It’s that time again already! There’s got to be a laugh in here somewhere.
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and for our musical selection . . . .
wishing y’all a lovely weekend, thanks for stopping by!
(A re-post of one from 2016, happy 10 year anniversary to Kensho! Funny-not funny, my viewpoint has not changed a bit!)
I wish I could say I was not guilty of it. I watched on two different days last week as a coyote trotted off contentedly first with a duck, then a chicken. The latter time I was outside, with our very large Dane-Mastiff guarding, reading on the deck as the coyote pranced by 200 feet from us, without any chicken ever making a sound to alert our attention.
I did shoot at it, far too late, but I was so slow and stunned I hardly had a chance. I asked on social media whether, had they been faster than me, if they would have choosen to shoot the thieving coyote with their cameras or their guns. Most chose cameras, which demonstrates a double-bind, I believe.
We have lost sight of the predator/prey relationship. In fact, when we look closely into New Age groups and the major push in education currently, the prey has been deluded into believing they can transform the predator into something ‘better’ or “safer” or at least less scary.
The prey goes into school and later even therapy so as to come out better adapted at the game and to his role as prey. The predators understand perfectly this relationship can be best described by the old parable of ‘the frog and the scorpion.’ Since at least Biblical times, it has always been the same game. The predator/prey relationship is easily paralleled to our more civilized equivalent of Master/slave, which can be extended further to our current neo-serf system of Parent/child and State/citizen.
I fancy myself aware, self-reliant, pro-active, resourceful. Yet, in my ‘truth quest,’ which a great many of us have been on for many years now, I’ve demonstrated my talent at pointing fingers, shifting responsibility, projecting, and most grievous and destructive of all, further nurturing an identification complex. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_%28psychology%29
An identification complex is plaguing seemingly all of society right now so I have plenty of company. We are all pointing our fingers at the 1%, or in the case of “truthers” or “conspiracy theorists” the .001%, as the core problem with the world. We criticize from one side of our mouths and go along with the other. We go along in hundreds of different ways every day. We fall for their fashion and entertainment, we sit in their schools and on their boards and in their governments. On the surface there seems to be little other choice. When someone opens their eyes wide enough to see this is the same master/slave relationship indoctrinated and institutionalized at ever level of the system that has existed since the beginning of history, we are then met with the next inconvenient truth: We are only looking at the gameboard, we are not understanding the game.
We the slaves both despise and envy the master, and the master knows this and uses it against us. Obedience is the price and the master sets the terms. Our role is to remain passive and uncomplaining against the unspoken contract. When the noose tightens, some slaves become restless and resentful, while others adapt by learning to breathe more shallowly. Livestock breeders use identical methods. This is how the system perpetuates and exacerbates to such an imbalance that an excess of predators disrupt the natural order until collapse is inevitable.
Of course the game is rigged! And if you had your way, it would be rigged in your favor. Your preference might be: I want it to be fair and safe for everyone, for there to be no predators or prey, no masters or slaves, and many might support you, to the point they’d be willing to become the predators in order to preserve your collective safe-space.
What we see politically we are also allowing in our personal and professional lives. We feel the boot, there are fewer in denial everyday. We know we are being surveilled and minimized and made obsolete. We know we are victims and we react in one of the many ways they know we will, as prey always will: Fight, Flight, Fawn, or Freeze. If one can find another courageous enough to rebel, he is also lost eventually, because to rebel is to remain still inside the game. They have plenty of room for rebellion, they count on it, they thrive on it.
“I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.” Jay Gould
Obedience is the prey’s cost in the master/slave, State/citizen relationship, making the passive society become increasingly easy prey; little more than a flock of smiling depressives. These easiest of prey develop a quintessential need for their one-season world, for un-natural order, until passivity replaces fear and we all become the woman watching the coyote trot by with one of her ducks, too slow and maladapted and untrained to stop him.
When one is lucky enough to find another who has the courage to change the game, or at least give it a go, one has met the Fool soon to replace the Father. The game changes when we ourselves change, it’s an inside-out process, not an outside-in. We choose en masse, to not be prey or predator. We choose to have no rulers. We choose Autonomy, Sovereignty and Self-government.
The ones who understand you must stop the predator or soon all your poultry will perish are the ones rebelling, which the masters then flaunt in front of the more passive prey to get them focused toward each other. The fawns point fingers at the fights, the freezes blame the flights, and around and around we go.
Where will we stop? Does somebody know?
When the most passive meets the predator en face they realize their only hope is one they’ve been trying to avoid all along. Because the most unpleasant truth of the human condition from the mindset of the frog is that not every frog has to become aware of the nature of the scorpion, they just have to become aware faster than the last frog.
Here’s some research links I know could really benefit some of my fellow frogs.
For your personal life and relationships: Ollie Mathews, an ingenious entrepreneur helping victims of narcissistic abuse by reading their often painful letters on Youtube. Understanding this co-dependent dysfunctional relationship is crucial to understanding how it’s playing out in the Big Game:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVFJBbBcV6akw8M1YuDo-Yg
To dig into the Big Game, prepare yourself for the most complex, multi-faceted work of your life.
https://www.corbettreport.com/
We’ve all heard the expressions: “History is a set of lies agreed upon” and “History is written by the victors” and most have come to accept these tropes.
But what they may not have considered is when the history is that flexible, all those academic fields which are history adjacent–like anthropology, sociology, philosophy, literature, all cultural studies, even linguistics– become subject to those authoritarian whims and fashionable irregularities.
Generalization, subjectivity, distant observation, even making obvious comparisons across vast and complex measurable units–ie. pattern recognition–is not just discouraged, it’s potential grounds for dismissal. It’s considered sloppy, unprofessional, unacademic. Pseudo-subjects and conspiracy theory.
Academics are especially vulnerable to such manipulations as their fields are controlled in a strict hierarchical system and their studies, even as tenured professors, tend to stay very narrow in scope. They do not need to strive for a cohesive worldview in their academic work as they are mostly employed to measure the minutia, to dig deep into one tiny corner of the field, as has been the case with the historical and architectural world of the Mound Builders.
What the volumes of academic work on these cultures tend to do is narrow in so microscopically as to make all similarities irrelevant and cross-cultural observations inadmissable. They debate ad nasauem around shards of pottery found just beneath the surface of their archeological sites and the thousands of ways these tiny artefacts differ from one locale to the next.
There are literally thousands of pages published on comparisons and categorizations of tiny fossils and shards of the various Mound Builder tribes of the Americas. Specific measurements are taken of the space between the decorative lines and their width, length and coloration. All is catelogued in such microscopic detail as to bore to tears all but the most myopic of minds.
Truly, it is a form of academic gaslighting. Keep searching right here, right in this tiny framework where we’ve given the appropriate boundaries and designations. Don’t broaden, don’t do your own investigations, don’t venture out of your assigned territory, all alien parameters will be squashed with contempt and mockery and quite likely, career death.
That singular, rigid, hierachical model has been demolished with the Internet and for me, who formally studied and taught for four decades the very subjects now being shamelessly dismantled, I couldn’t be more pleased about it.
Actually, I could be. If there was a guarantee the ends would somehow justify all these means–as in the decades of lies and indoctrination and then subsequent ripping away of those foundations and the now erupting attempts to filter the masses into new molds for better slave management and more prosperous slaveholders–then I would certainly be more pleased.
But I’m not so naive as to think there’s ever any such guarantees. (As an entertaining aside, James Corbett here at his comedic best with more on our system of modern slavery.)
https://youtu.be/ZjwO9_3g4xQ?si=8u5_OumKlk-LOMub
But my topic today is a continuation of the last What’s Been Lost new Kensho series. And say what you want about formal education, I’ve experienced the pros and the great many cons, but for all those naysayers and critics, my serious education these days comes from Youtube, mostly. I know, right?!
Don’t knock it ’till you try it, there are some really amazing teachers there (they call them creators now, which is nice) and I’m not watching them to buy into any of their conclusions, but just to appreciate their work, collect their evidence, and consider, that’s all.
There are relatively few in my life who care about this stuff at all, so I’m grateful for the company and impressed with their body of work. Yes, I do understand some of them are part of a big club, and I’m not in it. I don’t mind. And I’ve got no where else to go, and I’ve got a bit of time and loads of interest.
So for those others who might be interested in exploring and considering with me, we continue in search of what’s been lost.
Last time I shared about the Yakhchal, a common radiative cooling system used from ancient times, still in operation in parts of the Middle East, and perhaps close by as well, as close as Dallas.
Now I will introduce another thread to this story, the so-called Mound Builder ‘indigenous’ tribes of the South, officially referred to as having been ‘occupying’ these lands before the arrival of the Europeans.
A recent video by Jarid Boosters was perfectly timed and is well worth a complete viewing. In it he considers one such Mound Builder culture in present-day Moundville, Alabama, once called the Kingdom of Pafalaya, which includes Fort Morgan. Most of these sites are former military installations and are owned by universities and used as tourist traps now. Some of them are privately owned, all have vast areas not open to the public.
We have one very close to us as well, known as Caddo Mounds, which I’ve written about briefly before, after a sudden (manufactured) tornado hit during their cultural ceremony, destroying much property, killing one and injuring many. The site has since been upgraded and reopened, though there is little to see besides some very basic ‘replica’ huts and of course, a large gift shop.
One of the most famous ones is in the mid-West, near St. Louis, not that far from where I grew up, called Cahokia Mounds.
https://youtu.be/Gw6A2RgVwjs?si=bUXC9lyrKKuRHSQb
What I propose has happened with these sites is a deliberate militarized program of generational amnesia.
“Generational amnesia refers to the phenomenon where each generation forgets important knowledge and experiences from previous generations, leading to a distorted understanding of the past and the environment. This can result in a lack of awareness about changes in society and nature, as new generations accept their current conditions as the norm without recognizing what has been lost.”
They tell us ‘Generative AI’ will solve this mounting modern social problem. Promises, promises. Let’s not wait on those any longer.
For a bit of background, Mound Builders refers to ‘prehistorical’ cultures of the ‘ancient’ South. For our purposes, ‘prehistorical’ refers to the most recent rewriting of history, or ‘reset’ as many interested in these topics are calling it; and ‘ancient’ refers to the ‘Roman’ era and all those pre-dating it. In this version of history we examine especially the period of the so-called “Civil” War, or the war between the states, or the war of Northern agression, or whatever other term seems appropriate for that period of time when much of the southern US was destroyed and their history re-written by the victors.
At this time the official narratives went under the command and control of the military, if they weren’t there already. In my estimation we have always been a military industrial complex, this wasn’t a new phenomenon predicted by another puppet president.
There are other ‘fringe’ channels that deal more specifically with military history, that is not my main interest, one I could recommend for this angle would be that of a former history academic:
https://youtu.be/LqiZPX0Ordc?si=IOKaZQ7FT2Bjr7Wg
In fact, there are so-called Mound sites all over the South, and I’d suggest many of them are as yet ‘undiscovered’ because they sit on private property where even the land owners have no idea what’s beneath them.
In nearby Nacogdoches there is another ‘curated’ Mound site:
“Excavations at the Washington Mound site have uncovered the archeological remains of a large Middle Caddoan period (ca. A.D. 1250-1350) mound complex in south-central East Texas. The investigations of this heretofore unknown complex indicate that there was a significant post-Alto phase culture in the region that may have had a significant impact on subsequent regional Caddoan manifestations.”
While there are teams of academics studying the tiny differences in the fossils on the surface and money rolling in from the tourist trade, and grants galore for those academics willing to tow the official line, the accepted narrative framework gets further cemented into the public consciousness.
The new Southern history started in 1888 or thereabouts, with 1933 appearing oddly often. The commonalities of these sites, like the ‘charcoal-filled pits’ and ‘post holes’ are left as side curiousities or mysteries or given barely-plausible labels like ‘ceremonial spaces’ or ‘burial grounds’.
According to Wiki we see some typical features, like the involvement of the Smithsonian Institution, and a minimum of curious names and the all-important dates to keep our minds distracted from the bigger picture:
The earliest recorded written mention of the mounds was in 1779 by Athanase de Mézières, who traveled from Louisiana to San Antonio in the employ of the Spanish government. In 1919 American James Edwin Pearce was the first professional archeologist to record the site for the Bureau of Ethnology (Smithsonian Institution). In 1933 archeologist E. B. Sayles concluded that the site was a Caddo mound center, after conducting surface collection of artifacts at the location.
The first scientific excavations were conducted from 1939 to 1941 by H. Perry Newell, a University of Texas archeologist with the federal Work Projects Administration in the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When Newell died, archeologist Alex D. Krieger took over investigations at the site and concluded that it had been a major Caddo site. Further excavations in the 1960s and early 1970s by Dee Ann Story pinpointed the timeline of the site to 780 and 1260.
Following military service, Tunnell returned to Texas and began working with archeologist Ed Jelks on the Texas Rivers Basin Survey project funded by the Smithsonian Institution. Their first investigations took place along the McGee Bend of the Angelina River in East Texas, later impounded as part of Sam Rayburn Reservoir. He also worked in the Lake Amistad area along the Rio Grande.
As State Archeologist, Tunnell participated in scientific investigations at the Alamo and other important Spanish Colonial mission and presidio sites in Texas, directed archeological excavations at the ancient Folsom-age Adair-Steadman site, and braved the waters of the Rio Grande in order to record the archeological resources present in the canyons of the Big Bend region. He battled commercial salvagers to retain the 1554 Spanish shipwreck artifacts for the State of Texas and was instrumental in the development of the Antiquities Code of Texas, the legal tool to protect historic resources on public (state) land, including submerged shipwrecks. His films and audiotapes documenting the work of numerous folk artisans and craftsmen in the Texas-Mexico border region may well represent the only records of the practitioners of many vanishing crafts and arts. In 1981, Tunnell became THC executive director, a position he held until his retirement in January 1999. Through his decades of state service, Tunnell traveled to all 254 Texas counties and developed lasting friendships in all regions of the state. Tunnell passed away suddenly at his home on April 13, 2001.
His name was Tunnell, former military, and her name was Story. Isn’t that special. He liked to talk about Arts & Crafts. But not so much about Antiquitech.
What I wonder is, do the actual tunnels tell another story?
We’ve got mounds and post holes and charcoal-filled pits; we’ve got vast stone walls covered over by lakes and resevoirs and now deemed ‘legend’; we’ve got historical timelines that have clearly been ‘revised’, many times; we’ve got buildings and other structures that make no sense, but get little attention.
The burying of the past continues, the generational amensia widens, and aside from a few Youtubers and their marginalized audiences, I wonder if anyone else really cares.
Just in case you are one of the few who do, thank you, and you’re welcome.
More on the vast and ubiquitous caves and caverns of Texas and the mid-West on a future journey.
You don’t know, because it was taken long before you were born.
Your father, your grandfather, ditto.
Your child will know less, her child lesser still, what’s been lost.
Someday she might try to dig it up, maybe because life no longer makes sense to her.
In confusion and rejection of the dystopian present she senses roots calling from the past, something deeper was once here, something grander, was it an alignment, a race, an epoch, antiquitech, infrastructure, what?
What’s been lost? Where has it gone? Who took it?
Who continues to take it?
A new series for Kensho,
Starting now . . .
What does ancient Persia and modern Texas have in common? The Ice House.
If I said that to a Texan they’d think I meant the popular outdoor beer gardens, and their version of history would go back to the early 1900s and they’d think that was old. Perhaps they’d offer some local trivia or home-spun yarns, like the original Texas Ice House was the first ice manufacturing company, which is now claimed to be have been merely an ice storage facility, which later became the modern day 7-11 francise. There is, like most home-spun yarns, some truth in that story. And much redirection and fabrication as well. Perhaps to keep your eyes of our own ancient history.
More from Wiki:
In some parts of Texas, especially from San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country down to the Mexican border, ice houses functioned as open-air bars, with the word “icehouse” becoming a colloquialism for an establishment that derives the majority of its income from the sale of cold beer.[24] The distinction between South Texas ice houses and ice houses of other parts of the state and the South has been connected to the Catholicism of the region, a deeper-rooted Mexican culture, and the influence of German immigrants.
On radiative cooling
I believe it begins in Persia, still home to many ice houses, called Yakhchal. Alternative energy in the modern Western sense is really ugly, cumbersome, expensive, destructive, in comparison. Yet, there is evidence that the Yakhchal was once more widespread than just in the ancient, or modern, middle east.
The yakhchal is used for preserving and storing food, cooling structures, even making icy sweets. It works through radiative cooling, which existed in ancient times, still is in existence in remote areas today, and yet, it’s not the norm here, in the modern and advanced industrial West. Why?
That they propose it now to cool the entire planet with this line of tech means they think they can scale it that far up, yet they can’t manage to scale it back down, again. How can that be?
Geoengineering the planet with ‘lost’ radiative cooling technology, Science Direct. And ‘global radiative sky cooling’.
What is the difference between the common springhouse and an icehouse, which is the Yakhchal? My neighbors once had a springhouse, but I’d only know that because he told me himself, before he died, at over 90 years old.
Where else would such useful information be kept, I wonder? How will the next owners know there was once a springhouse there, one that might even be restored to a functioning status, when I see on their real estate listing that not even the grandchildren seem to know or care about this old feature? Who cares now, right, because we have the water co-op and the electric company we can pay each month.
I believe a case could be made that the very common structures once known as springhouses were the vernacular equivalent of the ice house.
Three main types of Yakhchals exist: vaulted, underground, and roofless, each adapted to different climatic conditions.
Passive cooling so common and effortless that even poor people could afford ice:
(PDF) Yakhchal; Climate Responsive Persian Traditional Architecture
Mehdipour, Armin. Yakhchal; Climate Responsive Persian Traditional Architecture.
Yakhchāl – Wikipedia
The Mughal emperors also recorded to adopt the technology of Yakchal. Humayun (r. 1530–1540, 1555–1556) expanded ice imports from Kashmir to Delhi and Agra, insulating blocks with straw and saltpetre to slow melting, a Persian technique. Early Baraf Khana (underground pits) stored ice, adapted from ‘yakhchāl’ for preservation.[4] Akbar (r. 1556–1605) organized ice transport from Kashmir to Delhi, Agra, and Lahore via a 14-stage relay system, delivering ice in two days using saltpetre. The ab-dar khana at Fatehpur Sikri used sandstone cisterns and qanats, resembling yakhchāl, to cool water and make sherbets and early desserts.[5] During the era of Jahangir (r. 1605–1627), Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri describes baraf khana as insulated cellars storing ice for palace cooling, food preservation, and kulfi, a frozen milk dessert with pistachios and saffron. Ice was harvested in Lahore from shallow ice pans and stored in straw-lined pits.Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658).[6] Shah Jahan built a baraf khana in Sirmaur to supply Agra and Delhi’s Red Fort. These underground structures with thick walls stored ice for drinks, food, and kulfi, symbolizing imperial luxury.[7]
Although many have deteriorated over the years due to widespread commercial refrigeration technology, some interest in them has been revived as a source of inspiration in low-energy housing design and sustainable architecture.[8] And some, like a yakhchāl in Kerman (over a mile above sea level), have been well-preserved. These still have their cone-shaped, eighteen meter high building, massive insulation, and continuous cooling waters that spiral down its side and keep the ice frozen throughout the summer.
What we see as far as typical architectural features of the Yakhchal are domes, sometimes occuring with minerets, or spires, and sometimes with bells associated as well. Underground gardens are also a feature in the more elaborate designs.
Interestingly, Dallas has such an architectural gem, though I’ve not found any mention of the yakhchal or ice house technology mentioned in the literature.
From Wiki:
Thanks-Giving Square – Wikipedia
The Square is set fifteen feet below ground level with a four-foot wall blocking the sight of automobiles to create a serene, green island. Water plays a prominent role in the landscape, with active fountains masking city noise.
Sitting amid the steel and glass skyscrapers of the Dallas business district, Thanks-Giving Chapel’s white spiral building is a beautiful—and unusual—sight. A curvilinear chapel resembling the 9th century Al-Malwia (snail shell) freestanding minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra, Iraq, built by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil, is not a building a visitor to Dallas expects to see. Another pleasant surprise is the Qur’anic verse “Grateful praise is due to God alone, the Lord and Nourisher of the worlds” engraved on a granite column at the entrance to Thanks-Giving Square. A portion of Psalms 100 appears on the Wall of Praise, also at the square’s entrance.
In 1971, the Dallas-based nonsectarian Thanks-Giving Foundation hired renowned American architect Philip Johnson to design a chapel that would celebrate the value and spirit of the institution of thanksgiving. Completed in 1976, Johnson’s white marble aggregate building dominates the three-acre triangular site that is dedicated to spiritual reflection. A sloping bridge built over a cascading waterfall connects the courtyard to the chapel. From his study of art history, Johnson was inspired by the spiral form of the Samarra minaret—which is similarly connected to the Great Mosque by a bridge.
“The spiral design perfectly conveys the foundation’s dual mission of offering a place for all people to give thanks to our creator and celebrating the value and spirit of thanksgiving for both sacred and secular cultures throughout the world,” Tatiana Androsov, Thanks-Giving Square’s president and executive director, told the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
Inside the chapel, a visitor’s attention is immediately drawn to the Glory Window (above), a multi-colored stained glass ceiling created by Gabriel Loire. This striking creation was memorialized in a United Nations stamp in 2000, the International Year of Thanksgiving. In one area of the room is a large white Carrara marble cube mounted on a sandstone circle made of local Austin stone. The cube is symbolic of the unification of mankind; the circle symbolizes eternity.
During the week, the chapel is a convenient and tranquil location in an otherwise busy city for Muslims working in the downtown business district to pray. “Although there are 22 mosques in the Dallas area, many Muslims working in this part of town like to come here, especially for Friday prayers,” Androsov explained.
Visitors from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa come to the chapel as part of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, she added. The Thanks-Giving Foundation is a Department of Public Information NGO with the United Nations. For more information, visit www.thanksgiving.org.
Thanks for joining me on this little journey through time and space!
One last deep speculation–could this ancient architectural tech also relate to the so-called Mound Builder indigenous tribes all over the Americas?
Best laid plans . . . 😆😂
Just some happy snaps with minimal commentary this post, because it’s been too long. With more coming very shortly, as soon as my new keyboard arrives, because I loathe the hunt and peck method of the digital keyboard.
A few more happy snaps . . .
A darling bird of prey I watched right off our balcony from our recent quick roadtrip to Gruene in the Hill Country.
Also in Gruene, a so-called ‘mud-flooded’ building, more coming soon on that conspiracy theory in the new year.
They have preserved some gorgeous trees there from the ever-encroaching urban sprawl, and more power to ’em!
Merry Christmas from the wee homestead!
Thanks for stopping by!
“Papers, please!” was a running joke among Western expats living in Eastern Europe. I wonder how many of them now carry a permanent spying device with great pleasure or perhaps even cheerfully signed on to the digital passport program, first in line, buying into the ploys of safety and convenience.
The Globe was supposed to move in the other direction entirely! We won the Cold War, supposedly, in order to NOT be treated like the perpetual citizen-criminals of Kafka’s stories.
Eastern Europe in 1989 was a surreal place for a young university sophmore voyaging long distances by train alone for the first time. It was at once charming and derelict, welcoming and suspicious, familiar and mysterious.
On the one hand I never felt physically threatened, not even as flaneuse on the city streets at night. On the other hand the decrepid state of the infrastructure whispered danger somehow, because neglect itself is a dark force.
On the one hand the relative poverty was palpable, though my midwest suburban upbringing was middle class, great food variety and consumer goods were far more available. On the other hand their resourcefullness has had a lifelong impact on me and was my first critical look at the innate and corrupting consumerism of my little world.
I didn’t speak the languages and there were very few English speakers. I got by, barely, with French, rudimentary German and smiling, mostly. Americans were considered automatically suspect, so some travelers would claim to be Canadian at any venue not requiring their passports.
Already on the issue of passports I was laughingly naive.
A variety of stamp collecting, or paving the way for the Global digital gulag? It was an especially exciting moment in the expats life when your passport got so full of stamps you had to go pronto to the nearest embassy to get new blank pages stapled into the back of the official document.
Interestingly, while Americans were considered automatically suspect, there was still a sort of cult following that adored America and those who were positively thrilled to meet one, and I made it a point of meeting those unique sorts.
I went on to be a Peace Corps volunteer there a few years later precisely because of my immediate attraction to this region. I felt compelled to know it better and the fact I had the opportunity to spend three more years there, mostly in Czech Republic, but traveling the region extensively, was in fulfillment of my deepest desires and longings at that time.
For all that I loved it, there I also felt my greatest repulsions.
The dystopian Kafkaesque bureaucrocy I experienced was not just fiction. The general acceptance of the populace, while not exactly Stolkholm Sydrome toward their Soviet occupiers, was still a quiet resignation which struck me as particularly pathetic considering their far more astute knowledge of history.
My old passports are the best symbol with which I can try to express my current level of despair seeing my greatest repulsions come to fruition all around me, even as we ‘the Capitalist West’ were the supposed winners of the Cold War.
What did we win? A military industrial complex acting against the best interests of its people. A Corporatocracy run by corrupt public-private partnerships which pretends not to be a fascistic system. Progress that is defined entirely by blind acceptance of anything stamped with the Technocrat seal of approval. Endless paving over of the countryside for roads and minimalls and condos and tourist traps in the ugliest construction ever known to ‘civilized’ man.
Civilization itself has morphed into something totally uncivil, hideous and expanding entirely out of control.
I, like many other intrepid travelers, thought of the passport merely as the modern equivalent of the old travel trunks stamped fashionably with destinations. We thought of them as a collection of strange signs and symbols we’d forever associate with our new memories of far-off places. They were the paper images of our wanderlust we planned to show one day to the grandkids, not knowing they would be holding a digital scrolling device we’d rarely be able to pry from their clutches.
“Once traditional farming systems have been destabilised by the debt-trap of subsidised loans, structural adjustment policies, corporate input regimes, global supply chains, patented seeds and monocultural production, mass migration to cities becomes an inevitability engineered from above. The city thus absorbs the displaced because the countryside has been systematically stripped of opportunities or carved up for infrastructure or real estate schemes.”
What if we’d been given the actual choice, not the strategically invented one, between our current paradigm of progress as a global militarized surveillance state and the ‘stagnation’ where the Eastern Bloc resided for half a century?
This, or this?
Electric prison bars or progress?
Do folks really think WHEN this whole shitshow goes tits-up there will be government funding for the clean-up and restoration of this once beautiful land?
That I don’t want this EVER, for ANYONE makes me some kind of bitter-clinger communist?
“ALA’s annual State of the Air report found that 156.1 million people—46 percent of the population—now live in counties with failing grades for ozone or particle pollution, nearly 25 million higher than last year. Previously less-affected areas, such as Minneapolis, saw significant spikes in unhealthy air days tied to climate-exacerbated wildfires and particle pollution, such as dust.”
Universities funded by public-private partnerships clandestinely tamper with our atmosphere using euphemistically-named scientific jargon like ‘Plume dispersions’ as if this is not mass poisoning?
A fairy tale of citizen safety in the form of acoustic weapons for
city-wide crisis alerts?
https://newbraunfels.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/3762
A hellscape of ‘progress’ in the form of the most ugly, extractive and intrusive landscapes imaginable?
How did ‘WE’ win in this global game that began long before I was born?
What kind of twisted minds call this progress? We have 70 years of documented atmospheric tampering while officialdom continues in denying its impact, which is now going into overdrive while the voices of the livid citizenry, especially those losing their livliehoods in the rural regions, get squashed. Same as it always was.
“Similarly, Gerard Winstanley, writing in the 17th century, envisioned a society in which land and labour were shared as a common good, not commodities to be exploited. His insistence on communal responsibility and ecological justice underscores the radical, enduring potential of agrarian ethics against the logic of extraction and profit.
In this light, the critique of urban-centric development becomes more than an economic critique. It represents a challenge to the very definition of progress. The rejection of the celebratory narrative of neoliberal modernity is a philosophical insistence that a society cannot be judged by its technological prowess while its ecological foundations crumble and its people are alienated from the sources of life.
The modern city, therefore, becomes a battleground where two visions of civilisation confront one another: the dominant model of corporate-led, centrally managed growth and the fragile but persistent ethic of stewardship, locality and shared responsibility. As made clear in my new open access book, The Agrarian Imagination: Development and the Art of the Impossible (available here), genuine human development cannot be measured by urban skylines or GDP figures but by the survival of relationships between people, land and community that give meaning to life.”
Beneath the Concrete, the Soil Still Whispers – OffGuardian
Texas Weather Modification Report–1964 – Zero Geoengineering
Churlish:
“boorish, rude, uncivil, peasant-like, difficult to work with”
I like it, a lot! As a word it’s just fun, like most words that end with ‘ish’. I often put ‘ish’ on the end of words, adding a connotation of ‘sort of’, it’s quite common.
“Fun-ish” not quite fun (like living under a chem-sky producing Yo-Yo weather); Slave-ish is in the vicinity of slavery (like paying income tax and having zero say in your own government).
I have a new cheese I call “Swissish” since it’s in the Swiss style, but obviously, I’m not in Switzerland. It’s just a really handy little diminutive.
But, what is a ‘Churl’ you might wonder? It’s a good question because the meaning has changed over the centuries quite significantly.
A churl is a peasant, or a rude, boorish or stingy person. In English history it meant — “A freeman of the lowest rank”.
I believe that label suits me! Well, not exactly the ‘freeman’ part, but I can relate to the peasant part. I haven’t always thought of myself as a peasant, but since becoming one I’ve definitely adopted some of their so-called uncivil, rude and boorish behaviors.
In many ways it works like the term ‘country dumb’ like in the great work of fiction by Jaroslav Hasek, “The Good Soldier Svejk.” The beauty of being churlish is a direct parallel, because you never can tell when it’s an act, and for what purpose. Playing dumb, or churlish, can be very effective.
Hasek’s narrative, along with the character of Svejk, was most certainly the inspiration for the well-known American television sitcom Hogan’s Heroes.
That makes perfect sense, because those behaviors go hand-in-glove with how much respect one has for those who would have us all be feeble, pleasant and co-operative workers, loyal citizens of party politics, and happy, obedient tax cattle, unable to accumulate inter-generational wealth, just like peasants and slaves.
I’ve been saying for decades we are slaves on a corporate plantation and not citizens in a so-called free country, and whether you call it a republic or a democracy completely misses the point. We are forced to pay taxes while having zero control over what those taxes fund, that’s a slave system we cannot opt out of, so I really never needed to read any so-called legal codes or any essays of the great thinkers who’ve already noticed this a century ago, because it’s painfully obvious.
For those who need more proof, here’s another good one rehashing the same points again with excellent clarity, for the hard of thinking.
BUT INCOME TAX FUNDS THE SERVICES WE NEED!
Mark Everson, IRS Commissioner, stated he has been paying his taxes ever since he had his first job and that it’s a “fundamental construct of our nation that those of us who expect and demand services from our government… we must pay for those services,” therefore, there is an obligation to contribute. Ok, great! I like services, and I do believe people should pay their fair share for services they use. So how about we play a little game of “trust but verify” by looking at how our services are funded:
PROPERTY TAXES are primarily used to support local services such as public schools, police and fire departments, road maintenance, libraries, and sanitation services. (check all of those off the list)
SALES TAX funds a variety of public services, including education, healthcare, transportation, public safety, and infrastructure projects. (add a whole bunch of checks.)
SCHOOL TAXES are paid by everyone, even people without children. We are told the school tax funds are primarily used to finance public education, covering expenses such as teacher salaries, school facilities, educational materials, and student services. (check, check, check.)
ROAD TAXES are funded through taxes on motor fuel, such as gasoline and diesel taxes, as well as vehicle registration fees and tolls.
LICENSE PLATE TAXES fund state transportation projects, including road maintenance and infrastructure improvements.
CAR REGISTRATION TAX funds various state and local services, including road maintenance, public transportation, and infrastructure improvements. (Sure are a lot of roads and a whole lot of money going toward them.)
I figured I’d throw this one in here: Utility companies are funded through banks and investors, then they rape us on services (seriously, look at your electric bill). The astronomical rates we pay are set by our so-called “elected officials”. Point being, the utility companies don’t need taxes, but sometimes our governments choose to hand them money. This is a huge, rigged monopoly game.
BUSINESS INCOME TAX, meaning the legal tax on profits derived from the sale of goods over cost, is what funds the government. Again, this tax on profits is 100% legal. If you own a business, you owe taxes on the profits (gains) you generate. This includes stock market gains or gains from other financial investments.
As you can see, there is nothing on our list that requires the sample server at Costco to pony up 20% of her weekly paycheck to fund. This is why the Grace Commission, officially known as the Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (established by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 to identify waste and inefficiency in the US federal government) produced a shocking report. When referring to income tax collected from every working individual in the United States, they stated, “100% of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the federal debt; all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services taxpayers expect from government”. Folks, 100% of what we give the government out of our paychecks is being handed to the banks as interest payments – that means all of our taxes become the bank’s profit. People don’t understand how the Rothschilds, the Morgans, and so on run the world; it’s because the entirety of what we pay is funneled to the banks, and they own the banks. G. Edward Griffin, author of Creature from Jekyll Island, stated,
“The main purpose of the income tax is not to raise revenue but to redistribute wealth to control society.”
SLAVERY
Listen closely: “Article 1 (1) of the 1926 Slavery Convention defines slavery as ‘the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised’. This definition signifies that a person is considered a slave when another individual holds absolute control over them, treating them as property or chattel, and depriving them of personal liberty and most rights ordinarily held by free persons. The exercise of these powers includes control over the person’s life, labor, movement, and private affairs, with the intent of exploitation.” We work to obtain money in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. We are then forced, against our will, to hand the mafia a never-ending portion of our money. If we don’t, our possessions that we have rightfully earned are seized, or we are jailed. It is the definition of slavery. The worst part is, in this case, the government doesn’t even “need” this money. It doesn’t go toward making our cities beautiful and making our water clean. It is all handed to the banks – but it’s way worse than this.
According to Bilderberg, the IRS makes available to the programmers of society “much information” which they can then use to create situations that allow them to maintain control over us. To quote Bilderberg, “This information consists of the enforced delivery of well-organized data contained in federal and state tax forms, collected, assembled, and submitted by slave labor provided by taxpayers and employers.” They go on to say, “Furthermore, the number of such forms submitted to the I.R.S. is a useful indicator of public consent, an important factor in strategic decision making….” They add, “When the government is able to collect tax and seize private property without just compensation, it is an indication that the public is ripe for surrender and is consenting to enslavement and legal encroachment. A good and easily quantified indicator of harvest time is the number of public citizens who pay income tax despite an obvious lack of reciprocal or honest service from the government.” So, they laugh at us for being so gullible that we pay into their wretched system, yet if we resist and don’t pay, they seize our assets and force us to waste our lives behind bars instead of spending time with those we love. The one thing I agree with them on is that this is slavery.
Bilderberg, when discussing the political landscape of America, stated that both lawyers and CPAs (accountants) are [unknowingly] licensed spies and saboteurs. These individuals are overseen by judges, “who shout orders and run the closed union military shop for whatever the market will bear” and “the presidential level of commander-in-chief is shared by the international bankers.”
To end on a good note, here’s the young and gorgeous Helena Bonham Carter in my favorite film, “Room With a View” who after playing Beethoven gets peevish, naturally, but not to be confused with churlish.
Tucker Carlson, playing the Hanged Man, captivates with his confusion as the Great Dane swoons in deep respect for the courageous media heavyweight who has somehow managed to not see any of this for . . . how long?
Dane, in feigned ignorance, he baffles,
Tucker can’t figure it out! Dane, tell us how have I missed this?!
Well I just can’t imagine how I could’ve missed two decades worth of videos and photos and beligerant plebs screaming about the weather, how did I miss it, as such a seasoned and responsible journalist?!
How long have you been in this fight, 20 years, wow, have you managed to talk to anyone of significance in the government? Gavin Newsome ignored you? WOW! Unbelievable! I mean, to be expected, right, because he’s left, right, get it?!
Blindsided! I never thought to ask about those crazy lines before, I just thought like, wow, crazy conspiracy nut jobs, but you Great Dane are so rational! I can totally see it now! WOW!
Tis the season of the Saturn lovers, and we all could use a plot twist about now anyway, am I right?!
Handy Hubby is a veteran in common parlance, but I’m so glad he doesn’t go around announcing that to strangers like a child desperate for recognition and approval.
We get a discount at Lowe’s, so that’s pretty cool, because we spend loads of money there. It makes perfect sense that corporations reward veterans, because that’s who veterans serve.
Hubby joined the military because he wanted to expand his opportunities, same as many young people today.
Instead of celebrating Armistice Day, we celebrate Forever War.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel (USAF) Bill Astore writes:
“Sadly, as we raise more troops and fight more wars, we seem committed to the opposite. Our military just enjoyed its best recruiting class in years. This “success” is not entirely surprising. It’s no longer that difficult to fill our military’s expanding ranks because many of our young men and women simply have little choice but to enlist, whether for economic opportunity, money for college, or benefits like free health care.”
I served in the Peace Corps, but only one person has ever thanked me for my service, a stranger who didn’t know what the Peace Corps was, but everytime he heard the word “corps” was conditioned to reply with the proper canned reply, “Thank you for your service.”
Everyone knows the Peace Corps is for idealistic, lazy losers, unlike the military, which is for tough, courageous go-getters. Hollywood tells us so.
You want to joing the Peace Corps? What are you some sort of bleeding heart liberal hippy?!
“Since a very young age we are indoctrinated into the idea that wars are the story of “good” guys vs “bad” guys, that we are (of course) on the “good guys team” and the reason that the poor people from our country were (and continue to be) sent to other countries to kill other human beings with technology designed to end sentient life is so that we can “bring them democracy”, “protect our freedoms” and “ensure regional stability”. The truth is nothing even close to that comforting fairy tale.”
The Peace Corps volunteers don’t get included in Veterans Day, which used to be called Armistice Day, to remember the fighting that ENDED.
Once the wars became continuous they had to change the name.
I supported the Peace Corps for over two decades after I returned home, through financial donations, writing articles for their sites and singing their praises whenever I had occassion to do so. I stopped supporting them once I realized they’d turned pro-war.
Hollywood creations and fictional characters like the veteran Jack Reacher are worthy of the fandom of grown adults because that definitely has no resemblance to grown adults worshipping comic book figures like Superman or Robinhood as if they are real people.
“Collectively, we Americans tend to suppress whatever doubts we have about the wisdom of our wars with unequivocal statements of support for our troops. And on days like Veterans Day, we honor those who served, and especially those who paid the ultimate price on the battlefield.
Yet, wouldn’t the best support for our troops be the achievement of the dream of that grizzled vet who cut through a young man’s fog thirty years ago? Shouldn’t we be working to achieve a new age in which the rosters of our local VFWs and Legion posts are no longer renewed with the broken bodies and shattered minds of American combat veterans?”
“Working Towards Peace: Imagine if Veterans Day Became Obselete” Bill Astore, Bracing Views substack.
“There is no honor in tax-payer funded organized murder for profit: War is still a racket” Gavin Mounsey substack
“On November 11th, a day when we have been conditioned to glorify war as “necessary and honorable” let us take an honest look at the true nature of (and profiteers) of Modern Warfare”
