have to.  Thus, entire populations of Central and South America started making their way up north to cross the non-existent border to the States.  That eventually included dozens of other countries outside the Americas, who would jump off the plane in Matamoros and cross on into Texas like they were running to the store for milk.

To all this, add the drug mafias reaping huge profits because the so-called War on Drugs had made prices so high in the States, and most recently Middle Easterners with less than honorable intentions once they had crossed the line.

Along comes Trump, who says he is going to shut down the so-called border, and Mexico starts wailing and gnashing its teeth - one because they are going to get stuck with all those indocumentos who didn't make it over the line, and two because the factories moving back home means the Spaniards are going to have to face a bunch of hungry, pissed-off Indians who are envying the rich folks' stuff.

The peso is cratering to all-time lows.  The Mexican government is desperately swinging at Trump (and missing).  Mexico is also faced with having to deport all those foreigners who didn't get across, don't have money or skills, and are also hungry and angry.  This is not to mention that many of the foreigners are criminals, terrorists and/or diseased.

If I were a Spanish Mexican, I would be changing my underwear every hour, and gathering from the stories, it sounds like they are.  Kind of a reverse Montezuma's Revenge.

To add insult to injury, many of the States have now legalized marijuana and prices have dropped, with cultivation at home.  No need for imports.  Guess what?  The once mighty drug mafias are hurting too, and they have lots of guns and wiseguys who are looking for new targets, like tourists,thus further damaging the Mexican economy.

Mexico has little or no negotiating power at the table.  The US wins politically at home, with increased jobs, rising middle class and enhanced security.  Mexico is in a lose-lose position, watching all the jobs leave and being stuck with the bill for all the riff-raff that they happily allowed in, thinking they could hustle is all off to the US.

I have no sympathy for the Spaniards.  For too long, they have literally shit all over the indigenous population figuring they had the US as a release valve.  They also did little or nothing about the drug mafias because they were reaping huge amounts of money in bribes and graft, none of which went to building up the country.

Mexico is the last unreformed European colony in the Americas, a process started in the US 250 years ago.  Even Mexico's tiny southern neighbor, Belize, has all but severed from the British throne.  Though not directly controlled by Madrid, the Spanish upper-class in Mexico has maintained itself in a vacuum propped up by the US over the centuries.

That chicken is about to roost.

Apotheosis A La Mode

The Buddha used sea foam as a metaphor for the Universe.  All existing things rise like a bubble through the water, float for a time on the surface, then subside back into the Great Medium.  Nothing, he posited, was ever "created" or "destroyed," it simply changed into different states of existence.

I tell to agree with this view and find that quantum physics particularly confirms this idea.  I further add to the quantum view the Electric Universe hypothesis that the Universe is suffused with and operates via an all-pervasive and infinite electro-magnetic force.  Since the Universe appears to have rules and follow certain formulae, I conclude that the Universe is on the whole a Rational Individual, which some may choose to call God or Allah or the Great Nothingness.  All things exist because the Universe's rules make them not only possible, but probable.

Life exists because the Universe exists.  Life is sentient because the Universe is sentient.  Life is self-aware because the Universe is self-aware.  In a sense, there is no "individual," there is only the Universe extant in various forms that are created by the rules.

What gets me on this track is the rather large number of articles, discoveries and inspirations of late that seem to be infusing all media.  There appears, to my mind at least, a growing awareness of something much larger than our comparatively minuscule existence.

It is not so much of a single idea or discovery that is changing things, as much as it is an overall adjustment to the Collective Point Of View.  From the individual up to the global, we all seem to be changing perspectives, particularly about what we find important and meaningful.

This Change is currently showing up in our common culture as a Populist Wave, aided and abetted by what appears to be a substantial change in the revelation of scientific discovery.  I choose the word "revelation" advisedly, since I firmly believe that much of what is leaking into the Popular Mind has been known at some level for a long time, not the least of which was Buddha's ancient observations.

One should note that I am not talking about shifts between political or religious ideologies.  Rather, I am referring to the Common Culture rising above those ideologies to something more profound and...well, Universal.

People are not usually aware of great changes when they are in the midst of them.  We generally recognize the profundity of events after they have passed and we can assess the effect they have had on the future.  I would say, though, that most people are aware of something big when it happens, though we are generally incapable of knowing just how big they are without perspective.

What I perceive is a collective move away from "leaders" and "authority," to a more holistic definition of "freedom" and "liberty."

When I watch the videos of Social Justice Warriors (SJW), I sense that these are people incapable of dealing with personal freedom and liberty.  They have a burning desire to follow, and to force others to do the same.  They have herd minds and are horrified at the idea of being a herd of one.  If every individual is a "leader" and "authority," they panic because they don't know whom to follow.  To them, a world of individuals is unacceptable chaos and they are truly terrified by the prospect.

We see the same phenomenon on large scales, too.  I believe that the current lashing-out of Islam, among others, is similar on a group scale to the angry, wailing SJW.  Not only is the institution of Islam itself afraid to give up control, its adherents are afraid to be uncontrolled.  The violent reaction is an attempt to re-establish authority because both the group and the individuals define themselves by controlling and being controlled.

I only single out Islam because it is the most visible.  The Vatican has been trying to reassert itself and people like Vladimir Putin has been trying to regain control for the Orthodoxy.

Governments, too, have been desperately raking followers back into the fold.  The EU and US have been in desperation mode, trying to lock down control over their perceived empires.  China is in a sheer panic because its entire raison d'être is in danger of collapsing.

What is happening - and has been for centuries - is an apotheosis.  Individuals are slowly realizing that God is not "out there" with a set of codified "Thou Shants" that control our every movement.  Rather, we exist as constructs of Universe's Rules.  We are not separate; we are manifestations.  There is no God "out there; we and all we perceive are God.

Granted, this process of apotheosis has been long and arduous.  It is a clash of the most fundamental aspects of Weltanschauungs.  It is an ultimate battle between Esoteric and Exoteric forces.  It is the collision of Gnostic and Agnostic.  The division is so profound, so fundamental, that it is now beginning to affect macroscopic organizations across the planet.

This concept is so large that I am only beginning to express it as more than just a feeling.  I can now see large-scale effects in the global society, as I think most people can now do.  The Populist Wave is not a new form of "leadership" or "authority," it is a complete rejection of those concepts and a desire to pursue one's own direction.

We now have the most powerful tool ever devised by our species at our fingertips.  We have the collected sum of Humanity's experiences and ideas within seconds of having a thought or idea.  We can instantly connect with about half of the human species in moments, and the number is growing daily.  From Buddha to Berdyaev, we can each stand on the shoulders of giants while moving little more than our fingers and eyeballs.

The question is not whether this movement will fail.  It is far too late for that.  Rather, how fast will it begin to move?  It is quite obvious that the Controllers and the Authorities are losing, and the pace is rapidly accelerating.  It's as if Humanity is stepping into the daylight after years of living in a prison of our own making.

What will we do with our freedom?

Yet Another New Year's Day 2568

Here on the Far Side, all is abuzz with activity getting ready for Chinese New Year (Imlek).  My wife's family is Chinese-Indonesian, so the holiday coming up is always cause for festivities and traditions.

On Saturday evening, wife, mother-in-law and I went on a shopping excursion to Pacific Place, which is a highly over-rated and overpriced mall in downtown Jakarta.  I had one goal in mind, though: hit Kemcik Grocery Store.  This is about the only place in Jakarta to get many of the food items that I once took for granted.  For example, I bought, for only the second time in nine years, some Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing.  Yes, folks, that is a gourmet item here, and I paid $7/bottle for the privilege.  I think it's worth it for the rare treat.  I also had to indulge in Peter Pan Peanut Butter, fresh dill and sage (to hold my over till my next crop comes in), and a couple of wedges of fine Brie cheese (French not Australian).

Mostly the outing was part of the New Year tradition of new experiences.  My mother-in-law, being a little old lady from a small town in north-central Java, has never seen so many bizarre things, like a fine wine shop and Smucker's jelly (though they didn't have my grape).

We capped off the evening with another rare experience: the Hard Rock Cafe.  Neither my wife nor mother-in-law had ever been there, and it was my third trip in nine years.  We gorged on smoked ribs and chicken, and a massive plate of beef nachos, which mum loved because of the jalepeños.

It's all part of the preparation and tradition of Chinese New Year.  Later today (Sunday) I have to get a hair cut (next to my favorite shwarma joint) and trim my nails, and probably buy new underwear.  The tradition is everything must be renewed before the turning, so new clothes, cutting old hair and nails, house-cleaning, etc., is all part of the deal.

This year is symbolized by the Shadowy Red Hot Cock, or Yin Red Fire Rooster if you prefer more traditional notation.  It is said that this year will be one of "new beginnings" and "awakenings."  Just speculating here, but it seems that we are off to just such a start, even though the year officially begins on 28 January 2017, at roughly 0800 GMT, or slightly West of Jakarta.

The Chinese have one major weakness - they are highly superstitious.  If you are doing business with Chinese individuals or companies, you would do well to consult Chinese astrology for the date and time of meetings, and maybe even the birthday of the lead negotiator.  It could give you an edge knowing whether they will or won't sign contracts, or if they will be passive or aggressive at the table.  Chances are that the folks on the other side of the table have done the same and will act/react accordingly.

So anyway, there are a number of pork festivals occurring around the country to celebrate New Year.  Pork, or course, is a Chinese passion, even more so than dog.  In a predominantly Islamic country, you can imagine all the whining and complaining going on, even though this ritual has gone on for centuries - even before Islamic raiders overran the islands, bringing their religion with them.  I, for one, don't wait for a particular time of year.  I celebrate pork every single time I can find it.

Hell,the Pork Festival, which sounds vaguely suggestive, changed its name to the Imlek Culinary Festival because after centuries of the same annual ritual, the Muslims decided to get sensitive this year.  I guess they forgot that Islam is an invader too.

So, the malls are festooned with red archways, banners and lanterns.  It is especially fortuitous that this year is the Red Cock, since the color red symbolizes luck and prosperity, and is the traditional color of the New Year.

The 28th of January being the official beginning of the lunar year means that the relatives will bundle up the young 'uns and go to the houses of all the other relatives so the children can beg for Angpao.  After clasping their hands together and wishing everyone Gong Xi Fa' Cai (恭喜發財), the adults hand them small red packets stuffed with crispy fresh bills.  Note the bills have to be crispy and new.  You can't get rid of your old soggy bills this way.  This means my wife will have to run to the bank this week to obtain a stack or two of brand-new, hot-off-the-presses 2,000 and 5,000 notes, and then we will spend an evening stuffing envelopes.

One rule - the kids can't look in the envelopes until they get home so there won't be any complaining about amounts.  If I wanted to, I could exchange some of my old soggy notes for fresh crispy ones and no one would know who did it, but my wife would never let me get away with it.  Even though the packets are anonymous, she is just sure everyone would suspect me.  Can't imagine why.

Everyone also prays fervently for rain on New Year's Day, as that is an omen of good luck and fortune for the coming year.  So far, in the nine years I've been here, it never fails to rain, though I have yet to receive the empire I so richly deserve - still waiting on the fortune part, but can't argue with the luck.

Oh, I almost forgot all the lion and dragon dancers.  These are elaborately costumed dancers who go around in both the malls and neighborhoods (though the mall costumes are in better shape) and beg for handouts - traditionally an orange or two shoved in the mouth of the creature.  This dance is accompanied by lots of clashing cymbals and clanging chimes to ward off the evil and mischievous spirits.  The noise certainly makes me run away.

It's a fun and interesting time of year, and is one of the four New Year's Days celebrated in these parts - Roman, Muslim, Hindu and Chinese.  The Hindu version comes at the end of March this year, while the Muslim version is celebrated a month after Ramadhan.  Take the days off whenever you can get them, I always say.  In fact, we are going to Bali the weekend before Hindu New Year to soak up some of that culture, too.  It's not quite as fun as the others, though it has some interesting public displays which we will get to in due time.

Enough for now.  I am worn out shifting around the house avoiding the Cleaning Brigade.  All part of Life on the Far Side here, deep in the jungles of Borneo.  Here's hoping it rains on your parade!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

T-Day Arrives

Some time around midnight West Indonesia Time (WIB), Donald Trump will recite the time-honored and Constitutionally required Oath of Office and receive the keys to the White House.

To say that this will be a momentous occasion would not be hyperbole, nor would it be original, since a great many people have already said it intending a great many interpretations.  The spectrum of expectations range from Apocalypse to New Atlantis and the Second Renaissance.

I try to avoid expectations so as to not color my perceptions of what is actually happening in the world.  I am certainly excited to see history unfolding, since I have long anticipated the collapse of the post-WW2 World Order and the rise of Something Else.  What that "else" will be remains to be seen, though.  There are many competing forces trying to grab the wheel and steer the next century or so.

As if to mark the event, both George and Barbara Bush went into the hospital and an unexploded German bomb was found at the bottom of the Thames in central London - fitting metaphors for the changing of the guard.

A century ago, the world was transitioning to motor cars and electricity.  A radical new device called the "telephone" was in its infancy.  Wireless radio broadcasting was just six years old in public use.  That world was changing radically when Woodrow Wilson took his second Oath of Office as America's 28th president.

As Trump takes the helm of a fading empire, the world is transitioning from analog to digital communications, most people under 30 years old can't write a letter much less explain what a postage stamp is, humanity is pondering becoming a multi-planet species (if it isn't already), and Artificial Intelligence is quickly revolutionizing the very core of civilization.

That's quite a leap for a span of time where there are still a number of people who remember when telephones were an amazing contraption and not a vital part of daily life (not to mention a major pain in the ass).

At this point, I don't believe any leader, much less Donald Trump, has any idea where things are headed, any more than I believe Woodrow Wilson had any idea that the "War to End All Wars" would be the cause of a bigger and more devastating war.  Unfortunately, he died before he could taste the bitter fruits of his actions.

Wilson is a fine example of people having "future blindness."  They project their hopes and desires onto generations whose lives will be vastly different from their own.  This often leads to the now-infamous "unintended consequences' of myth and legend.  As any sailor or swimmer can tell you, it is far better to ride the currents than to try and change them.

Far too often, people with "visions" get into positions of influence who then proceed to change the currents.  When they do, they make two mistakes: 1) they establish lofty expectations that frequently end in disappointment and disaster, and 2) they rarely let the course of Nature find its native equilibrium.  As anyone who has studied history or chemistry knows, whenever systems get out of equilibrium, there is usually a violent backlash to the center, which is precisely what led us to today and the inauguration of Donald Trump.

The biggest question, at least in my admittedly muddled mind, is whether Trump will try to change the current, or will he wisely steer a course down the point of equilibrium?

A metaphor often applied to social currents is the pendulum.  There is one fundamental flaw with the common conception of this model, however.  Most people think of a pendulum as only swinging back and forth between two points - i.e. the left-right paradigm.

If you've ever observed a free-swinging pendulum, you know that within 24 hours, it will complete a full circle, having passed through 360 points along the way.  When I conceive of social currents, I don't limit them to just two points, I see a full spectrum of possibilities, which all will - at some point or another - express themselves in order to maintain the equilibrium, which for a pendulum is dead center of the circle.

True and effective leaders balance all the points, not just swing from one extreme to the other.  Unfortunately, I believe Trump is the latter.  He is the symptom, the result of having a very limited conception of the spectrum of possibilities.  Having suffered for decades under the left-wing side of the swing, the US is now violently shifting to the other.  If we envision this as a boat listing hard to one side, then everyone is running to the other to try and balance it.  The result, though, is for the ship to list hard to the opposite side, rather than righting itself.  The process repeats endlessly until either the passengers realize the balance is in the center, or until the ship capsizes to one side or the other.

It is a tedious and boring process because there is no progress, just a lot of running back and forth.  Balance is never achieved long enough to consider where the ship is headed.  Instead, the entire societal focus in on achieving an even keel through the use of imbalances, and it will never work.

One does not cure injustice with another injustice.  One does not end racism by offsetting it with a different flavor of racism.  Most importantly, one does not change things by beating everyone about the head and neck with a rubber truncheon until the world submits.

Balance is achieved by letting everyone do what it is that makes them happy, as long as they allow others the same courtesy and don't harm others in the process.  There are far too many competing interests in the world - a full 360 degrees of them - to allow any one group a bit more freedom than another.

If Trump is a wise leader, he will get rid of mass surveillance, put an end to "hate" laws, stop caving in to every whim of the LGBTQ mafia, and get folks to realize that murder is murder, assault is assault, and injury is injury, no matter what adjectives one strings in front of their personal noun.

Economic balance is achieved by reducing anti-competitive regulations and giving everyone a fair shot at the prize.

Harmony is when everyone agrees to the same set of rules and then abides by them.

Snidely Whiplash And The Pissers

Well, here we are on the threshold of history.  It is rare when one can anticipate such dramatic leaps in the historical timeline down to the very minute, but the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the US is certainly one of them.

In one sense, it reminds me of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, when a great swath of the world's population knew in advance the precise moment when history would change.  In fact, many would witness the event on TeeVee, just as many presumably will do with the inauguration.

Despite the overwhelming curiosity I feel regarding the exact nature of how Trump will affect history, there is little doubt in my mind that we have arrived at a nexus of timelines, where the path forward is obscured by millions of voices clammoring to predict either magnificent or horrific outcomes from this point on.

For myself, I have not yet decided whether Trump is friend or foe.  I admit that I deeply desire this moment to be when the wave of history crests and the inexorable backlash begins against a truly detestable group of humans who have worked tirelessly for the past century to steer the globe towards mass slavery and subjugation.

But I just can't shake this nagging feeling that the whole thing is a set-up, an "op".  My spidey-sense is tingling as I construct multiple plausible scenarios whereby Trump or those around him are setting a massive trap for humanity.  I can distinctly see how all of this could be an enormous scheme to shut down the freedom movement once and for all.

As I've said more times than I care to enumerate, I am a contrarian.  When I see masses of people running in one direction, I figure the best course is to go the opposite way.  I would normally consider myself a fool for doing this, except that it has worked far more times than not.  In fact, I am often rewarded for this conscious choice by being at the head of the line when the masses end up coming back my way.

In my analysis, I begin with the premise that Trump is a "false messiah.'  I assume that he, or those around him, have pushed him to the front as the sugar that draws the ants.  What worries me is that the classic ant trap usually involves mixing the sugar with boric acid, which is obviously lethal to the poor creatures who fell for the ruse.

Here's one part of the trap:

We know, because they have revealed themselves quite clearly, that the Corporate Media collude both among themselves and with the Deep State.  This collusion is used to steer mass sentiments and popular culture at a very subtle level.  Having worked many years in mass media, I am well aware of this fact and have spent many years trying to warn people.

Using the principles of Edward Bernays and reverse psychology, suppose you wanted to steer your political opponents into a trap.  The first thing you would do is find a charismatic leader who spouts all the right phrases (which you collected from social media) and then do everything you can to demonize him EXCEPT cut off his media exposure.  Doesn't it strike you as odd that Ron Paul was made practically invisible by the media, but Trump received the equivalent of millions of dollars of free air time just to ridicule him?  Both candidates were appealing to the same demographics.

Therein lies my first clue.  Ron Paul showed that there was a large and powerful movement among the masses who were ready to toss the entire elite class out of power.  He was rendered invisible in order to prevent the movement from getting out of hand.

Donald Trump appealed to the same groups, but he is a multi-billionaire media personality who is arguably a major insider, just from his social circles and business connections.

Ron Paul was a true outsider and uncontrollable.  Donald Trump is a true insider POSITIONED to look like an outsider in order to redirect the anti-elite movement and ultimately disable it.  In essence, Trump is the Pied-Piper of Hameln.  Frankly, I cannot imagine a scenario where the Corporate Media would implode the way they have unless it was absolutely necessary to complete the image that Trump is an outsider, thus ensuring all the "rats" followed the magic flute.

Imagine you are one of the Bilderberg/Davos tea-sippers.  You have a problem, in that the masses are getting restless and want to lamppost you and your family next Bastille Day.  You need to quell the revolution while at the same time getting everyone to buy into your evil plan to rule the world, and none of the masses can be aware that you did this or the spell won't work and they'll be even more angry.

Ron Paul was scary because he was a rationalist.  He could present clear, well-reasoned arguments why the US federal government and all its tentacles needed to be unwound.  You could make him vanish by simply not looking at him, but the masses who follow him are not going to go away that easily.

You find a popular demagogue with a wildly popular TeeVee show.  He has a massive ego, so even if he isn't aware he is being used, he own narcissism will blind him to your machinations.  In other words, he will believe his own bullshit.

You have to be sure the right crowds will follow him, so you implode your broadcast media operations, have your various thought-leading celebrities break down in public, and you trot out the heads of your surveillance operations to ridicule and threaten the demagogue.

This convinces everyone that the demagogue is a true outsider, even when all his political appointments are deep insiders from banking and corporate interests, including nominating the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world to be the third in line to the throne.

Can you see how well this operation is working?

Just to be sure, keep threatening the legitimacy of the demagogue by claiming the election was rigged, or he engaged in perverted sexual practices, or various insiders like the CIA want to kill him.  Hell, fire the head of the Washington, DC National Guard at the moment the demagogue takes office, just to make the rubes sweat a bit.  Classic cliff-hanger stuff made in Hollywood.

To complete the scheme, the demagogue needs to believe what he is saying and doing.  I think Trump believes in himself with complete conviction, but his ego allows him to be rather easily steered in whatever direction the elites need him to go.  If Trump didn't believe it, then the insincerity would show up somewhere in his character or speech.  The bait must be absolutely convincing to keep the rubes on track.

I want to believe Trump is real and that all of the bread and circuses represent real events, but I can't.  I am so profoundly aware at how good Hollywood and the Corporate Media are at manipulating hearts and minds that I automatically assume that anything coming out of those institutions is complete horse shit and designed to the letter to ensnare and enslave the masses.

I do not know, at this point, whether Trump is in on it or not.  Nor do I pretend to know what the final act will be.  I can imagine a great many climactic scenarios, such as Trump being made a martyr in a very public way (like JFK or 9/11) in order to take control of people's psyches and emotions.  I can image scenarios in which Trump, and thus "his" movement, are thoroughly humiliated and denounced, causing people to flee any association with "freedom" and "liberty" and "nationalism."

Whatever the outcome will be, the plan is already in motion, so the aware mind will slowly be able to see patterns emerging.  I also figure nothing will happen at the inauguration.  The threats are all just part of the elites eliciting the "danger" response, so people will flock to Trump's side to protect him.

I look for the coup de gras to occur within a year, much like 9/11 did with G. W. Shrub.  Hopefully by then, we will be able to discern what the trap is and recognize it when it comes.

Whatever the case may be, I will reserve my enthusiastic applause for 2020 or 2024, when the history is written and we can begin the assessment.  Until then, I am holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I always begin my analysis with two assumptions: 1) everyone acts out of self-interest at some level, and 2) Hollywood and the Corporate Media have turned bullshit into a Fine Art of Manipulation.  On these bases, I build worst-case scenarios, and thus I am rarely disappointed and, alas, often right about the state of current events.

No matter how much one likes and/or supports Trump, one must be prepared to accept that we are all being massively deceived - always a safe assumption.

In the end, Hope is not a solid foundation for rational thought.

Asking The Right Questions

In concept, I have no problem with robots.  The idea of having tireless machines doing the necessary labor to free up humans for higher pursuits sounds vaguely Star Trekky and Utopian.

Suppose robots tilled the soil, picked the fruits, delivered it to your door.  Suppose they built our houses, trimmed our lawns and rattled the pots in the kitchen.  Suppose they operated the generators, purified the water and produced our clothing.  Suppose anything we wanted or needed was delivered promptly to our doors around the clock every day of the year by machines that needed no sleep or vacations.  Suppose robots did everything for us so that we were completely freed of drudgery and able to pursue self-enrichment and art for the rest of our lives.

There'd be no need for money.  Who would you pay?  Everything is done by self-repairing and -replicating machinery.  The farms and factories would run themselves with virtually zero human input - oh, maybe the occasional check-in to see if the robots' self-diagnostics were sufficiently tweaked.  Maybe a handful of folks, on a rotating basis, to scan the error reports for problems the machines couldn't handle.

If there was no human labor, no person giving up a part of their life and talents to produce some necessity, and everything one could imagine came to the door within minutes of ordering, what would things cost?  After all, machines would mine the raw materials, refine them, recreate and train themselves, constantly maintain and upgrade the infrastructure of civilization - and all without a human even batting an eyelash in the direction of manual labor.  What would there be to pay for?

We wouldn't need governments because the machines would be self-regulating.  We wouldn't need banks or financial institutions.  There would be no markets to trade goods that are automatically distributed according to whatever is needed at any given location.

Machines would feed themselves and the rest of us with electricity that they produce as a matter of course.  They would refine, process and package our goods, collect the trash, recycle it and produce something else with the materials.

The machines would routinely maintain parks and recreation areas.  They would scurry out at night to repair roads, cars and aircraft every night, so that the next day, everything was in perfect operating order.  They would operate the amusement parks, constantly swim around the oceans clearing trash and pollutants.  They would fan out across the Solar System, using whatever resources locally available to pre-build colonies that we would blithely inhabit once they were fully operational.

Humans would thus be free to study and learn, think and create art, explore and aspire.  No longer constrained by government or labor, humanity would blossom into a benign race of hyper-intellectuals, focused entirely and for life on developing our minds and souls, each of us becoming demi-gods aided and abetted by semi-autonomous creations.

When you think about it, it sounds wonderful.  There would be no elites, everything we need and want would be provided in lavish amounts completely free of cost of any kind.  Money would vanish, becoming a quaint old idea.  Every individual would be free to consume the entire creative output of humanity and then add new concepts and ideas to the greater good.

It sounds wonderfully idyllic.  It sounds too good to be true.

We must assume two possible outcomes: 1) all of humanity, collectively and individually, grows to the next level of self-actualization, or 2) an elite determines that it is the sole beneficiary of this paradise and the rest of us need to be eliminated.

Given the history of humanity, I suspect the latter scenario is the most likely.

Whatever the outcome, we have taken the first steps towards this destination.  The EU has passed legislation granting robots "electronic personhood," and the concept of universal guaranteed income is being bandied about as a solution for displaced labor.

At some point on this path, money must become obsolete; after all, who needs cash when everything costs nothing?  Governments and corporations become redundant, because the production and distribution systems are completely automated.  Eventually, a whole bunch of people become unnecessary to those who fancy themselves the rulers - and certainly more valuable than the rest of us.

It seems to me the real conversation here is NOT what will happen to humanity when the machines take over, but what will happen to the elites?

If there is no need to governments, money or economy even vaguely resembling what we know now, doesn't that really make the elites redundant?  Doesn't the complete democratization of knowledge and necessities really mean there is no place for an elite?

Perhaps we are now witnessing the end of Controllers.  Perhaps the fear and loathing many of us have noticed on the parts of the elite is really the horrifying realization on their part that they are quickly becoming superfluous buffoons who are powerless to control resources, and thus the rest of us.  What happens when there are only a few thousand self-proclaimed and out-moded elites and a few billion of the rest of us who are suddenly freed from the day-to-day grind and have time to think, read and ponder?

Suppose the Neo-Populist movement sweeping the world is just the opening salvo across the bow of the elite class, and that at some level - mostly subconscious at this point - we all realize what is coming and what it could mean for all of us?

Perhaps we are asking the wrong question here.  It is not what the elites will need with us when the future arrives, it is what we will need with elites when we are all members of that class?

Fear, The Root Of Evil

Here's a question for you: Why do "refugees" spend so much time trying to change other countries and cultures into something they are trying to leave?

Here's the deal: if you truly want to emigrate to another country because you think the life there is, for some reason, better or different or offers more opportunities than the one you are leaving, then why would you refuse to integrate and rather bring all the worst aspects of the culture you are leaving?  Doesn't that seem to defeat the purpose?

I do not, nor have I ever agreed with mass immigration.  This is not true immigration, it is an invasion.  Invasions are forceful take-over of other countries and cultures, replacing them with something foreign.  In my humble opinion, when this happens it is an act of war and the existing population is fully within their rights to fight back violently.  They have the right to round up and forcefully expel the invaders and to do everything possible to eradicate the invaders, and to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law any of their own who aid and abet the invaders.

It astounds me to no end that the EU and US populations have reacted with such passivity to the forced invasions of millions of foreigners with incompatible legal and social mores.  To my mind, this demonstrates the profound extent to which Western civilization has declined, in that there is no longer enough people with moral and physical fortitude to stand up to this literal take-over that supplanting millennia-old cultures practically overnight.

Some readers might argue that Brexit and Trump and upcoming "leaders" like Marine Le Pen and Janos Ader are the reaction, but I say this may be too little too late.  First, what can one say about the mentality of the masses who rolled over and accepted the invasion in the first place, or allowed "leaders" to fling open the doors years ago?  Second, there are sufficient numbers of apathetic or mind-controlled idiots who still fight to destroy their own cultures and still have a significant voice.

In a matter such as this, there should be no polite tolerance.  There should be no compassion or passivity.  When one witnesses the wholesale destruction of one's nation and culture.  It is one thing to accept incoming individuals who want to contribute to the general well-being and merge into extant society, but when waves of faceless masses swarm into a nation, absorb irrational amounts of the economy as a "right" and immediately demand that thousands of years of development be thrown out in favor of a wholly incompatible system, that is an invasion and should be repelled with all available force.

It is perhaps instructive to note that this exact situation, though far slower, was the primary cause of the fall of Rome.  By the time Alaric I and the Visigoths sacked Rome in AD410, the social and cultural core had eroded to such a degree that what was once the greatest force on Earth could not repel, nor really gave much effort to it, the invading hordes.

These invaders do not deserve tolerance because they are not tolerant.  They do not deserve compassion because they are not compassionate.  They have as their primary motivation to destroy the existing order and supplant it with their own.  They don't seek to contribute to the general welfare, but to loot it and like locusts leave nothing but barren earth behind them.  The hordes are not educated, thinking people, they are blank slates upon which ideologues can write any program they choose.

If these hordes were truly motivated to change things for the better, they would stay home and reform their own countries.  That is not their goal.  They are exporting their error in a way that is destructive to the invaded lands.

At this point, many readers will take issue with me, having not made it this far and thinking that somehow I am singling out certain peoples over another.  However, I castigate ANY invading culture, whether it be my own or any other.

I have watched closely as the American Way has infiltrated by stealth or force into dozens of other cultures.  I have walked through the wastes of many unique and fascinating cultures now supplanted with McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks.  I have seen what passes for American entertainment muscle out homegrown forms.  I have witnessed American greed literally rape other nations for profit.

To a certain extent, I see the poetic justice embedded in the waves of humanity pouring over US and EU borders.  I have experienced first-hand the effects of British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese colonialism.  I have seen the same effects of Arabic and Chinese domination of unsuspecting lands.

I do not care what color or background the invaders have.  To me it is sufficient to revile the invaders who seek to destroy, plunder and replace any other culture.  I don't care what ISIS believes, and they are free to attempt to convert others, but when they blowup and bulldoze ancient monuments because the culture that created them is not their own, then they deserve to be eradicated with prejudice.

In history, we have seen great art and wisdom wiped out by invaders.  The European powers that colonized Asia and the Americas should be sufficient warning to the world that this type of behavior is not acceptable, and it doesn't matter who is invading whom.  We cannot change the past, but we can certainly change the future, and the the extent possible, we can seek to preserve as much of the cultures that were destroyed, if for no other reason than to serve as a lesson for the future of humanity.

Trump will not fix the problem.  Brexit, Le Pen and Ader will not fix the problem.  The problem in buried in the core of the individual and no amount of "leaders" can change it.  It is a flaw in human nature that we accept leaders in the first place.  Humans are programmed to roll over and beg whenever confronted with power of any kind.  It is our lack of faith in our own characters and abilities to control our lives that is at fault.  That humans can be herded so easily is our fundamental weakness.

By the same token, when an invader is successful, it is the individual's personal responsibility for that success.  It is our lack of conviction and strength to resist that is to blame, not "leaders."

In short, it is our fear that is our defeat.

Ode To My Sister

My baby sister died this past week.  She is the first person I've known from cradle to grave.  She died after having just turned 48, being born the year that Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated.  Her passing got me into serious nave-gazing mode.

Her name was Laetitia, Latin for "cause of joy," and Jane, after my childless godmother.  She married for the first time in her mid 40s, and never had children.  She followed Martha Stewart and loved to entertain with lavish dinner parties.  She was, other than me, the only grandchild who learned my grandmother's traditional Irish and Welsh recipes.  She was, in short, my favorite sibling because of her free spirit, though we were separated by seven years and I was already long gone from the house when she reached adulthood.  My most cherished memories with her were "chopping nights," when we would get together the night before Thanksgiving to prepare the dinner in the time-honored way, over several bottles of fine wine.

Laetitia was named after my great aunt, whom I've written about several times, who came to Texas in a covered wagon and taught me valuable skills like cooking and sewing.

Here's what Laetitia's passing made me think...

What is it all worth?  Seriously, what are we wasting our whole loves on?  Take a minute to do some inventory of your life, and then figure out how much of it actually makes a good goddamn in the scheme of things.

Most of us spend our entire lives paying bills and trying to put food in our bellies while trying to figure out what makes us happy and trying to get more of it.  In the end, most of us own nothing, pass nothing along to our progeny, and if we manage to collect a few things, either the government takes it all in taxes or the kids end up fighting over it with the lawyers getting it all.

It's all really freakin' pointless, when you really take stock of it.  The vast majority of our lives are spent working our asses off to pay someone to do something for us in order to free up some time to sit and vegetate in front of the TeeVee.  In the final accounting, all we've done is waste our entire lives earning money that we then give to nameless, faceless corporations who rack it up on a spreadsheet.  Each of us is little more than a blip on a spreadsheet, and when we are gone, another blip fills the gap.

How much of your life have you spent NOT doing something because you were afraid of losing something else?  Guess what?  In the end, we lose it all anyway.

Years ago, I read a novel by Gary Jennings called The Journeyer.  It is a fictional account of Marco Polo's adventures, in which the author traced the route taken by Polo and added his own adventure into the documented tales.  One of the major themes of the book was, "I don't want to be on my deathbed wishing I had gone there and done that."

I took that message to heart.

Because of that one phrase, I've sought out as many adventures in my life as I can cram into it.  What few things I managed to bring along with me have been stolen by ex-wives out of vindictiveness or greed.  A few bent and faded photos reamain in my possession, but that's about it.

For birthdays and Christmas, I've never been much of a gift-giver in the sense of going to the mall, buying meaningless trinkets and wrapping them in shiny paper.

Instead, I've sought to give the ones I love live-long experiences and memories.  I teach because I can transfer information and skills to people who can use them to enhance their lives.  I work in entertainment in the hopes of doing something so profound that an audience member remembers it for the rest of their lives, and if nothing else, can laugh and enjoy some small part of that life.

Most of us, though, trade our lives for pieces of paper that end up giving us nothing in return: electricity, water, groceries, cable/internet, and taxes.  Each month, we pay rent on stuff that we could easily have gotten for ourselves for free or a little labor, but we've been duped into tading it all in for the supposed service of having someone else do it for us.

Look around you as you read this.  How much of what you see do you really own, and how much of it has any value to anyone else but you and a handful of people?

More importantly, ask yourself when was the last time you faced death in order to do something you've never done before?  When was the last time you really tasted food?  When was the last time that a glass of water meant the difference between life and death?  When was the last time you were in a situation where you knew no one, had no way of contacting someone for help and didn't understand a word that anyone around you was saying?  When was the last time you relied on the positions of the Sun, Moon and stars to figure out where you were in space and time?

If you can't remember, then you aren't living.  You are sitting in a Matrix world of your creation hoping that nothing will disturb the quiet, ordered world you have built for yourself by paying rent to nameless, faceless corporations.

We have built a society of shadows and mirrors that is specifically designed to keep us from living.

Oh sure, Pappy told you to save up for a rainy day, but when you think about it, every freakin' day is a rainy day, and if you actually manage to collect a pile of paper, all it does is pay for the hole in the ground that you will eventually occupy.

When Jesus said, "Sell all you have and follow me," and "Be like a child," what he was really telling us is to quit worrying about meaningless chores and get out and live a little.  More importantly, he was challenging us to forget fear and try something bold and daring.

When it comes down to it, how many individual days of your life can you remember?  Chances are, without promps like photos and such, you can probably remember 20 or so actual unique days.  The rest of it is all just a blur or sensations and most of it is lost forever to tedium and routine.  Chances are that most of those days took place before your were 25, too.

We grow up being told to work our asses off to save up for some arbitrary age, say 65, when we can finally turn loose and do something that makes us happy...right at the time when all those trinkets and pieces of paper start going to doctors and pharmaceutical corporations.  And all that effort assumes that we make it to 65 in the first place.  Some of us die at 48.

Suppose we all just stopped working for corporations?  Suppose we stopped paying for utilities and dug our own wells and built our own generators out of cheap, easily available materials?  Suppose we stopped punching someone else's clock and started punching our own?  Suppose the most important thing in life was collecting stories to tell?

Suppose we lived our lives for ourselves and not some nameless, faceless corporation?

In the end, do we really want to lay, gasping for our last breath, struggling for one last minute of the life we didn't live?

When I was in second grade, I had a Social Studies book that had a photo of an Indonesian farmer with a cone-shaped straw hat driving an ox through his rice paddy, and I thought, "I want to go there and do that."

Guess what?

I did.

What are you putting off?

If A Butterfly In Washington

We have to start off with apologies for vanishing for a couple of days.  Between a sudden bit of bad news and a burst of activity, this week became reallly busy really fast.

I don't know if it is the Trump Effect or just first-of-the-year budgets, but work has picked up dramatically in the opening weeks of 2017.  I've booked more hours in two weeks than I did for all of the fourth quarter of 2016, and I've been living out of the back of an Uber.  I leave the house at just before 6a, and don't get home again until 8:30p.

Not that I'm complaining.  Last year was a complete wash out.  As I look back on it, I've come the suspect that the world was seemingly resigned to a Clinton administration and was prepared for the worst economically.  However, the Trump election appears to have kicked everyone in the butt, either in anticipation of economic renewal, or out of sheer panic that old markets are drying up.

In my lifetime of just over half a century, I do not recall such a major shift in social, political and economic winds.  I might compare it to the 1980s, right after Reagan was elected and there was a bump in excitement after the Democratic Carter administration, that also nearly ran the world into economic ruin.

One thing I will say about Democrats is that they are masters at killing business.  But I guess that's to be expected from a party that vehemently defended slavery, gave the world a central banking system, introduced the personal income tax, and expanded two regional European conflicts into global catastrophes.  Someone really should put those bastards out of our misery.

If you're Republican, don't feel too smug.  Your party is only a hair's breadth better because occasionally you manage to get a candidate that lowers taxes and deregulates everything, which kicks entrepreneurs like myself into gear.  I think it's more by accident than design, since nothing having to do with government is for the betterment of us real people.

To see just how demented and slimy the Republicans can be, just look at John McCain.

Whatever Trump is achieving, even in these past few weeks before officially taking office, is re-introducing a peculiarly American form of mercantilistic capitalism that has got the Chinese literally shitting their britches.  Folks in the States may be a bit distracted to see clearly see what's going on, but here in Asia it is readily apparent.

The US swung suddenly and violently from literally kowtowing to Chinese dominance, to the polar opposite of not taking any guff off the kids in Beijing.  Even something as seemingly benign as Trump taking a phone call from the president of Taiwan has set off a fire-storm of panic in the gilded halls of the Forbidden City.  In short, the Socialists are profoundly spooked at the re-emergence of Fascism.

Lest the reader be confused at this point, one would do well to poke back into our archives, where we talk extensively about the basic philosophical similarities between Socialism and Fascism, with the differences being little more than who gets to sit closest to the salt at the Bildergerg dinners.  The bit that looks like Capitalism is where government deregulates the playing field so the little guy has much more equal footing with the massive global corporate interests.

In any case, the Chinese are quickly asserting themselves to get as much damage control in place as they can before the Trump Era begins.  They have been sailing their warships all over the South China Sea in a geopolitical form of flexing on the beach.  They have overtly threatened the US if anyone so much as breathes in the general direction of the One-China Policy.  They have signaled their "desire" to participate in any infrastructure rebuilding in the States.  They have also been calling Putin daily to invite him for some chow at the palace, desperately afraid that Russia will start moving in a Westerly direction, since they clearly know that Russia is only their buddy because the US has been such a bunch of horse's patoots for the past two decades.

At any rate, gotta run.  I'ts 4:30a and time to shower up and order Uber.  I will get back on schedule next week, when I have the weekend to get my posts prepared.  In the meantime, be sure and follow our Twitter feed @RadioFarSide for dispatches on important headlines affecting the Sino-American situation and thanks for your kind patience.

And to my beloved sister, who passes away suddenly in her sleep, I am happy that your pain is ended and that your passing was without unnecessary drama, but your absence is sorely felt and your laughter will be profoundly missed.  Slan agus beannach mo dheirfiúr.

Department Of Repeated Redundancies Department

I don't know what is more utterly amazing and laughable: is it the complete stupidity and incompetence of government, or the contempt with which government views its slaves?  Perhaps it is both.

Let's start with the headline that gobbled up the weekend news cycle - the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting.  A man, known to "authorities" to be unstable, transports a rifle and ammunition in his baggage from Alaska to Florida, but is apparently not registered on any flight arriving there.  He takes his baggage to the toilet, loads up and comes out shooting.  Then the "authorities" announce that they are questioning the suspect, which would seem like a logical thing to do.  Meantime, the entire government-controlled corporate media debate focuses on adding more of the same policies and procedures that have failed time and time again.

Either the government "authorities" are completely and utterly lobotomized (and let's include their mouthpieces as well), or they think the average American is.  I suspect it is a generous helping of both.

Next headline: Indonesia wants to boost its defense industry by making and exporting bombs that could potentially be thrown back at them.  Now, to a thinking person, you would want to make and store bombs for defense, not sell them to potential enemies.  Furthermore, the Indonesian government wants to boost its defense by continuing to disarm and distrust its own citizens/slaves.

If anyone asked me, which they obviously didn't, I wouldn't be selling my bombs and I would arm and train every able-bodied (and minded) citizen, so that an invader would have to fight door-to-door across thousands of islands in order to take over the country.

But that's just me thinking again.

How about this one: government wizards (a.k.a. "scientists") say they have witnessed a Black Hole tear apart a star and spit the pieces out into space.  In the same freaking article, they say Black Holes gobble up everything and not even light can escape.  Um...maybe I'm missing something here, but didn't you just tell me that this Black Hole is "spitting" pieces of a star out into space?

Maybe nobody reads this shit, because I seem to be the only one thinking these things are just a bit contradictory.

Trump says anyone who doesn't want better relations with Russia is a "fool" and "really stupid."  Pardon me, Mr. President-Elect, isn't that why folks elected you?  I mean, it's a bit redundant to keep telling us what we already know.  How about solutions?  What exactly are Tillerson and the Evil Mass-Murdering Bastard War Criminal Kissinger doing to alleviate the problem?

Next, we have the climate.  Yes, for some reason Al Gore and the Echoettes are sticking to the story that the Earth is suffering from man-made global warming, even though the world is cooling, there are record low temperatures and snowfall all over both hemispheres, polar ice is expanding, and rainfall patterns in both hemispheres are beginning to match perfectly with past solar Grand Minima.  And just to put a cherry on the ice cream, polar bear populations are at record highs.

Still not convinced we've fallen down the rabbit hole?

The Democrats in the US absolutely insist that the Russians hacked the election, even though Julian Assange says emphatically that WikiLeaks did not get the email from the Russians, Seth Rich - DNC IT specialist - was shot dead in the back in broad daylight and NOT robbed, none of the "intelligence" agencies can produce a shred of evidence, and the Russians have no objective motivation to do so that outweighs the risk of getting caught doing it.  Oh, and did we mention that the voting infrastructure of the US is not connected to the internet, and thus can't be hacked by typical means?

In the 1940s, the CIA was created out of some Nazi left-overs and General Galen's spook network in Europe and North Africa.  In the 1950s, the CIA took over the Corporate Media with Project Mockingbird.  In 1963, the CIA assassinated John Kennedy, who refused to follow the spook script and was preparing a full-on assault on their growing power and influence.  Since then, the CIA has virtually ruled the Executive Branch of the US government, and through organizations like USAID, have set up networks in dozens of countries to control and influence those governments, as well.

So convinced was the CIA that it could install its next-in-line lackey, Hillary Clinton, that they profoundly underestimated the amount of vote flipping and ballot stuffing needed to ensure Trump, whom they have assiduously painted as a buffoon, would not get in.  Perhaps they overestimated the somnolent effect they were having on the general public, or they grossly underestimated the number of people who were slowly but inexorably waking up from the 50-year hibernation of reason.

Even though the masses truly did elect Trump, and he is the first president that is not under the direct control of the CIA since 23 November 1961, he is nevertheless controlled by a competing faction of the Deep State, knowingly or not, though I think the former.

The US, and by extension the world, is slowly waking up from a decades-long trance that was achieved in part by the US victory and subsequent economic dominance in the world after World War 2, as well as the fact that so many US males were brainwashed by military service during that war into blind obedience to government and symbols.

The Grand Awakening is due to two primary factors: 1) the 50-year effort of independent researchers to undo the magic spell over the population, which used to be called the underground media, but which was emerged as the Alt Media (or Free Press as I prefer), and 2) the human mind can only take so much rewiring and layers of bullshit before it reboots.  We are in the reboot phase of history at this very moment.

It is also a particularly vulnerable point.  When the mind reboots, there is a time while the OS is loading that one can access the BIOS and change the system parameters.  This is what we see with the "Russian hacking" narrative.  The spooks are desperately trying to reinstall the "fear factor" before things get too far out of hand.

What makes all of this visible is the failure of the classic "black is white" operation that has gripped Western civilization for half a century.  When the flip-flop narrative becomes this obvious, then it is clear that the spell has failed and people are clearly not buying the brute-force attempt to make them believe things that are clearly in conflict with the senses and basic reason.

In so many ways, the institutions of control, such as religion and government, are losing their power over the masses.  The Big Three Monotheisms - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - which have enjoyed millennia of control, both directly and through their secular government counterparts, are falling apart.  All of the war mongering we see is these institutions attempting to drive everyone back into nationalistic, and by extension religious mindsets.  This is the real hegemony that has dominated the world for longer than any of us care to imagine.

The classic "black is white" narrative is nothing more than dressed-up "faith."  Religions have inspired fanatical loyalty by spinning fantastical tales that prevent people from thinking or acting independently by deferring everything to sometime after death when the evil-doers will get theirs, or by waiting futilely for a Messiah who will come to set everything right.  This deference is a poison that destroys critical thinking and creates bovine nose-to-tail herd behavior.

For three centuries now, the Enlightenment has sought to re-awaken the pre-frontal lobes of mass humanity by destroying the "black is white" narrative and the institutions that spin it.

The problem is that a part of the Enlightenment was corrupted and instead sought to take over the institutions of control.  The reasoning that led to the perversion is rather convoluted, but suffice it to say that they figured they could use the control structure to reprogram humanity in their own image.  This is where the Illuminati storyline comes from.

Fortunately, is seems that the true Enlightenment has survived underground and has been busily working to spark the Great Re-Awakening, a process that quite obviously the US Founding Fathers had hoped to achieve with their New Republic, the Shining City Upon The Hill.

Despite herculean efforts on the part of the ancient Controllers and the splinter group called the Illuminati, the Enlightenment has rooted and is just now starting to bear fruit.  But it is a dangerous time.  Entrenched and power-hungry organizations do not relinquish power without a fight, and that fight has only begun.

There is a covert war going on just out of sight, but it is increasingly visible to the masses.  Ultimately, it will become an all-out war in which the ensconced powers will win or leave nothing but scorched Earth behind. It is a war of profound ideologies whose prize is nothing short of an entire planet.  The one weakness of the Good Guys is that they want to prevent the scorched Earth and so are unwilling to go to the extremes that the Bad Guys are.

The next few years will be a true spectacle, even for all its gory destruction and waste.  The clash of two completely and utterly incompatible philosophies will be nothing less than cataclysmic, though it must be said that not all of it will be fought in the real world - most of it will be mental and spiritual.

If you want to see what the other side is capable of, just look at the post-election mayhem in the US.  Black teenagers streaming vile hate and complete lack of compassion on Farcebook.  Paid rioters looting and destroying neighborhoods and randomly killing passers-by.  This sociopathic violence and mindless destruction is only a tiny taste of what the Bad Guys will unleash to keep their privileged perches.

The Good Guys are neither mentally nor spiritually prepared for the hell that is coming.  Far too many people believe that electing a few representatives is enough to fix the problem, when it is in fact the very heart of the problem to begin with.

People like Trump are not the solution, though they are symptomatic of the correct instinct on the part of the masses.  He also represents to a great many people the power that they truly have, though when Trump fails - and he will - there is a terrible risk of despair and hopelessness on the part of the newly awakening masses.  At that point, they will be most susceptible to re-immersion into the control grid.

Both sides have now fired their first volleys, though the Bad Guys know how far they will go to protect their domain.  The Good Guys need to wise up fast and steel the mind and soul for the battle to come.  We have a brief moment for a little R&R, but it is dangerous to let one's guard down.

Black is White...War is Peace...Hate is Love.

Exit President Milquetoast

Well, folks, here we are about a fortnight away from Barack Husein Obama's retirement and subsequent pasturing as a UN lackey, so it's time to start assessing his legacy as leader of the Surveillance World.

Since I have spent a grand total of three weeks on US soil during his inhabitation of the Oval Office, and since I am two weeks older than he is, and thus kind of like an older brother, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on what the world will take away from these past eight years.

One thing is certain: in two hundred years, Obama will absolutely be remembered as the first...um...blank president.  Yes, I said "blank," not "black."  Not a typo there.

Because Obama has almost zero verifiable past, he is a white sheet of paper upon which historians will be able to write any story they so choose.  This makes him a boon to future researchers, since they will, like JFK's assassination, be able to concoct any story they choose on the flimsiest evidence and no one will be able to gainsay the story.  To be able to falsify a claim requires facts and evidence, of which there is precious little in the case of Barack Husein Obama.

So far, he was born in three different countries (US, Indonesia, Kenya), did not have a high school sweetheart nor attended the prom.  He has no accessible school records that anyone can dig up.  He has somewhere in the range of four different fathers.  And he just simply appeared on the national political scene in 2004, as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

Since Obama has no discernibly strong convictions or vision, people have been able to project their wants and desires on him. Depending on your particular point of view, he has either been a champion or bugbear of just about every cause that ever existed.  About the only major achievement he has is a universal healthcare program that appears to be failing faster than the moving men can haul his stuff out of the White House.  Even his wife's school lunch program is dying faster than Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign, since no one really liked the food and were only being polite.

Obama added $10 trillion in national debt, but no one seems to be able to point to where the money went.  If I had spent that much, I would at least have a house full of stuff to proudly display, but the US doesn't have any shiny new toys that still have trillion-dollar price tags on them.  Instead, all we see are stories about every public program failing, from military to infrastructure to education.

For a paltry $1 trillion, I could have built a coast-to-coast tunnel linking all the major subway systems in the country with a mag-lev train and still have pocketed a tidy profit and retired to Indones...oh wait...already did that...OK somewhere else.

Hell, the nation's space program can't even put a man, much less a monkey, in orbit.  They have to rely on the evil, nasty, horrible Russians to haul their carcasses up and back.  Good lord!  Even US rockets have to use old rusty engines from a Russian military surplus store on the lower east side of Minsk.

And while we're talking about Russians...

Remember that little-hyped event where Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize?  He had been in office for nine months when the Nobel Committee came up with this knee-slapper:

The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to United States President Barack Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

You have got to be kidding, right?  I mean, with less than a fortnight to go, the world is on the verge of nuclear war - closer than during the Cuban Missile Crisis - thanks in great part to Barack Husein Obama.  Using this criterion, Adolph Hitler should have won at least two NPPs while he was destroying Europe.

When I think about it, the only thing Obama has achieved that no one can argue with is that he is the first president with a great tan.  Honestly though, the US could have elected George "The Tan" Hamilton and at least gotten better acting, plus he could have done a whole gag on being related to the first US Treasury Secretary, and even starred in the hit Broadway musical.

We all owe at least one debt of gratitude to the erstwhile president, though.  Obama did more to highlight the American obsession with façadism that any other president in history.  As the old Billy Crystal gag went, "It's better to look good than to feel good," and Obama is the embodiment of that concept.

Think about it: you've got the world's most advanced fighter jet that doesn't work, the most advanced stealth destroyer that doesn't work, the most advanced space program that can't put a man in orbit, the most advanced interstate system that is crumbling to dust, the most touchy-feely education system that produces Millennials and SJWs, the most advanced internet that can be hacked by a 14-year-old, and the most advanced surveillance system that can only tell us whodunit, not who-will-dun-it.

Yes, the Obama years shall be fondly remembered as the Mirage Years, where everything looked great from across the noon-day desert, but when you get there it's only sand and cactus.

I imagine this period in American history will be remembered much like the caesarhoods (?) of Nero or Caligula - lot's of fiddling and burning and riding horses through the Senate.  In fact, there's even a hint of godhood in the left's idol worship of Obama.  He reminds me a lot of Woodrow Wilson, whom the left also idolizes, but who also gave the nation a Central Bank, income tax, the first incarnation of the UN, and a gross pile of lies that led to war.

Remember when Obama was installed?  No one was allowed to say a cross word, and school children had to genuflect and cross themselves whenever his image and likeness was paraded through the room.  Photos of the man were always framed with a halo of light, as if he was channelling Ra or Apollo or Mithra.  At least that level of insanity has faded, but all-new forms have surfaced in their places.

Like a falsified birth certificate, Obama is a character of many layers, which when switched off leave one with a blank page.  History will not be kind to Obama, nor will it judge the generation that elected him with fondness and nostalgia.  Even his hard-core worshippers will someday snap to their senses, or at least one hopes, although one is forced to admit there are many for whom little hope exists.

The smartest thing Obama could do at this time is to fade quietly into the background, but one gets the feeling that is not likely to happen.  There are all kinds of trial balloons floating about him becoming Generalissimo of the UN, and that probably won't happen, because outside the US, Obama is little more than a polite joke at cocktail parties.

Not having demonstrated cunning and insightfulness over the past eight years, smart money is on the likelihood that this Blank Page will attempt to salvage some legacy for his having used resources on this Earth.  One gets the feeling that instead of polishing his image, time will further erode it as the spell wears off.

I wish that we could bid farewell to Obama, but alas, that is not likely to be.  At least we can rest assured that his influence in US politics will greatly diminish, as the immediate result of his tenure is a complete repudiation of virtually everything he achieved.

Like Donald Trump or not, he is far more likely to be a lasting historical figure (for better or worse) than Obama will ever be.  Blank pages, like white bread, 2% milk and filtered water, just don't leave much of a lasting impression on the palette.