Back in the day, even being employed in a private corporation (publicly traded), the joke went like this:
Q: How many people work here?
A: About half
From this article on The Burning Platform comes a very simple example of how the parasite always increasingly feeds on the host … (and you know when the parasite leaves right? When all the blood is gone!)
1860: 60% of American’s people are farmers
1862: Centralizer’s (A. Lincoln’s) response, during wartime, create the USDA:
In 1860, about 60% of America’s population lived/worked on farms. Farmers had many needs, and the nation needed a steady reliable source of food, so in 1862 president Lincoln created the Department of Agriculture.
Central control of yet one more part of society and yet further away from the Articles of Confederation political philosophy that depended more on STATE level options, where some states would want that kind of control, and others would not. This key aspect allowed farmers to more to another state IF the state controls became counterproductive (which they always do when people attempt central planning verses allowing the market to adjust to the real time supply, demand and technological changes). Today, your options are:
Move to Somolia
Move to South Africa (not recommended if you are of the white race)
Move to Russia
In typical US government style, add 150 or so years and now we see the following:
2% of people are farmers (1.2M)
USDA employs 105,000 people, in 15,000 locations, in all 50 states AND in 80 foreign countries with a $150B budget
So 11 farmers per USDA employee, so much for farmers being the “independent” type, seems like these relationships are highly CO-DEPENDENT!
Government LOVES these relationships, remember, they are parasites!
So what have we gained. Don’t tell me that it was government that introduced higher technology to allow less farmers to produce more food, that was the market. However, with this government link, there were many shortcuts encouraged along the way. Can someone say Round-Up, GMOs and other non-ethical ways for certain companies (i.e. like the sugar industry) to monopolize the US food supply? The result (humorous) is that:
In 1862 there were about 650 obese Americans, most of them in Kentucky — due to fried chicken. In 2018, more than 150 million Americans couldn’t fit their fat asses in fifty-bushel basket even with a case of Vaseline and the jaws-of-life. Thank you, USDA.
This article’s next target is the Department of Education. Thanks to Jimmy Carter, in 1979 he formed the DOE. The results:
When Jimmy Carter formed the DOE in 1979 about 95% of high school students knew that Australia was an island continent. Today, the same percentage think it’s a small country in Europe!
OK .. you get the picture. Just like the War on Poverty (which was put in motion when poverty was at its LOWEST in the US), the War on Drugs and even the War on Terror (plus all those three lettered agencies that keep that myth going), it is just a matter of time that like the Roman Empire, with its currency devalued, would slowly unravel and implode.
The US Government has been able to still spin all this into a big PLUS in its marketing campaigns via mainstream media, so well that:
Americans want even more government! A stunning 62% of American agree with this (here) — ” “we need a strong government to handle today’s complex economic problems”. Only 35% want less government.
There you have it. Americans want what they want:
This is not sustainable .. but might go on for years or even decades longer. Hang on!
The US government has a website JUST for addressing bullies. It reads:
When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time.
Well I want to turn in Bolton and Pence man, they are out of control on the world’s playground man.
Here is a Bolton example from 2002 before the Iraq Invasion:
“I got a phone call from John Bolton – it was first time I had contact with him – and he said he had instructions to tell me that I have to resign from the organization, and I asked him why,” Bustani told RT. “He said “Cheney wants you out,” Bustani recalled Bolton saying, referring to the then-vice president of the United States. that [my] management style was not agreeable to Washington.” …
… Bustani said he “owed nothing” to the US, pointing out that he was appointed by all OPCW member states. Striking a more sinister tone, Bolton said: “OK, so there will be retaliation. Prepare to accept the consequences. We know where your kids are.”
According to Bustani, two of his children were in New York at the time, and his daughter was in London.
Believe me, this is not the only data point. Bolton is known in DC as a “madman,” the “serial abuser,” the “bully” who happens to also be pretty effective at getting things done.
Why I bring this up now is the uptick on the rants against Russia and China now that the circus in town (all things Kavanaugh) is done. In this Moon of Alabama article, it is detailed to what extent the effort is to deflect once again from internal US issues to a world full of villains. Personally, I think with the impending demise of the prime proxy of US / Israel / UK / Saudi Arabia (ISIS) in the Middle East, there needs to be a “boogieman” bridge to keep the public sheep scared enough to let the US government and Deep State do what they want to do.
The United States enlists (delegates to) NATO countries to spread the s**t in global media in return for guaranteed safety given by the empire’s military. So Britian punts first at Russia:
The anti-Russian campaign is about alleged Russian spying, hacking and influence operations. .. Britain accused Russia’s military intelligence service (GRU) of spying attempts against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague and Switzerland, of spying attempts against the British Foreign Office, of influence campaigns related to European and the U.S. elections, and of hacking the international doping agency WADA. British media willingly helped to exaggerate the claims:
“The Foreign Office attributed six specific attacks to GRU-backed hackers and identified 12 hacking group code names as fronts for the GRU – Fancy Bear, Voodoo Bear, APT28, Sofacy, Pawnstorm, Sednit, CyberCaliphate, Cyber Berku, BlackEnergy Actors, STRONTIUM, Tsar Team and Sandworm.”
The “hacking group code names” the Guardian tries to sell to its readers do not refer to hacking groups but to certain cyberattack methods. Once such a method is known it can be used by any competent group and individual. Attributing such an attack is nearly impossible. Moreover Fancybear, ATP28, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit and Strontium are just different names for one and the same well known method.
S**T = propaganda
So we have yet another show on the heels of over a year of Russia’s “meddling” in US elections (proven to be accomplished by the DNC itself as well as Israel’s Zionist organizations, both deep state and not so deep state) and after the Kavanaugh “Halftime Show”.
About the same time a few days ago, The Netherlands also did it’s part also targeting Russia:
The Netherland for its part released a flurry of information about the alleged spying attempts against the OPCW in The Hague. It claims that four GRU agents traveled to The Hague on official Russian diplomatic passports to sniff out the WiFi network of the OPCW. (WiFi networks are notoriously easy to hack. If the OPCW is indeed using such it should not be trusted with any security relevant issues.) The Russian officials were allegedly very secretive, even cleaning out their own hotel trash, while they, at the same, time carried laptops with private data and even taxi receipts showing their travel from a GRU headquarter in Moscow to the airport. Like in the Skripal/Novichok saga the Russian spies are, at the same time, portrayed as supervillains and hapless amateurs. Real spies are neither.
More s**t = More propaganda
95%+ of Americans soak all this up and believe it to be fact. It doesn’t matter if they align with Democrats or Republicans or even many times Libertarians, they still believe the statist BS.
What remains hidden to Americans is actions their own government and deep state have accomplished over the years and decades. Psychologically, it is usually people who would do atrocious things to others who are the first to project this kind of behavior on other people. These psychopaths and sociopaths are deeply embedded in our government and deep state and they don’t realize that this very behavior is what gives them away (to those who can see these red flags).
Think about the past 5 years alone where it was revealed the grand scale of U.S. and British spying (courtesy of Edward Snowden) and thanks to the Wikileaks Vault 7 leak of various CIA hacking tools was publicized. You have to know by now that the Pentagon runs large social media manipulation campaigns, right? You have to also know by now that the British GHCQ hacked Belgium’s main telecom network to spy on various international organizations in Brussels, like the OPCW mentioned at the top of this post. In fact, one of the NSA’s first mandates was to hack into the OPCW as early as September 2000 according to this article:
According to last week’s Shadow Brokers leak, the NSA compromised a DNS server of the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in September 2000, two years after the Iraq Liberation Act and Operation Desert Fox, but before the Bush election.
On the Chinese front, VP Pence took aim with the following bogus claim:
Vice President Mike Pence accused China on Thursday of trying to undermine President Donald Trump as the administration deploys tough new rhetoric over Chinese trade, economic and foreign policies. … Sounding the alarm, Pence warned other nations to be wary of doing business with China, condemning the Asian country’s “debt diplomacy” that allows it to draw developing nations into its orbit…
And then the Pentagon chimed in with it’s claims:
China represents a “significant and growing risk” to the supply of materials vital to the U.S. military, according to a new Pentagon-led report that seeks to mend weaknesses in core U.S. industries vital to national security. The nearly 150-page report, seen by Reuters on Thursday ahead of its formal release Friday, concluded there are nearly 300 vulnerabilities that could affect critical materials and components essential to the U.S. military.
Nothing is said about the times the US has done the same starting as early as 1982 according to this article:
A CIA operation to sabotage Soviet industry by duping Moscow into stealing booby-trapped software was spectacularly successful when it triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian gas pipeline, it emerged yesterday. … Mr Reed writes that the software “was programmed to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds”.
Since then Wikileaks resources lists > 25 cases of US “supply chain manipulation” of either computer hardware or software. Another search for “supply chain” in the Snowden archives shows 18 documents describing such ‘projects’.
Again, the US psychopaths are projecting their behavior on other nations.
Along these lines, I am personally going to learn about “5 Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life” as not only do our government leadership, Deep State, etc. all are filled with people like Bolton and Pence, but corporations who are wedded tightly to this highly dysfunctional government have similar issues inside of them. I believe that being able to see these “red-flags” is most important in these days where it seems like everything is in the political arena (Diversity in the Workplace, etc)
Just a quick post about my own experience with older laptops. So this is not a professional review (disclaimer), but it does point out some possibilities.
In my last post along these lines, I was able to utilize an almost 10-year old laptop that had not booted up in years and convert it to a Linux laptop following some very easy online guidelines. Well I never thought I would be writing again so soon on this topic but just this morning comparing “apples to apples” (not iOS mind you) I found the Linux operating system giving PC hardware performance it had never seen in it’s lifetime.
Above, you will see that using Speedtest site as the standard:
almost 10-year old Linux laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1545, on the right proudly displaying results of > 20Mbps WiFi speed
a 6+ – year old Windows 1o laptop, a HP Beats Special Edition Model 15 P030NR Pavillion on the left struggling to obtain a result of 5Mbps.
Thinking somehow, as a scientific engineer does, that this is only an “n of 1” I decided to compare this Linux laptop to another Windows laptop side by side:
On the left is the 10-year old Linux Mint 19.0 laptop again showing > 20Mbps (this time in the same room as the Xfinity Cable Modem/WiFi)
on the right is the 4-year old Lenovo G510 laptop running Windows 10 struggling to maintain (and it doesn’t really do that) an average of 10Mbps.
[NOTE: This 2nd test is in a different room and so the two Windows 10 laptops probably perform about the same in the WiFi department.]
Now all three of these PCs utilize the 2.4Ghz WiFi from Xfinity and are not capable of the 5.0Ghz comms. Newer laptops can connect to the 5.0Ghz WiFi which has shorter range BUT in my experience, but a faster connection (short of a direct Ethernet connection to the cable modem)
My Motorola Z2 Force Smartphone (using the 5.0Ghz as well) performs like this:
Just to compare, same Windows 10 Lenovo on direct Ethernet from cable modem gives this kind of performance:
So there you have it. Linux brings out the best in PC hardware performance, at least in the WiFi department. In the weeks and months to come I may have more experiences that show what Linux can do with old Windows PCs.
That said, I am seriously considering installing Linux Mint as the OS on the 6-year old HP laptop since the battery in that is still in good shape (unlike the 10-year old Dell’s battery which is long gone).
I do hope that this inspires you to re-purpose some of those old computers that could easily have a 2nd life ..
I have to admit, I probably told a fib, a lie. You see, part of American history has been dramatized if you will. There was a certain author of “history” that came along later in the early 1800s that put his own spin on American History which subsequently went into many of the textbooks we had in our schooling over the years. You too have probably been impacted. Have you ever heard that George Washington cut down a cherry tree? Enough said.
So too in my rendering of the Black Mingo Creek Battle around midnight back on 29/30SEP1780 when I said:
As his militia crossed the Willtown Bridge only a mile or so from Col. John Coming Ball’s camp the noise from the bridge’s planks alerted the Loyalist militia.
As the author of The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution John Oller points out, Francis Marion, an attentive guerrilla commander, who never wanted to expose his men to the enemy, would know that at midnight the woods are quiet enough, that horse hooves on a wooden bridge would definitely be heard by the enemy within a mile. Apparently, this particular “historical author”, Parson Weems, liked to embellish history to make a sale according to this Journal of the American Revolutionarticle:
Mason Locke Weems, better known as Parson Weems, considered himself an historian. But, he was far more interested in pleasing people than he was with writing history. His exaggerations and fabrications of fact led one commentator to remark that Weems had “a touch of the confidence man in him.”
Weems was born in 1759 and ordained by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1784. Ten years later he became a traveling book salesman and author. He wrote sermons and religious tracts. His claim to fame, however, are his books on famous Americans from the Revolutionary period; Washington, Franklin, and Francis Marion.
Enough about Weems, and his spin on actual historical events, let’s get back to the story about what alerted John Ball’s Loyalist Militia on that night when Francis Marion’s militia approached.
As John Oller’s research shows:
At least four separate pension applications independently submitted under oath by veterans who fought with Marion at Black Mingo state that before crossing Willtown Bridge they spread blankets on it to prevent the Tories from hearing them ..
Well there you have it. Francis Marion’s leadership, combined being conservative with taking calculated risks, to make a difference one day or one battle at a time. It is this aspect that not only caused his men to trust him and go the extra mile for their leader, endeared many especially in the southern colonies after the war who saw him as the difference maker in their effort towards independence, but also caused many places to be named after Marion all over the country after the Revolutionary War for years to come.
So what did alert the Loyalist militia that night? Intel!
… in Marion’s letter to Gates a week after the battle. “They had intelligence of our coming,” Marion explained. That would indicate that it was not loud horse hooves a few moments before the battle that tipped off the Tories but rather some earlier advance warning. Marion was not the only person who had spies working for him. Plenty of Tories in the Black Mingo area would have been eager to spoil a patriot attack. Certainly that was true of Elias Ball. “He had about a hundred and fifty slaves, and he was a mean fella,” one of his descendants recalled. Perhaps Elias Ball or another local Tory got wind of the action and told his brother John…
Intelligence activities was a crucial aspect of this war, something we probably discount. But the fact that almost 40% of the civilian population considered themselves loyalists at some point of this war sure was a factor.
The impact of Marion’s militia delivering three victories in a row caused the Loyalists and their militia in the Santee area of South Carolina to lay low and refuse to take the field fearing Marion and his men would come calling. This psychological edge was dearly needed as this actually created a break in the violence on the innocent in this regions communities and also offered many of Marion’s men to return to their homes, especially the ones in the burnt-over districts that British leader Tarleton had laid waste to weeks earlier.
Immediately after Black Mingo, Marion wanted to go after Wigfall, who, along with Ball, had been sent into the Williamsburg area to keep the Whigs in check. Wigfall was now stationed with about fifty men at the Salem Black River Presbyterian Church upriver from Kingstree and was an especially enticing target for Marion. He had served under Marion earlier in the war, and Marion pointedly excluded him by name from the thanks he gave his officers at Dorchester. John Wigfall was one of those South Carolinians who blew with the prevailing winds, siding with whoever held the advantage. Marion wanted to pursue him but, as he told Gates, could not because “so many of my followers was so desirous to see their wifes and family, which have been burnt out.”
This lull in the action also allowed whatever harvesting that could be done to happen in earnest as the crops were getting ready and winter was coming.
Stay tuned for the next October adventure in American Revolutionary War South Carolina that did NOT include Francis Marion or his militia, the Battle of King’s Mountain on 07OCT1780 over 150 miles from where Marion and his men accomplished their victory on 29SEP1780.
This battle in addition to Marion’s three victories were a major turning point in this war to be free of the British Empire. The resurgence in people’s heart for liberty represented a much needed boost in the morale of the people and soldiers alike, at least for those aligned with the principles of self-government and consent of the governed!
Out of a Mint Press News article that ran last week is something that I took more time to reflect on. Maybe it is because 40+ years ago I volunteered, maybe it is my age or maybe it is just that my heart goes out to this guys and gals that have been through hell and are now finding out all the lies that “justified” all that went on in the Middle East for the past 17 years.
The new data was made available in the VA’s National Suicide Data Report, which found that, in 2016, 6,079 veterans ended their own lives compared to 6,281 in 2015. However, the suicide rate for veterans between the ages of 18 and 34 increased from 40.4 deaths per 100,000 veterans in 2015 to 45 in 2016, four times higher than that of other age groups. Notably, veterans below the age of 35 were the only age group that saw an increase in suicides from 2015 to 2016. The suicide rate was even greater for young female veterans.
We all have known for some time that this was bad, but it is getting worse. Sure there is the impact from some of the Pharma Rx being prescribed by the VA, why the hell don’t they realize what saved SO MANY GI’s lives in Vietnam, POT! The soldiers in the 1960s self-medicated, returned NOT to be hooked on drugs but to live a much more normal life than the vets from Gulf War II (or even Gulf War I).
As former military learn about the lies (Gulf of Tonkin for Vietnam era vets, WMD for Gulf War II era vets), they rightfully reflect on the dishonor they were a part of against innocent people, and in their deep grief seek relief, eternal relief.
I rarely say someone SHOULD do something, so I will just say that one COULD read the letter at this link and reflect yourself on the generations of men and women that have been exposed to being used/played by our government in their global chess-matches:
My body has become nothing but a cage, a source of pain and constant problems. The illness I have has caused me pain that not even the strongest medicines could dull, and there is no cure. All day, every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in my body. It is nothing short of torture. My mind is a wasteland, filled with visions of incredible horror, unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with all of the medications the doctors dare give. Simple things that everyone else takes for granted are nearly impossible for me. I can not laugh or cry. I can barely leave the house. I derive no pleasure from any activity. Everything simply comes down to passing time until I can sleep again. Now, to sleep forever seems to be the most merciful thing.
You must not blame yourself. The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.
To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand. Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. They offer no help, and actively block the pursuit of gaining outside help via their corrupt agents at the DEA. Any blame rests with them.
A ruthless empire that cares little for those who give all for “freedom” will find out in time that “blowback” is real. Already the US military finds it difficult to recruit volunteers and the claim is that the economy (i.e. low unemployment) is the driving factor, but I have to say that low-trust in the government will eventually translate into low-trust in the military.
Lastly, the DEA enters the picture again as they have now managed to create such a culture of fear in the medical community that doctors are too scared to even take the necessary steps to control the symptoms. All under the guise of a completely manufactured “overprescribing epidemic,” which stands in stark relief to all of the legitimate research, which shows the opposite to be true. Perhaps, with the right medication at the right doses, I could have bought a couple of decent years, but even that is too much to ask from a regime built upon the idea that suffering is noble and relief is just for the weak.
The empire treats vets like useless, bothersome slaves, and unlike in most places in the South in the early 1800s where old slaves were taken care of until their death, our government just soon that these vets die prematurely as they not only have no use for them, but they are also considered possible domestic terrorists (due to in no doubt the fact that veterans often have seen what government is “behind the curtains”)
The Mint Press News article sums it up about right when it says:
While the VA report may call the jump in young veteran suicides an “urgent crisis,” it unfortunately seems to be a crisis with no end in sight until the country is finally forced to reckon with its dark legacy of regime-change wars and military occupations around the world.
Speaking of veterans, the highest decorated US Marine before World War II had something to say as he “woke up” after retiring:
If you want to read plain text of his pre-WWII book .. use this link. (Free)
If you want something via Amazon, use this. ($6 Kindle version)
Vets, they know a thing or two about our government and politics.
