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Category Archives: Transhuman News

Memorable images of 2021 capture a reality of our lives – The National

Posted: December 27, 2021 at 4:04 pm

We will all remember the lockdowns, Covid-19 tests and other disruptions to our lives in 2021, but the year was also full of extraordinary and sometimes inspirational images. One of the most memorable was also the most bizarre, the QAnon "shaman".

You will recall this tattooed and bearded Trump supporter wearing a buffalo head-dress, yowling at the heavens inside the home of American democracy, Washingtons Capitol building, as part of the violent protest against US President Joe Bidens election victory. I suspect buffalo-man and his friends may haunt our future, but well get to that in a moment.

First, the inspirational image of 2021 for me in Britain was also the saddest. Her Majesty the Queen sat alone in Windsor, socially distanced, wearing a mask, mourning the death of her life-companion Prince Philip. They spent 73 years together. The grief was obvious through the mask. So was the sense of duty and profound dignity of a monarch who has served the UK for seven decades and who spans the great generation of the Second World War through the end of the British empire and in to the 21st century information age.

At a time when some British politicians, including the prime minister, have often made the UK appear incapable of living up to the standards we expect from people in public life, the Queen has been faultless, a solid British rock in a sea of political foolishness.

Yet for many of us it was coronavirus itself which repeatedly supplied the most profound images of 2021.

We will remember the queues of those waiting to be vaccinated, or the faces of health care workers exhausted after long hours in hospital intensive care units.

And who can forget the lines on their cheeks as they took off their masks, images which more than words told us everything we need to know about the sacrifices nurses, doctors and other health workers make everyday on our behalf.

The Queen has been faultless, a solid British rock in a sea of political foolishness

There was a flip side to this, however. We also saw the images of irrational hatred from anti-vaccination protesters. Curiously those who most loudly trumpeted their so-called libertarian" views in 2021 and claimed the right to their personal choice not to accept coronavirus vaccines were often violently furious that millions of other citizens had a different personal choice and welcomed the protection of vaccines.

In 2021 the word libertarian increasingly sounded like a synonym for selfish or perhaps just dim. One British anti-vaxxer group tried to storm what they thought were BBC headquarters in west London. Sadly these anti-vaxxer luminaries failed to notice that the BBC had moved out of the Television Centre complex a decade ago, in 2012. The same inability to get a grip on facts and reality led to images of another group of anti-vaxxers protesting at the Apple store in central London.

In the anti-vaxxer world, Bill Gates is supposed to be a controlling figure in the great vaccination conspiracy. Unfortunately for this theory Bill Gates is not involved in the vaccination programme, nor is he involved with Apple. Apples founder was Steve Jobs, who died a decade ago. But facts really dont matter to conspiracy theorists, even if they do matter to the rest of us.

The stunning extreme weather images of 2021 surely proved even to the most recalcitrant climate change deniers that the threat to all human existence is real.

Floods some deadly hit Germany, Belgium, Myanmar, the US and other countries. Out-of-control fires destroyed vast areas in Siberia, Australia, California, Canada and elsewhere. Climate activists picketed Cop-26 in Glasgow demanding that governments do more, and yet despite the scientific evidence and the images of destruction the result was a somewhat half-hearted and disappointing agreement about real solutions. And the problems of governments to act bring us back to the QAnon "shaman" and the Capitol Hill riot, because that assault on US democracy casts a shadow over all of us in the year ahead.

The "shaman" like the anti-vaxxers, is not a joke. Together these images are emblems of a world in which fantasy and nonsense shout so loudly they risk drowning out reason, science, and traditional norms of behaviour. Donald Trumps reaction to his defeat in November 2020s presidential election, and the subsequent assault on the US Capitol in January 2021 led the US World Values Survey to note:

Elections are the heart of liberal democracy. Losers voluntarily leave office. Winners assume rightful power. There is nothing in the US Constitution mandating that presidents concede graciously, but it is a centuries-old practice. When faith in these fundamental norms of democracy fades, when comity between opponents erodes, so does our civic culture.

Faith in fundamental norms of decent and reasonable behaviour did indeed fade in 2021. The images of 2021 capture this reality for our lives. But they also capture the bizarre unreality of the lives of those whose irrational and sometimes violent behaviour will, unfortunately, still be with us in 2022, and beyond.

Published: December 27th 2021, 2:00 PM

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Memorable images of 2021 capture a reality of our lives - The National

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Which philosophy helps us confront the crises that beset us… we first or me first? – The Guardian

Posted: at 4:04 pm

We live in capitalist economies that deliver great wealth, innovation and dynamism but lurch from systemic crisis to crisis, throw up gigantic inequalities and are careless about nature and the societies of which they are part. Its obvious that we want more of the former and less of the latter but how? Never easy, this question is now so bitterly dividing western politics that in the US there is even talk of a second civil war. Post-Brexit Britain is only fractionally less toxic.

There are two increasingly hostile camps living in their intellectual and political silos. On the one hand, there are the me firsts, the apostles of salvation through individualism. Capitalism propelled by individuals aggressively pursuing their own self-interest will deliver the goods. It is essentially self-organising, self-propelling and self-dynamic. Dont worry about booms, busts, monopoly and disastrous social side-effects; we have to put up with them as we do with the weather. They will sort themselves out in time. Any public intervention will bring errors and costs that outweigh the benefits. Allow the tall poppies to grow even taller and wealth will ultimately trickle down; inequality is the price paid for capitalist effectiveness. Capitalism harnesses the base metals of human greed and self-interest to deliver the alchemy of economic dynamism.

On the other hand, are the we firsts. They are equally passionate in their insistence that salvation lies in the group and society and convinced, whether on the climate emergency, hi-tech monopolies, crippling uncertainties about living standards or just the evident truth that we humans are altruists as much as individualists, that to follow the me firsts is the road to perdition. What is crucial to us as social beings is the group, society, the commonweal and belonging as equals. After all, it was associating in groups that was fundamental to our evolutionary capacity to hunt and to see off predators. That primeval urge to associate in the group is what underpins happiness and wellbeing. What people want is less the exercise of choice in markets, more to control their lives in the service of what they value and that is best done collectively and, as far as possible, equitably.

And so the Is and wes confront each other in intense enmity, crystallised in the debates about the proper reaction to the virus. The Is inhabit a world in which we must make our own choices, even over vaccination, and the state must be minimalist. The wes urge mandatory vaccination, early lockdowns and Covid passports. Yet the sustainable policy is to blend the two: to find ways of persuading individuals, by choice and shaming, to get vaccinated and to ensure that Covid passports are employed, but only when it is clear that public health demands it for NHS and care workers and for any large events. Too much we zeal and there is insupportable state intrusion into our lives; too much I libertarianism and you are free to infect and maybe kill me. Yes, we need the pluralism of different options and individual agency; equally, we need an agile public realm and collective action to serve the group.

The good society (and successful public policy) is one that cleverly uses its institutions to reconcile the we with the I. It is great institutions, in the private and public sectors, which bind society and mitigate the worst excesses of both group force and individual licence. The problem is that we have too few of them and those we do have are being undermined by the dominance of the me firsts who insist anything to do with the we is coercive and undermines liberty.

Thus, despite the me firsts, we witness the success of the NHS through this pandemic, plainly dedicated to serve the we but never in such a way as to be oppressive. Thus, too, the amazing vaccines incubated in Oxfords Jenner Institute, the university itself an example of combining the we of a shared academic vocation but with 37 individual, competing colleges. These were then rolled out with the impetus of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, an institution part tax-funded and part funded from its own commercial activities but one consecrated to promoting the public interest of a strong cell and gene ecology. And all further enabled by an enlightened capitalist enterprise, AstraZeneca, which institutionally recognised its social purpose of promoting health by selling a billion doses at cost.

Another institution that has proved its worth in the pandemic is the BBC, particularly its political and health teams. Laura Kuenssberg and Ros Atkins, for example, have shown the power of impartiality, while Fergus Walsh and Hugh Pym have been models of rock-solid, informed reporting. It has had a cascade effect on much of the media. In a deadly pandemic, beyond some on the Conservative backbenches and rightwing columnists, there can be no luxuriating in ideology. Everyone wants to get to the other side in the best and safest way they can.

Our democratic institutions have been less secure. The checks and balances vital to political integrity have been found wanting. It should never have been possible for the prime minister to use executive discretion, backed by a parliamentary majority, retrospectively to change the terms of the committee on standards in public life; it should be understood that these institutions, including the Electoral Commission, can be reformed only deliberatively and with cross-party support. They represent the we. Public procurement, too, has proved spectacularlyopen to abuse. Meanwhile, the Tory party has demonstrated its institutional weakness, becoming hostage to its ultra-libertarian wing and arriving at public health policies erratically and often too late.

The wider lesson is clear. If we want the best of capitalism and less of the worst, we need to build institutions across our economy, society and democracy that covenant through their constitutions, from a company to a university, that they will respect values we hold dear: equality, fairness, universality, transparency, societal obligation and sustainability. Indeed, in the face of 21st-century challenges AI, the drive to net zero, levelling up great institutions are more important than ever. They will not emerge spontaneously from markets and the operation of capitalism. They have to be created and sustained, the progressive project of the decades ahead.

Will Hutton is an Observer columnist. His December lecture to the Academy of Social Sciences, Its institutions stupid the moralisation of capitalism, from which this column is drawn, is available here

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Which philosophy helps us confront the crises that beset us... we first or me first? - The Guardian

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The Worst Political Predictions of 2021 – POLITICO

Posted: December 25, 2021 at 6:05 pm

As predictions go, you could do worse in forecasting the issues that defined this year than what those two men were focused on: Attempting to overthrow American democracy and struggling to contain the pandemic. 2021 in a nutshell, before it even began.

With the year (blessedly) behind us, its time again for a treasured POLITICO Magazine tradition: a rundown of some of the worst predictions of 2021. Some are cocksure and smug; others have a tragic air of obsessiveness (cough, Mike Lindell, cough); still others were totally fair and reasonable predictions at the time, but the world spun in a different direction than it once seemed. Here, more than two dozen predictions about 2021 that were, well, bad.

Everythings going to be fine in the last few weeks of the Trump administration

Predicted by: Hugh Hewitt, Jan. 6

On the morning of Jan. 6, conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt appeared on Megyn Kellys podcast and was asked a question on the minds of seemingly every political observer in America: Joe Bidens going to get certified [as president-elect] today. What does Trump do over the next two weeks before the inauguration? I mean, hes still going to be saying what hes saying about the electoral process, and theres a big rally in D.C. today, but what do you think we can expect?

Hewitt responded by predicting a raft of new pardons before turning to the broader concern about the peaceful transfer of power: I would just say to everybody: It will be fine. Everythings going to be fine, he said as Kelly voiced her agreement.

A few hours later, a violent pro-Trump putsch at the U.S. Capitol disrupted the peaceful transfer of power and dragged the nation to the brink of a constitutional crisis. Everything was not fine.

Predicted by: Scott Adams, July 1, 2020

There are a few reasons you might recognize the name Scott Adams. Perhaps you know him from his repeat appearances on these annual worst predictions lists (e.g. that Trump, Biden and Bernie Sanders would all contract Covid by election day 2020 and one would die). If youre of a certain age, maybe you remember Dilbert, the 90s cartoon icon he created that satirized corporate office culture in the years before Office Space. Or, if youre part of the political cognoscenti in the broader Trump era, you might know him as a self-described expert in the rhetorical dark arts who has spun that ability into a second act as a MAGA-adjacent political commentator with a large online following.

But unlike many prominent voices of that persuasion, he exudes a calm clarity in his thinking as if what he says is the natural outgrowth of a deliberative process which gives his predictions a certain dispassionate confidence, as if they are closer to scientific fact than wishcasting or doomsaying.

For instance, on July 1, 2020, Adams made this prediction about American life in 2021 with Joe Biden in the White House: If Biden is elected, theres a good chance you will be dead within the year. Lest you think he was talking about, say, the potential mismanagement of the pandemic or some natural disaster, Adams clarified what he meant in two further tweets: Republicans will be hunted. Police will stand down.

We are nearly a full year into Bidens presidency. Police have not stood down. In fact, many cities have increased funding for police. Republicans, far from being hunted, have made major electoral gains and stand poised to retake at least one house of Congress next year. There are no killing fields. There has been no purge.

Predicted by: St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board, Aug. 3

When Bush staged a sleep-in on the steps of the Capitol to protest the lapse of the pandemic-era eviction ban, her hometown St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an editorial that reads like a pat on the head of the freshman Missouri congresswoman and liberal Squad member.

Bush clearly misunderstands the complicated process required to restore the moratorium, they wrote. As with many progressive ideals, righteous-sounding aspirations never seem to take into account political reality. Bush tweeted a demand that President Joe Biden extend the eviction moratorium and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer force legislative action. Its as if she believes those three can wave their wands and magically make things better.

Later that same day, Biden announced a new 60-day eviction moratorium prompted by pressure and coverage generated by Bushs TV-ready protest. With her antics, she had changed political reality. Even as the ban ended weeks later after being struck down by the Supreme Court, it came about not through magic, but real-world politics.

Predicted by: President Joe Biden, July 8

Last summer, as U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban steadily regained territory throughout the country, Biden held a press conference where he was asked about the historical echoes some veterans of the Vietnam War saw between the fall of Saigon and the Afghanistan pullout. Asked if he saw parallels between the two events, Biden who, by the way, was a U.S. senator when Saigon fell in spring 1975 was insistent.

The Taliban is not the South the North Vietnamese army. Theyre not theyre not remotely comparable in terms of capability, he said. Theres going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable. The likelihood theres going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.

Just over one month later, in mid-August, Chinook helicopters airlifted Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as it evacuated. The Taliban surrounded and retook Kabul; it is now fully in control of the government of Afghanistan.

Predicted by: Chuck Schumer, March 10

Nope. The Covid bill passed, checks went into pockets, shots went into arms and the political benefit for Democrats has been minimal. Politics hasnt changed drastically, and it certainly doesnt seem like the pro-autocracy movement has been put to bed in any way.

Predicted by: Kevin McCarthy, April 28

Ahh, the early days of the Biden administration pre-Afghanistan pullout, pre-Delta wave, pre-vaccine mandate when the presidents poll numbers were strong and Republicans flailed about for an issue, any issue, that could provide a political foothold. Banning Dr. Seuss. No? Going to war against Major League Baseball? No? What about meat? Yes, thats the ticket.

Heres what happened: in late April, after Biden vowed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half, Fox News and its sister channels went to work promoting the falsehood that Biden was going to effectively ban meat, as PolitiFact extensively documented. Their promotion of that deception led House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to reflect their outrage back at them: On April 28, he appeared on Hannity and confidently predicted that the Biden administration is gonna control how much meat you can eat. That is, of course, not the case: Biden did not ban meat, nor is he controlling how much animal protein you consume, nor is any plan in motion to do that.

Here, a quick clarification may be useful: Theres a difference between a falsehood and a bad prediction. A falsehood is something presented as fact when it is not. A bad prediction is a forward-looking, if ultimately incorrect, assertion about how the future will play out. What McCarthy said is both.

Predicted by: Mike Lindell, many times

March 26: All the evidence I have everything is going to go before the Supreme Court, and the election of 2020 is going bye-bye. Donald Trump will be back in office in August.

March 30: I said Donald Trump will be in [the White House] in August. And I fully believe that myself: hell be back in.

May 25: Donald Trump will be back in by the end of August.

June 2: These are facts: We have a clear path to pull this election down. [On the Supreme Court,] itll be 9-0 down comes the election, and in August, here comes Donald Trump.

June 5: [On the August prediction] I could be off by a month or so, I dont know.

July 4: By the morning of August 13, itll be the talk of the world, going Hurry up! Lets get this election pulled down. Lets get these communists out, you know, [who] have taken over.

Aug. 21: Its Trump 2021, 100 percent: Trump 2021. This election, when it does get pulled down, there were so many down-ticket [races] affected, maybe the Supreme Court, theyll just do a whole new election.

Sept. 21: I made a promise to this country that with all the evidence I have that we would get it to the Supreme Court. And I predicted they would vote 9-0 to look at the evidence. Originally, I had hoped for August and September. We will have this before the Supreme Court before Thanksgiving. Thats my promise to the people of this country.

Sept. 24: Were giving everything all the evidence I have [to] the Supreme Court. That will be done before Thanksgiving. Thats in stone.

Nov. 7: [The Supreme Court is] going to accept it 9-0. It will require a new election across the board. [Theyll] declare the 2020 vote void and order new elections across the board.

Nov. 17: One week from today, on Nov. 23, the states are suing the U.S. government at the Supreme Court. Its over!

Dec. 17: [On the timeline for his long-promised 9-0 Supreme Court case] It was gonna be today; it switched out til Monday.

Lets be clear: Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. He lost by every possible measure. He lost the national popular vote (which doesnt decide who wins). He lost the Electoral College (which does). He lost the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He lost each of them by margins far too large to even possibly be changed by voter fraud. He and his allies lost 61 state and federal lawsuits related to the election results. His claims of widespread fraud or a stolen election are baseless and themselves fraudulent. He has no rightful claim to the presidency.

And yet, Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO-turned conspiracy theorist, continues to predict, despite reality, that the election results will be deemed illegitimate, thrown out, and that somehow, this will make Trump the White Houses rightful occupant. How would this work? Unclear. Even if the election were somehow dismissed, why would Trump be given the office? Also unclear. When will this occur? Perpetually, someday soon.

What Lindell has done repeatedly and confidently predicting Trumps return to office time after time, missed deadline after missed deadline isnt just moving the goalposts; its well, metaphors fail. Its moving the whole damn field. Its changing the sport entirely. Its inventing a new game that only he can win, and then managing to lose said game, repeatedly.

Predicted by: Robert McCartney (among many, many, many others), Jan. 1

On Jan. 1, when Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney published his 11th annual predictions quiz about the year ahead, he gave readers six options from which to correctly select the next governor of Virginia. Who would it be? Could Virginia make history by electing a Black woman, like Democratic state Sen. Jennifer McClellan or former Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy? Would scandal-plagued Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax improbably resurrect his career after sexual assault allegations? Perhaps a Republican lawmaker, like former state House Speaker Kirk Cox, or the Trumpy state Sen. Amanda Chase?

No. The next governor, McCartney wrote, would be Terry McAuliffe, as Bidens 2020 victory showed theres still plenty of appetite for an old White guy. In November, of course, McAuliffe lost to someone who wasnt even on the list: Republican Glenn Youngkin.

Predicted by: Karl Rove, Feb. 11

Predicted by: John Kerry, April 27

Predicted by: Anthony Scaramucci, May 15

Apparently, fomenting a violent uprising against the government isnt a deal-breaker. With his grip on the GOP still tight, the partys nomination is certainly Trumps if he wants it. And this month, polls on a potential presidential election between Trump and Biden show a tight race: Biden up by 1 (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 7); Biden up by 3 (Echelon Insights, Dec. 14); Trump up by 3 (Harris, Dec. 6). By all appearances, Trump is certainly capable of running in 2024 and winning.

Predicted by: Sean Duffy, Jan. 2

When, on Jan. 2, Watters World guest host Dan Bongino asked Duffy, a former Real World castmate-turned-Wisconsin GOP congressman-turned-Fox News personality, for his predictions for the year ahead, there was not a moments hesitation: Listen, my crystal ball tells me that youre going to have a continued cognitive decline for Joe Biden. By the end of 2021, Kamala Harris will be the president.

Right now, it is Dec. 24, and while Ill concede that it is possible that the next six days bring some truly Earth-shattering news, Biden is still the president. Has his fastball lost some of its zip as hes aged? Sure. Whose doesnt? But there is nothing to suggest anything in the realm of debilitating cognitive decline. And as 2021 ends, Harris is not only not the president, shes been the subject of much critical coverage that has fanned doubts about whether she could ever really be the president.

Predicted by: Donald Trump, Oct. 22, 2020

You can doubt the strength of the Biden economy, debate whether or not the inflation weve experienced is transitory and question all the various statistics trotted out to prove this or that. But its a simple fact that the economy is not in a depression. Its not even in a recession.

Since Biden took office, the unemployment rate has dropped from 6.3 percent to 4.2 percent; the Dow Jones Industrial Average has grown by roughly 14 percent; the S&P 500 is up roughly 21 percent; Americas gross domestic product grew by 7.8 percent over the first three quarters of 2021, even when adjusted for inflation. If thats a depression, then what would be the appropriate term for the economy at the end of the Trump presidency?

Predicted by: Tom Ricks, June 24

In his tweet, Ricks conceded that it was a reckless prediction, but at the time, maybe it didnt seem too crazy. The economy was improving, the pandemic seemed to be receding.

Two months later, the botched Afghanistan withdrawal began to slash away at Bidens ratings. The political fallout from the debacle punctuated by horrific violence, humanitarian disaster and scores of deaths continues to be an albatross on the Biden administration.

By Labor Day, in FiveThirtyEights average, Bidens approval sat at 46.1 percent; his disapproval was 48.3 percent. It was the end of the first full week of the Biden presidency where his approval was underwater. Its been there ever since.

Predicted by: Nate Silver, Aug. 23

There was a time this summer when it appeared that the recall election against California Gov. Gavin Newsom might actually win polls tightened substantially in early August, sparking the typical apocalyptics from the blue-check Twitterati. Pretty decent chance Newsom gets recalled, FiveThirtyEights Nate Silver tweeted before jumping to explain how this reality revealed the foolishness of Dems strategy of not putting forward a potential Newsom successor on question two on the recall ballot: Democrats could potentially keep the seat if they urged their voters to consolidate behind an alternative Democrat but instead theyre telling them not to vote on the replacement!

Come September, Newsom defeated the recall with 62 percent of the vote. And Dems strategy of not consolidating behind an alternative candidate helped Newsom make the vote an up-or-down choice between him and Republican frontrunner Larry Elder rather than giving Democratic voters a viable option on question two (which mightve sweetened the prospect of voting yes on question one).

Silver might take issue with our call that his odds-making counts as a wrong prediction, but the fact is, Newsom ultimately won handily. And his strategy paid off.

Predicted by: Brett Arends, Jan. 22

Predicted by: Myles Udland, Dec. 16, 2020

Turns out there was a reason to worry about inflation. By October, the year-over-year inflation rate was the highest since 1990. By November, it was the highest since 1982. Between January and this writing, the chatter among economists has evolved: It was something you probably didnt need to be worried about. Then it was transitory. Now, it is maybe not so temporary. Hard to tell.

The issue has badly disrupted the first year of the Biden administration, and has a quality not unlike a beach ball in a swimming pool: Try as you might to wrestle it down, it pops back up to the surface over and over again, stubborn to your every effort.

Predicted by: Jamelle Bouie (among many, many others), July 7

In July, my colleague Maya King reported on a trend in suburban Virginia: Tense school board meetings populated by growing numbers of parents angry about the supposed teaching of critical race theory often used by ideological conservatives as a shorthand for how race and social issues are taught in K-12 public schools, even as Loudoun County school officials insisted that the theory was not actually being taught. Could a School-Board Fight Over Critical Race Theory Help Turn Virginia Red?, the headline read.

No, responded Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times columnist who lives in Virginia. The idea, he continued, was an extremely credulous take on Republican wishcasting. (Worth noting: That wasnt an entirely unreasonable assumption, coming four years after stories asked aloud whether fears about the MS-13 gang would spur Republicans to retake the governors mansion.)

It wasnt. Come November, Republicans won the elections for Virginia governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, and regained control of the state House. Was the critical race theory backlash the sole reason why? No. But it appears to have played a substantial role in winning Youngkin the election.

By promising at nearly every campaign stop to ban critical race theory Youngkin resurrected Republican race-baiting tactics in a state that once served as the capital of the Confederacy, wrote the Times Lisa Lerer. It was, wrote the Times Trip Gabriel, his best known pledge embodying the anger that drove the grass roots. And, in a tidy answer to the question posed in the headline of Mayas piece, USA Todays Ledyard King and Mabinty Quarshie reported that the issue sparked a movement that help[ed] turn Virginia from blue to red last month.

Predicted by: Dana Perino, Jan. 4; Matt Grossmann, Nov. 9, 2020; et al

Its an understandable assumption: Georgia has been going hard for Republicans for decades, and a reasonable observer might imagine that the GOP would have the edge in the Jan. 5 run-offs. Down-ticket, Republicans in the state performed strongly in the November elections: While Trump lost to Biden by about 0.3 points in the state, David Perdue led Jon Ossoff by 1.8 points on the same ballot. The states other Senate seat had just undergone an inconclusive jungle primary in which nobody received more than one-third of the vote; but in her bid to defeat Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler was buoyed by a vast fortune and the reality that the Deep South had elected only one Black man to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction (Tim Scott in neighboring South Carolina). Plus, without Trump on the ballot, Democratic voters might be less inclined to turn out to vote against him.

Nope. With Black voters coming out in huge numbers for Democrats and Republican turnout depressed after Trumps incessant, and false, claims of election fraud, something surprising happened. Warnock and Ossoff won, and delivered Democrats the narrowest possible majority in the U.S. Senate.

Predicted by: Jason Chaffetz, Jan. 2

This one was a bit of Republican wishcasting. Chaffetz, the former GOP congressman from Utah, predicted on the night of Jan. 2 that Nancy Pelosi whose mastery at vote-counting has kept her atop House Democratic leadership for 20 years now would somehow lack the votes to be elected speaker the following day, despite a Democratic majority.

The result was entirely predictable: Pelosi had the votes. Of the 427 members of the House at the time, 216 supported her a margin comfortable enough that a handful of House Democrats from swing seats were free to vote for someone other than her.

Predicted by: G. Elliott Morris, April 25

In fairness, this was not a bad prediction when it was made: Polls throughout the spring showed overwhelming support for Bidens plan to withdraw from Afghanistan.

But by Bidens Sept. 11 deadline, the chaotic U.S. pullout had destabilized his presidency, calling into question the core claims of competence that had long been Bidens ballast.

Its possible that over the long arc of history, Morris prediction will turn out to be correct. But at this point, the pullout was extraordinarily politically damaging for Bidens presidency.

Predicted by: Ben Weingarten, Dec. 30, 2020

A week out from the Georgia Senate run-offs, Benjamin Weingarten, a contributor to the Federalist, appeared on Fox News The Ingraham Angle and laid bare what would happen if Ossoff and Warnock defeated Perdue and Loeffler, delivering Democrats a 50-50 Senate majority. If the Democrats take these two seats, its a guarantee of socialism in this country because youll have D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood. Youll have mass amnesty. Youll have socialized medicine. Youll have the evisceration of the vote integrity.

Two things:

One: A 50-50 Senate could never be read as a mandate for any policy at the ideological extremes of American politics, including socialism. The very nature of the Senate, where members of the minority party have enormous power to block legislation, makes it exceptionally difficult to enact any major policy change.

Two: Clearly, the man has never met Joe Manchin. D.C. statehood? Opposed to it. Puerto Rican statehood? Non-committal. Socialized medicine? Hardly: The man opposed expanding Medicare to cover dental care. Forget socialism; they cant even pass Build Back Better.

Predicted by: Amy Siskind, Jan. 2

Amid the run-up to Jan. 6 as Republican senators like Missouris Josh Hawley announced that theyd object to the count of electoral votes from certain swing states that Biden carried, as pro-Trump die-hards planned a massive rally with the goal of pressuring Congress to essentially discard the results of a democratic election, and as the Big Lie about the 2020 vote metastasized within the Republican electorate a certain amount of (understandable) anxiety percolated among liberals and moderates on Twitter.

Amy Siskind, who rose to online prominence in the early days of the Trump administration by recording and listing out the norms being broken on a weekly basis, was one of the relatively few major voices on #Resistance Twitter urging calm.

Anyone worried about Jan 6 impacting the election dont be, she tweeted on the night of Jan. 2. Its nothing more than a seditious stunt that will go nowhere. Then, a follow-up: If you live in DC, stay off the streets on Jan 6. Let the DC police take care of the white supremacists like they did in Oregon yesterday. I actually think it will be fun to watch lol.

What ultimately happened on Jan. 6, of course, was a brazen attack on both democratic institutions and the democratic process itself: a mob of pro-Trump extremists assaulted police officers, broke into the U.S. Capitol building, called for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence (and, broadly, heads on pikes), defiled the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (among others), sent staffers and members into hiding for hours, took over the floor of the U.S. Senate, caused law enforcement to draw their weapons and barricade the entrance to the House chamber, led to the use of lethal force against a pro-Trump rioter who attempted to enter the Speakers lobby as members fled, and halted the counting of electoral votes for several hours until armed forces could secure the Capitol complex. Fun to watch lol? Not so much.

Predicted by: David Fegan (among others), Jan. 8

After a half-decade during which @realDonaldTrumps every missive was mainlined into the bloodstream of American politics, it was hard to imagine Twitter without him. Then, two days after the Jan. 6 attack, Twitter permanently blocked him. Suddenly, @realDonaldTrump was no more. And after a couple days, it was not at all hard to imagine Twitter without him. Nearly a year later, Twitters still going strong.

Predicted by: Duncan Ross (among others), Jan. 3

Spoiler alert: Trump remained in office until Biden took the oath on Jan. 20.

Predicted by: Paul Strand, Feb. 17

Many progressives wish he would. But Biden has made no move to expand the court, and his blue-ribbon commission to study the issue did not endorse the idea.

Predicted by: Fortune Magazine, Dec. 2020

Theres a consensus that after 20 years at the helm of the Democratic Party in Congress, Pelosi is nearing the end of her career. That much seems obvious. But there are two big x-factors about her remaining time leading Democrats: when shell step aside, and who her successor will be.

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Road Test of the Year: Land Rover Defender V8 Car Dealer Magazine – Car Dealer Magazine

Posted: at 6:05 pm

Land Rover didnt need to build the V8. The petrol and diesels do just fine for the reinvented Defender these days, and of course the plug-in hybrid version gives the toughest Land Rover a green conscience.

But sometimes the best cars are the ones that didnt have a requirement to exist, and you could certainly say that about the Defender V8. While it feels like its very unfashionable, politically incorrect, gross, and so on, to talk about a large 44 powered by an old-school eight-cylinder engine, the V8 and the Defender do have a history.

Land Rover first stuck the old Rover-Buick 3.5-litre V8 into the Series III Land Rover in the late Seventies, and the engine was available throughout the Eighties before being dropped when the first Defender launched in 1990. So its only fitting that the second Defender (if you can call it that) gets an eight-cylinder engine the first car never got.

Thirty years on and its quite a different engine of course. That old Rover engine has been dead for a long time, but the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 this car gets is hardly in its first flush of youth either. The 5.0 AJ-V8, previously built by Ford but now by Jaguar Land Rover itself, dates back to the mid-Nineties in one form or another, and in recent years has been the engine JLR has turned to when it needed a thumping range-topper for a Jaguar or Land Rover model. The writing is on the wall for the venerable old thing, though, as tighter EU emissions regulations coming into force over the next few years has meant JLR is using a BMW 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 for the new Range Rover, so there wont be many more new applications for the old 5.0-litre.

The AJ-V8 has come in various states of tune over the years, but over 500bhp is its sweet spot. For the Defender, JLR has plumped for a pretty conservative 518bhp and given the chassis a bit of a once-over to help the Defender cope with the power upgrade. So there are new anti-roll bars to help keep the body a bit more tied down, the suspension has been recalibrated and theres an electronic limited slip differential and torque vectoring by braking. Add 20-inch wheels, a couple of subtle V8 badges, some suede-like stuff for the interior plus blue brake callipers and thats pretty much it.

Theres a very good reason for this small but effective assortment of tweaks. The Defender V8 is a Land Rover product it trundles down the same production line as all the other Defenders, and doesnt get engineered by its Special Vehicle Operations division like the Range Rover Sport SVR does, for example. That means the Defender V8 has to perform as well on the farm as it does on the Kings Road, so theres still the full gamut of a low-range transfer case, Terrain Response 2, wade sensing and other essential off-roading paraphernalia.

The V8 comes in short-wheelbase 90 and 110 long-wheelbase forms, but for some reason the 90 suits the engine better perhaps its the hot rod-like character.

Within a few metres and even at near-walking pace, you can tell this V8 is more than just a Defender with a big engine under the bonnet. The steering immediately feels sharper, no doubt helped by the massive 22-inch wheels and lower profile rubber. Pick up the pace a bit and you can tell the suspension has tied down the body considerably its less wayward and a bit more controlled. For the V8, the Terrain Response 2 system gets a Dynamic mode that does the usual sharpens and hardens practically everything and its essential if you want to make quick progress from point to point. The engine feels more alive and the exhausts are a touch louder not uncouth like a Range Rover Sport SVR, but a slightly deeper bellow.

By gum its quick. While the old 5.0-litre V8 does come in more powerful tunes, 518bhp in a tall and short 44 is an awful lot. Squeeze the throttle and the blocky retro body sits back on its rear axle, and it really does fire down the road. Exit a corner and you can feel that electronic diff doing its best to keep the car controlled, although if you hit a bump or an imperfection in the road theres a pogo-stick-like bounce. Its hysterically good fun.

While there wasnt a chance to try out the V8 off road, there were plenty of times when a slower pace was needed between shoot locations. Just like other more normal Defenders, theres a familiar cosseting feel that all modern Land Rovers have. And with big squishy seats and a now-excellent infotainment system (previous JLR systems have been less than brilliant), its a very special car to drive. With prices starting from 100,890, it overlaps into the new Range Rovers territory, but in perfect Land Rover fashion it offers something so wonderfully different to the super-smooth and super-posh flagship. The Defender V8 is ludicrous, unnecessary, hilarious and utterly fabulous.

James Batchelor

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[OPINION] Journalism and the peace dividend – Rappler

Posted: at 6:05 pm

When the Nobel Prize Committee recently honored its winners for the 2021 Peace Prize Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov it was a much-needed booster shot for journalism and for the democracies that the profession protects by producing real news of public interest, often at the risk of life and limb.Sometimes journalism can amount to heroism, and we never needed such heroism more than we do now, living, as we do, in an age when journalists (Khashoggi) can be dismembered in a foreign embassy located in a country (Turkey) legendary for its abuses of reporters. That seems to be what the Committee was suggesting when it honored Muratovs work in Russia under KGB sentimentalist Vlad Putin, and Ressas work in the Philippines under Rodrigo Muerte Duterte, citing their courage in fighting for freedom of expression.

At the Columbia Journalism Review, youll find a relatively brief delineation of previous journalists nominated for or receiving a Nobel prize for their journalism in Celebration and impunity as journalists win the Nobel Peace Prize. Referring to impunity of authoritarian governments, John Allsop writes,

The killers of journalists getting away with it, of course, is a global phenomenon. CPJ monitors the trend via an annual impunity index; last year, both the Philippines, with 11 unsolved journalist murders, and Russia, with six, featured among its 12 worst offending countries.

Journalists risk retribution for reporting facts, which are a precondition for democracy and lasting peace, as the Nobel Prize announcement puts it.

Shortly after the award ceremony on December 10, Maria Ressa told Al Jazeera News, The Committee made a point to show that journalists under attack are critical and that perhaps our future is going to be dependent on how well we do our jobs.In 2012, Ressa established the news site Rappler, which has taken to task the excesses of the Duterte regimes war on drugs that has included death squad activity and widespread human rights abuses throughout the Philippines, home of Americas start in waterboarding.Ressa continued with a very sharp observation of the stakes for future news reporting, in the battle between fake news and real fact-based news:

Our experience in the Philippines is actually, I think, the experience of everyone around the world. When news organizations lost [their] gatekeeping powers to technology platforms. Those platforms abdicated responsibility for the public sphere, and that has made facts debatable because the data, facts, and lies are actually treated equally. In fact, the algorithms of the worlds largest distributor of news, Facebook [now Meta], actually favors lies laced with anger and hate that spreads faster and further than facts. So when facts are debatable, when you dont have facts, then you cant have truth.

If you see a Turd Blossom, flush it. Ressas full interview with al Jazeera is worth viewing here.

Similarly, in Russia, Dmitry Muratov has put himself at risk challenging the Putin regime and its henchmen, who, as Reporters Without Borders (RWB), says, has curbed press freedom and encouraged a climate of impunity for crimes of violence against journalists ever since he took over [in 2000].RWB cites the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya as an example of Putins repression of oppositional news. He describes the chilling effect of Politkovskayas vicious murder, so described, he told Time magazine:

Because of how they followed her. The people who were ready to put each of those five bullets in her body, they knew everything about her life. Thats why I call it vicious. They were plugged into her life. They watched who came and went from her home, all her private dramas, when her granddaughter would be born, how sick her mother was, how she races to the newsroom to turn in an article. And in the middle of all that, they shot her.

Vicious as a mob hit. (Jesus, suddenly I see that Obama strut, while a drone strike flashes in my head; another Jonas brother bites the dust.)

Muratov has used his platform, Novaya Gazeta, to challenge the thuggish policies of the never-ending Putin presidency. Its clear how much he detests the Putin era. In the same Time interview, he said:

I cant stand bullying and torture. I know the case against [Alexei Navalny]. It is a total fabrication. It represents the return of Stalins practices the forced confessions, the ruined fates, the isolation, the absolutely trumped-up charges. The political views of Alexei Navalny do not matter to me in the least. He and I have discussed our disagreements. But he has faced his imprisonment stoically and courageously. He has shown us all how to have a backbone, how to have a sense of irony and humor, to be brave. These are qualities I hold in the highest regard.

Good on the Nobel Committee for honoring such diminishing courage amongst the reactionary pablum of mainstream journalism. Of all the prizes the Nobel Committee awards, the Peace Prize is the most politically-motivated and controversial you slap your forehead in brainfart wonder when you recall awards to Henry Kissinger (Daniel Ellsberg feared K. might kill him for knowing too much) and Barry Obama (remember that arrogant casus belli acceptance speech?) and, yes, you punch yourself in the face when you remember that Donald Trump was nominated for the Peace Prize but these awards to these journalists are meet and timely.

Americans may see the Philippines and Russia as far-flung hoodlum wildernesses of disorder, not relevant to our relatively advanced lifestyle, but that, too, is delusion and a disease of conceit, as the Bard from Duluth puts it. Ed Snowden reminds his fellow Americans, in his aptly titled memoir, Permanent Record, that Americans were well on their way to a secretive, repressive, anti-democratic system rife for exploitation by future demagogues and Jan 6 types, like neo-animists QAnon, all horns no dilemma, and the Proud Boys on the threshold of a dream. No, but seriously, Snowden writes presciently, and rather soberly I thought,

A decade [after 9/11], it had become clear, to me at least, that the repeated evocations of terror by the political class were not a response to any specific threat or concern but a cynical attempt to turn terror into a permanent danger that required permanent vigilance enforced by unquestionable authority.

And, he later adds, that the government could always find something in our permanent record that could be criminalized for repressive purposes. We are already marks for State and corporate intel phishing expeditions. By creating a world-spanning system that tracked [us] across every available channel of electronic communications, the American Intelligence Community gave itself the power to record and store for perpetuity the data of your life. (p.247)

Not long after the award ceremony for Ressa and Muratov breaking news informed us that a British court has upheld the extradition process of Julian Assange to the United States to face life-withering Espionage Act charges for his journalism which the State deems illegal and politically incorrect, which is to say, embarrassingly revealing haughty disregard for human rights and conventions. For some brass in the Pentagon and pollies in DC, Assange might as well as have been one of the Reuters reporters murdered by laughing gunships in Baghdad, as depicted in the Collateral Murder video Wikileaks published in 2010. Radical transparency of government?

There has been plenty of justifiable hand-wringing over the fate of journalism, given the implications of prosecuting Assange for his publishing his revelations of American imperialisms vicious excesses. But, in typical sardonic fashion, former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges catches the spirit of the Assange take-down in his blog post, The Execution of Julian Assange.Hedges begins the piece,

He committed empires greatest sin. He exposed it as a criminal enterprise. He documented its lies, callous disregard for human life, rampant corruption and innumerable war crimes. And empires always kill those who inflict deep and serious wounds.

Ouch. And this, too, seems to be what the Committee was responding to. It reminded me of Harold Pinters go at American Empire in his Nobel Literature Prize speech, and gave new metaphorical wings to his Birthday Party. Remember when Stan gets taken away by the Deep Underworld State for adjustments?

If you resist their invisible authority or persist in seeking clarity, they will come for you and blow out your fucking candles. Happy birthday, motherfucker.

What Muratov claims about the Putin regime is equally true, and perhaps even more sinister because of the patriotic (see vaterland) deceit involved, journalists, real journalists, are in a war with the highest stakes the publication of state propaganda versus information of vital public interest.A couple of years ago, The Intercept ran Team of American Hackers and Emirati Spies Discussed Attacking The Intercept, a piece about how the publication was the target of secret eavesdropping and spying originating from ex-NSA agents whod gone to the UAE to enhance its nascent hacking activities embodied by the security company Dark Matter. They had reported on Dark Matters start-up three years prior, in a piece called Spies for Hire.They have also been the target of Israel for reporting on the Jewish states brisk ascension into the upper echelons of hacking tools, selling its products around the world to governments that want to spy on their own citizens, The Intercept notes.

Its important to begin a campaign to overturn the politically initiated 1917 Espionage Act, which is what Assange faces should he be extradited to America. But also, once he is here, it is important, ironically, that he stay in America.There has been talk from US government officials that perhaps Assange could finish out his sentence in Australia a bizarre arrangement motivated by the fact that in Australia hed be beyond American jurisprudence. America has, among many things, two advantages that Aussies lack, guns and proactive Bill of Rights-defending lawyers (there is no Bill of Rights in Australia). And its not clear if Assange would receive better prison treatment in Australia, where hes not regarded as a hero, beyond the Lefty academic lot, by the largely conservative populace the state has rarely come to his assistance. Max prison life in Australia is harsh as all get out, if the account by Gregory David Roberts in his 2003 reality-based prison escape novel Shantaram (highly recommended by the way) is any indication.

In the meantime, raise a glass to these intrepid spirits all around us.And raise a finger to the surveillance state that always assumes that youre up to no good. Like they should talk. Rappler.com

John Kendall Hawkins is an American poet and freelance journalist currently residing in Australia. He is a regular contributor to CounterPunch magazine, a progressive magazine of politicsand culture.

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Another Year Without A Family Christmas? – newsconcerns

Posted: at 5:55 pm

While lockdowns were supposed to be temporary initially just a couple of weeks to flatten the curve nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, theres no end in sight. Thanksgiving was once again canceled in many parts of the U.S., and many government leaders again urged residents to cancel their Christmas celebrations too. The latest Omicron mutation has given bureaucrats additional reasons to unleash their power and raise panic.

What many still dont realize is that the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has little to do with the spread of an actual virus, and everything to do with the planned global takeover and implementation of a technocratic agenda known as The Great Reset.

Universal mask mandates, social distancing, business shutdowns, online working and learning, and quarantining of asymptomatic individuals are all forms of soft indoctrination to get us used to an entirely new, and unfathomably inhumane, way of life devoid of our usual rights and freedoms.

Klaus Schwab is the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. Schwab announced the World Economic Forums Great Reset Agenda in June 2020,1 which includes stripping people of their privately owned assets.

In addition to being a poster boy for technocracy, Schwab also has a strong transhumanist bend, and wrote the book on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a hallmark of which is the merger of man and machine, biology and digital technology.2

According to Winter Oak a British nonprofit social justice organization Schwab and his globalist accomplices are using the COVID-19 pandemic to bypass democratic accountability, to override opposition, to accelerate their agenda and to impose it on the rest of humankind against our will.

While the Great Reset plan is being sold as a way to make life fair and equitable for all, the required sacrifices do not apply to the technocrats running the system.

On the contrary, as noted by Patrick Wood in an interview with James Delingpole, the wealth distribution and circular economies promoted by the technocratic elite will never benefit the people, because what theyre really referring to is the redistribution of wealth from the people, to themselves.

Evidence of this can be seen in the decision to allow big box stores to remain open during the pandemic while forcing small businesses to close, no matter how small the infection risk.

Theres really no rhyme or reason for such a decision, other than to shift wealth away from small, private business owners to multinational corporations. More than half of all small business owners fear their businesses wont survive.3

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the collective wealth of 651 billionaires in the U.S. rose by more than $1 trillion (36%).4 To put their current wealth in perspective, not only did the number of billionaires in America swell to 745 during the pandemic, but their assets grew by $2.1 trillion.5

According to the online newsletter Inequality, The $5 trillion in wealth now held by 745 billionaires is two-thirds more than the $3 trillion in wealth held by the bottom 50 percent of U.S. households estimated by the Federal Reserve Board.

As noted by Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, Never before has America seen such an accumulation of wealth in so few hands.6

Thats technocratic wealth redistribution for you. Ultimately, The Great Reset will result in two tiers or people: the technocratic elite, who have all the power and rule over all assets, and the rest of humanity, who have no power, no assets and no voice.

That the COVID-19 pandemic is a form of class war is also evident in the way rules are enforced. While citizens are threatened with fines and arrest if they dont do as theyre told, those who lay down the rules repeatedly break them without repercussions.

If you need more evidence that were in the middle of a technocratic takeover, look no further than the mass vaccination agenda and the promotion of fake, lab-grown meat. Bill Gates, another frontline technocrat, has repeatedly stated that we have no choice but to vaccinate everyone against COVID-19.

Naturally, hes heavily invested in said vaccine and stands to gain handsomely from a global mass vaccination campaign. Technocrats are nothing if not self-serving, all while pretending to be do-gooders much like COVID Claus in our little video.

Eventually, your personal identification, medical records, finances and who knows what else will all be tied together and embedded somewhere on or in your body. Every possible aspect of your biology and life activities will be trackable 24/7. You will also be digitally tied into the internet of things, which eventually will include smart cities.

All the different parts of this giant population control grid fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The global vaccination agenda ties into the biometric identity agenda, which ties into the cashless society agenda, which ties into the social credit system agenda, which ties into the social engineering agenda and so on.

When you follow this experiment to its ultimate conclusion, you find all of humanity enslaved within a digitized prison with no way out. Those who rebel will simply have their digital-everything restricted or shut down.

The rise of fake, lab-grown meat is a puzzle piece of The Great Reset agenda too. According to the World Economic Forum, lab-grown, cultured meat is a more sustainable alternative to conventional livestock, and in the future, well all be eating a lot less meat. As noted on its website:7

As the world looks to reset its economy, along with food systems, in a cleaner way post-pandemic, one more sustainable solution coming to fruition is cultured meat Cultured meat takes much less time to grow, uses fewer of the planets resources, and no animals are slaughtered.

But dont think for a second that this has anything to do with environmental protection. No, its about controlling the food supply and preventing food independence.

Already, multinational corporations have taken over a majority of the global food supply with their patented genetically engineered seeds. Patented cultured meats and seafood will allow private companies to control the food supply in its entirety, and by controlling the food supply, they will control countries and entire populations.

Public health will undoubtedly suffer from this dietary switch, as canola and safflower oil8 are primary sources of fat in these fake meat concoctions. Vegetable oils are loaded with linoleic acid (LA), an omega-6 fat that, in excess, acts as a metabolic poison, causing severe mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, decreased NAD+ levels, obesity and a radical decrease in your ability to generate cellular energy.

Our LA consumption 150 years ago was between 2 and 3 grams per day. Today it is 10 to 20 times higher. If fake meat becomes a staple, the average LA intake is bound to increase even further.

The Great Reset is well underway, but its not yet too late to stop it. Enough people have to see it and understand it, though. And then they must act. If we want to prevent The Great Reset from destroying life as we know it, we must view civil disobedience as a duty. We must resist it from every angle.

We must reclaim our sovereignty, our right to live free, to open our businesses and move about freely. We must communicate with our elected leaders and demand they not infringe on our constitutional rights. We have to engage in political processes and help educate our local sheriffs of their role as defenders of the constitution. We may also need to support legal challenges.

A small step in the right direction that you can take right now would be to celebrate Christmas like you normally would this week, and not allow the Klaus Schwabs and Bill Gateses of the world rob you of valuable time with family and friends.

There are no guarantees in this life, and for many, this will be their last Christmas. So, spend it well. Cherish life by actually living it and spending it with those you love. Refusing to give up our humanity is how we resist The Great Reset.

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The Matrix Resurrections: The Studio Is Making Us Do This! – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Posted: at 5:55 pm

Lets address the most contentious issue first. This movie isnt great, but its not The Last Jedi bad. Matrix fans arent going to be storming the gates in protest, because their beloved characters were assassinated for the message. Its true that Neo is nerfed so that Trinity can take his place. This is annoying because, as Ive said before, nobody wants to see a Dragon Ball Z spectacle featuring Neos powers just so the poor sap could die in obscurity because nothing he did mattered anyway. They didnt do this, and that is to the writers credit.

If there was anybody who deserved a Deus ex Machina sent by the Social Justice Warriors from on high, it was Trinity. Her decision to go with Neo to the machine city, even though it meant certain death, easily made her the most courageous character in the trilogy. Nobody gave her Matrix Wi-Fi. So, even though, the twist at the end of the film made zero sense, from a narrative standpoint, she earned her miracle. Were not talking about Rey, Mary-Sue, Skywalker, some random character with no connection to the things that were before whos magically able to fix the old ships, shoot better, fight better, jump better, drive a boat better even though she grew up on a desert planet, basically do everything better for no reason other than she is the narrative equivalent of a jingling set of keys. Trinity is not Rey. She earned her place in the original trilogy because she suffered with the other characters, and I would argue she even earned her position as the new One alongside Neo because she suffered as Neo suffered.

I bring this up because there have been multiple people who have compared this movie to The Last Jedi, and while this movie is by no means good, equivocating it to Rian Johnsons cinematic abomination is a little harsh.

The real issue with this movie is that it clearly did not want to be made. Over an hour is devoted to Neos new life within the Matrix. There is a scene toward the beginning where the new Agent Smith who is now a cooperate bigwig is telling Neo that they are making the Matrix Trilogy, which is now a video game, into a new franchise, and the company is going to do this with or without his cooperation. I imagine is this exactly how the pitch meeting went when the studio approached Lana Wachowski. The implications are about as subtle as Neo being called the One and dying only to rise from the dead. Say what you will about the Wachowskis, subtlety is not their strong suit. After this scene, we get a montage showing all these corporate suits arguing over what the Matrix is and over time redefining the game altogether. Theres only one word to describe this sequence, meta.

This reset is noticeable, and it contributes to the contrived nature of the film. Wachowski wants to affirm her characters struggles in a world which is being rebooted by force. The way she resolves this dilemma is interesting. When Neo expresses regret because his fight did not end the Matrix, one of characters shows him her pet sentient robots which are literally called sentients. So, the One did not end the Matrix, instead the One created a unity between man and machine. This isnt transhumanism in the sense that man has merged with machine, but rather, the machines have become, for all intent and purposes, human. They can completely wake up and leave the Matrix if they wish, and now, the free humans are tasked with liberating the machines as well as other humans.

This is interesting, and I suppose it should have been obvious, considering the machines seemed to be practically human anyway by the end of the previous trilogy. But it was a surprising twist anyway, and a clever way of getting around undermining Neos previous accomplishments.

As before, none of these details are explained. How the robots are doing any of this remains a constant nagging question throughout the film, but this time, one could arguably be a little more sympathetic about the plot hole because Wachowski is struggling to reestablish a finished franchise without negating the accomplishments of the previous characters.

I have much more to say about the movie, and we will cover those topics as well as go into more details regarding how the machines work, the programs work, and how the main antagonist operates in the next review.

Here are my thoughts on the original Matrix Trilogy:

Bringing you up to date with the Matrix series: Will The Matrix Resurrections (dropped December 22) break the mold? The culturally influential trilogy (control by evil aliens) enjoys a fascinating beginning but a thud! ending. Can we really escape a world of illusions simply by following our most basic influences? If wisdom cant help, why should instinct be the answer? (Gary Varner)

The Matrix Reloaded (2003) just did not load properly. Although the second part of the Matrix trilogy offers interesting ideas and exciting action, the confusing plot obscures the concepts it should explore. Free will is hard to explore when, among AIs, Agent Smith can think freely, the Architect cant grasp the idea, and the Oracle understands but doesnt have it. (Gary Varner)

The Matrix Revolutions (2003) spins out of control. In Part I of this review of the third film in The Matrix trilogy anticipating The Matrix: Resurrections (December 22) we bring you up to date on the story. The plot continues to baffle: How did Neo end up in digital purgatory? How can machines fall in love and produce a child? Answers are awaited.

and

The Matrix Revolutions churns into a cosmic drama. It turns out to be a conflict between chaos and probability with no apparent moral compass. As fans await The Matrix Resurrection, we begin to sense an outline in The Matrix: Revolutions of the ultimate conflict of human vs. machine.

The Matrix Trilogy: Some Final Thoughts I enjoyed the films and am looking forward to the Matrix Resurrections but there are some things I need to say as a reviewer. The problem with the Matrix trilogy that it tries to say too much, and so the messages conflict when theyre not downright confusing.

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Hybrid Transhuman Black-eyed Babies Pandemic Babies …

Posted: December 23, 2021 at 10:43 pm

Posted by Jerry Derecha

PostedbyJerry DerechaonSeptember 30, 20210Comments

This is absolutely horrifying. They are not following Natural Law by doing this. Unless all the mothers had been vaccinated. Then they brought these little monsters upon themselves.

https://www.roxytube.com/v/fSLwfb

| Hybrid Transhuman Black-eyed Baby

To see these children being born as Serpent Seedesque black-eyed semi-synthetic abominations is certainly shocking, but not surprising and would fit right alongside our current prevailing theory regarding the DNA modifying aspirations of the EL-ites and their plans to kill or zombify the rest of us. It would make sense for them to target parts of the female genome to ensure that any child born moving forward would be loyal to the Beast & the Beast System and not technically human. THAT baby does NOT look human. It looks like a remote controlled drone baby from Tesla or something. Those eyes arent just dark. They aresodark that it almost looks like CGI(Maybe thats what it is. Judge for yourself, but I dont think so).

Source:https://www.massappealnews.com/2021/09/29/covid-video-black-eyed-vaccine-babies-admixture-of-creepy-aliens-and-manikins/

Pandemic babies resemble aliens.

Blog King,Mass Appeal

MEXICO A video has gone viral that shows the ill effects of the COVID vaccine oninfants. The parents were inoculated between December 2020 and January 2021. Many of theblack-eyed babieshave dilated pupils coupled withprematureaging. The tots resemble an admixture of aliens andmanikins. The video shows a baby sitting up at 4 months old. It also shows an infant crawling at 2 months, a baby walking at 3 months and acrumb snatchersayingmamaat 4 months.

Not to mention a neonate grew a damn tooth. Man, its one of thecreepiestvideos youll ever see. Social media reaction was priceless.One viewer wrote,No easy way to say it. Its some no soul having horror show sh*t.Another added,They were given super powers! The age of the X-babies is at hand.

Are parents to blame?

Is it time to recall and re-examine the vaccine?

Watch the video.

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Conservative Florida pundit accused of funneling Russian money to Trump campaign dies – Florida Bulldog

Posted: at 10:38 pm

Roy Douglas Doug Wead in the Oval Office with President Trump

By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org

A longtime conservative political commentator and author under federal indictment for conspiring to illegally funnel Russian money to the Trump campaign in 2016 has died.

Roy Douglas Doug Wead, 75, of Bonita Springs, died Dec. 10 after suffering a stroke and heart failure, according to his Twitter account.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden of the District of Columbia was notified of Weads death Friday by his attorneys, Jane Serene Raskin of Coral Gables and Washington, D.C.s Jay Sekulow. Sekulow was one of President Donald Trumps lead attorneys during his first impeachment trial in 2020.

Wead, a former special assistant to President George H.W. Bush who served as an advisor to multiple presidential campaigns, and co-defendant Jesse R. Benton of Louisville, KY, pleaded not guilty in September. Wead was released on his own recognizance, Benton on a $25,000 bond.

No trial date has been set. If convicted, the men each faced a range of maximum penalties from five to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts against them.

Benton, 43, ran the pro-Trump Great America super PAC and got a December 2020 pardon from Trump for his 2016 conviction on conspiracy and other charges arising from a 2012 campaign scheme to buy a political endorsement in the 2012 Iowa caucuses for ex-congressman Ron Paul. Benton worked on two of Pauls failed presidential campaigns, and also on the Senate campaigns of Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell.

Notably, conservative media news stories about Weads death put out by Boca Raton-based Newsmax, One America News and the evangelical news outlet Charisma News neglected to mention his pending criminal case.

Federal prosecutors said Wead and Benton conspired together to solicit a political contribution from a Russian foreign national, then later filed false campaign finance reports to make it appear as if Benton made the contribution. It is illegal for foreign nationals to donate to U.S. campaigns.

The Russian is not named in the indictment but is described as a business associate of Wead who wired $100,000 from a bank in Vienna, Austria to a political consulting business owned by Benton. Wead had told his Russian friend that in exchange for the payment he could meet Trump.

Shortly after the Russian committed to transfer the funds, Benton reached out to his contacts at the Republican National Committee and arranged for both the Russian and another foreign national who worked as a Russian/English translator for Wead to attend and get a picture taken with Trump at a Sept. 22, 2016 fundraiser in Pennsylvania. Benton even used his personal credit card to pay the $25,000 cost of the Russians ticket to the event.

Wead and Benton later created a fake invoice for consulting services and invented a cover story to disguise the true purpose of the funds transfer, according to a Department of Justice press release that accompanied the indictments release.

Benton filled out a contributor form that he not the Russian contributed the $25,000, but paid off his credit card using the Russians money. The release notes dryly, Benton retained the remaining $75,000 of Foreign National 1s money.

Because Benton falsely claimed to have given the contribution himself, three different political committees unwittingly filed reports with the FEC [Federal Elections Commission] that inaccurately reported Benton as the source of the funds.

The 20-page grand jury indictment does not name Trump, and Department of Justice prosecutors have taken unusual precautions to prevent public disclosure of confidential and law enforcement-sensitive information in the case. A court protective order now veils documents disclosed to the defense as part of the governments pre-trial discovery obligations.

Still, the Washington Post reported shortly after the indictments release that the account of Bentons $25,000 contribution in support of political candidate 1, a candidate for president during the 2016 election cycle, matches a donation in public records that Benton made to Trump Victory. Trump Victory raised money for both the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Wead and Benton were both charged with one count of conspiracy to solicit and cause an illegal campaign contribution by a foreign national, effect a conduit contribution and cause false records to be filed with the FEC, one count of contribution in the name of another and three counts of making false entries in an official record.

Wead was the author of the 2019 book Inside Trumps White House: The Real Story of his Presidency. An obituary on Charisma News called him a Bush family insider who is credited with coining the phrase compassionate conservative.

According to Weads Twitter feed, a celebration of his life will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 3 at Orlandos Greeneway Church. The service will be livestreamed on Weads Facebook page.

See more here:
Conservative Florida pundit accused of funneling Russian money to Trump campaign dies - Florida Bulldog

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At This Driving School, the C8 Corvette Is Your Classroom – Robb Report

Posted: at 10:38 pm

If knowledge is power, then an education in motorsport is basically added horsepower, especially considering that any substantial modification to the drivers skill set is arguably the most important upgrade for any vehicle. There are heaps of great racing schools out there, but after recently going through the curriculum at Ron Fellows Performance Driving School based out of Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country Club in Pahrump, Nev., I now have a favorite.

The Ron Fellows school is pretty similar to the BMW Performance Driving School Ive previously attended. Both are conducted at motor resorts where luxury residences flank the track. Both offer go-faster instruction catering to varying abilities. And both are staffed with incredibly talented instructors. These racing schools were basically separated at birth. The only major difference is that at the BMW program youre training in its eponymous cars, obviously. At Fellows, the official high-performance driving school of the latest Chevrolet Corvette, the mid-engine C8s cockpit is your classroom. But that difference has nothing to do with why the Vette school is my choice thus far.

It all simply comes down to duration. My BMW program was one day (though BMW also offers two-day instruction), and the Corvette Owners School is two days. In fact, all four of the Vette programs that Ron Fellows offers are two days. Extended seat time gave my mind and muscle memory more opportunity for things to click. Of course, it didnt hurt that my precision driving skills were still fresh from having recently completed the BMW school. Case in point, this proclamation from Ron Fellows instructor Payten Murphy at the beginning of my second day: Ive never seen a student get under 30 seconds [around the autocross] on the first try. I consider myself a driver of unremarkable ability, so to receive an accolade like that speaks to the power of seat time . . . even passenger-seat time.

A couple of weeks before arriving at Spring Mountain, I put too many miles on my right Achilles tendon and busted it. I was walking without a limp by the time I arrived in Pahrump, but the first day of track exercises meant heavy use of my right foot for hard braking, leading to my limps inauspicious return. I opted out of left-foot braking as a bandage to the situation, so in the interest of preventing further injury, I decided to sit shotgun for the second day of lead/followsand Im so happy I did.

Riding with the instructor while he led students on track showed me the effectiveness of slowing down. When youre behind an instructor on a lead/follow lap, its natural to try driving as fast as possible, but for a budding racer, thats the opposite of what you should do. Ive been taught slow in, fast out of corners for most of my life. Id be Silicon Valleyrich if I had a dollar for every time Ive heard about smoothness winning the race. Ive experienced numerous racing-driver hot laps, witnessing first-hand how the speed sausage is made. But all that stuff didnt really click until riding along with a leader on a track exercise where Id already followed. It was astounding to see how light my instructor was on the brakes, especially before corner entry. That part felt slow, but then because of the extra settlement time in the braking zone, the Corvette was better set up to devour the turn. As a result, my instructors cornering speeds were about 10 mph higher than mine, and that speed was achieved in a manner that appeared Sunday-drive easy.

Something else astonishing was learning that during lead/follows, the racing instructors are peering into their rearview mirrors roughly 80 percent of each lap to keep track of the students behind. And theyre leading the pack with only one hand on the steering wheel, while the other hand managing two walkie-talkies; one for student comms and the other to communicate with supervising instructors. Thats talent.

The efficacy of passenger-seat time really became evident to me two weeks later when testing out the new Subaru BRZ at Lime Rock Park, the racetrack synonymous with the racing side of actor Paul Newmans career. Id wanted to drive this hallowed facility for years. Getting to rip around Lime Rock was a dream come true, but the deal was sweeter knowing I had that Corvette training under my belt. Theres minimal runoff at Lime Rock, so theres little room for error. A few months earlier, that would have made me really nervous, thus detracting from my enjoyment. With the Corvette Owners School experience in my back pocket, though, I was able to drink larger gulps of Lime Rocks greatness.

With my Achilles now healed enough for track duty in the BRZ, I got to practice my brake lift-off technique into corners so that I could maximize my front-end grip on turn-in. Towards the end of the day, I asked Lime Rocks track ace Paul to ride along with me for some added coaching. After my first lap or so, he asked, Who taught you how to lift off the brakes like that into corners? I told Paul about my Ron Fellows training two weeks earlier, and he was pleased with my results, enthusiastically commending me at the end of our session.

Another parallel between Corvette Owners School and BMW Performance Driving School is that both programs have autocross time trials. I came in second place out of six students in BMWs program, but out of 14 Corvette Owners School entrants, I was crowned autocross champion. Again, Im nothing special behind the wheel, so if I can be no.1, almost anyone else can be, too. Its all in the training, and thats why I wholeheartedly believe performance driving school is something for every licensed driver.

Corvette Owners School retails for $3,695, not including room accommodations, but when you buy a brand-new C8 Corvette, your tuition is slashed to $1,000, and that includes a one-night stay in a Spring Mountain trackside condo. The three more-advanced Corvette programs range from around $4,000 to $5,500 each, and rooms cost around $150 per night. But the return on investment is exponential. After its over, youll feel a little safer every time you get behind the wheel, and that peace of mind is priceless.

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Conservative Florida pundit accused of funneling Russian money to Trump campaign dies – Florida Bulldog

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