Back on 12/30/22 I wrote a piece titled Normalizing the New Normal about Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter and the subsequent revelations about the US government's collusion in censoring content on the platform, especially during the 2020 election. The article's basic premise was this:

Let's suppose that freedom of speech may not be Musk's ultimate goal in buying Twitter. Let's suppose that normalizing the new normal is actually the goal. What do I mean by that?

Musk is bringing front and center the alphabet agencies hand in censoring Twitter users. He is exposing that which many of us have suspected for a long time, that is, the government is colluding with big tech to catapult their narrative and to shut down oppositional view points. Exposing that is a good thing, right? My immediate reaction was, "Sure is". But, wait a minute.

Since I've been going on about normalizing the new normal, let me try to explain. The behind the scenes collusion of big tech and the state is being exposed with the intent to normalize that unholy marriage. To put it out there for all to see. It's shocking, right? But after a while the shock wears off and people begin to accept it. There's nothing that can be done about it, so we have to live with it, right? There's no hope citizen, accept your medicine and let Big Daddy Government handle this. Accept this fact and prepare yourself for CBDCs and digital slavery. Go back to sleep.

People are and will be outraged. "My Constitution" is crying out across the land. Folks will ululate, throw up their hands, shake their heads, call out for reform. But slowly, over time, the short attention span majority will move on to the next big thing and the tech/state collusion will be normalized and we the people have lost another right. Perhaps the most important right of all. And it's out there for all to see.

The new normal has been normalized.

Much of Donald Trumps victory in 2016 presidential election was attributed to the massive free publicity that was conferred upon him by the mainstream media.

Trump is a master of self promotion. He knows how to sell himself. He put on a show and the press ate it up.

He and the press were locked in a symbiotic dance of a vote seeking parasite feeding on a money seeking ratings driven host, and vice versa.

Well folks, they're doing it again.

A few years back I had a bad dream, no, it was a nightmare. The worst I've ever had. I was lying on my back in deep sleep and suddenly there was a very large ominous man-like figure standing next to the bed looming over me. This apparition suddenly jumped up and sat on my chest with its knees on my arms so I was totally pinned down, I couldn't move. I struggled to free myself but couldn't budge an inch. I then let loose with a primal scream, you know, the kind of a nightmarish scream that you can feel vibrating deep in your throat but it just doesn't produce any sound no matter how much your subconscious mind wills it.

That unresolved scream woke me up. I was lying there on my back, eyes still closed as I thought to myself, "Phew, that dream was too realistic, I'm glad the scream shocked me out of it". I was actually sweating and my heart was thumping. I said something out loud to prove to myself that I was awake, I don't remember what I said, but my voice was back. Or so I thought.

The film clip immediately below is a scene from the movie 1984 starring Richard Burton as O'Brien and John Hurt as Winston Smith.

Here's a quick synopsis of the plot:

Winston Smith (John Hurt), a bureaucratic flunky living in the totalitarian state of Oceania, breaks the law by daring to fall in love with Ministry of Truth worker Julia (Suzanna Hamilton). Attempting to escape, Winston and Julia are tracked down by the Thought Police. Both must be "re-educated" into loving the State -- and by extension, the shadowy dictator Big Brother.

Source (See the description below the youtube clip)

In this scene Winston is being physically tortured by Inner Party Member O'Brien to break him emotionally with the end result being Winston's confession that the false statement 2+2=5 is in reality actually true. O'Brien uses pain methodically, to impress upon Winston that the Party is in complete control and to break his will.

Winston is in great physical pain from the torture but it is the psychological fear of even more excruciating pain that ultimately breaks him. He just wants it to stop.

In 1984, "2+2=5" is a false statement created by the Party and an example of the many ways the Party controls people. In making people believe that a random, false statement is an objective truth, the Party distorts and claims control of truth itself. Winston understands that slogans like "2+2=5" are mechanisms of the Party's social control until he is tortured. In the end, he traces the equation in dust, showing that the Party eventually controls him, too.

Source

I don't watch TV and haven't for years, except for when we travel and stay in hotels/motels. My motto is "if we paid for it let's use it". I immediately go for the old programs that I grew up watching, usually old westerns. But you can't escape the commercials. Also while running through the litany of channels in the search for the old programs I often come across the ludicrous propaganda platforms that are supposed to be news, whether local, national or international. I can't stand the lies so I move on quickly and leave the talking heads in chatter mode.

They are a grim reminder of the plastic society that we live in, if I may borrow a phrase from decades ago. The long sojourn from the noise heightens the awareness when one revisits it. It's like a slap in the face of reality. I imagine it as the abyss smiling back at me. A knowing, patient, come hither smile.

Note: I wrote the gist of this piece, below the fold, yesterday morning and left it untitled. When I came in from doing yard work around dinner time I found that Antony Blinken had made this shocking statement, and that lead me to the introduction and my title.

The King's Jester has spoken: King of the Mountain

Blinken says that Ukraine will be joining NATO. Under Article 5, this means that an attack on Ukraine will be considered an attack on the United States. If you want World War 3, vote Biden in November.

Source: X

Q: Who turned me against the Democratic Party?
A: The Democrats.

Q: Why don't I consider myself a Republican?
A: The Republicans.

They all suck.

I've considered myself a political nomad for many years now, a stranger in a strange land.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how the world just keeps rolling along.

I remember first learning about the end of the world. It was in the early 60s. Nuclear war was imminent. A president was killed in broad daylight for all the world to watch. There was a jungle war to prevent those damn dominoes from falling. "This is the end" filled the radio airwaves.

The Weekly Reader. Remember that? There was a heap of gloom and doom for a little boy to absorb. That's where I first heard about climate change, it was, back then, supposed to be the start of a new ice age. I also learned about the problem of finite cheap energy in the form of oil and what may happen when we run out. There was also whispers of global famine and other fear inducing articles.

Books and movies about dystopias and disasters and destruction made me think about survival. I thought about how I may survive certain catastrophes. I bet most of us have. We've all been taught to fear from a very early age, "Don't touch that hot stove"! "Don't look at the sun"! "Don't pet that bear"! Fear is needed to keep us alive. To a certain extent.

The Olduvai Theory was proposed originally in 1989 by Richard C. Duncan and was originally called The pulse-transient theory of industrial civilization. In 1996 Duncan published a paper The Olduvai theory: falling towards a post-industrial stone-age era and the theory was subsequently renamed The Olduvai Theory. Olduvai Gorge is considered the cradle of mankind because of the oldest human skeletal remains being discovered there, although that is controversial.

The Olduvai Theory is based primarily on peak oil theory and postulates that mankind progressed outward and upwards from its birthplace in the Olduvai Gorge and reached the apex of civilization brought on by cheap energy, and with the advent of collapse brought on by peak oil, will be on the march back to the metaphorical Gorge and the hunter-gatherer way of life.

The Olduvai Theory of Industrial Civilization

1. Pre-Industrial Phase [c. 3,000,000 BC to 1765]

• A = Tool making begins (c. 3,000,000 BC)
• B = Fire use begins (c. 1,000,000 BC)
• C = Neolithic Agricultural Revolution (c. 8,000 BC)
• D = Watt's steam engine, 1765

Interval D-E is a transition period.

2. Industrial Phase [1930 to 2025, estimated]

• E = Industrial Civilization is defined to begin in 1930 when the leading-edge value of energy-use per person reached 37% of its peak value.
• F = Peak of Industrial Civilization, c. 1978: confirmed by historic data published by BP, IEA, USCB, UN, etc.
• G = World average energy-use per person continues to fall, 1996
• H = Industrial Civilization is defined to end when energy-use per person shrinks to 37% of its peak value, forecast to occur by 2025. Life-expectancy (X) is estimated to be less than 100 years.

Interval H-I is a transition period.

3. Post-Industrial Phase [c. 2100 and beyond]

• J, K, and L = Recurring future attempts at industrialization fail.

Source & Image Attribution

It's agonizingly apparent that We the People are not our government's constituency. Corporations and the rich are the true constituents. Our leaders are selected for them, not you and I. All of the current campaign rhetoric is hot air rising, meant to fill the balloon of hope, until it bursts shortly after the election into a limp plastic dose of reality. We're being fooled again.

Both Biden and Trump, if either are elected, will be lame duck presidents. When their four years are over, then what? The winner won't have to worry about re-election, that is IF there will be another election. Hell, We the People, may not make it through this election. That would make us all lame ducks. Quack, quack.