Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Gun Rights And Mental Health Restrictions: A Slippery Slope

This article was originally published by Brandon Smith at Alt-Market.com



In the wake of the Parkland shooting, as in the wake of any mass shooting, there has been a scramble by various political groups to place blame for the violence. Everyone is looking for the source of the evil that causes these events, to little avail. In most cases, at least when it comes to the extreme Left, the blame is placed squarely on guns themselves. This is obviously an absurd notion. Placing blame on the particular tool used in the crime does not solve the problem of the criminal and what led him to the deed. Whether or not the tool made his crime “easier” is irrelevant to the greater disturbance at hand.


After years of debate and failed legislation, leftists have discovered that resistance to the incremental destruction of the 2nd Amendment is insurmountable, and a change in narrative has occurred. Finally, we are talking more about mental health issues and a little less about guns. This is a win for gun rights, however, there is a danger that needs to be addressed.


First, while mental health is being presented in the mainstream media more and more as a central issue in mass shootings, I find it interesting that the problem of psychotropic pharmaceuticals has been conveniently ignored. In a large number of non-terrorist related shooting incidents, assailants have been subjected to long term psychotropic drug use. Why has this factor not been addressed?


Well, consider the fact that Big Pharma has spent at least $2.5 billion over the past ten years lobbying in Washington D.C. Compare this to the NRA lobbying budget, which in comparison was a paltry $20 million over the past 10 years according to OpenSecret.


This should put into perspective the idiocy of anti-gun advocates and their obsession with the “nefarious” NRA. The influence of the pharmaceutical industry is almost universally ignored when it comes to the debate on gun violence, yet their lobbying efforts dwarf all others. All this despite the fact that psychotropic drugs are proven to influence violent and even homicidal behavior in people.


Second, the focus on mental health in terms of the Parkland shooting seems to be glossing over the vast failings of the FBI and local law enforcement in following up and investigating the dozens of warnings they received about Nikolas Cruz.  As I outlined in my recent article ‘“Mass shootings will never negate the need for gun rights,” gun grabbers love to trot out legislation on increased background check restrictions and closing the “gun show loophole,” yet none of their suggested solutions would have stopped the Parkland tragedy from taking place.


The success of Nikolas Cruz’s attack was due to the abject failure of the FBI and law enforcement, NOT the failure of background checks. Had they done their jobs, Cruz never would have been able to purchase a firearm to begin with. I find it rather ironic that gun grabbers constantly argue that average citizens do not need guns for self defense because they have law enforcement to rely on, yet it was exactly the stupidity or inaction of law enforcement that opened the door wide for Cruz to (allegedly) kill.


Clearly, the so-called “authorities” are not trustworthy enough to carry out the job of protecting us all from active shooters. The only people capable of stopping an active shooter in a fast and practical manner are armed citizens on the scene at the moment the attack begins.


Third, and most important, is the issue of mental health parameters and how they will be used to restrict gun rights. The ATF already has rules regarding people “adjudicated as mentally defective,” which includes people ruled a danger to themselves and others by a “court, board or commission or other lawful authority.” Now, these guidelines themselves can be rather broad, but abuse by government so far has been limited (though some instances have been egregious). If the Trump administration seeks to broaden the guidelines even further, then we may have a problem.


Take for example the unacceptable abuse of military veterans and their 2nd Amendment rights by the Bureau of Veterans Affairs. The VA has in recent years placed restrictions on thousands of veterans, negating their gun rights without due process and without oversight. And all of this has been predicated on the claim that some veterans are “mentally defective” based on dubious parameters, including whether or not they let their spouse handle household finances.


This is what I am talking about when I bring up the dangers behind “mental illness” and gun rights. WHO gets to decide who is mentally ill and why they are mentally ill? Will this be done by a jury of our peers? Or, by an unaccountable and faceless bureaucracy? Will the guidelines for mental illness be strict and specific, or will they be broad and wide open to interpretation? Once a person has been labeled mentally defective, will they have the ability to appeal the decision, or will the label haunt them for the rest of their lives?


Gun rights activists should not put blind faith in the Trump administration to ensure that new mental health legislation will remain fair to the 2nd Amendment. Unfortunately, Trump is on record as supporting the “No Fly List” gun control bill. This type of bill is something liberty activists opposed vehemently under the Obama administration because it allows the government to erase the gun rights of almost anyone without due process merely by placing them on an arbitrary watch list. A list, I will remind readers, that is a matter of national security and not subject to public overview.


Would a list of “mentally defective people” fall under the same Orwellian standards?


What about the new and disturbing designation by the psychiatric community of oppositional defiance disorder? This absurd “illness” is being applied to people as young as pre-school age and suggests that adults with the illness often display resistance to authority figures and government.


What if your opposition is not to “authority” in general, but to CORRUPT authority specifically? Is this mental illness, or the very epitome of sanity?


In the Soviet Union, it was all too common for the government to abuse “mental illness” designations as a means to silence and imprison political dissent. Anti-government agitation and propaganda were criminalized under Soviet legal codes, and these codes were frequently applied in conjunction with the psychiatric system. This was sometimes referred to as “punitive medicine.”


The problem with government and psychiatric institutions joining forces to determine constitutional rights for individuals should be obvious. Government should be as separate from the medical establishment as possible yet they are often intertwined to terrible effect. If mental illness is not adjudicated by a jury of ones peers and with extreme oversight by gun rights groups, then abuse of such laws by government is almost guaranteed. The temptation to use backdoor bureaucracy in a totalitarian manner to underhandedly confiscate guns and sabotage the 2nd Amendment will be high.


It is also important to remember that even if you have placed full and blind faith in the Trump administration, there are no guarantees that the constitutional rules we allow him to bend today will not be completely broken by the next president in line. Gun rights are paramount to a free society. Without them, governments almost always revert to increased socialism and “tyranny creep” while violent crime continues or increases as the citizenry is left defenseless. Mental illness AND psychotropic drugs need to be taken seriously in terms of gun violence, but it is also vital that we do not allow the issue of mental health to be exploited as a subversive means to undermine our freedoms.


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You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com


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The Next Prescription Drug Epidemic Is Already Here — and Nobody’s Talking About It

xanax prescription drugs benzodiazepines(ANTIMEDIA) — For years, the opioid addiction and overdose crisis has been headline news across the United States, and rightly so. In 2012, 241,000 privately insured patients had an “opioid dependency diagnosis.” By 2016, that number had ballooned to 1.4 million, not including individuals on state-sponsored healthcare. Also in 2016, over 14,000 people died as a result of overdosing […]

The fear of success

The fear of success


By Jon Rappoport


This is an idea that gained traction in the so-called New Age movement: people weren’t succeeding in life because, secretly, they were afraid of succeeding. The idea was hailed as a major breakthrough in understanding human psychology. Pundits presented the insight with a aura of smarmy, smug, self-satisfaction: “Of course, I’m beyond the fear, but many of you little people aren’t.”


However, the idea itself has meaning. For example, success carries with it the implication of BECOMING KNOWN. For some people, this is verboten. “No, I don’t want others to know who I am. I would rather be a spectator and watch people step out of the shadows and ‘go public.’ Let them absorb the consequences.”


Spectatorship is, of course, one of the enduring trends of the modern era. Learning something useful, which a person then applies to his own life, takes a back seat to being entertained and stimulated. Passively.


The fear of success also embodies the risk of failure. “Suppose, with full commitment, I pursue my vision of what I want to create in the world—and it doesn’t work out? Suppose people don’t want to accept what I create?” This reservation is nothing new. The man who invented the wheel probably considered it. But it didn’t stop him. Today, he might be diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder.


People are adroit at inventing all sorts of ways in which their nascent enterprise might crash and burn. They’re experts in that arena. They can generate 50 different varieties of fear around the possibility of success. Conclusion? “I choose to be a watcher. Entertain me. I’ll find all the adrenaline I can there.”


In the new culture of victimhood, the fear of success is transformed into: no one has a right to succeed. By doing so, he must be cheating and lying and deceiving the rest of us. “Success” is a dirty word. We are all equal, and equally disabled. We all have mental disorders. It takes courage to admit having a brain malfunction that needs treatment.


Psychiatry and Big Pharma have taken this notion and promoted it to the skies. There are now 300 officially certified mental disorders, and every one of them requires dosing with drugs.


Take a look at government, at legislators and the armies of bureaucrats sitting in their offices. How many of them ever started their own businesses? What attitude would you expect them to have toward individuals who have, who have made a success of it?


The fear of success embodies the idea that a person doesn’t have power. Once THAT pernicious notion has taken hold, the game is over. “Of course I’d like to launch my own enterprise, but I don’t have what it takes to do that. I don’t have the spark I need. There is nothing I can tap into. Maybe I have a genetic flaw…”


And yet, so far, in many countries, the free market has not been utterly destroyed. There is still room for the individual to strike out on his own and build an enterprise that reflects his best vision. Success is still possible, as long as the person doesn’t downgrade it in his own mind.


HOW DO I FEEL is another modern barrier to success. This unproductive question is brought to the foreground. “Well, if I don’t feel inspired at the prospect of creating something in the world, if I feel doubtful or afraid or reluctant, I should take these as signs that I’m not ready to ‘go out on my own’.”


Such feelings are a dime a dozen, and their presence actually means NOTHING—unless people have been trained to believe they’re important and crucial. Yes, trained. As in, indoctrinated. This is the Age of Psychology, and feelings have become gods.


The therapist asks the patient, “And how do you feel about X?”


A proper answer would be: “I feel you’re making a living by inflating the importance of my emotions to the point where I’m going to become an eternal patient, always and forever judging my own status by looking at random feedback from my own mind…and thereby paralyzing myself.”


I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the New Age version of this “feeling quandary.” It’s: “I’m waiting for the Universe to give me permission to move forward with my plans.” “The Universe will give me a sign when it’s time.” “If things didn’t work out, they weren’t meant to be.” These are truly wonderful rationalizations. The person invokes a connection WITH THE WHOLE UNIVERSE to explain his inaction. On the one hand, he can relate intimately to all of space and time, and on the other hand, he can’t get off the couch. Brilliant.


Beyond all the elements of the fear of success—I could offer a whole host of homilies to encourage creative action. But the decision comes from the individual himself. It comes from whatever he needs and can put together, in order to make that decision. The reasons to launch are his own. They don’t belong to anyone else. He doesn’t need to consult anyone. He doesn’t need “collective agreement.” He doesn’t need consensus. He needs himself.


As Thoreau famously wrote: “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”


You could call this bravery, you could call this courage, but it is simply self-reliance—once in a different age, heralded as a virtue.


Long before SELF-INDUCED inability was promoted and placed on a pedestal.

Are You Guilty Of These Prepper Mistakes?

Are You Guilty Of These Prepper Mistakes? | oops | PreparednessSurvival


Webster defines an expert as a person “who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area”  That being said, when it comes to preparedness, is anyone ever really an expert?


Let’s be realistic. Every prepper, myself included, was a novice at one time or another.  Along our journey, we have consulted books, websites, blogs, and various government publications in our quest to learn abut preparedness in general and the prepper lifestyle in particular.  Were any of the individual authors of these sources experts?  Perhaps they were but if that were the case, why does our search continue?


Having chosen the prepper lifestyle, we continually find ourselves in search of that next best thing,  whether it is a piece of gear, a new type of freeze dried food, a fabulous new prepping book or a masterful survival skill. No matter what it is, there always seems to be something out there to capture our attention.


While I do believe that is it worthwhile to be forward-thinking when it comes to prepping, I feel it is equally beneficial to reflect on past mistakes.  Learning from prepper mistakes is an important part of the process and allows us to to move forward with a renewed sense of resolve to do it better “the next time”.


In this article I share some common and not so common prepper mistakes.  I have made many of these myself, while others, through dumb luck or planning, have been avoided.  Are you guilty of any of these prepper mistakes?


14 Common and Uncommon Prepper Mistakes


1. Failure to inventory stored food supplies


It is easy to amass a sizable supply of food in a short period of time.  This is especially true if you tend to purchase a little bit extra each time you shop.  Before you know it, you have a closet, pantry, a basement full of stuff but no clue as to what is inside.


Creating a master inventory is only half the battle.  Adding to the list as new items are purchased and removing items from the list as they are rotated out takes diligence and perseverance.  My own efforts in this area are  embarrassingly poor.


My best advice in this regards is that if you are fairly new to prepping, don’t let this one slip by.  Keep track of what you have from the get go and save yourself a lot of grief down the road.


2. Failure to perform a risk analysis and prepping for the most likely disruptive events first


When first getting started, it is easy to go off  willy-nilly preparing for all sorts of calamities.  Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks, pandemics, nuclear melt-downs, civil disobedience; you name it and the call to prepare will be out there.  I can guarantee that this will drive you crazy!


I recommend that the very first step you take when prepping is to evaluate the most likely risks specific to your geographical area and your personal domestic situation.  Most, if not all, city, county and state governments will have emergency management websites that will help you sort through the most likely disasters to occur in your area.  Take advantage of these public resources.


Don’t stop there.  Take a hard look at demographics.  Are you in a city where gangs, mobs or terrorist attacks are likely?  Do you live in a remote area where the failure of transportations systems or the lack of fuel will cut off you off from supplies from the rest of the world?  Is your employment situation tenuous requiring that you build up some cash reserves to get you by just in case the job goes away?


Clearly, at the beginning, some choices will need to be made regarding the best use of your prepping budget.  Just remember that food, water and first aid supplies should be at the top of everyone’s list.  After that, assess the most likely risks and plan accordingly.


For ideas, take a look at 12 Months of Prepping: One Month at a Time. Here you will find links to articles that take you though the process of gathering what you need in terms of supplies, gear, tasks, and skills to set you on a positive path of preparedness.  It may not seem like a lot, but at the end of the year will will be better prepared than 95% of your neighbors.


3. Preparing mostly to bug out rather than bugging in


We all talk about having a bug-out-bag and without question, having your most basic survival items in a pack that you can grab and go if you need to get out of dodge in a hurry is important.  But beyond that, over and over I see people acquire all sorts of gear for surviving on the run –  perhaps in the woods or bush at a remote location.


I know that in my own case and also with the majority of the readers on Backdoor Survival, hunkering down and bugging in will always be preferred to taking off into the unknown with our stuff.  For many, the choice to bug in has to do with family, health concerns or financial considerations.  That, plus the availability of stored supplies makes bugging in – or staying at home – the choice when a disaster strikes.


At the end of the day, take care of your bugging in needs first and foremost.  Plan for outdoor cooking facilities (perhaps an existing charcoal grill?), supplemental lighting (like this $20 Dorcy Wireless Motion LED Flood Lite), stored water, and a portable generator now.  Later, down the road, you can expand your supplies to include the essentials for truly bugging out.


That said, pay attention to mistake number 4.


4. Failure to evacuate at just the right time


When the storm of the century is heading your way, know that it is time to evacuate.  Load up your vehicle and go.  As much as you feel that your are better off in your own home, if the authorities tell you to leave – and even if they do not – get out of harm’s way as a precautionary measure.  Do so while you still have the ability to load up your vehicle with supplies and fill the tank with gas.


Sticking around when there is at least a 50% chance of a disaster occurring (hurricane, flood, landslides, tsunami,wildfire) is just plain silly.  Remember mistake number 2, failure to evaluate the risks?  Part of your planning should be to determine the trigger point for evacuation as well as identification of an evacuation site and a route to get there.  Better yet, plan multiple alternate routes as well.


5. Having the gear but not knowing how to use it


This is more common than you might think.  How many of you have a closet that represents a survivalists dream?  Emergency radios, compasses, propane stoves and lanterns, tactical knives, firearms, cross-bows, hand tools, solar kits and more lie idle and unused and untested in more homes than you might think.


Every single one of these items needs to be put through its paces two or three times a year at a minimum.  Not only do you need to know how to use your gear, but you need to ensure that your gear is in good working order.  Blades need to be sharpened, batteries need to be charged and skills need to be refreshed.


6. Underestimating other humans as a threat


In a perfect world, we would all get along and go about our business in a mild-mannered way, not bothering anyone or causing others harm.  Alas, as humans this has never been the case.  From biblical times forward, man has opposed man.  There have been and still are warriors, and armies, soldiers and dictators, enemies and foes.


As mass shootings have revealed, mental illness or drugs can make good people go bad.  Add the uncertainly and chaos created by an unstable society and the potential for human threat becomes a major cause for concern.


Whether you embrace firearms or shun them, you still need a way to defend yourself, your family and your property.  Consider pepper sprays, martial arts, and other defensive mechanisms in addition to traditional firearms.  It is foolhardy to believe that having some means of defense is not needed because “there is no one out to get you”.  Don’t be naive in this regard!


Desperate people are dangerous people.  And the lack of food, water and supplies will turn ordinary people into desperate people in a heartbeat.


7.  Spending your entire budget on gear instead of on food, water, and medical supplies


Shopping for new gadgets, gizmos, and gear is both fun and addictive.  Who wouldn’t want the latest $150 tactical flashlight or that set of high tech night goggles to use in spotting bad buys before they see you.


Purchasing survival gear is a necessary part of the prepping process but it should not be done to the exclusion of food, water, and medical supplies.  The exception to this rule is water purification and fire-making tools both of which can be acquired for very little cost.  (Consider pool shock for water treatment plus a magnesium fire tool and dryer lint for fire-making.)


Over and over again, I learn of families that have thousands of dollars invested in gear, including an arsenal of firearms and ammo, but have less than thirty days worth of food.  Not only that, the food they have is poorly packaged and is therefore subject to spoilage or an infestation of pests.  (See mistake #8.)


When developing a preparedness budget, pay close attention to the day to day needs you will incur following a disaster or disruptive event.  Doesn’t it make sense to take care of those needs first?  The gear will come in time so ensure that you are not gear rich but food poor.


Make a concerted effort to avoid impulse purchases and you will be fine.


8. Lacking the knowledge to properly store your food supplies


There are six enemies of food storage:  Temperature, Moisture, Oxygen, Light, Pests and Time.


Okay, some might say there is a seventh enemy: namely the two legged type that gets into the tastier items (such a cans of brownie mix) and eats them without telling anyone.


Seriously though, storing food for the long term, meaning five years or longer, does take some care.  Brush up on the basics of food storage and set up an active rotation program.  You don’t necessarily have to store food for 10 years or longer but what you do store, even for a year or two, should be protected to the best of your ability.


One thing to keep in mind that except for the problem with pests, most food will still be edible even if it is not stored at optimal temperatures in a moisture and oxygen-free environment.  Learn proper storage methods to insure maximum taste and nutrition.


There are many food-storage articles on this website (such as this one, Food Storage Mistakes and Goofs) as well as others (type “food storage” in the search box at the upper right hand side of the page).  In addition, consider “Prepper’s Guide to Food StorageAre You Guilty Of These Prepper Mistakes? | ir?t=continmoti-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00H8DGY5M | PreparednessSurvival ” as an all in one resource available in both e-book and print form.


9. Buying gear and supplies while ignoring the need to develop skills


Buying stuff is easy.  You save your money, select your merchandise and go to your local outdoor emporium or Amazon and make a purchase.


On the other hand, learning new skills (or practicing old ones) takes time, patience and bit of study.  Do you know how to start a fire without matches or a butane lighter?  Do you know how to take advantage of natures bounty by knowing how to fish or hunt?  And what about growing your own food?  Could you do it if you had to?


Developing skills to become self-sufficient are every bit as important as having a closet full of the best gear money can by.  Remember that.


10. Relying only on yourself and ignoring like-minded members of your community


When I first started prepping, I did not mention my new little “hobby” to anyone.  You know, OPSEC and all that.  But about a year into it, I realized that I could not do it all on my own.  There were things I was having trouble grasping and I needed help.  As I tip toed around the edges of my community, I found some like minded people and much to my surprise, I found that I had skills and knowledge that they lacked.


The mutual exchange of skills and knowledge ensued along with some informal agreements to team up if circumstances required us to be on our own for any period of time.  This included teaming up for shelter and food as well as defense.


The importance of having a peer group of like minded comrades in my own community was strengthened as I read R. P. Ruggiero’s Brushfire Plague and continues as I explore other truer than life survival stories,.  How you decide to expand your community contacts is up to you but be advised that when it comes to survival 1 + 1 will definitely add up to more than 2.


11.  Just because someone else does something does not mean that you should do it to


There is an unspoken rule of the road in boating:  just because the other guy is doing it does not mean he is right or knows what he is doing.  Personally I have been there and done that and nearly ended up on the rocks.


The same rule applies to prepping.


As someone who reads a lot on the internet, you have likely come across many authorities with “expert” advice on one topic or another.  This is where the gray matter between your ears becomes the most important tool in your box of prepper skills.  Think it through before you unilaterally apply someone’s expertise to your own situation.  This is includes advice and suggestions from this website!


Go back to the beginning and do a risk analysis.  Examine your budget; can you afford it?  What are your living conditions?  What is the likelihood that a hurricane (or earthquake or wildfire) will threaten your home?  Are you physically up to the task of bugging out on foot?


Every step along the way you should be asking yourself these questions and more.  You are unique.  Recognize and embrace the fact that with preparedness, one size does not fit all.


12.  Falling victim to prepper procrastination


You have read the best books out there and  spent the wee hours of the night reading every website you can find that teaches and preaches preparedness.  You should be ready to embark upon your preparedness journey but remain a lurker.


There is no other way to say it but this:  just start.  Select one small task or one small project and see it through to completion.  Take some baby steps and spend an hour, perhaps two, and get something done.  The results will be worth it.


Even if you are just an occasional victim of prepper procrastination, you should go back and read Learning to Overcome Prepper Procrastination.


13. Obsessing about behind the curve-ball


Read this carefully then read it again.  You will never be done.


There will always be stock to rotate, supplies to purchase, and skills to learn.  Being worried and obsessed about getting every thing done at once will only increase your stress during an already stressful period in life.


Get over it!


14.  Forgetting that there is a life beyond prepping


Of all of the prepper mistakes, this is perhaps the most difficult to overcome.


For many, the call of prepare becomes a full-time avocation.  Living and breathing preparedness becomes the norm, disrupting work and family activities as well as the personal quiet time we all need to recharge our internal batteries.  Sleep becomes elusive as you fret about being ready.  You live in a perpetual state of stress.


Hopefully, this has not and will not happen to you.  Trust me, though, it does happen and at one time this happened to me.


Above all, remember that regardless of what you think about the future, you still have one precious life to live.  You can not stop the clock of time so unless you feel an imminent danger, continue to live your life as normally and joyfully as possible.  Attend family celebrations and continue to take vacations.  Have fun and learn to play.


Isn’t life itself the reason you are prepping and surviving in the first place?


The Final Word


These days I feel fortunate that I have come so far with my prepping activities.  Moving beyond obsession, the prepping way of life is now a part of my core.  It is “what I do” as well as being a hobby and a passion.


Indeed, I have made some mistakes along the way and many of them are listed above.  There will surely be others down the road but I know that will be okay since they will afford me an opportunity to learn and grow.  At the end of the day, life is all about growth, opportunity and the ability to take care of oneself physically, mentally and spiritually.  To me, that is what prepping is all about, mistakes and all.


Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!


The post Are You Guilty Of These Prepper Mistakes? appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

MSG: Delicious Seasoning Or Drug And Poison?

MSG: Delicious Seasoning Or Drug And Poison? | monosodium-glutamate | General Health Special Interests Toxins


Poor food quality is a growing problem in industrialized countries increasingly focused on the quantitative dimension of food production, both in terms of the sheer volume of food produced, as well as the revenue and profit generated. In the United States, for instance, consumers do not even have the right to know what is in their food, e.g. genetically modified ingredients are not labeled by default; the use of paint pigment (titanium dioxide) as a “manufacturing aid” in milk, not required to be listed as an ingredient on the label, etc, and raw human sewage and factory-farmed animal waste, as well as petroleum and coal byproducts, are all considered fair game as a growing medium in USDA-approved conventional farming practices.


Given these deteriorating market conditions, our bodies, which spent eons evolving complex sensorial and cognitive pathways to determine whether something was good, or bad, based on appearance, taste, smell, etc., are increasingly being chemically manipulated through food science trickery. And as the food in its unadulterated state becomes more and more unappetizing, if not clearly disgusting, the slick marketing and associated nutritional disinformation becomes less and less effective on the consumer.  Enter MSG, a virtual miracle worker when it comes to turning disgusting into delicious….


Turning Yucky To Yummy With The MSG Sleight of Hand


Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a commonly used “flavor enhancer,” and so powerfully so that (hyperbole permitting) you could spray it on roadkill and it would taste good. This omnipresent ingredient in modern mass market food takes advantage of our biologically hard-wired taste receptors, and makes it very hard to stop eating the foods “seasoned” with this ingredient. In fact, it is doubtful that without the MSG trick many of these mass market processed foods would be palatable enough to maintain their status as economically viable commodities. Here are some of its many disguises on food labels….


MSG Synonyms:



  • Glutamic Acid

  • Hydrolyzed protein

  • Autolyzed protein

  • Textured protein

  • Yeast extract

  • Autolyzed yeast extract

  • Protein isolate

  • Soy sauce

  • Modified food starch

  • Modified corn starch

  • Calcium caseinate

  • Sodlium caseinate

  • Broth

  • Maltodextrin

  • Seasonings

  • Natural flavor

  • Monopotassium glutamate

  • Glutamate

  • Gelatin

  • Hydrolyzed vegetable protein

  • Hydrolyzed plant protein

  • Textured protein

  • Yeast food

  • Yeast nutrient

  • Torula yeast


 SOURCE: Indigo Earth


Technically MSG is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, a naturally occurring non-essential amino acid. Glutamic rich foods include wheat, dairy, corn, soy, seafood, etc. (Foods Highest In Glutamic Acid). The “YUMMY!” sensation that occurs immediately after ingesting a MSG (or various synonyms, e.g. hydrolyzed protein, autolyzed yeast) laced morsel the Japanese call umami (meaning: savoriness) and is considered one of five basic tastes.


The problem is that when one isolates out of a complex food a singular amino acid, and increase the concentration to unnatural proportions (and without the hundreds of checks and balances Nature provides in the context of a whole food), glutamic acid can have devastating health effects, not the least of which is the generation of an insatiable appetite for more of the very same chemical stimulating the craving — a vicious, self-amplifying cycle!



Monosodium Glutamate Causes Excitotoxicity


One of the primary adverse effects associated with excess glutamic acid is excitotoxicity, a form of neurotoxicity where neurons are stimulated to the point of cell death. Repeated excitotoxic events can result in neuronal lesions and loss of cognitive function.


While there are a number of natural substances that mitigate this type of excitotoxicity, the best choice is to reduce the consumption of glutamic acid (as well as its “twin” excitotoxic non-essential amino acid aspartic acid) rich foods, especially if there is a pre-existing neurological condition such as migraines, epilepsy or multiple sclerosis, to name but a few.  John Symes has written an excellent document on the benefits of the Glutamic and Aspartic Acid Reduced Diet (GARD Diet) here.


More Than An Excitotoxic Agent: An Endocrine Disruptor


Recently Dr. Mercola featured the connection between MSG and obesity.  While excessive food cravings caused by MSG’s taste-enhancing effects figure into this relationship, research from the US National Library of Medicine indexed on our site shows that MSG may directly cause hypothalamic lesions that result in elevated insulin, insulin resistance and leptin resistance (leptin suppresses appetite).


It is becoming clear that MSG can no longer be considered simply a “flavor enhancer” but an intrinsically harmful chemical with endocrine disruptive properties. Research we have collected shows that MSG actively contributes to metabolic syndrome, obesity, fatty liver, dysregulated blood lipids, as well as a wide range of neurological problems.


In a nutshell, monosodium glutamate (MSG) contributes to illness in two distinct ways:


1) It makes food that is bad for us taste really, really, really good, in essence compromising our health by tricking our taste buds and intuition into eating things that are intrinsically harmful, or harmful when eaten excessively.


2) It is a toxic chemical that directly damages neurological tissue through its excitotoxic properties, as well as inducing a generalized endocrine disruption throughout the body known as “metabolic syndrome,” the symptoms of which include hypertension, insulin resistance, elevated blood lipids and/or elevated blood sugar.[1] [2] [3]




[1] Effect of trans-fat, fructose and monosodium glutamate feeding on feline weight gain, adiposity, insulin sensitivity, adipokine and lipid profile. Br J Nutr. 2011 Mar 24:1-10. Epub 2011 Mar 24.


[2] Effect of dietary monosodium glutamate on trans fat-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. J Lipid Res. 2009 Aug;50(8):1521-37. Epub 2008 Nov 11.


[3] Effects of bezafibrate in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis model mice with monosodium glutamate-induced metabolic syndrome. Eur J Pharmacol. 2011 Jul 15;662(1-3):1-8. Epub 2011 May 1.


 © February 28, 2018 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.


The post MSG: Delicious Seasoning Or Drug And Poison? appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

20 States Sue The Federal Government To ABOLISH Obamacare


A coalition of 20 states has come together to sue the federal government over Obamacare. The states say that the law is no longer Constitutional and it should be abolished.


Without the individual mandate (a provision in the Obamacare law that demanded all Americans buy health insurance that the government deemed acceptable or pay a fine) which has been removed, the law is supposedly unconstitutional. Often called the “teeth” of the Obamacare law, the individual mandate was highly controversial and should have never been shoved down the throats of people anyway.


According to Reuters, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel are leading the charge of 20 states standing up to the federal government. The lawsuit said that without the individual mandate, which was eliminated as part of the Republican tax law signed by President Donald Trump in December, Obamacare was unlawful. “The U.S. Supreme Court already admitted that an individual mandate without a tax penalty is unconstitutional,” Paxton said in a statement. “With no remaining legitimate basis for the law, it is time that Americans are finally free from the stranglehold of Obamacare, once and for all,” he said.


Texas and Wisconsin were joined in the lawsuit by 18 other states including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Utah and West Virginia. It was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas.



“Obamacare was always designed to fail in order to usher in something worse,” says Melissa Dyke at Truthstream Media. But what could possibly be any worse than Obamacare? “Government-run, single-payer, socialist healthcare,” says Dykes.  And the evidence is in the leaked Podesta emails up on Wikileaks.



A Democrat supporting Republican legislation to destroy Obamacare on purpose. How many millions have they raked in on this deal and bilked the American people for in Obamacare penalties because they can’t afford the “affordable” health care? And the American people will look at this like a “victory” when it does unravel, even though it has been the plan all along. –The Daily Sheeple


It’s still difficult to comprehend that in the “land of the free” the federal government could, for any reason, tax and individual for NOT buying something. And we wonder why we’re constantly sliding down on the freedom index.  (The US is at #17 by the way, meaning 16 other countries have more freedom than those residing here do.) And the country had to claw their way to the #17 spot after being 7 places below that the year before.

Prisons of Pleasure or Pain: Huxley’s “Brave New World” vs. Orwell’s “1984”

This article was originally published by Uncola at TheTollOnline.com



Definition of UTOPIA


1: an imaginary and indefinitely remote place


2: a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions


3:   an impractical scheme for social improvement


Definition of DYSTOPIA


1: an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives


2: literature: anti-utopia


– Merriam-Webster.com


 


Many Americans today would quite possibly consider Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” to be a utopia of sorts with its limitless drugs, guilt-free sex, perpetual entertainment and a genetically engineered society designed for maximum economic efficiency and social harmony. Conversely, most free people today would view Orwell’s “1984” as a dystopian nightmare, and shudder to contemplate the terrifying existence under the iron fist of “Big Brother”; the ubiquitous figurehead of a perfectly totalitarian government.


Although both men were of British descent, Huxley was nine years older than Orwell and published Brave New World in 1932, seventeen years before 1984 was released in 1949. Both books are widely considered classics and are included in the Modern Library’s top ten great novels of the twentieth century.


Brave New World


Aldous Huxley was born to academic parents and he was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, a famous biologist and an enthusiastic proponent of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution who was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog”. Huxley’s own father had a well-equipped botanical laboratory where young Aldous began his education. Given the Huxley family’s appreciation for science, it makes perfect sense that Brave New World began in what is called the “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” where human beings are artificially grown and genetically predestined into five societal castes consisting of: AlphaBetaGammaDelta and Epsilon.


Initially, the story centers on Bernard Marx, who is a slightly genetically flawed Alpha Plus psychologist with an inferiority complex due to his short stature. By the end of the novel, however, the protagonist becomes a boy named “John the Savage” who is the bastard child of the “Director of the Central London Hatchery”, and a lady named Linda, who naturally birthed John on a remote American Indian Reservation. When Bernard discovers the true identities of John and Linda, he arranges to fly them back to London in order to leverage his position with John’s biological father, the Hatchery Director.


Bernard is in love with a beautiful fetus technician named Lenina Crowne, who, upon meeting John the Savage falls madly in lust. Lenina is a gal who enjoys multiple lovers because, in the Brave New World, “everyone belongs to everyone else”. In other words, sexual promiscuity is encouraged as sort of a societal “pressure relief valve” designed to discourage negative emotions such as jealousy and envy. John the Savage, however, suppresses his sexual attraction to Lenina because he considers her a slut.


Eventually, John’s sexual repression contributes to him violently attacking some children of the Delta caste who were waiting in line for their “Soma”, a mood-altering drug; and the outburst causes both Bernard and John to be brought before the powerful Mustapha Mond, who is one of ten world controllers. A debate ensues between John and Mr. Mond who explains to the Savage that a stable society requires the controlled suppression of science, religion, and art. John, who is an avid admirer of William Shakespeare, argues that human life is not worth living without these things.


In Brave New World, the State achieves a harmonic equilibrium via the economic parity of production and consumption while utilizing Eugenics as a means to counterbalance the life and death of the citizens. Technology is employed as a means of control in lieu of any search for scientific, or spiritual, truth; as these are considered a threat to the established order. People are cloned in hatcheries in accordance to the needs of the State and trained into obedience through “Hypnopedia”, or sleep-teaching. Happiness is valued over dignity and morality, and emotions are regulated through the use of the drug, Soma, amid constant entertainment including superficial games and virtual reality venues called the “feelies”. Although there is no God or religion, per se, in Brave New World, Henry Ford is canonized in the place of a deity as a testament to corporate efficiency, assembly line production and rampant consumerism.


1984


Like Huxley, George Orwell also envisioned a future where government monitored and controlled every aspect of human life; yet the world is much more terrifying in 1984. Orwell actually volunteered and fought in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 before being injured by a sniper’s bullet in May of 1937; it was there where he witnessed, first-hand, the ghastly barbarism of political fascism. Moreover, he previously observed the rise of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union and, later, Adolf Hitler in Germany. In turn, Orwell published Animal Farm in 1945 and four years later, his novel 1984, as literary warnings to mankind.


The setting of 1984 takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic Great Britain which, at that time, was part of “Oceania”; one of three world super-states all engaged in never-ending warfare. The protagonist of the novel is Winston Smith, a middle-class member in the Outer Party of INGSOC, a totalitarian regime led by the figurehead known only as “Big Brother”.


Winston works in the Records Department of the “Ministry of Truth” where he revises history on behalf of the Party while under constant surveillance both at work and home. Everywhere he goes; there are posters with a photo of the party’s leader and the words: “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”. In an act of rebellion, Winston acquires a diary and begins to record what Big Brother and the INGSOC party would label as “crimethink” and “thoughtcrime”.


Eventually, Winston meets and falls in love with a beautiful coworker named Julia, and they engage in what they believe to be a secret affair whereby they have illicit sex as a form of political rebellion. In 1984, the Party members living in Oceania are brainwashed to have sex only for procreation and this is how sexual repression is channeled into enthusiasm for the State.


Under the threat of detection by the “Thought Police”, torture and even “vaporization”, which would eliminate every last vestige of proof he ever existed, Winston persists in his rebellion against the Party with certain fatalism. In fact, just before he and Julia are captured by the militant, jackbooted INGSOC Party authoritarians, Winston told Julia “we are the dead”; to which she replied the same words back to him.


Throughout Orwell’s dark narrative, various themes are explored such as “Newspeak” which is a language of mind control; the terrifying tyranny of totalitarianism; historical revisionism; torture, and psychological manipulation. The INGSOC Party’s prisonlike control and complete invasion of individual privacy is such that a citizen’s own facial expression could betray their inner disloyalty to the Party through what Orwell labeled as “crimeface”:


Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. At any moment the tension inside you was liable to translate itself into some visible symptom.


– Winston Smith, 1984, part 1, chapter 6


Orwell was near prophetic in describing the proliferation of listening devices in both public and private settings as well as “telescreens”, which simultaneously broadcast propaganda while relaying live video feeds back to the Party watchers. In Orwell’s chilling story, free will and individuality are sacrificed to the extreme demands of Collectivism and in deference to complete societal control by an authoritarian government.


Compared and Contrasted


In both, Brave New World and 1984, common themes are addressed including government, orthodoxy, social hierarchy, economics, love, sex, and power. Both books portray propaganda as a necessary tool of government to shape the collective minds of the citizenry within each respective society and towards the specific goals of the state; to wit, stability and continuity.


In Brave New World, The “Bureaux of Propaganda” shared a building with the “College of Emotional Engineering” and all media outlets including radio, television, and newspaper. Much of the brainwashing of the citizens in Huxley’s world included messaging to stay within their genetically predetermined castes or to encourage the daily use of the drug, Soma, in order to anesthetize emotional agitation:


a gramme in time saves nine


A gramme is better than a damn


One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments


When the individual feels, the community reels.


The “Ministry of Truth”, in 1984, also known as “minitrue” in Newspeak, served as the propaganda machine for Big Brother and the INGSOC regime. Although its main purpose was to rewrite history in order to realign it with Party doctrine and make the Party look infallible, the Ministry of Truth also promoted war hysteria in order to unite the citizens of Oceania while broadcasting simple messages designed to discourage any self-determination or autonomous thought.


Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.


war is peace


freedom is slavery


ignorance is strength


Whereas the citizens of Brave New World used the drug Soma and cursory material distractions to vanquish any desire for real knowledge or truth; the “memory hole” in 1984 was a chute connected to an incinerator and served as the mechanism by which the Ministry of Truth would abolish historical archives as if they never existed.


In other words, truth was unimportant to the citizens of Brave New World and it was summarily rescinded from the realm of 1984.



Furthermore, in order to additionally fill the empty existence of those living in Brave New World, Huxley envisioned a character by the name of Helmholtz Watson as a creator of hypnopaedic phrases designed to fill the mental and emotional vacuum vacated by knowledge:


Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfuly glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides, they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad I’m a Beta.


– BNW, Chapter 2, pg. 27


In 1984, however, Orwell conceived of a character named Syme, who was an enthusiastic Newspeak redactor of language:


It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.


Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.


– Syme, 1984, part 1, chapter 5


In Brave New World, Helmholtz Watson worked to fill the mind of people with hypnotic messages. In 1984, Syme strived to remove words from the English language in order to eliminate what the Party considered to be “thoughtcrime”.


Although the methodologies varied, mind control was prevalent throughout both the fictional worlds of Huxley and Orwell.


Social hierarchies were also present in both futuristic novels. The citizens of Brave New World consisted of the Alpha caste which held the highest jobs in the world state, and Betas, who were allowed to interact with the Alphas. The Gamma’s were considered to have average intelligence, they were eight inches shorter than Alpha’s in height, and they maintained the office jobs and held administrative positions. The Delta’s were trained from a very young age to despise books and were conditioned to work in manufacturing, while the Epsilon caste members were considered as morons who performed the menial labor within the lowest strata of society.


Although 1984 doesn’t have a caste system, per se, the citizenry were still separated into three groups: the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles, or the proletariat. The Proles constituted 85% of the population and were allowed privacy and anonymity, yet they lived in extreme privation in pursuit of bread and circuses.


As the Party slogan put it: ‘Proles and animals are free.’


– ”1984”: part 1, chapter 7


Although both Inner and Outer Party members of 1984’s Oceania lived under constant surveillance, the members of the Inner party led lives of relative luxury compared to the middle-class lifestyle of those within the Outer Party. Additionally, the members of the Outer Party were denied sex, other than within marriage and for the sole purposes of procreation. They were also denied motorized transportation and were allowed cigarettes and gin as their only vices.


Governments of both Brave New World and 1984 also filtered information and propaganda in accordance to the class ranking of their citizens.


In Brave New World, the separate castes, except for the Epsilons who couldn’t read, received their own newspapers delivering specific propaganda for each class of society; whereas the INGSOC party members of 1984 were allowed newspapers and to view broadcasted reports of world news via their telescreens.


Even though there is no actual organized religion described in either book, there were deities endorsed by the government, primarily for economic reasons, and complete with mandated rigorous orthodoxies.


Again, the aforementioned god of Brave New World was called “Ford”, after Henry Ford, in celebration of his efficient assembly-line production of goods that was worshiped by both the overseers and citizenry of the world state.


In 1984, Big Brother served as the almighty “beginning and end”, creator, judge, grand architect and savior for the INGSOC party disciples.


In Huxley’s vision of the future, the higher power of consumerism guided the people; complete with memorized short phrases designed to encourage the replacement of material items in lieu of repairing them; and, those wearing older clothes were shamed into purchasing new apparel:


Ending is better than mending.


The more stitches, the less riches.


BNW, Chapter 3, pg. 49


Orwell, on the other hand, considered war as the means by which a collectivist oligarchy could maintain a hierarchical society by purging the excess production of material goods from the economy; thus, keeping the masses impoverished and ignorant by denying them the surplus “spare time” that is afforded via the convenience of modern technology:


The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.


— Emmanuel Goldstein, ”1984”: part 2, chapter 9


The futuristic societies envisioned by Huxley and Orwell, additionally, both discouraged romantic love, yet diverged on the subject of sex. As mentioned earlier, Brave New World treated sex as a “pressure relief valve” remaining constantly open in order to release any negative emotions like suspicion, distrust, jealousy, rage or envy. “Everyone belonged to everyone else”, so there was no need for secrets. Even children were encouraged to sexually experiment guilt free. Of course, sex was meant to be enjoyed only as a means of pleasure in Brave New World; as procreation was considered an anathema by the people and beneath the dignity of mankind.


In Orwell’s dark dystopia, however, promiscuous sex was encouraged among the proletariat and the Ministry of Truth even had a pornography division called “Pornosec”, which distributed obscene media for consumption by the Proles alone. Conversely, and also as mentioned prior, the members of the INGSOC party were required to abstain from sex; except for married couples attempting to procreate solely on behalf of the government.


In reading both books, it was also fascinating to see how both Huxley and Orwell painted their female protagonists, Lenina Crowne and Julia, respectively, as shallow nymphomaniacs.


Nevertheless, the procreative sterilized purity and casual sexual promiscuity of Brave New World along with 1984’s hierarchical rationing of sex, combined with the twisted morality of the INGSOC Party, represented the power of government invading into the most personal means of expression, and engenderment, between individuals of both worlds.


The concept of “everyone belongs to everyone else” in Brave New World allowed intimate acts to be considered merely as trivial recreation whereas the Party’s power over copulation in 1984, created a sense of fatalism within Winston and Julia as they made love knowing they were “the dead”.


In spite of any differences, both scenarios were the end result of extreme philosophical collectivism manifested into distorted and perverse destinies of speculative, future populations.


The Future is Now


For reasons described heretofore, many might consider Brave New World to be a utopian dream. In the context of individual autonomy, however, as well as the pursuit of truth, the opportunity for personal self-actualization, the dilemma of ethical considerations and the governmental dispensation of immoral law; Huxley’s vision of the future removes the lid of a veritable Pandora’s Box of questions. In reality, the societal structure as delineated in Brave New World would greatly resemble what could be called a “prison of pleasure” and, perhaps, even a “penitentiary of profligate practicality”.


Applying the same philosophical critique of 1984, and in similar fashion, Orwell’s nation-state of Oceana would be considered as a bona fide dystopian “prison of fear”.


As a matter of fact, both societies portray prisons of man’s own making, formed by governments following their own directions toward their respective future destinations. To say it another way: The road to hell is actually paved with bad intentions. As the Inner Party member (and administrator of torture), “Obrien”, admitted to Winston Smith in Room 101 of The Ministry of Love:


We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.


– Obrien, ”1984”: part 3, chapter 3


Both power structures in Brave New World and 1984 chose to diminish individual rights in order to achieve societal stability. To the governments of both super-states, their citizens were considered as mere “means to an end”; namely, the continuation of power.


Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that.


– Obrien, ”1984”: part 3, chapter 3


This is a perfect description of mankind striving to be as gods; an attempt to create metaphysical law from carnal desire. Foregone were the virtues of mercy, humility, temperance, autonomy, self-reliance, and restraint.


Mustapha Mond, one of ten world controllers in Brave New World and the evil Obrien of 1984’s nation of Oceana, both knew what they were doing. They were fully conscious in order to exert complete control and ensure the continuation of their respective, fictional nation-states.


But, could this type of power consolidation occur in the real (non-literary) world?


To answer that question one only needs to study history then, go turn on all of the various “telescreens” in their private homes: Televisions, smartphones, tablets, lap-taps and desktop computers. Tyrannical regimes have been centralizing and fortifying ramparts of power from the time man first crushed grapes. And, obviously, as the exiled enemy of the State, Edward Snowden, has revealed, modernity is no antiserum to the cancerous systematization of power.


When considering the prosperous technological paradise of Brave New World, where the societal elite had unrestricted access to intercontinental transportation and private helicopters; where even the lower classes enjoyed pampered lives of perennial comfort, ceaseless entertainment, and eternal recreation; as compared to the dingy, post-apocalyptically war-torn, third-world existence of 1984; it becomes difficult not to view both Huxley and Orwell as prophets.


Indeed, both futures have come to pass and are merely economically separated and dispersed into diverse geographic locations.


Today, it is the westernized cultures of the world, including Asian nations like Japan and South Korea, that more closely resemble Brave New World, whereas vestiges of 1984 can be seen in the eastern bloc communist countries, China, North Korea and the Islamic societies of the middle-east.


Although Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of Capitalism had created a rising economic tide that lifted many boats; much of the world’s population still languishes in squalor and will never rise from the muck.


Moreover, even the modernized nations today have sacrificed individual freedom upon the altar of Collectivism as political correctness stifles free speech; families suffocate beneath mountains of debt and United Nations Agenda 21 policies release a deluge of regulations causing extra-governmental autonomous innovation to collapse before the inexorable, gravitational pull of the hive-mind.


Corporations like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Apple have become the eyes and ears of Big Brother who is always watching, and ever listening.


To the sounds of mouse-clicks, once free people have “accepted” the “terms” of their surrender and have forfeited their liberty in the name of convenience. Like buzzing insects, the citizens of modern societies are caught in silicon honey traps mortgaged with plastic and electronically powered via USB cable nooses wrapped tightly around their collective throats.


The Technocratic Powers That Be wield weapons far more powerful than any time prior in history and soon, people will wake up to realize the electronic buzzing sound ringing in their ears was not emanating from their own wings, but rather, it was merely the sound of drones over their heads.


Like in Brave New World, science now rules supreme over ethics as medical professionals sell fetus organs to advance the cause of genetic research. The United States currently leads the world in illegal drug use and consumes near all of the global opioid supply; according to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy:


In most countries, the use of opioid prescriptions is limited to acute hospitalization and trauma, such as burns, surgery, childbirth and end-of-life care, including patients with cancer and terminal illnesses. But in the United States, every adult in America can have “a bottle of pills and then some.


Just as 1984’s Ministry of Truth purveyed pornography to the Proles, statistics show at least 35% of all internet downloads and at least 30% of all data transferred across the internet are porn-related. Also similar to Huxley’s Brave New World, sex runs rampant throughout the modernized nations as cases of sexually transmitted disease have reached a record high in the United States.


In correlation to the ever-expanding gulf between rich and poor, strict adherence to orthodoxy now determines how high one can rise in the societies of the westernized nations, as political correctness defines the faith of the pantheistic disciples of Mother Earth in the form of Gaia worship; and social hierarchy is increasingly determined via the identity politics of the collectivist left. The American body politic has now witnessed the rise of the warrior cop and the militarization of domestic law enforcement, as interminable wars are eternally fought on foreign shores and sovereign nations are bombed under false pretense.


Even 1984’s “Victory Gin” has manifested in the form Russian Vodka within the eastern nations, as Oceania’s type of man-made orthodoxy silently drowns the human spirit in devastating despair, while contorted moralities overtake both the Christian and Islamic societies of the modern age.


Orwell defined “doublethink” as:


the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them


— Emmanuel Goldstein, ”1984”: part 2, chapter 9


Only in wealthy westernized nations do billionaires own multiple mansions, fly private jets and ride in eight-cylinder limousines to climate-change conferences where policies are decreed to lower the carbon footprint of the proletariat. Only in wealthy westernized nations, do ever-increasing numbers of women consider white men to be pigs while simultaneously striving to be their equals. And, only in the wealthy Christian nations of the northern hemisphere will citizens support a women’s right to third-trimester abortions, while rigorously and righteously battling for legislation to save endangered dung beetles.


Throughout Islamic societies, drinking alcohol and gambling is forbidden, but the governments and their citizens gladly tolerate canings, whippings, lashings, honor killings, suicide attacks, and the genital mutilation of young girls.


This does NOT prevent, however, the citizens of the wealthy Christian nations in the West to welcome with open arms, and in the name of “tolerance”, the pervading flood of Islamic immigrants.


The writings of Huxley and Orwell resonate by the echoes of history, over the canyons of time, and to the very cliff upon where mankind now stands. Propaganda daily spews via the machinations of five corporations which control 90% of all mainstream media channels. These companies toe the war-party line and wield their great powers of disinformation to contort facts or even censor the failures of the politicians whom they favor while, simultaneously, attacking their political enemies with lies and innuendo; even to the point of creating a phony election hacking narrative to satisfy their radioactive lust for war with nuclear powered enemies.


Even the characters of both Brave New World and 1984 are resonant of familiar archetypes from days gone by. Brave New World portrayed the character Bernard Marx as being short like Hitler, with a small man’s inferiority complex and complete with the surname of Karl Marx, the eponymous founder of Marxism.


The noble sounding Lenina Crowne’s name contains the surname of Vladimir Lenin, and Orwell’s portrayal of Julia does not seem overly diverse from former President’s Obama’s vision of “The Life of Julia”. Even the mustachioed, evil-eyed Big Brother from 1984’s dystopian nation of Oceana, looks eerily similar to just about every other tin-pot dictator who ever walked the earth.



Art imitating life? Indeed.


Yet the irony fails to impress America’s young social justice warriors of the Millennial generation who have been raised on a steady diet of socialism, political correctness, and participation trophies; a far cry from the rugged individualists of previous American generations. In the 2016 U.S. Democratic Party Primaries, and with the same sense of vague dissatisfaction as exhibited by Huxley’s Bernard Marx, millions upon millions of rainbow worshipping Snowflakes, old and young alike, turned out in force to show their support for another Bernard: Bernard Sanders, a redistributionist of the line of Robin Hood who, in the spirit of Santa Claus, offered free college educations to all of Uncle Sam’s children.


Sadly, Big Brother is here to stay and, with time, he will only grow more bigly; regardless of any transitory elected politicians in the governments of the world’s “sovereign” nations today.


Although Aldous Huxley and George Orwell valiantly spun fictional narratives in order to warn the real world’s future citizens, they were not alone in their efforts.


On January 17, 1961, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of an ever-encroaching “Military Industrial Complex” in his farewell address to the nation:


In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.


Exactly 100 days after Ike’s farewell, on April 27, 1961, John F. Kennedy spoke before the American Newspaper Publishers Association in an address that later became known as his “Secret Society” speech. In that address, he stated the following:


For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence: on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed– and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.


Thirty months after that speech, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.


Many people consider Kennedy to have been the last American president not controlled by a financial global elite hell bent on world domination.


In one of the twentieth century’s minor ironies, Aldous Huxley died on the very same day that John F. Kennedy was killed. It was also the exact day C.S. Lewis, the British author, and Christian apologist, passed from this earth.


Coincidence? Only God knows.


Regardless, by 1984 all had been forgotten; and, in a Brave New World, none of it really matters anyway.

New Orleans Residents Used As Secret Test Subjects For Pre-Crime Police Technology

By Nicholas West


The concept of “policing in the 21st Century” is not only the implementation of a range of high-tech surveillance measures, including biometrics, but apparently also involves keeping it a complete secret from citizens … and even from their elected representatives.


At issue is one of the most controversial aspects of modern policing: the notion that if police can sweep all information into centralized databases and let an artificial intelligence algorithm do the investigative work of making connections in the data stream, then crimes can be prevented before they happen — pre-crime.


Despite an ongoing debate about potential errors in current systems, and even the legitimacy of predictive algorithms altogether (See: “Predictive Algorithms Are No Better At Telling The Future Than A Crystal Ball”), police departments across the nation are rolling out various versions of this technology. However, even worse than citizens apparently having little to no say about what their tax dollars are building, it is increasingly coming to light that these programs are being used without informing citizens at all.


I previously reported about the difficulty that journalists and activists have had in the notoriously police state infested Chicago, with the Chicago PD even refusing FOIA requests for details from well-known media like The Chicago Sun Times.






Now, in an explosive report from The Verge, reporter Ali Winston details how innocent residents of New Orleans might have been swept up in a dragnet of data collection without their knowledge. According to Winston, the private global data collection and analysis corporation, Palantir Technologies, helped launch a secret software program in 2012 with New Orleans police to track connections between gang members. As Winston rightly highlights, Palantir was founded by the CIA’s venture capital firm, making the current findings exponentially worse for those who value civil liberties. Moreover, Winston documents the lengths that the partnership went to cover up the program’s disclosure, even to city council members:



…the program escaped public notice, partly because Palantir established it as a philanthropic relationship with the city through Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s signature NOLA For Life program. Thanks to its philanthropic status, as well as New Orleans’ “strong mayor” model of government, the agreement never passed through a public procurement process.


In fact, key city council members and attorneys contacted by The Verge had no idea that the city had any sort of relationship with Palantir, nor were they aware that Palantir used its program in New Orleans to market its services to another law enforcement agency for a multimillion-dollar contract.


Even James Carville, the political operative instrumental in bringing about Palantir’s collaboration with NOPD, said that the program was not public knowledge. “No one in New Orleans even knows about this, to my knowledge,” Carville said.



Carville went on to say that he orchestrated the partnership between a domestic police force and a company known for Pentagon intelligence work in overseas warzones, based solely on his own idea that “it was a case of morality. Young people were shooting each other, and the public wasn’t as involved as they should have been.” That’s about as frightening an admission to the justification for fascism as I’ve come across — and no one involved is even elected.


While specifics of who might have been affected by the program cannot be detailed due to the level of secrecy, based on what The Verge has compiled, they suggest that the data collection is far too comprehensive to fully eliminate the innocent from the dragnet:


Palantir’s prediction model in New Orleans used an intelligence technique called social network analysis (or SNA) to draw connections between people, places, cars, weapons, addresses, social media posts, and other indicia in previously siloed databases. Think of the analysis as a practical version of a Mark Lombardi painting that highlights connections between people, places, and events. After entering a query term — like a partial license plate, nickname, address, phone number, or social media handle or post — NOPD’s analyst would review the information scraped by Palantir’s software and determine which individuals are at the greatest risk of either committing violence or becoming a victim, based on their connection to known victims or assailants.


I encourage everyone to read the full article at The Verge, as it offers a treasure trove of details about the background of Palantir, their connection to other police forces around the country, and the fact that not a single oversight committee appears to be aware of what data has been collected in New Orleans, on whom, and whether or not there has been any framework developed to ensure that innocent people will not be exploited by their predictive policing programs. Without the proper transparency, we are only left with this assurance from Palantir on their website, already made laughable by what little we know.


We design technology to help institutions protect liberty


Analytic technology, especially in the hands of powerful institutions that hold large volumes of data, can pose serious risks to privacy and civil liberties. That’s why we build privacy-protective capabilities into our products, help customers understand how to use them responsibly, and work with advocacy groups and the policy community on how technology can be used to protect privacy interests today and in the future. We have always been, and continue to be, committed to helping organizations get value out of their data while protecting sensitive information from misuse and abuse.


Every police department should be open to requests from residents to explain their conduct; let’s hope that the exemplary work from The Verge and sharing this information can help with that endeavor.


Nicholas West writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Steemit, and BitChute. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.


Image credit: Phys.org