HALF-FULL REPORT 08/30/24
The Return of Blasphemy Laws.
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You’re right, that video may be an AI-generated deep fake, but it’s humorous because it openly expresses the underlying sentiments. Keir Starmer’s decision to remove Margaret Thatcher’s portrait from 10 Downing Street yesterday was a petty move, reminiscent of Barack Obama removing Winston Churchill’s bust from the Oval Office.
By doing so, Starmer is making a bold statement that a market-based economy is no longer welcome in Great Britain. It’s a shame to see such ideological divisions being expressed through these petty gestures.
The world has indeed learned a valuable lesson from the behavior of communists: that tolerating them only emboldens their destructive actions eventually.
It’s crucial to call out communists, shut down their ideologies, and root out any unrepentant communist moles within political systems without hesitation.
History has shown us the devastating consequences of allowing communism to take hold.
Moreover, placing a communist in a position of power over actual people is always a disastrous decision. Instead of focusing on the well-being of their constituents or working towards the group’s objectives, the communist will prioritize their comfort and self-importance, rationalizing these priorities as beneficial for the world.
This selfish mindset ultimately leads to harming the people they are supposed to serve.
Merkel, Scholz, Starmer, Obama, and Kamala Harris each have known ties to communists.
Kamala’s father was a professor of “Post Keynesian Economics” at Stanford where he taught from his textbook Capitalist Exploitation with Black Labor: Some Conceptual Issues, and his other books On Marx’s Scheme of Reproduction and Accumulation, and Economic Growth and Equity.
We are not talking about a Rotary Club member here.
The world leaders mentioned have consistently demonstrated their fanatical opposition to fundamental concepts such as freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and freedom of assembly.
They have escalated their actions from secretly pressuring tech companies to censor the speech of their political opponents to brazenly arresting tech moguls who operate social media platforms.
These leaders have shown a complete disregard for the principles of democracy and individual liberties, opting instead for authoritarian control over public discourse.
They use the power of the state to crush non-sanctioned speech because their power is all about the narrative of the day and how they use narrative control to amass more power and wealth. Narrative control is at the core of economic cronyism.
The connection with the Enlightenment lies in the fundamental principles of a free press and freedom of opinion, which were originally meant to counter the blasphemy laws that emerged during the Middle Ages.
The Enlightenment sought to promote human progress by building upon the new science as a replacement for knowledge dictated by power and authority.
However, it appears that those who prosper from positions of power, rather than the marketplace of ideas, wish to reinstate these blasphemy laws.
These individuals seek to control the narrative and suppress dissenting voices, effectively undermining the very foundations of the Enlightenment and its emphasis on reason, critical thinking, and the free exchange of ideas.
Their attempts to manipulate public discourse and maintain their grip on power threaten the progress that has been made since the Enlightenment and could lead to a return to a society governed by fear and oppression.
In Europe, Starmer is arresting children who were present at non-sanctioned demonstrations. The kids are getting long prison sentences as a way to generate fear and compliance. The Russian Cheka used the same tactics.
Emmanuel Macron ordered the arrest of Pavel Durov when his plane landed in Paris for refueling. Durov is facing charges of violence against women in Switzerland and the newly created crime of not hiring a sufficient number of “woke” moderators for his Telegram app.
This move by Macron demonstrates his willingness to use the power of the state to suppress dissenting voices and enforce his ideological agenda, even if it means targeting foreign tech entrepreneurs. Macron is a Telegraph user and was logged in on the day of the arrest.
Before the arrest, Macron had attempted to persuade Pavel Durov to relocate Telegram’s offices from Dubai to France. However, this ill-advised move is likely to result in a significant loss of technical talent from France.
Durov, who was born in Russia and holds dual Russian-French citizenship, created the highly secure messaging app that is widely used by the Russian military and common soldiers in Ukraine, while the Ukrainians rely on the Signal app.
It appears that Western agencies are having difficulty cracking Telegram’s encryption fast enough to obtain valuable intelligence. The arrest of Pavel Durov appears to be a blatant attempt by Western powers to control the narrative and force him to hand over Telegram’s encryption keys to France.
The message is clear: give France access to your encryption or face the prospect of rotting in jail.
However, the ultimate target in this battle for control over online discourse is Elon Musk. Brazil has recently issued arrest warrants for Musk and shut down Starlink terminals throughout the country.
The reason for this crackdown is that Elon allows free speech, including humorous content, on his social media platform, X.
The narrative controllers cannot tolerate this level of openness, as they fear that even a single example of the truth could expose their carefully crafted false narratives as lies.
We must remember the staggering two trillion dollars spent on COVID-19 propaganda to enforce masking, injections, the use of ventilators, and the abandonment of patients in nursing care homes.
The narrative spinners were terrified that the truth about the narrow danger posed by the virus would emerge and that their election fraud schemes would fail. They went to great lengths to suppress any information that threatened their agenda, and now they are targeting those who dare to challenge their control over the narrative.
Today, it appears to be a crime to point out the problems associated with unrestricted mass human migration. The immigrants are expected to intimidate citizens into political compliance, with those who disagree facing the threat of being stabbed on the street and sent to prison for twenty years.
However, the politicians seem to be omitting some important truths about the migrants. Approximately 60% of them are Christians, 28% are Muslims, 20% are irreligious (mostly from China), and the rest belong to a mix of faiths, including Hinduism, Judaism, Tamil, and others.
While this information doesn’t necessarily improve the situation, the high percentage of Christians among the migrants is driving the Holy See to endorse mass migration and the re-Christianization of Europe. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that this plan will succeed.
Interestingly, the Holy See and Vatican State are among only 12 nations that diplomatically recognize Taiwan, and all of these nations are relatively small, with most being islands. Just this week, China accepted the recognition of one of the Vatican’s two “underground bishops.”
The 95-year-old Bishop Melchoir Shi Hongzhen was formally recognized as a Catholic Bishop, although he remains in prison, where he has been for decades. At least now, his secret is made public, and he can go to his grave with his status acknowledged.
China might already be, or will soon become, the nation with the largest Christian population. Brutal repression for nearly 90 years could not stop the Christian faith, nor the Falon Gong practitioners. Repression seemed to make the followers stronger, a lesson that the likes of Keir Starmer should give attention to.
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Those Russians
Chinese state banks are increasingly shutting down transactions with Russia, resulting in the freezing of payments worth billions of yuan. While the Vatican is attempting to trade diplomatic recognition of Taiwan for access to China’s Christian population, the Chinese government is growing concerned about the potential for a new round of economic sanctions against Russia. The extent of credit extended from China to Russia is unknown, but the pain threshold has likely been surpassed.
The ongoing war in Ukraine is hampering China’s dual mission to displace the United States in global trade and complete its rail and sea transport infrastructure across the planet.
To maintain stability and control, Russia is accelerating its crackdown on corruption, with senior official Deputy Minister General Popov, his wife, children, secretary, his deputy Major General Mikhail Mironov, and his assistant all being arrested by SWAT teams and accused of laundering approximately $600,000 worth of expenses from a military-themed historical park near Moscow. This is a public accusation, but there may be more to the story behind the scenes.
According to Putin, he is the most popular leader in Russia’s history. However, a true reflection of a nation’s psychological state can be seen in its fertility rate. Without confidence in the future, birth rates tend to plummet. The current Russian fertility rate is 1.82 births per woman, including the sizable Muslim population.
Russia offers substantial financial incentives to pregnant women and is steadily implementing roadblocks to abortion. However, the fertility rate for ethnic Russians, excluding Cossacks, is a concerning 1.44, well below the 2.01 minimum replacement rate.
Additionally, at least 1.5% of the population is addicted to opiates, and the HIV infection rate appears to be out of control, likely due to shared needles.
In comparison, the American fertility rate is 1.80, having dropped from 2.01 during Obama’s presidency. The opiate addiction rate is 0.2%, and the HIV rate continues to decline. With the possibility of strong economic growth under Trump and a reduction in the federal taxation burden, the American fertility rate is likely to increase. Recent migrants to the United States are having more children, contributing to the growth of the American population and workforce.
For Russia, there is no easy solution to its population collapse, as is the case for any nation unable to periodically refresh its political systems. Before the war in Ukraine, Russia was already a declining state, with a population living like slowly boiling frogs. With the closing of the Chinese checkbook, these frogs will be boiled at an accelerated rate.
So this begs the question, was General Popov and everyone around him arrested on a corruption charge that does not even register as chump change to a Biden? Or is he another general who has had enough and is moving to solve Russia’s Putin problem?
Russia is indeed a surprisingly patriotic nation, and the military theme park that General Popov built and directed, called Patriot’s Park, reflects this sentiment.
Possibly, General Popov is guilty of respecting his nation’s heroes, and loving his country, but not necessarily its leader.
The evidence of numerous coups and possible assassination attempts on Putin continues to rise, even though the Western press refuses to see. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, is likely not the only Russian senior military figure who loves his country and has taken action to try to set it on a better course. In independent and surprising moves, at least sixteen top Russian generals have been abruptly sacked, often violently and on questionable charges. These purges suggest that there may be significant dissatisfaction and unrest within the Russian military leadership.
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Sea Power
At present, no aircraft carriers are operating in the Pacific Ocean due to the reassignment of the USS Ronald Reagan to its new home port in Bremerton, Washington, after being previously stationed in Yokosuka, Japan. The primary reasons for such home port changes are typically related to maintenance requirements and the availability of dry docks.
In the future, the USS Ronald Reagan is expected to be replaced by the USS George Washington, which is currently making port visits to various South American countries, including Brazil, Chile, and Peru.
The Navy is encountering challenges in recruiting and retaining sufficient crew members for both its combat and support vessels. Merchant Mariners are being forced to serve longer periods at sea compared to their counterparts in the private sector.
Despite the waiting lists of new applicants at the government’s Merchant Marine Academy in New York and the Maine Maritime Academy, sailors are becoming increasingly disillusioned with extended Naval deployments, and the influence of woke ideologies promoted by senior leadership. The sailors want to go to sea but under the flag of a commercial shipping company and not the political whimsy of the Biden White House.
Moreover, the growing threat posed by Chinese and Russian hypersonic missiles, as well as other missile systems possessed by hostile nations, is causing significant concern for the fleet. Due to staffing shortages and their vulnerability to attacks from enemy shore-based forces, 17 ships, primarily mine sweepers and logistics vessels, will be decommissioned.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet is well aware of the vulnerability posed by modern missiles.
The missile threat is placing new urgency on the development of hypersonic rail guns, Iron Dome-like missile defense, Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) such as lasers and particle beams, and spoofing and jamming technologies.
Currently, it seems that outdated weapons systems like the CIWS Phalanx autocannons are inadequate to safeguard ships against drone swarms and highly sophisticated, fast-moving missiles. Consequently, there is an urgent need for advanced technology to address these emerging threats. This urgent government need means big budget allocations are incoming.
In addition to the decommissioning of 17 logistics vessels, the Navy and Coast Guard are also grappling with a shortage of ice-breaking ships. It is anticipated that, under a potential Trump Administration, funds may be reallocated from the construction of new aircraft carriers to prioritize the procurement of the ship types that are currently facing a numerical deficit.
The submarine tender USS Emory S Land is in the Western Australian port HMAS Stirling to service the American submarine USS Hawaii as part of the AUKUS Pillar I program to supply Australia with conventionally armed fast-attack submarines. Starting this month, Australians will work alongside American maintainers to transfer submarine repair know-how.
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New Carthage
Over the past year, Russia and China have been challenging the notion that the United States is the cultural successor of Rome, as is commonly believed by many Americans.
They argue that America has drifted away from its Christian roots and pre-Christian philosophical heritage. Putin and Xi cite the Democratic Party’s support for abortion rights and even hint at Russian efforts to promote the pro-abortion movement.
Putin asserts that Russia is the rightful heir to Rome’s land-based power, legal system, civility, and religion. In contrast, he claims that the United States is the successor to Carthage, a maritime power historically associated with Moloch and child sacrifice.
For roughly five centuries, Russian leaders have displayed a strong desire to emulate Western culture and establish their European identity. This envy, which is currently contributing to Russia’s struggles in Ukraine, has been justified by various reasons such as border security, national defense, and trade interests.
However, the root cause of this envy is a deep-seated psychological need for Russia to be something it is not, echoing the ambitions of historical figures like Catherine the Great and Peter the Great.
In line with their “New Carthage” analogy, Putin and Xi seem to believe that weakening American sea power is essential for their domination of the Great Eurasian Land Mass.
It is essential to acknowledge the historical context of Moscow’s claim as the Third Rome, succeeding Rome and Constantinople. Nevertheless, the Russian Orthodox Church has historically been used to legitimize the Czar’s autocratic rule, similar to the role of the Wahhabi sect in supporting the Saudi Royal Family. This Russian aspiration is artificial, and deceptive, and has resulted in the deaths of countless individuals.
However, the recent destruction of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has reinvigorated the idea that the United States is, in fact, the New Carthage, and Russia is the Third Rome.
The presence of the abortion procedure truck at the recent Democratic convention in Chicago suggests that Russia may have been involved in a long-standing active measures campaign to promote this notion.
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F-16 Loss
One of the F-16 fighter jets recently supplied to Ukraine was lost this week, resulting in the death of the pilot. Russia, through its state-controlled media outlet RT News, claimed responsibility for the incident before it was reported by Western news organizations.
The Russian media outlet asserted that someone, possibly a mechanic, had posted a photo on Facebook featuring a building in the background. Using this information, they claimed to have identified the airbase, hangar, and probable location of one or two of the aircraft. Russia further claimed that they had used a hypersonic missile to destroy the aircraft while it was inside the hangar.
Later, Western media reported that the aircraft had crashed, and the pilot had been killed. A day after the initial reports, the Pentagon revised the story, stating that the F-16 had been shot down by a Patriot Missile in a friendly fire incident.
Russia has since embraced the friendly fire narrative. The main takeaway from this situation is that it is unwise to rely on breaking news from Russian propaganda outlets such as RT, Sputnik, or others. Their reporting was inaccurate, and it failed to serve its intended propaganda purpose when readers were aware that they were being exposed to biased information.
If the aircraft was lost to friendly fire, this is an example of the problems created by modern electronic warfare, the sky full of drones and decoys, the compromise between IFF (Identification Friend or Foe system), and the need to minimize electronic footprints. Ukraine is demonstrating a need to rethink legacy approaches to solving military problems.
My father, a lieutenant during the Korean War, served as the radar intercept officer at a radar station in Uijeonbu, located north of Seoul. His team of radar operators was responsible for monitoring Chinese and North Korean airfields, searching for indications of Russian pilots flying North Korean MiG 17s. These pilots would briefly toggle their IFF systems on and off while going through their preflight checklists, resulting in a momentary electronic ping that was visible to American sensors.
This ping allowed American F-86 fighters to be scrambled even before the MiGs had taken off. The issues with IFF systems have been a longstanding problem.
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Section 230
Censorship and narrative control. Governments across the world are complicit in this practice, from Ottawa to Brasília, from London to Beijing, and from Tehran to Tel Aviv. Governments maintain control by manipulating reality and shaping the narrative to suit their purposes.
In Washington, this practice has been honed to fine art, with the government employing sophisticated techniques to shape public perception and maintain its grip on power.
All of these governments share a common enemy in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1990s law designed to protect CompuServe’s online billboards from lawsuits stemming from impolite speech.
CompuServe, a Columbus, Ohio company, employed several family members as board moderators at their complex, working with PDP-10 and Amdahl mainframe computers. Every bulletin board was moderated, and users paid by the minute, making trolling cost-prohibitive.
The introduction of Windows 95 and the World Wide Web opened the door to cheap and easy internet access for the masses, using a new business model that focused on collecting as many viewers as possible, harvesting their information, and selling it to advertisers.
This model replaced the fee-for-service approach and was based on the mass collection of metadata. The implicit deal became access in exchange for the loss of privacy.
An unforeseen consequence of this shift was the exposure of grand narratives crafted by powerful entities to generate wealth and influence.
Governments initially grew concerned and then began to panic as populations worldwide started to realize that governments are collections of insiders set on fleecing outsiders. This newfound awareness threatened the very foundation of their power and control.
First, with the Patriot Act in the USA and similar alleged counter-terrorism laws worldwide, governments have been on a march to limit, overturn, and criminalize Section 230 and the advertising business model that it supports.
Governments, and especially those elements that operationalize deceit and deception, urgently want to shut down Telegraph, Signal, WhatsApp, VPNs, Gab, Facebook, and the rest. They especially want to maintain control of the hive mind.
In Europe and Canada, governments are taking audacious actions to generate court cases and favorable outcomes that would undermine Section 230 protections. This week, these actions included arresting a ten-year-old for standing near a demonstration while emitting a cell phone signal and another citizen who will likely face twenty years in prison for calling an obese German politician “fat.”
Pavel Durov, the president of Telegram, was arrested, and Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook and WhatsApp, began issuing mealy-mouthed apologies for being a tool of malicious government agencies. In the United States, a three-judge panel in the Third District Court found TikTok liable for the death of a teen who hanged herself while participating in the blackout challenge.
Each of these actions by governments is aimed at chipping away at Section 230 and returning the world to a paid access model with 100% moderated content under the direction of political operatives.
This is the ultimate goal, and governments are growing impatient with the prospect of Trump and his belief in free speech. They hate Trump because he speaks his mind, and in their view, this “crime” carries a heavier punishment than murder.
No doubt, this week’s Third Circuit Ruling has emboldened governments around the world and caused urgent meetings with the legal council.
The most recent attacks do not pursue freedom of speech. The new attacks, such as the UK’s Online Safety Act, are based on product liability laws. This means deaths, hurt feelings, lost elections, and other consequences of freely moving information are viewed as the ticket to overturning Section 230.
Mike Ryan is a chemical engineering consultant serving heavy industry.