Open Thread – Weekend 15 April 2023
1,587 responses to “Open Thread – Weekend 15 April 2023”
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Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler.
P, there was an ABC show that presented an alternative hypothesis to murder. The Lane Cove river releases naturally hydrogen sulphide gas in certain circumstances and this was the cause of the deaths.
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Oops, stuffed up the last link, here it is corrected. It an interesting from Brownstone Institute.
What The Bud Light Fiasco Reveals About The Ruling Class (15 Apr)
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thanks for the link to the film on Green Valley. I grew up there. Busby, Green Valley. Around the corner from Busby West Primary and Busby High.
I bike thru these suburbs 3 or 4 times a week .. one of my regular rides ..!
https://postimg.cc/XXbFQ3xm -
Deagel’s Depopulation Premonitions for 2025 Revisited
Deagel is a military hardware site. Their extraordinary 2017 population forecast for 2025 was linked here years ago. It was removed from the site in 2021 but has been reproduced by Nobul Art. The only way that I could view the entire chart was by downloading it in Excel. Can someone please tell me what the heading ME stands for.
You will note that the five year population forecast to 2025 for Australia is -34.6%. For the U.K. it’s -77.1% and for the U.S. it’s -68.5%. This is pretty much what I recall from the original Deagel post. No one had much to say about it at the time.
What did they know that we didn’t?
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More on America continues Down the Drain
. Homeless encampments in Beverly Hills have taken a turn for the worse
. A naked woman was seen just lying out on a leftover couch near one business
. The owner says it’s hurting sales and made her afraid to work past dark -
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Yeah but Wran had power stations built eg Mt Piper
Allowing for utilities to be built (or doing it otherwise), balancing the budget and keeping a general level of the King’s Peace & adequately maintaining and staffing the defence forces is the bare minimum we should expect from government.
Peter Costello deserved no credit for a job well done. His level of performance was simply the minimum expectation!
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. Experts are reacting to Anheuser-Busch’s handling of Mulvaney controversy
. One compared it to prior gaffes by pasta brand Barilla and Abercrombie & Fitch
. Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth finally issued a statement on Friday -
Black Ball, Dan’s ‘Big Build’ has never been anything but two things:
1/ Keep union mates in work
2/ Get so many people and their families hooked on government work and money that they become a Labor voting block.
The Danfilth did so well at last year’s election in large part because people voted with their wallets.
Now the corrupt bastard has had the last laugh. ‘You thought I’d keep the money flowing? Suckers!’
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How to teach reading and counting? Board games.
Monopoly. Adds a touch of capitalist competition and blatant self-interest, with Chance, the Sword of Damocles, always lurking in the wings to fall on the unprepared. Community Chest rewards virtue and punishes evil. And then there is basic income support (passing Go). They love it and learn so much.
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31m ago
Darwin stabbing ‘a terrible day for the nation’
Rhiannon Down
Rhiannon DownLabor senator Malarndirri McCarthy has described the death of a woman at a hotel in Darwin from an alleged domestic violence incident as the hallmark of a “terrible day” for the nation.
Senator McCarthy said the tragic incident, which occurred on Friday night while Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and her staff were present, was a terrible reminder of rampant violence against women across the country.
“Yesterday was a terrible day….so many thoughts and feelings for the family and also those present on the evening, the hotel staff, staff of Linda Burney who were present and the paramedics,” Senator McCarthy told Sky News.
“It’s a reminder of the violence women suffer every week.”
Senator McCarthy said the importance of an Indigenous voice to parliament was more pronounced than ever before, adding that if enshrined it would change the lives of Indigenous people for the better.
“This request is very simple because we know how tough it is on the ground,” she said.
“And I would say to Australians; the request is about opening your heart and knowing it could change the country so much for the better.”
Beneath contempt…
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What did they know that we didn’t?
Nothing that anyone can’t find out with a bit of Googlin’.
They looked at Power Stations, Oil Refineries being closed, infrastructure that wasn’t built, and worked out the optimum population with similar standards of living in 2025.
From memory, it was 9 million for Australia, about 150 million for America, 30 million for the UK.
2nd world Countries such as Russia and China had no population change.
2 ways to look at it:
#1. There’s going to be a massive decline in population very quickly in the West..
#2. Living standards in the West are going to fall drastically. -
World Economic Forum Promotes Transhumanism
WEF Video About the Fourth Industrial Revolution:
“Our bodies will be so hi-tech we won’t really be able to distinguish between what’s natural and what’s artificial.”
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The ABC has a colossal whine about “badly-behaved” Russian tourists in Bali.
Thankfully, Australian tourists in Bali are so well-known for their culturally sensitive, temperate and respectful behaviour when they visit, so of course we are able to criticise the boorish Russians.
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This is what the voice will fix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Cassie, thanks for Miss Piggie in Swine Lake, with Nureyev. Absolutely loved it.
As with the Ring Cycle, Swan Lake and those classical fairy tales on which ballet drew in its earliest days are all inflections of the cosmological tales of the early north-west European religious system. Odette and Odile are the good and bad sides of the same coin, which is female. Princes are exemplars of all things good in the masculine. Evil stalks the land and good always prevails. Sublime in dance.
Don’t knock the West’s high culture. It has five thousand years of tradition behind it.
On that note, so has China, and although Westernised, I greatly enjoy the way Shen Yun inflects that.
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History is replete with useless braindead … . The question I used to ask myself is why are there so many bad leaders? The answer is that there are sufficient numbers of people who vote with their gut and not their head. People believe bravado and confidence are the marks of superiority. Those are also the tactics of sociopaths. If we vote with our head, often we wouldn’t vote. We don’t vet our potential leaders the way we do for every other field of human activity. That has bene a lifelong puzzle for me. The people making the decisions that determine the future of the country are often unqualified for the task. Chalmers did his Ph.D on Keating. Wouldn’t even need a calculator for that and yet he is our treasurer. We trust our guts and all we get is what comes out at the end.
This is why I believe in, wait for it…
Sortition
Term limits
Subsidiarity
Confederalism
Recall elections
Jury nullification
CIR to vote down bad laws
Sunset clauses on all legislationIn more detail. It’s not perfect yet.
No Federal government. The Presidency rotates between the states every two years.
I’d have 5 year terms for the lower house and the upper house appointed by the lower house in a half rotation in each state.
Once picked by sortition, a candidate needs to be approved by the local council and their electorates.
Local councils picked by sortition but also with “town hall” procedures. So you get participatory democracy.
The head of state of each state and head of government are separate. The President/Governor has their own board which can veto them but most power rests in an appointed Premier/PM who can hold that position without any term limit (the only position in the system like it).
Term limits for the judiciary and governors/executive board.
National law can be created by inter state treaty and High Court of Australia can consist of a panel of the State appellate judges. -
Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy has described the death of a woman at a hotel in Darwin from an alleged domestic violence incident as the hallmark of a “terrible day” for the nation.
And if she’d not staggered into the hotel where Burnie was lounging we wouldn’t have heard about it ..!
The “event” wouldn’t be deemed “newsworthy except for the trougher publicity … -
Shen Yun is of course a public branch of the Falun Gong or Falun Dafa movement, banned in China.
Some resist this dance expression because of claimed ‘cult like’ associations, but that could be said of many forms of high art where performers are dedicated to their artistic performances. I admire the technique and creative energy of it, although I agree that some of the routines can get repetitive and that traditional Chinese dance is only a bedrock rather than a significant part of the overall performance, which relies a lot on Western music and ballet. The CCP of course are always out to get these believers in something other than the CCP. -
“Is advice from me or Tom [Calma] a threat to civilisation, a threat to democracy? It’s a nonsense,” Professor Marcia Langton, an architect of the Voice, told the committee.
I think Langton is selling herself short here. Her advice wouldn’t just be a nonsense – it’d also be a threat to civilisation and democracy if she were given enough power.
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MiltonF blurted:
The tough guy Premiers (who were actually on the people’s side)- Bjelke-Petersen,
No, gaining power partly through gerrymander and running a corrupt police force and a corrupt cabinet does not fit the traditional frameworks of “community policing” and “equal justice” and so was not being “on the people’s side”.
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Dotsays:
April 16, 2023 at 9:52 amThis is why I believe in, wait for it…
I know Dot but we both know people aren’t interested in those sorts of changes. We’d have to rewrite most of the constitution. I don’t have a problem with that but most do. Short of a near total collapse of governance we’re stuck with an irrational and dysfunctional structure. It is the same tired old rhetoric endlessly repeated because most people prefer to bleat about how bad the other side is rather than how bad the whole thing is.
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The ABC has a colossal whine about “badly-behaved” Russian tourists in Bali.
There are plenty of Russian tourists here. All I’ve seen then do is talk and sing loudy and not tolerate shit service. They are neat and clean and their children are well behaved.
Nothing approaching the Pure Mong of Australian tourists in Bali.
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Zimmerman represents all of the reasons why the SFL cannot be recovered/reformed until Photios is destroyed utterly.
My local branch is a micro study of the problem. It was a probably overly comfortable normal branch, specialising in great afternoon teas, when we suddenly found ourselves presided over by the local newsagent.
He was boosted by the central office and had given away our rights before any of us understood what was happening. Branch meetings after that comprised people from the central office appearing to tell what we will do.
We had never heard of Photios or Textor, and didn’t believe that Turnbull had the power to destroy the Party. We were sitting ducks; sheep.
A number of us run a mini-guerrila campaign against the President’s business but the reality is that Moderates cannot be defeated at branch level.
Incongruously, what is needed is a TEAL type sugar daddy to boost and organise democracy at branch level. Unfortunately, this area lacks the cohesion that is exhibited by upper class dominated inner suburban areas so finding and mobilising a democratic core is unlikely.
I believe that it is effectively over for regional Liberals.
I did rejoin, believing that the fight must be carried on, but I won’t survive. -
Colonel Crispin Berkasays:
April 16, 2023 at 10:10 am
MiltonF blurted:
The tough guy Premiers (who were actually on the people’s side)- Bjelke-Petersen,
No, gaining power partly through gerrymander and running a corrupt police force
Quite so.
The biggest fraud of the Joh years was the “man ‘o the people” myth.
Joh was all about Joh and his cronies. -
World Economic Forum Promotes Transhumanism
The WEF is an insidious cult with Satanic elements, promising a form of dystopic human perfection, far removed from our human nature and life as we know it, rather as the Albigensians and similar cults have promised throughout human history.
It’s only possible for the WEF litany of transhumanism to gain traction due to a Western world that ignores its five thousand years of cosmological theology and empirical philosophy providing verities about humanity’s place in the universe around us, verities that the WEF attempts to subvert.
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Chinese Military To Just Shout Wrong Pronouns At American Soldiers
In this official training video for the People’s Liberation Army, Chinese soldiers are taught how to cripple U.S. soldiers by just shouting the wrong pronouns at them. Very effective!
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Budweiser Replaces Clydesdales With Cows Dressed As Horses
ST. LOUIS, MO — In a natural continuation of its push for diversity and celebration of transgender lifestyles, Anheuser-Busch has announced the company will be replacing the iconic Budweiser Clydesdales with cows that identify as and dress like horses.
“We feel this is a natural next step,” said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brandan Whitworth. “If we’re going to bend reality and ignore all basic understanding of science and biology with our Bud Light brand, then it only makes sense to make that philosophy consistent across our other brands, including the classic Budweiser advertising campaigns.”
The beverage giant scoured the nation in search of dairy cows that live their lives as horses. “I was very excited to receive a phone call from the Budweiser marketing folks,” said dairy farmer Ed Herman. “I just can’t get this group of cows to produce any milk because they insist on pretending to be horses. I was ready to put down the whole lot of ‘em, but now they can actually make me some money with this ad campaign.”
Budweiser marketing executives have mapped out an extensive campaign that will culminate in an emotionally stirring commercial during next year’s Super Bowl broadcast. “We really want to tug on everyone’s heartstrings,” said the company’s marketing spokesperson Katie MacDonell.
“We’re absolutely certain that everyone in the country will be excited to follow the journey these proud horses embark on to discover their true inner species.”
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Wish this was an image board…
flyingduk says:
April 16, 2023 at 10:23 am
You forgot:https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/288244866/Vince-McMahon-5-tier
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Indolent says: April 16, 2023 at 9:10 am
Their extraordinary 2017 population forecast for 2025 was linked here years ago.
You will note that the five year population forecast to 2025 for Australia is -34.6%.
What did they know that we didn’t?Nothing about population, that’s for sure.
If some unexpected decrease had begun to occur this may lend weight to any prediction of a large sustained decrease. But Australia’s population has been in positive growth every year for the last 10 years including mid 2021. -
AMERICA – DECLINE IS A CHOICE:
Just Perfect: For 2024, Dems Pick a Dying Chicago to Showcase a Lost Joe Biden.
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Carl Sagan warned us.
Maybe the new NASA director of Goddard Space Center should have a watch of that interview.
NASA Director Swears Oath on Carl Sagan Book Instead of Bible (13 Apr)
Given that no one unwoke would ever be appointed to such a position under Biden’s Administration I rather doubt she would even comprehend what Sagan was saying.
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The privileged ignorance of Daniel Radcliffe
What a shame that JK Rowling made a star out of such a privileged plonker.
It was King Lear who said, ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child’.
I always think of it whenever I see the latest nasty little jibe at JK Rowling from one of the mediocre actors whom her novels shot to stardom.
Now Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has opined – more in sorrow than in anger, no doubt, with a caring, sharing smile on those sensitive lips – that adults concerned about children changing gender are ‘condescending’. More specifically, he ‘affirmed’ the beliefs of six trans and nonbinary children at a discussion organised by LGBTQ charity The Trevor Project this week, saying: ‘There are people who also have a slightly condescending, but well-meaning attitude of “People are young… and it is a huge decision”.’ According to Radcliffe, ‘We can trust kids to tell us who they are’.
Commenting on the difference between his childhood and the childhoods of da kidz he was gettin’ down wiv, Radcliffe said: ‘I always knew I was a boy because that was a thing I grew up knowing.’
Or perhaps this was because you were part of the last generation to grow up in an age when girly boys and boyish girls weren’t carted off to have any potential gayness transed away?
What a loss to The Brains Trust this man is.
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Nationals senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she has been approached by foster parents concerned about losing their children under kinship rules that could place them in dysfunctional communities.
Speaking from Alice Springs, Senator Price said foster parents had come to her repeatedly with concerns vulnerable Indigenous children were being placed back into the hands of abusers and called for an inquiry.
“I’ve been approached by many, many foster parents who are deeply concerned about the kinship rule when it comes to the foster care of vulnerable Indigenous children,” she told the ABC’s Insiders.
“Territory Families take children who have been in loving, caring foster homes and then place them back into communities that they’ve actually not really known all their lives.”
Senator Price said these communities were often home to “known predators” and exposed children to being “sexually abused again”.
However, when asked if any of these incidents needed to be reported to police Senator Price said “we’re not stupid”, adding: “Peter Dutton is a former policeman, he knows what needs to be done”.
“There are circumstances where foster parents themselves are, in fact, police,” she said.
“And I’m talking about foster carers who are also Indigenous, who have come to me with these grave concerns.
“So, this is why we need a royal commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children.”
Oz
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Voting Yes for the Voice will:
Stop domestic and sexual violence.
Will stop kids fighting in the street in Alice Springs.
Will stop your car being broken into or taken for a joyride.
Ensure 100% school attendance rate by all Aboriginal kids.
Ensure all Aboriginal housing will remain damage free.
Ensure the responsable consumption of alcohol.
Prevent global warming in Aboriginal communities.
Create many more civil servant jobs in Canberra. Note it will be considered racist to sack them.
Create more high paying tourist visitors as The Voice and their entourages tour the best hotels and restaurants on their fact finding missions.
Lead to Marcia Langton as first Aboriginal Governor general.In fact things will be so good the NT will be renamed Utopia and Alice Springs renamed Albo Springs.
So all you current No voters do the right thing and Vote Yes. You know it makes sense.
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Regarding Russian tourists – when staying at holiday resorts in SE Asia, I would nod and smile at them when they entered a lift I was in or wherever, and usually I got in response was a grumpy, dour, stony-faced glance.
Later, I discovered many Russians* perceive people who go about smiling at perfect strangers in passing as foolish and untrustworthy. This is not our way, of course, but it’s understandable.
*and probably Ukrainians too because, pace the Ukrainian ambassador’s claim to the contrary in the above article, most Ukrainians are very similar to Russians
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Dot says:
April 16, 2023 at 10:48 amCorrect rickw
Too many public servants and too many are overpaid well above the average wage, including most private sector workers.
COVID was an absolute scam for most public servants.
Dot,
ring any Federal or NSW Govt Dept, and if you are lucky enough that someone ever answers, you will hear noises that shows they are still working from Home
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ZK2A:
At speaking events, she asks who in the room has relatives of friend connected to the military and the vast majority put up their hands.
That’s an interesting statistic.
I wonder what would the response be if they were asked:
.1 A serving member.
.2 A former serving member.
.3 Member of family (Immediate) served.
.4 Extended family served.
.5 Member of family dead/wounded/PoW.
The reason I ask is that our family recently discovered two uncles died in the Pacific theatre, and another who came back never married and recently died.
That’s a big loss demographically.
The first World War ? Australia never recovered from that slaughter. The second round put the finishing touches to us. -
Let me try some amateur clairvoyance.
Three-time Olympian Vicki Roycroft in hospital after suspected heart attack at Sydney Royal Easter Show
Indolent’s hand hovers over the big red “Died Suddenly From Vaxxx comment” button…The 69-year-old equestrian is understood to have collapsed just before she was due to compete in the show jumping
…Vicki has a large tear in her aorta and was undergoing and eight-hour surgery.Indolent’s hand retreats from the unpressed button.
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“Territory Families take children who have been in loving, caring foster homes and then place them back into communities that they’ve actually not really known all their lives.”
You wouldn’t let them take your dog. I’m surprised that this hasn’t seen foster parents whisk the children away overseas out of the grasp of The Mongocracy.
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You forgot:
Heads on pikes
Mound of skulls
Salt the earth
Nuke from orbitYes, but some of that must involve violence against women, gays and trans. So its all right out.
Notice that if I had protested violence especially committed against men, working people or normal children the emotional appeal would drop to zero. This is indeed a vile public culture.
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I don’t think he’s a dad yet. He’ll soon change his tune with a little experience.
I don’t know. A lot of these types become parents and they end up changing the tune of their kids, if you know what I mean.
Look at that nutty South African actress with the ~64 adopted kids. Didn’t a bunch of them somehow realise they were trans before they hit their teens?
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“Territory Families take children who have been in loving, caring foster homes and then place them back into communities that they’ve actually not really known all their lives.”
Senator Price said these communities were often home to “known predators” and exposed children to being “sexually abused again”.
100% accurate.
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Oh come on says:
April 16, 2023 at 10:53 amHang on. Someone made a prediction in 2017 that we’re going to have a 35% population drop by 2025, did I get that right?
Sorry, why is this being given any credence?
I have a massive beef with this. I demand 10k of silver in my bet with struthy.
Deagal reported recently that Russia can shut down all satellites with a ground based EW platform.
SUUUUURE….
Three possibilities:
1. Rabid end of times, paranoid Americans needing a donation like the Daily expose. Gold, guns and god but also the grift. Bullets, beans and the bible, but also BTC.
2. Really shitty Russian propaganda. In fact too unsophisticated for usual slick Russian stuff, unless they have a “liminal, superliminal and subliminal” strategy.
3. A CIA/Democrat spigot of bullshit to whip up our dumber brethren here on the political right. -
Oi, dover
Yer CSS obscures bolding when it is inside quotes.
Edit this file: https://newcatallaxy.blog/wp-content/themes/twentysixteen/style.css
Find these lines:blockquote strong,
blockquote b {
font-weight: 400;
}
Change the 400 to 800.
Much more useful. -
That’s the sum total of what matters.
Envelopes containing ballots.
Red envelopes -vs- Blue envelopes, and who can gather the most envelopes. That’s it folks. That’s the only thing that matters.
When Team Obama watch their opposition deciding on who is the best person to reach the “independent”, “middle”, or “swing voters”… as if voters really mattered, the David Axelrod’s, Marc Elias’s, David Plouffe and Barack Obama’s of the world laugh. I mean straight up hysterically belly laugh.
When the DNC sees the RNC focused on selecting the best congressional candidates who can be the best representatives for a district in Virginia… the entire mechanism of the donor class behind the DNC orders another round of drinks.
Debates don’t matter…. Did you forget Arizona 2022? Katie Hobbs giggled when asked about why no debates.
Candidates don’t matter…. Did you forget Pennsylvania 2022? When grunge clad, hoodie-wearing, John Fetterman promoted pancake syrup as the best solution to the Medicare crisis (or something equally as bat-shit crazy from his compromised mental state).
Rally size doesn’t matter…. Did you forget the Biden campaign audiences that could fit into one mid-sized SUV?
Qualifications do not matter. Intelligence, policy, legislative accomplishments, executive experience, success or lack thereof in any life endeavor… NONE of this matters.
All of these former aspects of the political industry are gone, they have absolutely no bearing on the outcome of federal elections.
The only reason these insufferable discussions still exist is to maintain the illusion of a political business that generates money. The business they are pretending to still exist is like Blockbuster video being subsidized by corporations who sell streaming services. The media pretend the traditional business model of elections is still viable because without it, there is no need for them.
There is only one function of modern political industry that matters… Collecting envelopes. That’s it!
It doesn’t even matter whose name is on the paper inside the envelope. The people who switched from Flip Phones to Smart Phones don’t even pay attention to the candidate names on the ballots any longer. We elect dead people now.
The entire mechanism of American political outcomes is now one really simple process. There are Blue envelopes to locate, and there are Red envelopes to locate. Tune in to the news in November of 2024 and find out which team collected the most envelopes.
? Dear President Donald Trump, go ahead and hold the rallies…. continue putting out the platform…. continue using your podium to promote vision, excitement and direction in the largest scale possible to save the nation. Continue providing fuel for the cultural battle and primary battle being waged in the social media sphere by warriors for the MAGA movement…. However, in the totality of the 2024 presidential contest, this effort should be -at most- 20% of the industrial political campaign.
80% of the entirety of the money spent, the effort exhausted, the assembly constructed, the people and supporters assembled, should be focused – to the exclusion of all other things – on the process of maximizing envelope collection.
Make that paradigm shift, and 2024 is easily within reach. Ignore it, and you might as well use a carrier pigeon to send your next email.
The RNC is no help. The RNC is focused on EVERYTHING that doesn’t matter.
You cannot win an election if you rely on the RNC to make this adjustment. You are going to have to organize this assembly on your own while enlisting the resources of the MAGA army.
The DNC already has the network of thousands of community activist organizations and business units at work in preparation for the 2024 envelope gathering operation. They do not care about voters; the wants and needs of the people on the front of the envelope are an arcane annoyance, irrelevant to the DNC objective.
For the Republican presidential primary, whoever contracts Catherine Engelbrecht and the coast-to-coast organization of True The Vote first, will likely win.
Book sales, TV ads, legislative accomplishments, cultural wokeism, school choice, education policy, fiscal policy, foreign policy, debates, political experience, candidate qualifications, polls, rallies, crowd sizes, endorsements, not one single part of any of that matters in this electoral combat.
There is only one thing that matters,…. collecting the most envelopes.
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We can trust kids to tell us who they are’.
If your kid tells you he is a pirate are you going to chop off his leg and fit a peg one? Have his eye removed so the eye-patch is authentic? Replace his hand with a nice steel hook?
If not, don’t tell us about cutting his nuts off and forever destroying his reproductive capability with hormones because you “trust what they say”.
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A school-teacher.
Or male nurse would be my next guess.Crimes against children are more frequent during School Holidays, that might just be due to opportunity, but it’s true that Teachers are taught psychological techniques to facilitate compliance as part of their training.
I’d say Male Nurses and Police Officers would also fit into that category.
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The Orwellian RESTRICT Act is a chilling echo of ‘1984’ and an erosion of American freedom
Far beyond cracking down on TikTok, the bill envisages frightening powers to control citizens’ access to ‘unwanted’ information
In an eerie semblance to George Orwell’s ‘1984’, the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, or RESTRICT Act, looms as a dark cloud over American liberties.
Branded as a mere “TikTok ban,” this act possesses a sweeping reach that would empower the federal government to designate any nation a “foreign adversary,” ban online services and products even indirectly controlled by an entity within their jurisdiction, and severely punish Americans who engage in almost any transaction with them.
Sponsored by Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the RESTRICT Act not only targets the Chinese-linked TikTok platform but also has the potential to dismantle the very foundations of American freedom. One cannot help but draw comparisons to Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, where pervasive government surveillance and control are the norm. In a frightening twist, this proposed legislation could make such nightmarish fiction a stark reality.
The chilling provisions of the RESTRICT Act would impose a civil penalty of up to $250,000 by the Secretary of Commerce on individuals who conduct transactions that violate the act. The bill’s definition of a transaction is disturbingly broad, encompassing activities such as acquisitions, importation, data transmission, software updates, repairs, data hosting services, and other transactions designed to evade or circumvent the act’s application.
However, as in the oppressive world of ‘1984’, the $250,000 fine is only the beginning. American citizens found to be in violation of the act could face a criminal fine of up to $1 million and a jail sentence of up to 20 years.
The parallels to Orwell’s vision are striking, as the RESTRICT Act essentially serves as a tool of control and punishment. It is a sobering reminder of the dystopian fate that awaits the public if it allows government unchecked power in the name of security from foreign nations.
Moreover, the bill allows the federal government to seize and access various devices and services belonging to American citizens, including phones and computers, internet access points, e-commerce technology and services, cryptocurrencies, and even advanced technologies like quantum computing, post-quantum cryptography, advanced robotics, and biotechnology.
To add insult to injury, the government is granted immunity from public oversight by restricting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the enforcement of the bill.
In this regard, the RESTRICT Act resembles an American version of China’s “Great Firewall,” which isolates its citizens from a significant portion of the World Wide Web.
However, unlike in China, where VPN usage does not automatically lead to imprisonment and many citizens use it to access popular apps and video games without repercussions, the RESTRICT Act imposes much more severe penalties on those who violate its provisions.
Already, conservatives are sounding the alarm on the dangers of the bill, including Tucker Carlson, who dedicated a monologue warning that it would provide the government the ability to “punish American citizens and regulate how they communicate on the Internet.”
Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter: “Nothing is ever as it seems. The uniparty wants more power to control what we do and see. And now we’re going to give the Biden goons the ability to throw us in jail for 20 years if they decide we’re in violation of this craziness? No thanks.”
The US House Committee on Financial Services issued a warning to other members of the Republican party to reject the bill, stating that the RESTRICT Act “is using TikTok as a smokescreen for the largest expansion of executive power since IEEPA.”
“The US can’t beat China by becoming more like the Chinese Communist Party,” it added.
It remains to be seen whether Americans will be able to wake up to the dystopian reality that looms just beyond the horizon should the ratification of the RESTRICT Act proceed. For their sake, and everyone else’s, let’s hope so.
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Winston Smith says: April 16, 2023 at 11:19 am
Sancho Panzer:
A school-teacher.
Or male nurse would be my next guess.Your sustained innuendo is getting tiresome.
Was this an instance of Mr Panzer making a dogwhistle-style transmission which is ambiguous and meaningless to most who hear it but which, due to its timing and personal significance to his intended target, is intended to be understood by them as a directed insult, to yourself in this case?
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