Interesting analogy for the current world stage of happenings.

Quote:

We, Borg

UPDATE 06FEB25: as if on cue to prove my point, it seems that the leftist propaganda rag Politico, that did the wrap-up smear with the Biden laptop and the SCOTUS abortion leak, was receiving millions of tax dollars as “subscriptions” from the government.

The human eye has a contrast ratio of roughly 1,000,000:1 under ideal conditions, meaning it can detect details in a scene where the brightest area is one million times brighter than the darkest area. Note that this is a sliding scale. As the scene gets brighter or darker, the ratio adjusts up or down, but maintains the ratio.

The best Kodak film stocks had a contrast ratio of 2,000:1. Thus, we could have everything from brightly lit comedies to film noir and chiaroscuro lighting.

When I first got into television in the mid-1980s, the best video cameras had a contrast ratio of 300:1. They also had a very narrow range from 8% black to 90% white, limited by the iris, where the camera could see anything at all. For this reason, television shows generally had very “flat” lighting with little difference between the darkest areas and brightest areas, until the digital revolution.


Modern digital cinema cameras have a contrast ratio of about 100,000:1, which has allowed contemporary Hollymood “content” to be uniformly dark. Compare the lighting in Star Trek: The Next Generation to that found in Star Trek Discovery. That gives you an idea of the best analog ratio to the worst digital slop.

The point of all this is to introduce the idea that the left-right political scale is a lot like contrast ratio. Of the full political spectrum, there is a left-right ratio of roughly 300:1 — the very best political system in the world is just 300 times less painful than the very worst — out of a possible 1,000,000:1 scale.

On the far left of the scale is Totalitarianism, where government has full, utter and unquestionable power over everything. At the far right of the scale is pure unadulterated anarchy, where there is no government of any kind. Within that spectrum are all kinds of political systems, with some having been tried and others that have not.

We can think of our political scale as being “pure collectivism” on the left, and “pure individualism” on the right. Put another way, the far right would be ultimate freedom, and the far left would be abject slavery. Our 300:1 ratio slides back and forth between these extremes.

As far as I can tell, the least painful political systems in existence at this particular time would be just left of center in the full spectrum. Using our contrast ratio metaphor, that means the worst systems right now are 300 times worse, but in all cases, the ratio is to the left of center.

Pure free-market capitalism would fall somewhere to the right of center on the spectrum, with minimal government interference and a wealth-based monetary system. Looking at the world today, we see nothing like the latter anywhere. All nations have some degree of government manipulation of markets and fiat debt-based currencies. They are all left of center on our scale.

Note that the MAGA movement may be to the right of the previous administration, but it is by no means “right wing” or even close to the center of our scale. MAGA is a move in the right direction (pun intended), but it is far from even centrist political movements. There’s still an strong whiff of collectivism tangled up in it, albeit with a hint of individualism as a harmonic impulse.


The 20th century saw the rise and dominance of Socialism worldwide. There were essentially three competing forms of Socialism, but it was all shifted far to the left of the scale. At the left (worst) end of our 300:1 ratio was Russia’s Marxist Socialism. Towards the center of the ratio was America’s New Deal Socialism (mercantilism). At the right end (but not right wing) was Germany’s and Italy’s Fascism, or Public-Private Partnership.

Each of these systems represented a “flavor” of Socialism, but they were all Socialism. We might have a choice between milk chocolate, Belgian chocolate, and dark chocolate, but they are all chocolate.

Marxism always fails because it is anti-human. One cannot ever have total domination over a population. Human nature always fights against it.

New Dealism took an early lead, being the only system to survive World War Two intact. However, I would argue that Fascism (the Public-Private Partnership) has won the war. What we see globally right now is Fascism, with geographical trade blocks (EU, ASEAN, BRICS, ECOWAS, etc.), civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, and the monetization of literally everything.


The dear reader may disagree that I put New Dealism between Russia and Germany. My response is that the triumvirate of government, corporations and banksters (mercantilism) was worse than Fascism, but better than Marxism.

Under Fascism, corporations use government to create environments that empower and enrich themselves. In exchange, government uses corporations to enforce its edicts (vaccine mandates, DEI, etc.), with a convenient revolving door between corporate and regulatory jobs. This allows government to skirt legal limits on power, and the ability to deflect blame for failures, not to mention steady flow of taxpayer money into politician and private pockets.

Corporations, or collectivist “persons,” are Socialist by their nature. They are run by an elite group of appointed officers, they demand employee adherence to internal policies, and they function as a singular entity within society. Furthermore, the largest shareholders (owners) are often other corporations. In a purely Socialist state, such as Indonesia, the government is the primary shareholder.


Interestingly, American English uses 3rd Person Singular, while British English uses 3rd Person Plural, when referring to collectives (NASA has vs. Nasa have).

The government creates corporations via legal frameworks and enabling policies, with jurisdictions competing to attract as many of these “persons” as possible. Laws are passed that minimize competition by raising the cost of entry, tax breaks are offered as incentives, and even some operating costs may be covered by taxpayers.

Thus, the entire Fascist system is a circus of Olympic-scale back-scratching between public (government) and private (corporate) entities. They comprise their own eco-system, with corporate “compliance” rewarded by financial success within the protection racket, in the guise of government contracts, grants and other benefits not available to human beings.

The government is rewarded with plausible deniability, and an army of compliant enforcers that use “jobs” to twist the arms of the general public, and NGOs (see USAID) to twist the arms of resistant governments around the world.


It is telling that only the Nazis, and not the Italian corporatists, are held out as examples of Fascism, though Italy arguably created it. Hitler’s regime has successfully been made a scapegoat, and carefully crafted narradigms keep folks looking in the wrong direction with a constant refrain of “evil Nazis,” while actual Fascism grows like a cancer in front of our very eyes.

We have been deceived into thinking that Fascism is a “right-wing” political ideology, with radical racism and nationalism as the defining characteristics. However, group identity is a collectivist hallmark. While Germany may be at the right end of our 300:1 contrast ratio, it is far from being even moderately right of center.

Any political system that utilizes collectivism as a defining characteristic is, by definition, left wing.

In a true right-wing system, corporations would not be persons, humans would have divine unalienable rights, judicial systems would protect the individual above all else, the power to tax (steal your money) would decrease as we moved right, there would be real specie instead of fiat paper, and private property would be sacrosanct against government meddling.

In other words, a constitutional republic.

If you know of a place like this, go there immediately — do not pass GO, do not collect 200 worthless dollars.

I didn't exactly understand everything Anton says in this vid but enough that I found it rather interesting...Timescape Cosmology.




0:00 Hubble tension and history of dark energy
2:00 Bizarre discoveries ever since
2:25 Measuring distance with the cosmic ladder
3:10 Cepheid variables and Type 1A supernovae
4:50 Hubble and JWST confirmations
5:40 CMB observations that are super different
7:10 DESI creates a crisis
8:15 Coma cluster calculations to see if there's a tension
10:00 More JWST discoveries and more issues
10:35 Possible explanations
13:20 Conclusions

A little something for everyone

Quote:Deep beneath Earth's mountains lie secrets that could reshape our understanding of human history and technological capability. Mountains like Shasta, Hayes, and the pyramids of Giza possess qualities that defy conventional explanation - perfect alignments, unusual magnetic properties, and inexplicable energy signatures. Military agencies have spent decades investigating these peaks through classified programs, and witnesses report strange phenomena that science struggles to explain. Ancient texts speak of mountains harboring tremendous power and describe technologies that sound remarkably similar to modern energy generation and distribution concepts. Some of these mountains contain facilities that seamlessly integrate human and non-human operations, suggesting cooperation beyond what official sources acknowledge. The evidence points to a hidden truth: many of Earth's most prominent peaks might serve purposes far beyond their natural geological roles.

Typical governmental democratic kick back scheme

Quote:Would it shock you to learn The United State government has sent $797 million to Guatemala via a laundry list of NGOs and organizations like USAID and turned Guatemala into the Child Kidnapping Capital of the world. Yes your tax dollars funneled through USAID has lead to Over 190,052 Guatemalan children being kidnapped from Guatemala and trafficked into America.

Quote:ABOUT THAT GOLD MOVEMENT: CAN YOU SAY “FRAUDULENT ...

February 5, 2025 / Joseph P. Farrell

Something is going on with gold in recent weeks and days, and you may not have noticed with all the focus on the mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport, and to my rank amateur's mind, not enough dots are being connected to interpret it. The bottom line is, there is a massive move of gold into the United States. The question is, why? Here are three stories, and each has its own answer (our thanks to S.D., B,.H, and V.T.,  for these articles):

Bank of England struggles to meet gold demand as $82B stockpile shifts to New York

JPMorgan Plans $4 Billion US Gold Delivery Amid Tariff Fears

ZH — "It has nothing to do with Trump tariffs"

Notice that one story is offset by another: the gold transference is due to Trump's tariff plans...but wait, no it isn't.  It's the third article that, for our purposes in today's blog and high octane-off-the-end-of-the-twig-Wile E. Coyote-nosedive-into-the-canyon speculation, that I think is on to something, but again, I don't think is casting a wide enough net nor considering all the dots to connect. In that third article, "ZH-'It has nothing to do with Trump tariffs'", that offers the following trenchant observation and conclusion on the curious movements of so much gold:

Quote:Gold and silver are being pulled into New York for reasons beyond tariffs. A new pipeline is now draining metal from the LBMA, just as another had already been pulling gold and silver toward China from the LBMA for years.

Recently we labelled this phenomenon as repatriation.
...

Yesterday, ZeroHedge published a premium post on the same issue. While they avoided the word “repatriation,” they openly questioned why gold is moving to COMEX, concluding that tariffs alone don’t explain it. Their report highlighted contradictions from officials managing the narrative.

So, in a nutshell, the amounts of gold indicate that the USA is quietly and deliberately repatriating gold. If you've been following the repatriation-of-gold story over the past decade or so, you'll recall that the whole thing began when Germany repatriated some of its gold reserves from Great Britain, France, and the USA to Germany. At the time, most figures had it that Germany had the second largest amount of reserves in the world after the USA. After the "repatriation" was "concluded", a number of stories began to appear in the alternative media - many of them authored by German Lars Schall who was following the story very closely - that neither the amount repatriated with what the Bundesbank had called back, and what was called back was of questionable assay quality.  Germany was joined very quickly by other countries demanding their gold reserves be repatriated, among them Austria and the Netherlands. Then, to make matters very much worse, Venezuela joined the "repatriation gold rush", demanding its reserves at the Bank of England be physically returned to Venezuela.

The Bank of England's response was... well... classic. It effectively said that the BOE did not like the current Venezuelan regime (no doubt because it was cozying up to Russia at the time), so its gold was not going to be returned. Or to translate it into Banksterese: "We don't like you; you can't have your gold; we need it more than you; have a nice day, and go away."  As all of these stories were going on in those years, other stories began to circulate, also involving gold: multi-billion-dollar loans in China had been collateralized with gold, only it turned out that the "gold" was simply gold-clad tungsten bars. Well, that was China, and of course, "everyone knows" that the Chinese cannot be trusted, and what does one expect from a country where corruption and fraud reign (just look at their construction standards). But then there was a similar story from - of all places - Canada, involving similarly-clad tungsten fraud, only this time it emanated from the Royal Canadian Mint!

Oops.

So my first point in raising these old stories is that we may be, and in my opinion are, looking at a new facet and component of that story, one that suggests that, increasingly, various people are realizing that there is such massive fraud in the system, fraud involving gold, and its potential fraudulent rehypothecation, that the only way to check if there is massive rehypothecation is, quite literally, to take possession of physical gold, and then to compare notes with other countries and groups possessing it. Note, not possessing the paper titles of ownership and other certifications, but the bullion bars and specie itself.  Think of it as the "bullion and specie" side of "the Great Reset."

So why is that going on? This is where it possibly gets even more intriguing.  For some time I've also been following and blogging  - and where necessary, trying to raise warnings as well - about the recent moves of so many American states to establish bullion depositories, gold and silver reserves for the individual state, and to establish state-backed currencies. In many cases, these states are talking solely about electronic means of transfer, and are not talking about what I regard as the absolute essential for such systems to work: a physical medium of exchange (and not just electronic blips), and real convertibility of those blips, or physical media of exchange, into the bullion or specie equivalent, along with the ability to conduct personal transaction in said specie or media of exchange. While following this development and issuing these warnings over the past few years, one warning which I have issued at the beginning of this movement was the most important caution:

that caution was, that in a world where a certain amount of bullion was secretly recovered by the United States after World War Two, and then used as a secret reserve to finance all manner of covert operations and black projects research, that the potential existed to rehypothecate that secret reserve fraudulently, over and over again, creating massive liquidity, "backed" by a fractional reserve (so to speak) of bullion. That system of expanding secret financial instruments, "backed" by a fractional and potentially endlessly rehypothecated reserve, had eventually to be supplemented by other commodities lest the financial instruments secretly circulating were propped up on too narrow a reserve basis, and thus, "drugs" became the other "gold" in the system. (For my detailed exposition of this system, see my books Covert Wars and Breakaway Civilizations, and Covert Wars and Clash of Civilizations).

What the movements of these states are uncovering - whether deliberately or inadvertently is here not necessary to the argument, though I suspect in some cases (like Texas) it's deliberate - is the fact that one cannot have any sort of bullion-or-commodities backed currency system without having an accurate estimation of the actual physical amount of that commodity is in existence, and who possesses it and in what amounts.

And the only way to do that, is to take physical possession of it, assay it, and measure it, and then publish the data.  If one is off by an order of magnitude, let us say, in the amounts, and is in turn creating liquidity and financial instruments on the basis of a vastly over-estimated amount, then the system can be sustained for a while, but the moment it comes into question, and repatriation begins, then the hidden system is in trouble, and must create a new kind of two-way mirror behind which to cloak its activities.  This is why merely electronic currencies of transfer being contemplated in so many American states will not work.  "Gold-'backed' crypto-currencies", anyone?

See you on the flip side...

After golf today my Caddie and I went to eat at a decent restaurant. The restaurant had one of their many T.V.s tuned to "Euro news" on one of it's channels. IMO that source is as bad as CNN was before they lost all their viewership.

If Trumps hat blew off and it landed in the water an he walked across the water and picked up his hat while never getting wet, the headline would be, " Trump can't swim !"

Any way to twist something good into something a liberal socialist can and will hate they serve up a big dish of half truths to service and inflame their useful idiots.

I play golf with people from all over the world and I have wondered where they come up with some of their total B.S. and now I know !! I never argue as that doesn't work nearly as well as viewing or sending a link to what actually transpired without all the hate America crap.

I should look and see if they are owned or backed by the Chinese CCP... But it really does not matter to me as I am usually pretty good at seeing through the lies and innuendo...... like CNN I would never elect to watch anything they have to say or believe anything they put on to sway the masses.

This guy gives a good breakdown of DeepSeek, Silicon Valley's panic, and what all the hyper hysteria is about. You may find him a little biased in his reporting style but he makes several interesting points.

Chinese AI company DeepSeek shocked the West with a groundbreaking open-source artificial intelligence model that beats huge Silicon Valley Big Tech monopolies. The US government is already trying to ban it, like TikTok, using "national security" as an excuse. Ben Norton explains.



0:00 China's Sputnik moment
1:05 DeepSeek beats US Big Tech
2:20 Open source R1 model
3:18 US tech stocks crash
5:27 US stock market bubble
6:55 Magnificent 7
8:26 Billionaire oligarchs
10:48 USA bans Chinese competitors
13:34 Data privacy and spying?
15:35 Cyber attacks
16:33 US tech war on China
19:36 China "can't innovate"
22:02 China's rapid tech progress
24:49 Tech race in new cold war


Here's a little more down to Earth 10 minute overview, Deepseek R1 Explained by a Retired Microsoft Engineer:

Made back when the good guys won... worth a watch IMO

Synopsis: A vengeful barbarian warrior sets off to get his revenge on the evil warlord who attacked his village and murdered his father when he was a boy.