Quote:I've had a cold, and as a cold Traditionalist, that means I’ve been sitting on the couch in my dressing gown, sipping herbal tea with honey in it. (The Zealots from The Church of New Colds would have me masking up and gaffer taping plastic sheets over my doors and windows, but they are odd people).

Naturally, it stands to reason that the first time I’ve been ill in years happens to be the same week the world decides to set itself on fire.

Or at least pretend to, but we’ll get to that.

Maduro has been kidnapped. Iran teeters on the edge of an old-fashioned colour revolution with a new Shah waiting in the wings, there’s talk of British troops on the ground in Ukraine and a US invasion of Greenland.

The New Year has dawned on a world bursting into chaos.

But is it genuine chaos? Or contrived chaos?

Regular readers know I would tend towards the latter. Fundamentally, I cannot reconcile the two worlds with which we are presented.

On the one hand, we have a set of nation-states wholly in concert on almost all the broader issues. They all work together to promote pandemics and climate catastrophes; they synchronise in passing near-identical legislation to tackle the same non-existent or heavily exaggerated problems.

They all have central banks “printing” fake money, they all have so-called “free-market” capitalism (in reality, a construct of state-protected monopolies that siphon public money into the private sector).

They all agree to pretend that Covid is a thing and the vaccines are safe and the climate is changing and the internet will be nothing but snuff films and child pornography if they don’t put a digital surveillance chip in everyone’s brain as soon as possible.

Central bank digital currency, digital identity, genetically modified food…All of this is resolved supranational policy.

They tell the same lies to serve the same ends. They are all the same.

And yet, on the other hand, we’re told they cannot work out a single territorial or political conflict or disagreement in anything but the most crude, base or violent ways.

Nowhere is the clash of apparent cooperation vs reported conflict more apparent than nuclear war – or rather the lack thereof. India and Pakistan went to war (briefly). Both reportedly have nukes, neither used them. The US is seizing Russian tankers in the Caribbean and the UK is considering putting British troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Is anyone talking about Nuclear war? What happened to Mutually Assured Destruction? When did that stop being a consideration?

The only explanation I can think of is that there is an agreement – either tacit or explicit – that these conflicts will be allowed to go so far and no further.

And that makes them fake. Unquestionably, irrefutably, fake.

If you can agree not to have a nuclear war, you can agree not to have a war at all. Any war you end up having, logically speaking, is a war both sides want to happen.

I come back to this quote from Orwell a lot, because I’m not sure it’s possible to better express the thought:

Quote:The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word ‘war’, therefore, has become misleading.
George Orwell, 1984

I have a feeling there is a grander pattern embedded in this chaos that will emerge before the end of the year, something along postnational lines, arguing that statehood generates conflicts that globalism would solve.

I’m still coughing and spluttering between sentences, so I’m being quick. We’ll go into this in more detail when my brain is less crowded.

Didn't realize Russia's Ghost fleet is this huge. Now I see why Trump is so interested in more icebreakers.

"U.S. Navy SEALs just carried out a rare direct action against Russia’s shadow fleet, triggering a high-stakes naval standoff. This video explains why sanctioned oil tankers are suddenly being seized, how Russia, Iran, and Venezuela use them, and why enforcing sanctions at sea risks direct great-power confrontation."

It's snowing in Nashville and these guys are feasting , real Reality TV !


You got some nice looking birds there in Nashville.

Quote:Greenland finds itself at the center of a lot of geopolitical attention. US President Donald Trump’s push to control it has sparked tension with NATO ally Denmark and reinforced Europe’s growing wariness that the US is no longer interested in their security. But why is the world suddenly so interested in this remote island in the far north? And what do the people in Greenland want for their own future? 00:00 Why Greenland's location matters 06:45 Melting ice opens economic opportunities 11:22 The complicated history with Denmark 12:48 What Greenland wants

Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults

Jacques Vallee

Quote:...a man I shall call “Major Murphy,” although his actual rank is much higher than that of Major....Major Murphy, who retired from a U.S. Intelligence service quite a few years ago, had seen action in World War II in Italy...

Then he posed a question that, obvious as it seems, had not really occurred to me: “What makes you think that UFOs are a scientific problem?”...Now, the UFO phenomenon could be controlled by alien beings. “If it is,” added the Major, “then the study of it doesn’t belong in science. It belongs in Intelligence.” Meaning counterespionage. And that, he pointed out, was his domain.

Now, the UFO phenomenon could be controlled by alien beings. “If it is,” added the Major, “then the study of it doesn’t belong in science. It belongs in Intelligence.” Meaning counterespionage. And that, he pointed out, was his domain.

“Are you saying that the UFO data we use to compile statistics and to find patterns with computers are useless?” I asked. “Might we be spinning our magnetic tapes endlessly discovering spurious laws?”

“It all depends on how the team on the other side thinks. If they know what they’re doing, there will be so many cutouts between you and them that you won’t have the slightest chance of tracing your way to the truth. Not by following up sightings and throwing them into a computer. They will keep feeding you the information they want you to process. What is the only source of data about the UFO phenomenon? It is the UFOs themselves!”

First you should work entirely outside of the organized UFO groups; they are infiltrated by the same official agencies they are trying to influence, and they propagate any rumor anyone wants to have circulated. In Intelligence circles, people like that are historical necessities. When you’ve worked long enough for Uncle Sam, you know he is involved in a lot of strange things. The data these groups get are biased at the source, but they play a useful role. “Second, you should look for the irrational, the bizarre, the elements that do not fit: that’s what I have come to observe at this meeting tonight. Have you ever felt that you were getting close to something that didn’t seem to fit any rational pattern, yet gave you a strong impression that it was significant?”

Quote:I told him about the incident involving Melchizedek. He looked at me in a strange way and said: “I would follow that track seriously if I were you.”

Quote:Genuine “contactees” like Helen are already busy preparing these changes. They mean business. They are sincere. They obey what they believe to be orders coming from a higher cosmic level. Most scientists think this is a delusion of no importance. I differ from them in believing that these contactees are being used in a dangerous way, and that the symbolism they propagate will make a deep impact on our lives.

Quote:Genuine “contactees” like Helen are already busy preparing these changes. They mean business. They are sincere. They obey what they believe to be orders coming from a higher cosmic level. Most scientists think this is a delusion of no importance. I differ from them in believing that these contactees are being used in a dangerous way, and that the symbolism they propagate will make a deep impact on our lives.


They take lie detector tests and pass them: Betty Hill in Portsmouth, Charlie Hickson in Pascagoula, Travis Walton in Arizona. We are asked to accept this “scientific evidence.” We enter a hospital room in Anaheim, California. A young woman is speaking slowly in a hypnotic trance. She recalls an amazing experience:

I’m lying on one of those tables. Uh – that one that was closest to me still seems to be the one that’s in charge of things. Uh – my heart is beating really fast because I’m really scared, even though he has communicated to me not to be afraid.

The hypnotist, a medical doctor with long clinical experience, gently urges her on.

Got…one of those machines for taking the blood. It’s like a needle on the long end of one of those tubes. So, it’s just – took it out real quick. Almost like a vacuum. And…his fingers are kind of cold and clammy.

Another piece of data for the extraterrestrial file? Guess again. This young woman is a subject who has never seen a UFO. She demonstrates that the “abduction” experience is a constant that hypnosis can trigger in almost anybody.

I have been skeptical on the effects of the tones on meditation for a while and I have done the Monroe tapes.

Basically the idea is that these frequencies syncs brain hemispheres and gives you super powers during and after meditation. The main issue for me is that meditation is as old as time including synching brain hemispheres and so is whatever psychic abilities. 

Personally I'm of the opinion lifestyle and knowledge is where the magic is but regardless lets do some experiments.

https://www.monroeinstitute.org/pages/mo...nd-science

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agr...rain-waves
 

Quote:Frequency band Frequency Brain states
Gamma (γ) >35 Hz Concentration
Beta (β) 12–35 Hz Anxiety dominant, active, external attention, relaxed
Alpha (α) 8–12 Hz Very relaxed, passive attention
Theta (θ) 4–8 Hz Deeply relaxed, inward focused
Delta (δ) 0.5–4 Hz Sleep

Prepare yourselves...

Quote:The American landscape is haunted. Beyond the familiar stories of Bigfoot and the Mothman lies a vast, hidden bestiary of homegrown monsters, each one a dark reflection of the landscape that created it. This documentary is a definitive survey of that new mythology, a journey to every dark and unlit corner of the continent to chronicle the strange, the terrifying, and the forgotten.

This video explores over 70 of America's most fascinating mythical beasts. We will journey from the great ape-like creatures of the deep woods to the serpentine monsters of our deepest lakes. We'll uncover the violent phantoms of the frontier, the bizarre "fearsome critters" of lumberjack lore, the terrifying winged horrors that haunt our skies, and the transformative legends of Native American tradition.

This is a map of our fears and a testament to the power of folklore. Each of these stories is a candidate for a future deep-dive investigation, and this is your chance to decide our next subject. After watching, go to the comments and tell us: which of these legends deserves its own deep dive?

Quote:The successful seizure and removal of President Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela demonstrates Washington’s readiness to use every means at its disposal — including military power — to stave off any diminishment of U.S. national influence in its bid to manage the dissolution of the celebrated postwar, liberal order.

For the moment, the rules-based order (meaning whatever rules Washington wants to impose) persists in the Western Hemisphere. As President Donald Trump noted, “We can do it again. Nobody can stop us. There’s nobody with the capability that we have.”

Put differently, “Team America” is back!

The question is what happens next? How will Washington consolidate its latest victory over Maduro and his regime? The plan seems murky if non-existent.

Presumably, Maduro will be tried and convicted in a U.S. court for drug-related crimes. Meanwhile Trump said Saturday that the U.S. will “take over” during the transition. Can Washington actually set up a new political order that will prevent Venezuela from sliding into civil war, or, more important, from hosting future drug-fueled violence?

President Trump said that opposition leader Maria Machado lacks the political strength to govern Venezuela. So who does that leave? Is there a CIA-preferred comprador for the job, or will Secretary of State Marco Rubio simply govern as an American Viceroy? In any case, can anyone — Venezuelan or American — govern the country without heavy reliance on U.S. Military power?

Meanwhile American firms and corporations are chomping at the bit to move into Venezuela to extract its oil. In addition to the world’s largest reserves (the oil infrastructure is decaying and it will take a long time to rebuild), Venezuela is massively endowed with gold and one of the largest iron ore deposits in the Western Hemisphere. To these must be added significant reserves of natural gas, bauxite, nickel and some rare earths. No doubt the exploitation of these mineral resources will be seen as vital if the current intervention is to avoid the usual catastrophic costs associated with military intervention.

But will Washington now provide a lucrative economic package to lift Venezuela out of poverty and chaos? Will it be at American taxpayers' expense? Shipments of Venezuelan heavy crude constitute most of the Venezuelan economy. Venezuela is in the top 5 exporters of heavy crude, but by total volume, Venezuela barely cracks the top 20.

Protests from Moscow and Beijing notwithstanding, neither the Russians nor Chinese will directly interfere with events in the Caribbean Basin. The fact that Maduro was meeting with Chinese officials just 24 hours before he was captured is no doubt deeply disconcerting to Beijing. China might accelerate its liquidation of American debt with uncertain consequences for the American bond market. But Russian and Chinese leaders will not repeat Western stupidity in Ukraine and challenge American military power on its doorstep. The home court strategic advantage is undeniable.

Whatever happens next, the short-term impact of Maduro’s capture conveniently distracts from the Trump administration’s failed attempts to end the war in Ukraine on terms that might benefit Washington and its allies. In fact, the Trump administration is likely to quietly disengage from these efforts while Moscow turns its attention entirely to ending the war in Ukraine on its own terms.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire Trump brokered with a flourish earlier this year has not halted the destruction of life in Gaza. In the background, Iran’s missile factories are humming again having recovered from the 12-day war in June 2025. U.S. and Israeli strikes have set back Iran's nuclear ambitions but Israel won’t soon forget Iran’s ability to hit back with counterstrikes on Israeli soil. Not surprisingly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now pushes for fresh strikes before Iranian silos swell to 1,000 warheads a year, enough to overwhelm U.S. and Israeli air and missile defenses.

President Trump warns there will be “hell to pay” if Iran rebuilds. The president who promised to “end forever wars” now advocates for the next Middle East war, too.

At home, progress in a range of critical areas from living standards and educational performance to high-tech manufacturing is slow to non-existent. Inflated expectations of faster productivity growth through artificial intelligence are flagging. There is no evidence for any interest in breaking up overgrown, monopolistic media and IT corporations, or stopping mergers aimed at shaping narratives and suppressing free speech.

Still, Americans should cheer up. Congratulations from Trump’s Wall Street donors on the ostensible victory in Caracas are pouring in. The purportedly numerous Hamas and Hezbollah training camps that threaten Israeli national security will now vanish like the morning mist hanging over Venezuela’s jungles. Team America is back!

Leaders of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted Monday to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967.

CPB had been winding down since Congress acted last summer to defund its operations at the encouragement of President Donald Trump. Its board of directors chose Monday to shutter CPB completely instead of keeping it in existence as a shell.


https://www.nxsmediawire.com/news/corpor...existence/

Well, goodbye, Big Bird, Burt, Ernie, Oscar, and the rest of you guys. See ya Rick Steves, and all the Gay, Native and Black American cultural shows. Adios, Nature, and all those scientific programs too. I hope you all find another network or two to continue to exist on.

Let's see what happens to all those PBS broadcast stations. Maybe they will be just like the rest of them with shop-at-home programs or reruns of old movies and TV shows that include westerns (all of them), Home Improvement, Gilligan's Island, Mr Ed, etc.

Not the fat top heavy hydraulic bot of yesteryear ..... For sure..

The way they are programing the machine is the cutting edge approach (mimic programming) to actually creating an independent general use Bot IMO.