THE DOWNFALL OF KEVIN McCARTHY

    In the ongoing drama that has become the US political system, Kevin McCarthy became the first sitting House Speaker to be recalled since 1910. This follows on the heels of our last national drama: the semi-annual 'Threatened Shutdown' which itself has been a recurring show since 1995. The Budget Battle---like pro wrestling---always has a predictable outcome. The GOP makes a grand show, caves in to the Democrats at the last minute and passes a stopgap-spending package, then caves in again when that has expired. 

   The ouster of McCarthy---a WEF member, shill for special interests, and general all-around jerk---is not any great loss to our country or our cause. The other side of the coin is, nobody's certain about how it's supposed to help. In general, I'm not especially comfortable with this tactic of weaponizing parliamentary procedures in this way. Secondly, there doesn't seem to be any plan or program to change much of anything now that McCarthy's gone. It seems to be another example of the short-sighted actions characterizing the Postmodern Right (and America in general) of acting first and thinking later. "If we just get rid of Biden, McConnell, McCarthy..." then everything suddenly is supposed to right itself. McCarthy got his job in the first place because Congress was magically supposed to change just by removing Pelosi: at least, though, that was done through an actual election. 

   For example, one of the stories buried behind the Political Theater was a joint report from the United Nations Organization of Economic Developed Countries (OECD) and the US Center for Disease Control. After a two-decade long slide, the United States finally has reached bottom of Developed Countries in Average Life Expectancy. We're also in last place in literacy rates, addictions, obesity, infertility, violent crime, incarceration rates, and suicides; and circling the drain in infant mortality, poverty, and reproduction rates. One would think that our collapsing civilization and crumbling civil infrastructure would be a little higher priority than who serves as figurehead of the Rump Congress. The fact that 8 Republicans and 208 Democrats voted for McCarthy's ouster ought to tell us something too. 

  Frankly, though, I have very little interest in these partisan games. Our Federal Government isn't much more than a Holding Company for confederated supranational commercial enterprises at this point; and the McCarthy ouster amounts to little more than a shake-up at the middle-management level. We currently live in a Managed Democracy, and nothing ultimately will change unless the people gather some character and courage and start demanding it. 

  Congressman Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is currently serving as Interim Speaker. McHenry is utterly servile to High Finance. Regardless of whom the GOP selects to become Speaker, McHenry probably will be in charge of revising the upcoming budget; and given his previous legislative record and the lobbyists who supported him, the Big Banks certainly will have their way. Thanks too to the precedent the McCarthy ouster set, it will be relatively easy to eject any future speaker who doesn't toe the Uniparty Line. Soon, replacing Congressional leaders by Floor Vote will become just as routine as Impeachments (which were rare until just a few years ago). 

   Some on the Right are even floating the idea of nominating President-in-Exile Trump to the Speakership. This would, under the Constitution, put him third in line for presidential succession. If anyone imagines that the Deep State will permit this to happen, they really are living in Cloud-Cuckooland. 

   The United States has become what Plato referred to as a Theatrocracy. This described a period during the Athenian Republic when the masses eschewed Statesmanship and Merit in favor of celebrity-demagogues in the public theater. Athens went into a period of deep decline---as we are doing today. Stand-up comics, online trolls, seedy talk-show hosts, and paid pundits feed our salacious lust for drama and scandal, while ignoring issues of any importance. Madison Avenue and Hollywood, of course, are pulling the wires on these, their mouthpieces, to keep up fomenting division and distraction. Actual issues go on being marginalized, while the Oligarchs keep laughing all the way to the bank. 

   

    

BANNED BOOKS WEEK

    Sunday was the beginning of what used to be a fairly newsworthy event in the United States: Banned Books Week. Libraries and bookstores around the country often had exhibitions of literature which both here and abroad had been subject to censorship. The purpose of Banned Books Week was to remind Americans of the purpose of our 1st Amendment; that a well-educated public with access to the free exchange of ideas was essential to maintaining our survival as a free people. Of course, today in the Prozac Nation, the 1st Amendment became a dead letter in 2020; and Cancel Culture and Political Correctness defines what is and isn't censorship. Libraries caved in the National Lockdown just as fast and as thoroughly as our schools, churches, and State Legislatures did. 

   In our postmodern era, the American Library Association is, predictably, focusing on 'censorship' of outright homoerotic propaganda. The fact that this is an issue at all says more about the state of American parenting than it does anything else; but since American parents have, for the most part, abandoned their responsibilities to institutions run by arrogant social engineers such controversies were bound to arise. However, given that the Literacy Rate in the United States are now on a par with Sub-Saharan Africa one would think that our libraries would have higher priorities. If Americans actually had any sense of shame left, they would see our educational system for what it is---an international disgrace---start demanding reforms and, at the very least, teaching themselves how to read. 

  The would-be totalitarians here have taken a radically different approach than outright censorship. In Canada, for example, where the Literacy Rates are much higher than ours, Tiananmen Trudeau has had to resort to barbaric methods like book-burning, banning literature, internet censorship, and speech codes. We've actually done many of the same things here; although our suppression of literary material has been done more indirectly. The stranglehold that Corporate America has over production, publication, and distribution of all media materials allows the Oligarchs much latitude to impose censorship under the shield of being private businesses. Schools and libraries have also engaged in this kind of 'soft' censorship by purging their stocks and archives in the name of cost-effectiveness. They claim that much of their material is digitized now; of course access to this material is contracted out to private media agencies which are notoriously lacking in commitment to the First Amendment. 

    Like the rest of America's infrastructure, public libraries are woefully underfunded and incompetently managed. Most of them are really nothing more than Internet cafes, and their bookshelves look more like what's currently available on Amazon's storefront. In the big cities, libraries seem to double as homeless shelters and rent out meeting-rooms for such essential services as Drag Queen Story Hours. In most of our rural communities, it's rare to find a library open more than half the week. Such are national priorities in the exceptional United States. 

    From time to time, however, a city will decide to engage in some Virtue Signalling and pump billions to private contractors 'community investment' by making a grand show of building a new library. A few years ago, a foreign con-man gulled the Seattle City Council into constructing this monstrosity:

     Long-time local residents christened the structure 'The Toadstool' both because of its shape and because of the foul stench radiating from the multitudes of street bums who congregate there. The unbelievably chaotic interior design is just as bad as the exterior: most agreed that in a natural disaster this building would be a death-trap. There's one narrow stairwell in the whole building that doesn't even connect all floors and is both the emergency exit and the emergency entrance for response teams. The massive amount of glass and the steel framing for it would, for example in an earthquake, cut everybody and everything into ribbons for half a block when it came down. As for actual library purposes like research, it's nearly useless, not only because of the bums and violent drug addicts haunting the place, but because the stupid architects made the auditorium open, so that any event held there creates more internal noise pollution than being out on the open street would. In a glass building like this, the noise reverberates on every floor like an echo-chamber. 

    Seattle isn't the only example of this kind of civic flummery; but it is a typical specimen of the superficial approach that American communities take towards solving our growing literacy gap and the very real compromises against our First Amendment. As for a solution to the problem, I wish that there was an easy answer. As it is, when we have politicians and their Corporate Masters who depend upon a population of arrant ignoramuses to keep them rolling in power and profit, there's naturally going to be very little impetus to build or maintain an enlightened and illiterate public. It's a much easier strategy to convince morons that they are intelligent and well-informed than it is to control an astute and aware populace with raw police power. 

     But High-Level Corruption aside, this is yet another crisis entirely of the American people's own making. For short-term gain and to evade our responsibilities as parents and citizens, we Americans turned over our children's minds to ideologues and charlatans who grabbed the opportunity for control and ran with it. As an example of Ameroboob priorities today, note that Banned Book Week doesn't even register on top stories on search engines. Here's a sampling of what does however:

   1.) Taylor Swift, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds headline A-list fans at Chiefs-Jets game;

   2.) Sam Asghari Defends Ex Britney Spears Against ‘Bully’ Donald Trump Jr.;

   3.) The 2023 MLB playoffs are finally here after a season full of surprises;

   4.) Jamaal Bowman draws doubts after claiming fire alarm pull just a mistake as GOP demands socialist House member be prosecuted;

   5.) Arrest In AMC Movie Theater Incident Where Patron Was Brutally Attacked In Dispute Over Reserved Seats – Update;

   6.) 'That won’t fly': Former Defense secretary warns Vladimir Putin is hoping Donald Trump wins reelection;

   7.) Government Shutdown: 4 Immediate Consequences to Your Wallet If Another Deal Isn’t Reached in November;

   8.) John Fetterman’s hoodie and gym shorts on the Senate floor are roiling DC.

    One would think that the fact that we have Congressmen who can't read the label on a fire alarm and Senators who can't read a Dress Code would be a wake-up call to our illiteracy problem in its own right; but then again, they are mere reflections of what elected them. Our Corporate Overlords want a population just intelligent enough to do the required work, but just dumb enough to accept substandard wages and working conditions; the politicians that the Oligarchs choose to manage us have roughly the same qualifications. 

    Thus today there really is neither the political nor popular will to do much against either Censorship or Illiteracy. Reading has actually become part of the Counter-Culture in many ways. Being seen with a tome written by a Dead White Male would be considered a subversive act in many public venues (including schools and libraries). For my own part, I frequent used book stores and have a decent library at home---full of material that the Oligarchs would rather not be seen and disseminated. Maybe instead of a Banned Books Week we should promote Reading as an Act of Resistance. So honor this week by checking out a good used book store. 

    

    

     

CHINESE OPIOID EXPOSE FRUSTRATES US DEEP STATE

    Recently, the Beltway Junta has been trying desperately to paper over reports of increasing Opioid fatalities in the United States. As part of their 'depopulation' agenda, of course, the Oligarchy desires this situation, but the situation has reached such proportions that it's become impossible to hide from the general public. So, both the Junta and the Controlled Opposition have agreed upon a narrative blaming China for the problem---much like they blame Russia for spreading 'disinformation' whenever their crimes are publicly exposed in the alternative media.

   With great fanfare and 'bipartisan' support, the nominal United States Government officially listed China as a Major Drug Source Country and imposed several pointless sanctions on Chinese companies making pharmaceutical supplies. This, in spite of the fact that China (unlike the US) bans Fentanyl even as a prescription drug. China's officials have been speaking out against this. In an interview with Wei Xiaojun---head of the Chinese equivalent of the DEA---some rare admissions were made as to the state of the Opioid Crisis in China. While it is fairly severe, it pales in comparison to the American problem---and, unlike the US, China has been making substantial progress in suppressing the illegal drug trade.

   The Global Times also went on to publish an investigative report on the Opioid situation here. Americans have been conditioned by our own Corporate Media to sneer reflexively at anything published by China (as if our Media isn't State-disseminated propaganda itself). The most compelling aspect of this article is that is an outsider's view of corrupt, corporatist Western Culture. If this is indeed  Propaganda that the Chinese Government employs to tell it's citizens what to think of the West, it's a very damning indictment that they don't really need to exaggerate or lie much to make their case that postmodern Western Civilization is a sham Democracy; and that most of us are really just slaves to the Corporate Leviathan that rules over us, and seeks to spread it's Empire of Domination over the entire world. It may be 'anti-American propaganda used to prop up a Communist regime'; but if so, it's certainly effective, because so much of it is based on the truth. In fact, it is noteworthy because it cites sources from our own Government-Media Complex.

   

      

     The report states that "the US is plagued with a drug abuse problem more acute than any other countries as 12 percent of global drug users come from the North American country, two times higher than the proportion of its population. Provisional data indicates that nearly 110,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2022, the highest of all time, and more than two-thirds of the deaths involved the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, as per US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." 

    This number was going down under the Trump Administration's Opioid Task Force, incidentally; but Orange Man Bad, and we know the rest of the story. Today, dope-pushers are running free again, while our President-in-Exile may likely end up in jail---a perfect metaphor for Americans' social priorities.

    "US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, when visiting China in late August, claimed that US hopes to cooperate with China to tackle the rapidly increasing rates of fentanyl overdoses. However, the country simultaneously keeps scapegoating China on the issue, imposing sanctions and filing criminal charges against Chinese enterprises and individuals."

    It should also be noted that the Trump Administration made an agreement with China to work jointly on eradicating Opium supplies in Afghanistan, and Trump also agreed to end the so-called Freedom of Navigation exercises in the South China Sea so that China could focus more heavily upon suppressing smuggling in the region. The Pentagon ignored both of those orders. 

   China likewise launched military operations in Burma aimed at destroying the Opioid networks illegally operating there. US NGOs backed by George Soros and Bill Gates fought China desperately; framing the narrative as 'ethnic cleansing' against the Burmese Rohingya people---whose population was largely engaged in it. They've promoted a similar narrative against Chinese actions among the Uighurs in Western China who are doing the same things. Coloring anything as 'racist' in the American Media is like a magic incantation---it causes immediate cessation of reasoning. However, that formula never applies when our Media blames all Mexicans for drug trafficking on our Southern Border. 

   The report goes on to trace the sordid history of Big Pharma and US Deep State collusion beginning with the OxyContin scandals of the 1990s. "The pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma colluded with US medicinal regulators and developed aggressive marketing tactics to promote its brand name product OxyContin, an extended-release form of Oxycodone, as less likely to cause addiction, raking in tens of millions of dollars. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), charged with the responsibility of prescription drug use regulation, gave OxyContin the green light in 1995 even though neither long-term studies nor assessments of its addictive capabilities had been thoroughly conducted."

   I well remember this scandal, and that several officials within the Clinton Co-Presidency were implicated, as noted in the report: 

  "Two principal FDA reviewers who originally approved Purdue's application took positions at the company after leaving the agency. In the following two decades, more FDA staffers involved in opioid approvals left the FDA to work for opioid makers, according to the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. Purdue offered kickbacks, paid lecturers, and organized free seminar vacations to doctors to incentivize them to prescribe OxyContin, leading to a tenfold increase in prescriptions for less serious pain, from about 670,000 in 1997 to about 6.2 million in 2002."    

  Purdue is now an insolvent corporation; it was formerly headed by a billionaire 'woke capitalist.' (Sound familiar?) The case is still in litigation, mostly over corrupt CEOs and Federal bureaucrats trying to protect their assets. Of course, nobody in our Mainstream Media is going to talk about the revolving-door bureaucracy, 'woke capitalists' in Big Pharma---or about the obvious fact that, coupled with the stated 'population control' agenda of these interests---that our drug crisis is part and parcel of a deliberate, Corporate-Government organized system encouraging addiction and overdose deaths. So, who is the real party here engaging in Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide?

   The report also notes the collusion of the Insurance Cartels in promoting the epidemic: "Most insurance, especially for poor people, won't pay for anything but a pill," said Judith Feinberg, a professor at West Virginia University with expertise in infectious diseases associated with drug injection. The US Department of Health and Human Services estimated that about 11 million people in the US consume Oxycodone in a non-medical way annually." 

   In the American Healthcare System, cost-effectiveness has replaced what was once personal care. Medical personnel once felt a responsibility for their patients; today, the primary responsibility is to profit the 'stakeholders' in the Insurance Cartels. Patients are simply commodities. Needless to say, actual treatment for addictions is not an especially high priority to these people. That matter they leave up to their corporate cronies in the Prison-Industrial Complex. 

   "Addicts are not redeemed." the report notes, "The large, ever-expanding group of drug dependence, without proper social support and intervention, easily became the victims of new, more powerful drugs. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid which is also FDA-approved, is up to 50 and 100 times stronger than heroine and morphine respectively. Fentanyl, the cheaper to make yet more lethal drug and its close cousins became the biggest drug-related killers in the US in 2016, the Associated Press reported."

     The Trump Administration did make an effort to focus on treatment for addicts, despite considerable obstruction and bristling, even from members of his own Party. Trump's policy cut too deeply into too many profit-margins and since has been scrapped. 

    The very notion of investing in treatment programs often brings a firestorm of fury from many on the Postmodern Right. "No way! Why should we be taxed to pay for someone else's poor lifestyle choices?!?" is one common refrain heard. Aside from the humanitarian aspect---which seems to matter very little to today's new breed of Conservatism anyway---it doesn't occur to anybody that we're already paying a lot for overpriced, for-profit prisons, the crimes committed to support drug habits, and declining quality-of-life in general. Sadly, it's doubtful that such arguments carry much weight. 'Justice' in America today is really more focused on retaliation, revenge, and scapegoating; and advocating rehabilitation is seen as being a soft-on-crime weenie. Contrary to American Media propaganda, incidentally, the Chinese Justice System prioritizes treatment for drug-offenders. 

    

    "With around 4 percent of the world's population, the US consumes 80 percent of the world's opioids. Why is the US? 

    "The US' drug problem, including the current fentanyl abuse crisis, is deeply rooted in the country's lobbying political structure and ideology, said Zhang Yifei, an associate research fellow at the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The colossal profits bundle pharmaceutical companies with the FDA, sponsored politicians, academic groups, and the media, making the fentanyl crisis a predictable tragedy in the US that has enriched a few at the expense of many lives lost.

    "Academic institutions provide 'scientific proof,' media and think tanks propagate said proof, and drug makers lobby the government - this is a very complete and mature chain, Zhang elaborated, 'They have various ways to exchange rights and interests through the Revolving Door system.'  

   "Zhang also pointed to 'the pan-liberalism trend in the US, which emphasizes the absolute freedom of individuals.' US governments, be they federal or state, are incapable of exercising effective regulation on many issues, although some of them, like drugs, have endangered the public."  

    Sadly, I don't think that one can argue with any of Zhang's assessment. In fact, it could be added that the American population in general isn't exactly making it difficult for exploitative corporations and corrupt politicians to get away with their criminal activities. Despite annual six-figure casualties from narcotics, the Drug Crisis doesn't even crack the top 10 of voter concerns.  

   As the report showed---and many of us recall---the Opioid Epidemic began first with Big Pharma in the 1990s, and surged after the US Occupation of Afghanistan. According to official sources, "from 1999 to 2017, more than 399,000 people died from drug overdoses that involved prescription and illicit opioids. Those addicted to opioids, both legal and illegal, are increasingly young, white, and female, with 1.2 million women addicted compared to 0.9 million men in 2015. The problem is worse in rural areas." Just as the 'Cocaine Epidemic' of the Bush-Clinton Era  proliferated narcotics among Black Communities, the Opioid Crisis of the Bush Jr-Obama Era targets the White working-class. 

    After the Biden 'Administration' seized power, Afghanistan was abandoned due to increasing anti-drug actions in the region---mostly by China and Iran. Operations were brought back to the United States and compromised Latin American countries. With the downfall of the Trump Justice Department and a complete stranglehold on the American Media, the Oligarchy has no fear of exposure. Since 2021, Opioid overdoses and addiction rates have returned to, and even surpassed pre-2017 levels. 

    The American drug epidemic is the result of an orchestrated policy, the Strategy of Tension, the Depopulation Agenda, and cultivating anti-China sentiments. Most importantly, though, it is also a product of our own making. The American public---which sees the effect of the crisis before its own eyes every day---continues pretending not to see, and so it goes along unabated. 

 

THE POWER OF SYMBOLS

     September has been a month with a lot of activity in Foreign Policy issues all across the globe. The remarkable thing that's characterized this month's international meetings has been the very clear assertion of power by most of the developing against the Great Reset's delusions of a New World Order. The humiliations that the Biden/Harris Junta suffered at the ASEAN, G-20, and UN General Assembly Summits were juxtaposed against the successes of America's so-called 'enemies' at the BRICS and Eastern Economic Forums. The Deep State's utter impotence against military revolts against them in Africa, their failure to stop the Russian liberation of Eastern Ukraine, their sinking fortunes in Taiwan, and their inability to prevent long-standing allies Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Argentina from switching sides and growing instability in Europe underscored an important fact: although the Oligarchs might have the Anglosphere under their thumbs, their fantasies of global domination are a long way from realization. 

     The reverses suffered at the UN General Assembly were downplayed or ignored by the American Corporate Media. It was actually one of the more contentious meetings in recent UN history. The United Nations, in recent times, has been little more than a rubber-stamp of anything proposed by the US State Department to give the illusion of some international solidarity behind Beltway policies (much like Elections are in the US itself). This year, however, there was quite a bit of stirring among the national leaders---mostly over the issue of unequal representation. 

     Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his disgust to the Turkish Media after the meeting, pointing out that the even the decor of the UN Meeting Hall was designed to overawe participants with symbolism of who was actually in charge. 

     “One of the issues that bothers me the most... is that when entering the United Nations General Assembly, you see the LGBT colors on steps and other places," Erdogan said. “How many LGBT [people] are there in the world right now? However much right they have on these steps, those against LGBT have as much right as well. This is a humanitarian issue and we need to know that there are people who are disturbed by this.” The President also said that he intended to initiate a formal protest to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, though given Guterres' history as the former Socialist Prime Minister of Portugal; his former presidency of the Socialist International; and the fact that he's attended nearly every WEF meeting since 2007; it's likely that the Sultan's protests will fall on deaf ears. 

      

    While homosexuality isn't illegal in Turkey, the Government there has followed the enlightened policies of its neighbors, Russia, Belarus, Hungary, and others of suppressing attempts by this pernicious group to undermine and destabilize their societies. Across Turkey, homo student organizations in universities have been shut down---with the full support of Turkish intellectuals and academics. Dr. Saffet Kose, chancellor of  Kâtip Çelebi University spoke at the Great Family Gathering rally on Sep. 17, in Istanbul. 

   "For the salvation of our generation, the survival of our society, the peace of our nation and the continuation of humanity; I call on everyone to protect the family institution, to be one heart against the LGBT imposition." Professor Kose stated, "State officials have the duty to take steps against LGBT individuals, who are a threat to all humanity, a challenge to the natural order and attempting to impose social corruption.”  Would that our country still had Academics with the courage to speak out like that: but in our exceptional nation which holds to Freedom of Speech and Liberty of Conscience, no Academic who did would be permitted to teach anywhere. 

    Erdogan's principled stand also highlights that the use of such symbolism for propaganda purposes was not lost on him. Advertisers and Propagandists have known for decades the value and connotation of symbolism. It wasn't any accident that one of the first acts of the Biden/Harris Junta was to order the Rainbow Flag flown next to our national ensign. The Rainbow symbol formerly was used by the WEF itself, until the connections became too obvious. Nonetheless, the original logo of the Fourth Industrial Revolution bears a striking resemblance to the central image in the UN display pictured above:

    The symbolism behind the Rainbow wasn't chosen by accident. The Rainbow conjures an image to most of Mankind as a symbol of peace and order after a storm. Probably the most famous example in literature was written in the Biblical story of the Great Flood. When Noah's Ark reached dry land and safety after a 40-day cleansing of the Earth, God made a rainbow to symbolize a 'new order' for Mankind. Rainbows are also symbolic in human folklore as an emblem of rest and repose after a great quest: legends tell that following a rainbow to its end, one will find treasure enough for a life of leisure. 

    The powers behind the Great Reset chose the Rainbow for the same reason: they promise a world free from responsibility and care; though what they don't show is that that world is a Paradise only for themselves, and a sterile, purposeless existence for the rest of us. All of this promotion of 'population control,' 'sterilization campaigns,' 'family planning'---all just terms substituting for Genocide---apply to us, not to them. As the new Master Race, they'll still perpetuate themselves; the Gay Agenda, legal abortion, euthanasia, and extending Cancel Culture to heterosexual behavior is our future, not theirs. 

   While it must admitted that President Erdogan is an accomplished practitioner of Realpolitik (which is probably a survival mechanism in Turkish politics), he is ultimately a Turkish patriot who isn't going to sell out the interests of his country when it really comes down to long-term survival as a culture. Erdogan understands that strong families are the basis of any stable social order, and deserves credit for standing up to Cultural Imperialism. 

     

STRIKING OUT

    Following the non-story of this year's earlier threatened Railway Strike, two other unions: Hollywood's Writers' Guild of America, and the United Auto Workers are striking this week. The first of these, I hope never comes back: for Hollywood to fold would be a national blessing and they haven't had any decent screenwriters in decades anyway. As for the auto workers, like the railway workers earlier, the biggest news to me was that either industry was still unionized. 

    Unions today are something of a quaint relic of a day and age when working men were still presumed to have rights. Even farmers were unionized in some States. Today, Hollywood, Teachers' Unions, and Pro Sports Unions are about the only significant ones left in the US; and in those cases, the very organization set up to protect the financial interests of their professions are controlled by the industry itself. The same is true to a great extent of Government Employees' Unions, though in that case, it's used mostly to encourage nepotism and ensure a base loyal workers to political agendas. 

   It shouldn't come as any major surprise that the US is at the near-bottom of OECD countries when it comes to unionized labor (the bottom position is held by our Deep State colony, South Korea). During the Bush-Clinton Era, both parties sold out organized labor, and ever since, labor unions have become something of a nostalgic symbol---like clean streets, nuclear families, small businesses, and home ownership---of a great society that once was. 

   

    

    The rise of Neoconservatism and faux-Libertarianism within the Republican Party has anathematized labor unions to a great extent. One would think that a system that strengthened families and ensured high quality workmanship would appeal to Conservatives, but these days, it doesn't. That's not to argue that Democrats and Liberals care much about the working class either. Today, the Left's idea of 'supporting workers' is to raise minimum wages and eligibility for food stamps by a few cents. The Right's idea of supporting workers is telling us to work harder for less money and stop drinking Bud Light. 

    In the relatively small community where I was born, there were two large industries: a cannery and a railroad---both were unionized. A Neocon talking-point is that unions hurt small businesses. On the contrary: small businesses were flourishing back then. When a community has a minority of highly-paid skilled workers, small businesses are needed to support that infrastructure. Retailers, grocers, diners, garages, gas stations, etc. were everywhere. The small, family farms depended too upon access to the cannery and rail transport; and there were plenty of businesses selling farm equipment and supplies as well. Today, that entire county is a blot on society, the towns have about 1/3-1/10 of their former populations. Big Ag has taken over, and there's literally nothing there other than corn, soybeans, and Meth. In some of the smaller towns, the population in cemeteries outnumber the actual living residents, and some of the even smaller towns are altogether gone.  

    

     It also doesn't seem to dawn on many on the Right that Organized Labor would have been one of the most effective means of preventing the rise of Woke Capitalism, outsourcing to corrupt and dubiously-governed countries, and supranational globalist cabals like the WEF or the Gates Foundation. The much-ballyhooed consumer boycotts don't even make a dent in these Corporate looters' bottom-lines or their ideological commitments. A nationwide walkout, accompanied by other sympathetic unions---that would get their attention. It used to be too, that many unions retirement funds were tied to the stocks of the companies they worked for; hence the workers actually had a voice on the Boards of Directors and it's unlikely that any of the ESG woke nonsense would have seen the light of day in the first place. 

     The Controlled Opposition claims that Organized Labor infringes on the now non-existent free market and impairs the ability of Wall Street freebooters to turn a profit for their 'stakeholders.' Actually that is a variation of the same position that the Whacko Left holds; although they marginally include employees as 'stakeholders.' It's certainly not an anti-Conservative position for Labor and Capital to engage in things like Free Association and negotiating contracts between them. 

   The Neocons and fake Libertarians like to cast Organized Labor as self-serving and motivated by envy of their Corporate Overlords. This narrative is part of the Strategy of Tension that the Oligarchs pay politicians to promote to sow division among the general population. The Corporate/Deep State Cabal isn't committed to any ideology other than to maintain themselves in power. To the Right, they're portrayed as an antipode to Communism: If the Left claims that capitalist exploitation of the farmers and workers of the world is killing them, then the Official Counter-Narrative says that Capitalists producing value is the only thing keeping the farmers and workers of the world alive. Meanwhile, the Whacko Left holds the Official Narrative, that Capitalists are increasingly becoming woke and socially aware; and thus their vast concentrations of wealth and power ultimately work for the benefit of mankind. The Crony Capitalists win either way: with the Right in power, they get a free pass to loot the economy unabated; with the Left in power, they spend on social engineering schemes with one hand while getting their money back (with interest) in subsidies, tax breaks, and government contracts. 

    Unfortunately, today, most Americans have little respect for---and even less interest in---honest work of any kind; hence the idea of workers actually having rights is a concept that they can't readily support. The traditional view of a unionized blue-collar American workingman holding a productive job and maintaining a home and family doesn't set well with would-be Social Engineers on the Left; nor does the notion of such workers standing up to arbitrary authority appeal to many on the Right.

      If American workers learned that their Corporate Masters are dependent on them---and not the other way around---it would follow logically that this same class would not be especially tolerant of overbearing and arrogant Government bureaucrats either; since the latter is also dependent upon the productive class for its tax-base. That kind of 'wokeness' is what the Oligarchy really fears; so it keeps the population divided with meaningless political stunts or distracted into a stupor of permanent apathy with narcotics, voyeuristic sexual titillation, and environmental toxins. 

    

      

   

THE SCHMEXPERTS SAY, 'STOP CHINA NOW!'

   An old colleague of mine used to have a nickname for a certain class of pompous blowhards which he termed schmexperts. In small towns and rural areas, schmexperts can be found on most barstools, which is a second home for many of them. In cities and college towns, schmexperts are like gadflies in coffee houses, hookah-lounges, and generally anywhere an audience can be ginned up. A schmexpert is an 'expert' on anything---just ask one and he'll tell you so himself. 

   In recent years, many of this type manages to get a college degree or two (which in this day and age isn't especially difficult), and hire themselves out to interested parties who promote them because they have one necessary skill: the ability to sound as though they know what they are talking about. If they can add titles before, or initials after, their names and belong to some pretentious-sounding think-tank so much the better. Their track-record for accuracy is usually quite pathetic; but these days, that doesn't matter, since owning the narrative is the important thing. In a culture where the ability to think critically is a lost art, men who once would have been nothing but obnoxious bar-flies in less exceptional times can now make a handsome living running their mouths in the Corporate Media. 

   And some say the American Dream is dead...

      In Postmodern American Culture, the pundit serves a broad sociopolitical purpose much the same way that Artificial Intelligence is employed for more mundane tasks: it is a substitute for the necessity of thinking. Often, pundits can be quite dangerous because they lend the air of authority to absurd schemes which frequently end in disaster. 

    Unfortunately, Conservatives are not immune to heeding schmexperts; in fact, they seem to be multiplying on our side like toadstools. One of the most appalling examples came out today in article titled Xi's Leadership is in Crisis: Now is the Time to Act, which basically is chiding the Democrats for being weenies and not engaging China militarily. Aside from the fact that our Pentagon couldn't fight its way out of a paper sack if it had to, the article reads like it was written by two insular academics who don't realize that Chairman Mao died in 1976 and that China has changed since then. This shouldn't be surprising, since the co-authors are both connected to the shady Center for Security Policy---an organization founded by arch-Neocon Frank Gaffney and whose membership reads about like the roll-call of a Bush Machine fundraiser. Current and past members include Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, John Bolton, and John Kyl; and a host of their lesser-known flunkies. Their current head of Military Policy is Gen. Paul Vallely, one of the architects of the Pentagon's Psyop Program along with Satanic Cult leader, Col. Michael Aquino.

   The authors state that "there is a growing body of evidence that indicates the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is in freefall. {Query: what evidence?} If true, this makes Xi Jinping more dangerous as it increases the likelihood of an attack against Taiwan. It also means Xi’s regime, the CCP, is extremely vulnerable to pressure from America, and the rest of the free world, to evict them from power."

   In the first paragraph, they demonstrate their complete ignorance of Chinese politics. Yes, Xi has some opposition within the Party, but the Communist Party Constitution reads: "Party Members have a right to make a statement of reservation and present their views to a Party organization at a higher level, up to and including the Central Committee, in case of disagreement with a Party resolution or policy, on the condition that they resolutely implement the resolution or policy in question while it is in force." This means in substance---and this is a point made throughout their governing document---that the cohesion of the Party is above any personal interest. The authors make the ignorant assumption that the Communists operate like the DNC or RNC does in the US; where personal vendettas and intrigues are not only tolerated but encouraged. Pressure from America is actually strengthening the Party, as anybody who bothers to read a Chinese News source can see for themselves. 

   Polls in China currently are favorable to engaging Taiwan and it's actually been the Party which is showing restraint. Their reasoning is that Taiwan is a valuable economic entity, and China would rather have it join voluntarily and intact than have the Peoples' Liberation Army move in and destroy half the island. Xi didn't deploy the PLA during the recent Soros-backed attempted Color Revolution in Hong Kong for the same reason. 

   The authors' whole premise in playing the Taiwan Card is disingenuous anyway. If Xi is as unstable as they imagine; if the Chinese economy really is near collapse; and the Chinese people really were looking for an opportunity to revolt---why would he engage in a major military operation which would precipitate all of these calamities? 

   "Xi and the CCP face a deeper problem than the lasting economic downturn in China and myriad of social problems the Chinese regime confronts—problems that cannot be papered over by Xi’s prominence at the BRICS meeting or at any other international fora." This is a complete lie; because the Chinese economic 'downturn' is not even close to an economic collapse. Their economy 'slowed down' to a growth rate that is still 2-3 times higher than ours, even with the fudged numbers of Bidenomics 'experts,' and production in many sectors has recovered. What 'myriad of social problems' the authors are referring to is anybody's guess. 

   For the next six paragraphs, the authors state that China's problem is that it has a Communist Government, and it's really tedious reading. It sounds like a cut-and-paste text from a 1950s documentary about the Iron Curtain countries, but nothing even remotely relevant to China then---or now. 

   As further proof that these two 'experts' have never even read the Communist Party of China's Constitution, they spout that  "Xi is destined to fail so long as China is ruled by an imported Western ideology—communism. The Chinese people have recognized that to accept communism in China requires the rejection of China’s political principles of unity, dynastic government, avoidance of chaos, and respect for the people as a foundation for China’s polity. A Chinese polity requires the acceptance of the traditional political system and the rejection of imported ideologies." The Chinese Constitution relates in many places that their intention is to pursue a form of Marxism suited to Chinese culture and circumstances. For example, China recognizes the authority of the family, and their Social Services have less power to intervene in a family than any American State's agencies do. They have socialized medicine which also covers Traditional Chinese Medicine (Obamacare does not). 

  One of the authors, Bradley Thayer, in fact, is a staff-writer at the Epoch Times, a publication run by the Falun Gong cult. Cultish propaganda is evident in statements like: "What Xi’s problems should mean for the Biden administration is that this is the right time to put pressure on the CCP and allow the people of China to evict them from power. Working with the Chinese people and diaspora, the U.S., its allies, and people of goodwill throughout the world should call attention to Xi’s abuses and misrule... That is the best way to save the Chinese people from tyranny and avoid the path to a major crisis or war on which Xi has placed the world. It would save countless lives of civilians in the region and of American Sailors, Soldiers, Airman, and Marines." US intervention in China is something that both of these cults have promoted for decades. The cultish language again appears at the conclusion of their tome: "It is likely that the Biden administration will not do this as it would be a heresy to their religion of engagement with the PRC and their acceptance of the legitimacy of the CCP."  

   It should be noted that the Falun Gong are very similar to the Moonie Cult in that they worship their leader as a false messiah, and teach that Communism is represented under the satanic motifs referenced in the Book of Revelation. They were banned in China in 1999, and since have been received as great heroes by the US Deep State. Much of their vast wealth comes from the taxpayer-subsidized WEF/CIA cutout, the National Endowment for Democracy. The Corporate Media (also heavily funded by NED) takes great pains to smear anyone who exposes the cult. Falun Gong today is headquartered in a highly secretive compound just north of the City of New York. They've been granted tax exemptions by the State and seem to enjoy many other hands-off privileges by governments at all levels.

    The co-author, James Fanell, is a retired Naval Intelligence Officer who works at the Center for Security Policy's branch in Geneva, Switzerland. Two other members of that organization, Johanna Ralston-Lamb, and Nayef Al-Rodhan are World Economic Forum members---the latter of whom was "in 2017,was named amongst the Top 100 geostrategists in the World, and in 2022, was named as one of the Top 50 influential researchers whose work could shape 21st-century politics and policy." Some of the Center's top corporate funding sources include defense contractors Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrup-Grumman, General Electric, Lockheed-Martin, and Boeing, the latter two of which are contributing partners to the WEF. The current Chairman of the Center for Security Policy is Miles Prentice, a multimillionaire attorney, "a partner at the law firm Eaton & Van Winkle LLP where his specialty is international and domestic commercial and financial law. His Eaton profile says he has extensive experience in the 'acquisition of companies, formation of joint enterprises, transfers of technology, financings (through the public markets and privately, including asset and project-based financings) and general operations.'"

    It's certainly interesting how these same shady characters and the same questionable organizations always seem to turn up in the same places with identical narratives, does it not? 

    These two authors seem to be laboring under the further delusion that the Chinese people can't wait to overthrow their Government and be 'liberated' like the former Iron Curtain and Russia was during the 1990s---as if the Chinese people hadn't seen governments subordinated to the US Deep State; the massive corporate looting and cultural degeneracy that was imported into Russia under Yeltsin; the anti-American protests occurring on a regular basis in Eastern Europe---sure, the Chinese desperately would love to see that repeated in their own country. 

    As we saw at the recent BRICS and ASEAN Summits, people not only in China but all across the globe are looking at China as a defender of their countries against the cultural, economic, and military exploitation of the Wall Street freebooters currently running our own nation and culture into the ground. Their schemes for a 'Great Reset' where a significant portion of China's 1 1/2 billion people is slated for genocide depopulation while the rest work in sweatshops to maintain the grandeur of Western financial Oligarchs probably doesn't appeal to the Chinese either. 

    On top of their ignorance of China, the authors demonstrate a profound ignorance of History. "A feature of Communism," they proclaim, "is that no ruler is secure." Apparently they've forgotten that Stalin, the Kim Jong Dynasty, Fidel Castro, Marshal Tito, Enver Hoxha, and Chairman Mao himself who ruled Communist countries for decades until their deaths from natural causes. 

    These two 'intel experts' know about as much about China as the average customer at Panda Express knows. If any American Administration acted on their advice, what it would accomplish is backing China into a corner---we see how well this strategy worked with Russia. Not that the Oligarchs care; the Military-Industrial Complex, Big Ag, and the Energy Cartels have made substantial profits bankrupting Europe and sacrificing men and material into Ukraine. No doubt they hope the same profits from inciting a war in East Asia; and given the Center for Security Policy's deep ties to defense contractors, it's likely the case. 

   In reality, though, most articles of these types will accomplish nothing except to stir up political tensions, not only between the US and China, but further divide Americans over more imaginary 'crises.' If by chance a Republican becomes President in 2024, watch for the Official Narrative to shift suddenly to: "Thanks to the Democrats, we missed our 'window of opportunity' to stop China! Now they're too strong! So you mustn't mind happily spending more tax dollars on the Military-Industrial Complex, right? You do? Why, you Commie Pinko---you're either with us or against us!" 

    It really wouldn't hurt most Americans---Liberal or Conservative---if they stopped for a few minutes and starting asking themselves if what they're hearing is the truth. Unfortunately, though, most Americans want drama instead of solutions, and the two parties, the Corporate Media and Academic Mafia have learned that the sale of fear is a valuable commodity, indeed. 

THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND ATHEISM

      I've been following with interest some of the ongoing debates and discussions at Citizen Tom's blog lately. The last month or so, he's been writing on various Christian-themed topics, which has brought a roving pack of Atheists to his comments section. I never quite understand people like this: they seem to circle the Internet looking for religiously-oriented posts, like a bunch of crows hunting out cornfields. Actually, they're worse: because at least crows don't try to lecture the farmer on why he doesn't need grain anyway. 

     The problem that most of these Atheists have is twofold: the first is that their understanding of what God is is not very sophisticated. The second is none of them seem to grasp that the onus of proof in a debate of this kind is for them to prove that God does not exist---not the other way around. A few Atheists, however, do grasp the second point, and commenter called 'Sklyjd' took a try at it, using the age-old Problem of Evil as his argument:

    "A woman was ill, her family prayed and prayed and prayed for many days but she died as science and doctors had predicted. 20 plus thousand kids die every day in agony from hunger and disease while untold greedy wealthy and dishonest people live the good life. Millions have died over 2 world wars...Your God appears to have left it all up to his flawed creation. Your God has never stepped up to the mark for many thousands of years...This is really good evidence God does not exist, or he does not give a F___k; so what evidence is there that your God has done something physically to save humans from themselves?"

    Citizen Tom gave a more traditional summary of the argument:

    The Problem – The gods are all-good, powerful, and knowing and yet there is evil. Thus either the gods can’t do away with evil—in which case they’re not all-powerful, or they won’t do away with evil—in which case they’re not all good. We can distinguish between:

   a) The logical problem of evil – gods and evil are incompatible or inconsistent; and;

   b)The evidentiary problem of evil – evil counts as evidence against the gods.

     This isn't an argument which should be dismissed too easily: polls showing the recent explosion of Atheistic beliefs among younger Americans indicate that this very argument is at the base of their unbelief. The consistency of this reason being given leads one to suspect that an agenda is being pushed among their educators and influencers. Alom Shaha, one of the celebrity academics promoting Scientism in pop culture, authored a book titled The Young Atheists Handbook {nota bene}. Therein he expressed the 'Problem of Evil' in terms reflecting the deep and profound reasoning that postmodern Academia employs to deny God's existence: "For a lot of us the 'God Hypothesis' simply doesn't work...The problem of evil genuinely stumps most ordinary believers. In my experience, they usually respond with an answer along the lines of, ‘God moves in mysterious ways.’ Sometimes they’ll say, ‘Suffering is God’s way of testing us,’ to which the obvious response is, ‘Why does he have to test us in such evil ways’ To which the response is, ‘God moves in mysterious ways.’ You get the idea.”

    Actually, I don't get the idea. The problem with Shaha's reasoning is that he presumes only two Divine Attributes: Divine Power and Divine Love, and assumes that the existence of Evil makes the two Attributes contradictory---without realizing that God is also All-Wise and All-Knowing. Since Wisdom is part the very Nature of God, it follows that whatever He wills is in accordance with Divine Wisdom. When something is explained by an underlying wisdom, it implies a reason for its occurrence. In this light, the Atheist view of  God is reductionist; and by doing so, they build a logical straw man. Alom's argument is further illogical, he commits the fallacy of argumentum ad ignoratium, arguing from ignorance. Because he cannot access Divine Wisdom, he presumes that it does not exist; which goes back to our earlier point about Atheists generally lacking an intellectually mature Concept of God. Alom is certainly not alone among his peers: interested readers can look up the Rationalwiki article on 'prayer' to get an idea of how simplistic their reasoning really is. 

     The other fallacy involved in this Atheistic line of reasoning strongly implies a deeply egocentric conception of how the world operates: because the Atheist can't fathom a reason behind the evils and sufferings of the world, they assume that there is no reason---and it follows that their own ideals of Good are supreme. This is one reason why Atheists are generally drawn like magnets to utopian and totalitarian political and social movements; Bolshevism, Naziism, the Great Reset, etc. are all about re-ordering society and human nature to what a handful of ideologues consider superior wisdom to God's. Almost all major religions hold that the fact of the existence of evil also strongly suggests Freedom of the Will; which is another reason that many Atheists of authoritarian bent find the idea of God distasteful. 

   Citizen Tom brought up the counter-point that the existence of Evil presupposes the existence of Good; and when God is removed, there is no objective standard for either good or evil. Thus, all actions are matters of preference, not matters of fact. A moral relativist cannot reach a consensus with all other moral relativists about objective good and evil; thus what is determined is a moral system largely dependent on subjective values of preference---which, as we have seen in our own current system---is dependent on the wealthier lobbyists, social trends, and interest groups: but not facts. In a broader sense, this moral confusion leads to social instability; hence the growth of movements like Scientism which speak with the authority of a religion. Similar Atheistic Regimes have ended up like cults: the Cult of Reason by the French Jacobins; Nazi Occultism; and even some variants of Marxism like North Korea's Juche system stem from the failure of Moral Relativism to bring about social order.

   It's an interesting fact that, in Christianity, St. John posits the Advent of Christ as a Divine Emanation from the Logos, or Wisdom of God; and that throughout John's Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as following the Divine Will, up to and including his Crucifixion. How would the Atheist reconcile this with the teaching throughout John's writings that God is Love? St. Catherine of Siena, in her Dialogue on Providence succinctly explains: "Everything comes from Love, all is ordained for the salvation of Man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."

   The existence of Evil does not disprove the existence of God. When the Atheists speak of Evil and suffering; what they really mean is that God didn't create a Utopia---which they define according to their own subjective definitions of what good and evil ought to be. We've seen throughout History how well these utopias have all worked out; and many of them devolved into religious cults in their own right. Belief in God and a desire to serve and understand Him is an instinct innate in all of Mankind, and no amount of sophistry has ever proven otherwise, nor ever will.