Fires in California

Many people have noted the very odd pattern of burned houses in some of the suburbs of LA.
There seem to be two reactions to this pattern.
One is the blowing off of the visual evidence, by claiming that the patterns are usual, sometimes accompanied by the smug assertion "I live in California, so I am a fire expert''.
Huh. I was born and raised in California, and I never once fought a fire, nor sat in a fire tower and watched a fire burn, nor saw a burned out area, (since I consider fire tourism gauche).

I saw the fire damage the same way everyone else in the country did, on TV. So I am an expert on TV videos of fire damage, and this is weird.

The other common conclusion is ''They are trying to kill us all, and depopulate some areas''.
This conclusion ALSO ignores the visual evidence. For one, the people were evacuated, not killed, and the very weird pattern of only scattered houses being affected is clearly NOT a depopulation effort, since people can move right back into the unburned houses.

Let's talk about what we all should know about...rich people getting richer.
The crash of 2008 was caused, (remember?) by the housing bubble and the mortgage speculation among the wealthy. McMansions were being built all over the country, in a pattern of extreme sprawl, and in inappropriate places.
After the crash, when Obama came in, the banks and Wall Street were bailed out, but millions of Americans were forced from their homes, (most illegally, but that's another story).
What happened to those houses?

Well, we know that a lot of them, sometimes entire blocks of them, were bought for pennies on the dollar by hedge funds, and rented out.

Here we are again, with a housing bubble, as well as a student loan bubble and a car loan bubble.
Let me quote Rahm Emmanual here "Never let a good crisis go to waste''.

Look at this video. Do you see high winds, roaring through entire neighborhoods, pushing great walls of flames and fire?
Yeah, I didn't think so.

As the hurricane in New Orleans was used to push out people from houses that were not originally affected, could the traditional method of rich landlords for recouping money on failed investments be being used, under cover of the wildfires going on?

Also note that the media tells you that you are seeing ''entire neighborhoods'' being burned at the SAME TIME that their camera is showing you something totally different.

As for entire stables of racehorses being left to burn, maybe someone should look at the new tax bill to see if race horses are still a tax deduction for the rich.

crack investigative reporter should check out the owners of the burned houses, and see if there is a pattern. crack investigative reporter should check out the owners of the burned houses, and see if there is a pattern.

Transwomen are Women?

For the last couple of years, Americans, and others have been subjected to a massive media push to get us to believe that men can actually be women, if they believe deeply enough that they are. Sort of an update of the old "Mind over Matter" or "Think yourself Rich" or "If you Dream it, you can be it", which have been fads that have come and gone throughout the decades.

I have believed, for a while, that this is another psy-ops, to see how many people they can get to deny reality, (like the Flat Earth thing, which has suddenly flared up), but now I really think so.
It's just too prevalent to be a natural thing. We're talking about just a handful of people, here, so why is it everywhere?

I'm used to observing media pushes and deducing what the ruling class wants us to believe this week, like the very obvious media blitzes when the US wants to attack another country, and the all-out media campaign against Trump that made it obvious our overlords wanted the Dark Queen, but what's up with the transgender thing, all of a sudden?

There are TV shows, and magazine articles, and Justice Dept rulings galore. WTF?
OK, so Bruce Jenner becomes Caitlyn, and they got an entire audience at the Academy Awards to give him a standing ovation. And there was a media blitz pushing it. He got a highly publicized article and photo shoot (by Annie Lebowitz, yet!)in Vanity Fair. He was "Woman of the Year" in Glamour Magazine. OK, fine. People don't really care that much, and Americans are carefully taught tolerance their entire lives. (Or, they were, for decades).

But, the very next week, we had the Rachel Donzeal thing. Right after we had been told, very sternly, that you can be whatever you think you are, there was a MASSIVE pileup on her, for daring to say that she was black, when she was actually white. The outrage! The cultural appropriation! Get her!
OK, there were people who made the obvious connection. How can something as basic in biology as the male/female grouping be easily overcome by positive thinking, but something as random as the various genes that control melanin and hair texture be immutable?

These people were also roundly trashed by the PC brigades. Racist! Bigot! How dare they compare two things so very different?

OK, yes, they are very different. The XX and XY chromosomes that control sex are, as I said, very very basic, but there is no such thing as a black gene.

There is an entire generation of people who were brought up in the identity politics years, and are vulnerable to charges of racism and sexism.

But, wait? Aren't women an oppressed group? How can you tramp on the rights of women so blatantly?

Well, you just repeat, over and over, that ''transwomen are women'', and then you announce that, actually, transwomen are more oppressed that other women, so they deserve our sympathy and support, not actual women, who now become "privileged", in comparison.

OK, now they have a large, very vocal contingent of people following along.
Then, they ratcheted up the provocations, and publicized it widely.

No more Vagina Monologues. That is offensive to ''women' without vaginas.

No more talk of menstruation, cramps, PMS, pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. That is divisive and exclusionary and hurtful to the feelings of transwomen.

Then the Justice Dept. ruling, allowing boys into girls' locker rooms. WHAT! Any woman who had ever hated stripping down in the locker room in front of the other girls could feel for those poor teenagers who now will be forced to strip in front of boys, because the boys' feelings are more important than a whole class of girls.

That woke up the rest of America, and the outrage started up.
But the social justice warriors followed right along with the ruling class. This was not a problem. Transwomen are actually women, don't you see, so why would there be a problem with teenaged girls being forced to strip in front of them?

So, here we are. More and more feminists, especially older women, are waking up and starting to call out the bullshit.

They are being roundly attacked and vilified by people who chant, like good little robots, that ''transwomen are really women''.

Meanwhile, our overlords are carefully monitoring social media, to see just how many people go along with their agenda, and how many rebel, and the right wing is having a field day, showing the arguments to people not indoctrinated in the identity group politics of the educated.

It is a mess.

The Armada That Wasn't

This week, the media is piling onto Donald Trump, ridiculing him for saying that he was sending an "armada" to North Korea, to threaten that country. (More than the usual military exercises on its borders, and threats of assassination of its leader.)

It took me a couple of days to realize "this seems odd". It was only a week ago, but the media controls the discussion so thoroughly that it seems far down the Memory Hole.

So I checked the Oracle (google) and got this...."Last week, the armada was diverted to a new mission.
"U.S. Pacific Command ordered the Carl Vinson Strike Group north as a prudent measure to maintain readiness and presence in the Western Pacific," Cmdr. David Benham, a spokesman for the command, said in a statement on Sunday.
"Third Fleet ships operate forward with a purpose: to safeguard U.S. interests in the Western Pacific,” he said. “The number one threat in the region continues to be North Korea, due to its reckless, irresponsible, and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability,” the spokesman added.
President Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster said on Fox News Sunday that the ships were being redirected toward the Korean Peninsula as a “prudent” measure, because “North Korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative behavior.” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/11/us-navy-carrier-strike-group-sets-its-sights-on-north-korea.html

That seems pretty official.

Then, on April 14th, Trump told Fox News...."President Donald Trump on Wednesday told the Fox Business Network, “We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.”

On April 17th, Christopher P. Cavas, reporting in Defense News, gave a bizarre mishmash of statements, in which anonymous sources denied that the ships were heading to North Korea.
"Off the record, several officials expressed wonderment at the persistent reports that the Vinson was already nearing Korea. “We’ve made no such statement,” said one official.
But, a couple of paragraphs later, he reports..."The Vinson’s return to Korea was ordered on April 8 by Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. Pacific Command. On April 11, Defense Secretary James Mattis – having just met with Harris in Washington – noted that no specific incident prompted the order to curtail the exercise program and head north."

So, according to this article, anonymous sources "express wonderment" and deny that Adm. Harry Harris had ordered the ships to return to Korea. Who are these officials, who have their uncredited claims put forward against official spokesmen?

What kind of reporting is that?

However, if you peruse the mainstream media and the blogosphere, you will find endless articles snarkily ridiculing Pres. Trump for "not knowing where his warships are".

So, what is going on? I did find a CNN article, from last week, clumsily trying to explain it all off as "miscommunication" and "confusion". http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/carl-vinson-korea-trump/

However, there is no more mention of that, in the constant barrage of attack articles now. It seems that Trump is being portrayed as an incompetent commander in chief. Why? Is it to mold American public opinion into accepting open military rule, with no pretense of civilian oversight?

I find this ominous.

The Great Mystery of Heroin

After the USA invaded and occupied Afghanistan, the production of heroin increased exponentially. They now provide 95% of the world's heroin, all under the noses (and watchful eyes) of the US military.
Then, thousands of tons of heroin is shipped all over the world, including the USA, where it is distributed in every city and every small town in America. But....no one makes the connection.
No one asks why our 17 spy agencies can't see the thousands of tons of heroin moving across the world and to every town. The only blame placed is on the street level distributors in the inner cities, and when they fight over market share (as low level salesmen tend to do under capitalism), we are told that we just can't understand why there are so many gun deaths in our cities.
And we just can't understand why there are so many heroin overdoses in our country. And we are told that the answer is not to stop the production and distribution of heroin, but to provide Narcan to every small town in America.
Why would that be? Would it be that drug sales are so very, very lucrative to our Deep State?

Will Sucker Punching Someone You Don't Like Stop Fascism?

I can't believe that I even have to address this issue. The answer to the title question is "No".

Someone attired in black came up and sucker punched a man speaking in the street. A video was taken and has gone viral. I am amazed that some of my friends seem to think that if you punch enough people, you can prevent fascism.

Fascism is not a white supremacist spouting off on the street. Fascism is the end result of capitalism, where it seizes control of the state apparatus, and uses it to further loot and enrich the capitalist class. It relies on nationalism, militarism and division of the working class. It cannot be stopped by punching an individual in the face. That is absurd. Fascism relies on the acquiescence and compliance, or, at least, the apathy of the majority of the working class. That is why the spectacles are provided, from the glorification of the military in the movies and at the mass meetings such as football games, or the mass demonstrations of the women. The right wing who blames immigrants or black people for their falling living standards are delusional, but so are the people who march around the White House waving signs, who go home feeling warm and fuzzy and very proud that they sure showed Trump who is boss. Sadly, you have dug up another entire section of deluded Americans, who think that you can stop an entire system of oppression and war by punching a guy in the mouth. Do you not realize how that plays on TV? Do you not realize that the majority of Americans get all their opinions from TV? Do you not realize that most Americans firmly believe in the right of free speech, although most of them are very shaky on the concept? If you are really serious about fighting fascism you have to know that only a united working class can succeed. And that punching someone in the face for speaking just lost you a shitload of support.

Your Fear Proves Nothing

If a child is told there is a boogeyman out to get him, and he fervently takes it to heart, that is not proof of boogeymen. Even if the child is absolutely terrified, and has to have a nightlight, and won't go outside at night, and sleeps with a teddy bear....still Not Proof.

Americans on the Blue Team sneered for 8 years at members of the Red Team, holed up in their houses, clutching their guns, waiting for Sharia Law to be imposed, and the Blue Helmets to come snatch their guns and children away.

Yesterday, we had the spectacle of millions of women, terrified that their birth control would be snatched, and their pussies grabbed, marching all over the USA. And, even more bizarrely, around the world. Really? Do the women of London and Paris really think that Donald Trump is a threat to their birth control?

Since the election, we have been sternly told that, if people are afraid, then that is proof that there is reason to be afraid.

I have seen reports that someone's Muslim neighbor had to go to the ER, because she had an anxiety attack when Trump was elected. The Mexican classmates of another's high school student were crying that their parents would be deported. OK, as a bleeding heart myself, I am truly sorry that these people are so afraid. However, I refuse to take their fear as some sort of evidence based reality.

Same with your cousins in Latvia. I understand that, after years of propaganda about the imminent Russian invasion, your cousins are convinced that the Russians are out to get them. This, however, is not proof of anything. It just means that your cousins are susceptible to fear mongering.

Remember when we were told that the Iraqis were spreading anthrax through the mail? Remember the guy who took it to heart and wrapped his entire house in plastic and duct tape? How'd that work out for him? Remember how quickly the fear mongering was dropped when it turned out to be American anthrax, and not from Iraq at all? Was fear of Iraqi anthrax evidence that it was Iraq?

Remember, 2 years ago, how we were all going to die from Ebola? It was spreading exponentially, and it was a horrible, painful death. But, not enough to like, put up a quarantine, or anything. We were all going to die, but we didn't want to be non-inclusive or bigoted before we went.

Out here in Deplorable Land, (as the tolerant, inclusive Blue Team lovingly calls us), people were all riled up against al Qadeda, 15 years ago. They were ready to kill every Muslim in the world, all one billion of them. (Seriously, I was told that).

But, two days ago, our local paper printed an AP article about how horrible it was that the Russians insisted that al Qaeda in Syria not be part of the ceasefire. Yep, out here in Deplorable Land, we were told that the renamed al Qaeda Syrian branch was the best fighting force trying to overthrow the government in Syria, so it was absolutely outrageous that Russia was still targeting them.


See? People can believe anything, and then they can believe anything else. Before you get too worked up about what Fox News OR NPR tells you, step back and think about it. Watch what they do, not what they say.