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City lights flashing while I chase my own spark🔥 #Flirty #Tease #Uber #Backseat #LateNightVibes #Spicy #AdultFun #NaughtyVibes #RideOrDie #CarPlay #PrivateRide #SoloPlay #RiskyBusiness

LuxioFlashTV

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33,174 views • 1 month ago •via X (Twitter)

NSFW #Flirty #Tease #Uber #Backseat #LateNightVibes #Spicy #AdultFun #NaughtyVibes #RideOrDie #CarPlay #PrivateRide #SoloPlay #RiskyBusiness

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Another Ukrainian city is being wiped out right now while the world looks away Here’s what’s happening in Kramatorsk: • Glide bombs & FPVs pound the city to make them unliveable. • Civilians evacuated every day but not everyone is leaving. • I spent the night with power station workers risking their lives to keep the lights on. Every shift is their own ‘fuck you’ to Russia. • The war started here in 2014 & locals spent a decade fighting for their freedom - they wont give up without a fight. • This region isn't some industrial backwater, it's a beautiful landscape with a rich, vibrant history. • And the difficult truth: Russia is still advancing. Slowly, brutally, but advancing. It’s uncomfortable to say. But it’s true. Pretending otherwise doesn’t help Ukraine. If the world stops watching because it thinks Russia is losing, Russia gets exactly what it needs: time. This is what’s happening in Donbas right now. Watch my full report. 🇺🇦

Another Ukrainian city is being wiped out right now while the world looks away Here’s what’s happening in Kramatorsk: • Glide bombs & FPVs pound the city to make them unliveable. • Civilians evacuated every day but not everyone is leaving. • I spent the night with power station workers risking their lives to keep the lights on. Every shift is their own ‘fuck you’ to Russia. • The war started here in 2014 & locals spent a decade fighting for their freedom - they wont give up without a fight. • This region isn't some industrial backwater, it's a beautiful landscape with a rich, vibrant history. • And the difficult truth: Russia is still advancing. Slowly, brutally, but advancing. It’s uncomfortable to say. But it’s true. Pretending otherwise doesn’t help Ukraine. If the world stops watching because it thinks Russia is losing, Russia gets exactly what it needs: time. This is what’s happening in Donbas right now. Watch my full report. 🇺🇦

Caolan

453,282 views • 17 days ago

The music industry no dey built for artistes anymore… E shock me say we fit now drop our own songs from anywhere in the world, but the system we dey share am inside no really care about the art itself. Most of us dey spend more to create than we ever get back and e no even just be about money. E dey touch how we think, how we create, and how we see ourselves. When your music no stream well, the weight dey heavy pass wetin e suppose be. You start to doubt your gift, your worth, forgetting say e no be you na the broken system. They don train us to measure music with numbers instead of meaning, and along the line, we forget why we start to create in the first place. So me, I don go back to basics. That’s why I built Erigga Live community platform our own space to share my world directly with the people wey really dey feel am. From now on, every intimate session, every live performance, and every moment that matter go first show on before anywhere else. Because right now, I no dey chase algorithm,I dey chase connection. I dey build something real with the fans wey understand the journey, the pain, and the message behind the music. Welcome to Erigga Live, where the art still matter more than the numbers. 🎙️🔥 December 4th benin city 🫡 let’s go this again 🍻

The music industry no dey built for artistes anymore… E shock me say we fit now drop our own songs from anywhere in the world, but the system we dey share am inside no really care about the art itself. Most of us dey spend more to create than we ever get back and e no even just be about money. E dey touch how we think, how we create, and how we see ourselves. When your music no stream well, the weight dey heavy pass wetin e suppose be. You start to doubt your gift, your worth, forgetting say e no be you na the broken system. They don train us to measure music with numbers instead of meaning, and along the line, we forget why we start to create in the first place. So me, I don go back to basics. That’s why I built Erigga Live community platform our own space to share my world directly with the people wey really dey feel am. From now on, every intimate session, every live performance, and every moment that matter go first show on before anywhere else. Because right now, I no dey chase algorithm,I dey chase connection. I dey build something real with the fans wey understand the journey, the pain, and the message behind the music. Welcome to Erigga Live, where the art still matter more than the numbers. 🎙️🔥 December 4th benin city 🫡 let’s go this again 🍻

𝙴𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚊

136,440 views • 10 months ago

#Islamabad: 2/8/26 #ChampAlertsOnTheGo Received via commuter (Insta ID - Mir_fd2) He was travelling onIslamabad-Srinagar Highway. At the first check post in Islamabad, a Honda Reborn with number ALZ-222 was being checked by a police officer. The driver suddenly accelerated and fled while the officer was still hanging from the left door. While fleeing at high speed, he first hit a Honda City car and then hit a motorcyclist, who fell on the road. Due to the extreme overspeeding, the police officer also fell from the car. He tried to chase & stop him. He took a U-turn & on the U-turn, he again hit another biker with extreme speed. That biker fell and came directly in front of my own car. To save him from coming under my car, I had to apply emergency brakes, and due to this, the driver of ALZ-222 managed to escape. Police officer showed bravery and managed to sit in the front seat of the vehicle, but the accused did not stop the vehicle and continued to try to escape. The fleeing vehicle hit three motorcycles in the Apara area. The injured officer was immediately shifted to the Polyclinic Hospital, while the accused managed to escape along with the vehicle. Islamabad Police Hamzah Humayun please look into this.

#Islamabad: 2/8/26 #ChampAlertsOnTheGo Received via commuter (Insta ID - Mir_fd2) He was travelling onIslamabad-Srinagar Highway. At the first check post in Islamabad, a Honda Reborn with number ALZ-222 was being checked by a police officer. The driver suddenly accelerated and fled while the officer was still hanging from the left door. While fleeing at high speed, he first hit a Honda City car and then hit a motorcyclist, who fell on the road. Due to the extreme overspeeding, the police officer also fell from the car. He tried to chase & stop him. He took a U-turn & on the U-turn, he again hit another biker with extreme speed. That biker fell and came directly in front of my own car. To save him from coming under my car, I had to apply emergency brakes, and due to this, the driver of ALZ-222 managed to escape. Police officer showed bravery and managed to sit in the front seat of the vehicle, but the accused did not stop the vehicle and continued to try to escape. The fleeing vehicle hit three motorcycles in the Apara area. The injured officer was immediately shifted to the Polyclinic Hospital, while the accused managed to escape along with the vehicle. Islamabad Police Hamzah Humayun please look into this.

Shaheryar Hassan

26,820 views • 1 month ago

I'm back home after hunting #EDOUARD—an odd little storm. I don't chase tropical storms, generally. It's just not my thing, because I get turned on by wind, not water. But there was always the *chance* EDOUARD would become a #hurricane. As several computer models predicted, the tiny cyclone did strengthen significantly *just* before landfall, crossing the coast with an estimated intensity of 50 knots—but fortunately, it just didn't have enough time to become a hurricane. Still, it was a spicy little system that packed a punch in the SW corner of #Louisiana and the industrial cities SE #Texas. Me: I started in Sabine Pass, TX—then drove across the state line into Louisiana to get into the calm center (what we'd call an eye if it were a hurricane) as it hit land. My location at landfall: a gas station on Highway 82 (29.7646N 93.7564W). I measured 999.6 mb at 2:36 pm CDT, but it's possible there was lower pressure before or after the time I was taking readings in that spot. Crossing back into Texas, I drove back into the W "eyewall" as I entered the S outskirts of Port Arthur, hitting extremely heavy rain and big gusts. The ships in the canal sat stoically in the gloom, like sleeping dinosaurs—seemingly unbothered by the atmospheric theatrics—but I noticed wind-driven waves from Sabine Lake jumping up onto waterfront lawns as I crept up the highway. I soon got back into the calm eye feature, which I "surfed" as I drove N through the city. I went through Downtown Port Arthur when the exact center of the storm passed over it. The rain had stopped, but the sky was very dark on the horizon, and the traffic lights swung angrily in the gusts. Heading NE to Orange and then E on I-10, I hit one last *extremely* heavy outer rainband near Lake Charles—rain so heavy I almost pulled over, because I couldn’t see. But that was the very outer edge of this tiny storm: once I cleared that rainband, conditions instantly improved, the road dried, and I enjoyed fair weather all the way back to Mississippi. EDOUARD was a compact, self-contained little thing. Here are just some images and moments from the day.

I'm back home after hunting #EDOUARD—an odd little storm. I don't chase tropical storms, generally. It's just not my thing, because I get turned on by wind, not water. But there was always the chance EDOUARD would become a #hurricane. As several computer models predicted, the tiny cyclone did strengthen significantly just before landfall, crossing the coast with an estimated intensity of 50 knots—but fortunately, it just didn't have enough time to become a hurricane. Still, it was a spicy little system that packed a punch in the SW corner of #Louisiana and the industrial cities SE #Texas. Me: I started in Sabine Pass, TX—then drove across the state line into Louisiana to get into the calm center (what we'd call an eye if it were a hurricane) as it hit land. My location at landfall: a gas station on Highway 82 (29.7646N 93.7564W). I measured 999.6 mb at 2:36 pm CDT, but it's possible there was lower pressure before or after the time I was taking readings in that spot. Crossing back into Texas, I drove back into the W "eyewall" as I entered the S outskirts of Port Arthur, hitting extremely heavy rain and big gusts. The ships in the canal sat stoically in the gloom, like sleeping dinosaurs—seemingly unbothered by the atmospheric theatrics—but I noticed wind-driven waves from Sabine Lake jumping up onto waterfront lawns as I crept up the highway. I soon got back into the calm eye feature, which I "surfed" as I drove N through the city. I went through Downtown Port Arthur when the exact center of the storm passed over it. The rain had stopped, but the sky was very dark on the horizon, and the traffic lights swung angrily in the gusts. Heading NE to Orange and then E on I-10, I hit one last extremely heavy outer rainband near Lake Charles—rain so heavy I almost pulled over, because I couldn’t see. But that was the very outer edge of this tiny storm: once I cleared that rainband, conditions instantly improved, the road dried, and I enjoyed fair weather all the way back to Mississippi. EDOUARD was a compact, self-contained little thing. Here are just some images and moments from the day.

Josh Morgerman

28,492 views • 12 days ago

Anthropic switched Fable 5 back on 24 hours ago, and it took me 1 hour to prototype a GTA 6 trailer. Not a mockup or a storyboard a rendered trailer with camera cuts, Vice City neon, and a chase over the causeway at dusk. The run looked like this: Minute 0 — dropped 6 reference frames and the leaked trailer script into Fable 5 Minute 9 — it wrote a full shot list of 22 shots timed to 0.1 seconds Minute 24 — generated every scene, with 19 of 22 usable on the first pass Minute 41 — cut the sequence itself, matching pacing to the trailer's audio waveform Minute 58 — export, 1080p, 91 seconds I typed 4 prompts total while Fable ran the other 200 steps on its own planning, generating, reviewing its own frames and regenerating the bad ones. The old pipeline for this was a VFX team, 3 weeks and $15,000 minimum, when 1 fake trailer shot from an Upwork freelancer already costs $2,000. Rockstar spent 12 years and a reported $2B making the real thing with 6,000 people. My version doesn't compete with theirs but the gap between a studio and 1 guy with a laptop just shrank to 60 minutes and 4 prompts.

Anthropic switched Fable 5 back on 24 hours ago, and it took me 1 hour to prototype a GTA 6 trailer. Not a mockup or a storyboard a rendered trailer with camera cuts, Vice City neon, and a chase over the causeway at dusk. The run looked like this: Minute 0 — dropped 6 reference frames and the leaked trailer script into Fable 5 Minute 9 — it wrote a full shot list of 22 shots timed to 0.1 seconds Minute 24 — generated every scene, with 19 of 22 usable on the first pass Minute 41 — cut the sequence itself, matching pacing to the trailer's audio waveform Minute 58 — export, 1080p, 91 seconds I typed 4 prompts total while Fable ran the other 200 steps on its own planning, generating, reviewing its own frames and regenerating the bad ones. The old pipeline for this was a VFX team, 3 weeks and $15,000 minimum, when 1 fake trailer shot from an Upwork freelancer already costs $2,000. Rockstar spent 12 years and a reported $2B making the real thing with 6,000 people. My version doesn't compete with theirs but the gap between a studio and 1 guy with a laptop just shrank to 60 minutes and 4 prompts.

Veltrx

244,639 views • 2 months ago

This spring my 80lb golden doodle got into a coyote den in the green space right in Bismarck here. We were walking in the green space near my house right at sun down…and as always, I let him run loose to chase pheasants and grouse. I lost track of him for awhile and then I heard a bunch of barking…and since we always see yotes out there trying to lure him in, I knew exactly what was happening… I could hear the barking turn more into fighting yip and yelp noises off in the distance while I was running around trying to find them. I’d have to stop running to be able listen and make sure I was headed in the right direction. Finally, when I got farther down the hill closer to all the noises, my dog Kirby popped out of the tall grass about 200 yards away with three of yotes chasing him and nipping at his heels. I’m guessing he heard me yelling and tried to run toward me, but because they were biting at him he stopped and turned to face all three. He pinned down one that bull rushed him and then he bit and tossed another over his shoulder that also bull rushed him, but right at that moment the biggest one bit his back leg and Kirby let out a big yelp. He spun around and bit that one which backed up and they squared up as the other two tried to regroup. The one Kirby bit and tossed stayed lying down, so I’m assuming it was injured. Kirby’s bit spot was right on the top middle of its spine and it also landed square on its neck/head. That was the only part of the fighting I actually saw as I was sprinting down the last stretch of the hill toward them, so maybe 45 seconds of it. I arrived right when he was squaring off with the biggest one. Right as I got there the yotes backed off a little, but surprisingly not much. Then two more showed up as I was leashing him. So now five of them were circled around us, backing off only a little bit when I yelled and kicked at them. Acting kind of like little mini ugly wolves. As we jogged out, they kept sneaking up behind us and from the sides trying to get at Kirby still. And Kirby was still in a “let me at em” mode which made the jog out difficult lol. After about 1/2 a mile of that, we finally got near the end of the green space and near the street and street lights. So the yotes finally dropped back about 50 yards, and slowed down. That’s when I took this video. But they still followed us into the neighborhood and through the park to my front step, just watching us. Some or all of them may or may not be alive anymore. Tamed city yotes don’t act the same as normal yotes so they’re better off dead for everyone’s sake.

This spring my 80lb golden doodle got into a coyote den in the green space right in Bismarck here. We were walking in the green space near my house right at sun down…and as always, I let him run loose to chase pheasants and grouse. I lost track of him for awhile and then I heard a bunch of barking…and since we always see yotes out there trying to lure him in, I knew exactly what was happening… I could hear the barking turn more into fighting yip and yelp noises off in the distance while I was running around trying to find them. I’d have to stop running to be able listen and make sure I was headed in the right direction. Finally, when I got farther down the hill closer to all the noises, my dog Kirby popped out of the tall grass about 200 yards away with three of yotes chasing him and nipping at his heels. I’m guessing he heard me yelling and tried to run toward me, but because they were biting at him he stopped and turned to face all three. He pinned down one that bull rushed him and then he bit and tossed another over his shoulder that also bull rushed him, but right at that moment the biggest one bit his back leg and Kirby let out a big yelp. He spun around and bit that one which backed up and they squared up as the other two tried to regroup. The one Kirby bit and tossed stayed lying down, so I’m assuming it was injured. Kirby’s bit spot was right on the top middle of its spine and it also landed square on its neck/head. That was the only part of the fighting I actually saw as I was sprinting down the last stretch of the hill toward them, so maybe 45 seconds of it. I arrived right when he was squaring off with the biggest one. Right as I got there the yotes backed off a little, but surprisingly not much. Then two more showed up as I was leashing him. So now five of them were circled around us, backing off only a little bit when I yelled and kicked at them. Acting kind of like little mini ugly wolves. As we jogged out, they kept sneaking up behind us and from the sides trying to get at Kirby still. And Kirby was still in a “let me at em” mode which made the jog out difficult lol. After about 1/2 a mile of that, we finally got near the end of the green space and near the street and street lights. So the yotes finally dropped back about 50 yards, and slowed down. That’s when I took this video. But they still followed us into the neighborhood and through the park to my front step, just watching us. Some or all of them may or may not be alive anymore. Tamed city yotes don’t act the same as normal yotes so they’re better off dead for everyone’s sake.

KC NoDak Brim 🇺🇸

82,686 views • 2 months ago

Friends Last night, another Danish airport was forced to close due to sighting of another flock of "mysterious drones"! (Many were sighted, hovering and flying over for many hours - but you can see just one of them in the video below). This time, all flights from Aalborg airport - which also serves as a military base - had to be halted. As I told you just the other day - these "mysterious drones" are going to keep appearing over airports, military bases and populated areas over the next few months. And it won't just be happening in Denmark. It could happen anywhere! Last year it started with military bases and airports in the UK, then it happened in military bases in Germany, and finally it moved to the US and the city sightings in New Jersey. And I predict there will be a similar pattern this year.... the sightings will spread to other countries, and they will eventually become most active over a large, populated area. This time it could all culminate with sightings over London, or Berlin, or Barcelona - or maybe even New York City! WHY? Because they WANT to be seen! These are NOT spy drones from Russia, or amateur drones being piloted by some kind of anarchist group! These are UAPs/UFOs that are intentionally trying to gain our attention. I repeat: They WANT to be seen! These aren't clandestine military devices.... So, PLEASE don't believe anyone who claims as much. Just use your common sense: Spy drones don't emit bright flashing lights and hover for long periods so that anyone can see them! And if those basic facts don't convince you, then ask yourself this question: if these "mysterious drones" are enemy spy drones then why has no country ever shot them down? I'll tell you why: Because they can't! These craft are technologically superior to us! Not only are these UAP/UFOs able to come and go as they wish, without us being able to "jam" their flights or intercept them in any way - but I believe they can also "shape shift" and mimic our own technology. And if they were in any way hostile - trust me we would know about it by now! I have no doubt that these UAP/UFOs have a PEACEFUL intent...but it is clear that they DO want to be seen, and they DO want to grab our attention. I believe that right now, they are deliberately orchestrating what we might call a "Peaceful Protest"...they are trying to make us aware that we are not alone, and that we are NOT the most powerful "players" on this planet...they are trying to raise our awareness and consciousness, while also displaying a soft show of power to encourage, nudge and softly steer us in a better direction. So DON’T let anyone use these sightings as an excuse to start or escalate any current human hostilities! Friends - Wherever you live, look up and stay alert. WATCH the skies, but DON'T believe the lies!

Friends Last night, another Danish airport was forced to close due to sighting of another flock of "mysterious drones"! (Many were sighted, hovering and flying over for many hours - but you can see just one of them in the video below). This time, all flights from Aalborg airport - which also serves as a military base - had to be halted. As I told you just the other day - these "mysterious drones" are going to keep appearing over airports, military bases and populated areas over the next few months. And it won't just be happening in Denmark. It could happen anywhere! Last year it started with military bases and airports in the UK, then it happened in military bases in Germany, and finally it moved to the US and the city sightings in New Jersey. And I predict there will be a similar pattern this year.... the sightings will spread to other countries, and they will eventually become most active over a large, populated area. This time it could all culminate with sightings over London, or Berlin, or Barcelona - or maybe even New York City! WHY? Because they WANT to be seen! These are NOT spy drones from Russia, or amateur drones being piloted by some kind of anarchist group! These are UAPs/UFOs that are intentionally trying to gain our attention. I repeat: They WANT to be seen! These aren't clandestine military devices.... So, PLEASE don't believe anyone who claims as much. Just use your common sense: Spy drones don't emit bright flashing lights and hover for long periods so that anyone can see them! And if those basic facts don't convince you, then ask yourself this question: if these "mysterious drones" are enemy spy drones then why has no country ever shot them down? I'll tell you why: Because they can't! These craft are technologically superior to us! Not only are these UAP/UFOs able to come and go as they wish, without us being able to "jam" their flights or intercept them in any way - but I believe they can also "shape shift" and mimic our own technology. And if they were in any way hostile - trust me we would know about it by now! I have no doubt that these UAP/UFOs have a PEACEFUL intent...but it is clear that they DO want to be seen, and they DO want to grab our attention. I believe that right now, they are deliberately orchestrating what we might call a "Peaceful Protest"...they are trying to make us aware that we are not alone, and that we are NOT the most powerful "players" on this planet...they are trying to raise our awareness and consciousness, while also displaying a soft show of power to encourage, nudge and softly steer us in a better direction. So DON’T let anyone use these sightings as an excuse to start or escalate any current human hostilities! Friends - Wherever you live, look up and stay alert. WATCH the skies, but DON'T believe the lies!

Uri Geller

121,463 views • 11 months ago

RESCUE OF THE KEEPER OF TARA EARTH This is going to sound like absolute fiction, but the story still needs to be told. Let me preface by saying I’m not just sane, but an autodidact polymath with multiple quantum physics patents under exclusively my own name, not part of any collaboration. So by dismissing my testimony as someone who is just nuts is really reading a book strictly through its cover. This all actually happened, even if you’ve never heard of anything like this before. What we don’t know about ‘the real worlds’ out there you could barely fit in all of our skies, we’ve been that isolated here. Everyone in this preschool dimension have preconceived notions about who ‘god’ is, inflated to the realm of all-knowing and all-powerful, able to create whole worlds, complete with millions of species of flora and fauna, and all in just 6 days. And while it is true such powers do exist, they are not without collaboration with other ‘gods’ to make that all happen, no matter how grandiose your captors want to make themselves seem. Just one species of your apples or oranges here represents possibly trillions of years of development and perfection. They didn’t just magically appear. “God” is a psyop term that stands for the word “perfect”, of which there is no such thing. The term perfect is strictly subjective, because what may seem perfect to a caveman is going to seem rudimentary kid’s stuff to George Jetson. The real term for the creator of all things is not ‘god’, but rather Prime Creator. “God” is actually DOG spelled backward and got its name from the Dog Star, also known as Sirius A, the headquarters of the Anuhazi Elohim’s breakaway group that call themselves The Michaelube, Suns of Ba’al. The ‘Arch Angels’ want you to believe they are the creator god of all things in this world. That was a lie 560m years ago and it is still a lie today. In reality, Tara Earth existed more than 4 billion years prior to the Anuhazi’s arrival to take the Human Elohim Project spirit essences hostage. They DID in fact help create Tara earth, just like you did, because they are fractals of Prime Creator. But to present themselves as ‘one guy with a long white beard who created the world and everything in it’ is word magic and gaslighting, designed to demoralize and subjugate Humans. For more on the why to this psychopathic plan, see my article: 👉 HISTORY OF THE CHIMERA. With that said, there are MANY beings in the world around you that are secretly ancient ‘gods’ of past eras who really do have more powers than humans do. I know, because I’ve met some and dealt with others during my years of education from the keeper of our simulation. There are also beings here who have roles to play to keep our world functioning correctly so Tara is able to continue offering a holographic platform for your manifestation adventure, who also have god-like powers, such as the keeper mentioned above, and others that are part of the team I refer to as the ‘crew’. You would call them angels, I call them people. Scary powerful people, but still people. Among the ‘crew’ is the main ‘keeper’ of the simulation that you wind up referring to as god down through the ages, because once in a while humans get to meet the keeper and witness the power for themselves which is very obviously not human. But the keeper doesn’t have a long flowing white beard, doesn’t sit on a throne in the sky and certainly isn’t perfect. But like you, a work in progress. Always seeking greater balance. That is the one common denominator among all fractals of Prime Creator, regardless if they are currently playing ‘bad guy’ roles, or ‘good guy’ roles. Understand there are beings here constantly at war against the keeper that has control of the universal elements of the hologram. Also understand, like the other beings who came here from much higher dimension with ‘god-like’ powers, they fractalize themselves into many, many different bodies, so it is effectively impossible to ever ‘kill’ each other. You would have to not only find all the many hundreds or thousands of them, but have a fool-proof way of killing them all at the same exact moment, making sure they are gone-gone, not just that one avatar holding their spirit awareness. That’s not going to happen. Not to any of them from what I’ve witnessed. Which means simply, as far as you are concerned, they are eternal beings, continuously here since 560m years ago in some case, depending when each one of them arrived. The ‘gods’, and the keeper, live in mortal bodies that age and die. But their positions are always held by the next one of themselves that can step into that role to maintain continuity of their offices. These are all the same person and can appear exactly identical to each other, or they can take on totally different appearances as well. I’m not sure why or how, but I’ve seen them both ways. After I was contacted by the keeper and informed of my role where I was in contract to supply protection and help to the crew back in 2013, eventually I was activated for that help in September of 2017. Both the keeper and a portion of the worldwide crew support staff as it were, had been taken hostage in California. I was tasked to bring them out to safety. I won’t go deeply into the details of this, but it was a serious situation where the invader races had stripped the keeper of all access to banks and cash, making it impossible to remain safe inside of the place they had been using as headquarters, literally casting them into the streets. And before you imagine this would be ‘impossible’, the keeper can’t just manifest stacks of cash out of thin air, and also there were a massive amount of beings all working together to neutralize them so they could possibly remove them from the levers of power of the simulation. That’s really all I can offer for details about that for now. The alphabet agencies were keeping the entire crew isolated in that one city, living in a car, camping in the woods and basically making it impossible to look after Tara. The keeper was able to get donations through various support mechanisms, but were shut out of getting off the streets. They brought in specialists to help them all escape, but the agencies wound up permanently disabling them, or taking them out altogether. That’s when I was contacted for assignment. Not being one of ‘the gods’ like they are, I was naturally terrified of having anything to do with this mission because I had no powers I was aware of that could provide anything they couldn’t. Which is really a fantastic understatement, since the keeper and crew can translocate anywhere in the world in seconds, have ‘thousands of avatars’ scattered out as vessels they can use in any city around the world, and basically everything they can do we can’t are about as intimidating as they can be. But I was told I was the only one who could rescue them. And while that may sound like the perfect scenario for a deluded mind seeking validation with illusions of grandeur, like a classic mental patient would come up with in their insane mind, this is what I was actually told, and I do mean in real life. To this day I find it as confusing to believe as you will trying to believe me now. Nonetheless, I carry certain powers I have been fitted with for my contract here on earth that I have had no education about at all. And the main one I’ve learned of now is I have a frequency shield that blocks out ‘the gods’ from doing harm. As long as the keeper and crew were within that field, the invaders were rendered powerless. Wow, even I want to roll my eyes at that. But I watched it play out first hand now multiple times after I got the crew off the streets in a ‘place of safety’ over the next couple of years. As long as I was at the safe house, nothing nefarious happened. When I went shopping every other week for groceries in town over 10 miles away, that’s when all hell would break out back at the compound. Those stories too would seem impossible to you to believe, just like everything else I am covering here, so I won’t go deeply into them. But they included black helicopters, 10’ long rattlesnakes sealing off the safe house & even assassinations. I was even requested to get to town and back as quickly as possible and not to linger due to these threats. I was told that my frequency shield while blended to the natural frequency shield the keeper and crew all have reached ‘87.3 miles’ apart (or so, going by memory now. But it was a very specific number). But even though the overall power of our combined fields still increased within that distance, the closer I was to the group, the more powerful the shield. I’m just telling you what I was told. You can believe it or not. I certainly wouldn’t believe it had I not actually witnessed it myself, so I’m right there with you if that’s your position. That brings us to the story I intended to pass along to you here; regarding that flight from ‘homeless bondage’ out across the deserts that spanned well over 1000 miles I was brought in for. The keeper and crew had been held hostage and homeless for 2 ½ years by the time I got the call requesting me to sell everything I owned and fly half way around the world for their rescue. Their lives had been hell, trust me. I arrived late at night where they picked me up and the hard part of the journey began. I will skip the details of the truly insane things I witnessed starting then for another time after the separation, for obvious reasons having to do with breadcrumbs and the very real fluid war we’re inside of still. But I will tell you about the ‘angels’ that were with us for that escape I would only learn about myself after 2 days of running. In the video below you will see what appear to be asteroids or a meteor shower, but they are traveling horizontally, not downward at all. We’ve seen this now since late 2024 a few times. This time I saved one of the videos taken on 2/19/2025 in Germany so I could actually show people what I saw first hand on that second night of our escape. We had covered whole states by this time, but we couldn’t stop and rest until we made it to a ‘frequency zone’ that was somehow outside of the reaches of the keeper’s enemies. I’m under the impression that there are certain key cross-leyline areas on earth that are too high in frequency for the low-vibration invader races to penetrate with their hyper-advanced psychotronic & scalar weapons, and that had been our destination ever since our escape that began at about 3:30-4am in the dead of night when the least amount of eyes would be surveilling us. Boy do I have outrageous stories about just how absolute that surveillance really is too. It is like they are not just tracking us, but using time travel to put agents in areas we would be arriving to, posing like homeless people and everyday folks. While in real life they were monitoring my every word in secret. I was surveilled many times during the weeks in that city while arranging for the escape and it blew my mind every time. The asteroids that really look more like comets in the video is what the "guardian angels" that had been secretly escorting us from overhead looked like, WHEN they were uncloaked. They only showed up in my visible view at the moment we broke over a ridge at about 3:30 in the morning 2 days later after our run began, at the exact same moment I could see the city lights way off in the distance below that was the ‘safe zone’. Suddenly overhead three giant comets appeared immediately above my head. I was in the lead vehicle the whole way, because the keeper was following my taillights. This is the only way they can navigate at night, because they don’t see like you and I do, looking at solid shapes and images, but everything through their eyes are light waves. I couldn’t make up something like that if I spent 10 years trying to write this article, mostly because it is still not believable to me now, 8 years later. These 3 comets were massive, what looked to be around 50 feet across, with tails of flame coming off that must have been 150-200 feet behind streaking VERY low across the sky. As I came down the hill to the desert floor for the final 10 miles between us and the safe zone (small town lights), the ‘comets’ started coming straight down toward ground, one at a time. They appeared they were going to crash into the highway, now traveling vertically at hypersonic speed, then just stopped 50 ft away from impact and vanished. You would have to try to imagine being in the total dark desert with only very faint, far-away lights off in the distance, only to have 3 comets traveling RIGHT DIRECTLY overhead suddenly uncloak, then turn straight down to get an idea of how insanely frightening they appeared, since their trajectory was to strike directly in front of your vehicle on the highway, as if you were about to slam right into them as they hit like giant bombs that would certainly blow up on impact and basically vaporize you and your moving van, to appreciate how absurd this event was. I was only about 150 feet away from where they were set to strike, so there was no hitting the brakes and avoiding anything. They were right there. Which means it was sort of like watching 'god' just fill the night's sky with fire. I saw 3 of them myself, but I was informed there were an additional 9 ‘angels’ that my own frequency wouldn't allow me to see according to the keeper. It is because this story is so unbelievable that I avoid talking about it, as you can imagine. Since 99 people out of a hundred are only going to accuse you of being insane upon hearing it, some possibly trying to have you committed at the same time, and the other person is likely already crazy themselves, so they just glaze over it. Until you see something like that with your own eyes, I'm pretty sure you will *never believe it could be a real thing. But this is what we call angels look like when they are decloaked and traveling at night. I don’t personally know if they were inside vehicles, or they are just simply traveling in their own Merkabah fields. That part was never explained to me. I was told they were with us 'flying overhead the entire journey' since we escaped California and were basically ‘signing off’ as I gathered it, now that we had reached the safe zone. You can believe I'm crazy all you want to, but now you can see them with your own eyes in this video, sure as hell not acting like meteors, but acting more like flaming time crafts (‘space’ ships). Are you crazy too? - On X, to search for my articles, simply type in the name of the piece, enter one space, then from: plus my username in parenthesis such as shown here: CASTING THE APOCOLYPSE (from:iontecs_pemf) Off-site, you can look up any of my writings through this link below for my other more than 100 recent articles and many thousands of comments on X, regularly updated thanks to Justin This message will only be seen by your eyes if not shared, and if you want to reference this article again later, you will need to cut and paste it in your own notes off line, as it will surely be erased. This is the most accurate translation of these events I am aware of at this time.

W.R. Schock, QBD

62,828 views • 1 year ago

🚨 According to Dan Ives, TESLA IS NOW MORE AN AI COMPANY THAN A CAR COMPANY 🏆 Here are the key takeaways from Ives regarding Tesla's strategic direction and future valuation after the Q1.2026 earnings release 🔥 📈 Earnings matter for tracking demand stabilization Investors still need to pay attention to earnings numbers because they indicate whether demand is stabilizing, particularly in key markets like China and Europe. "But you care because ultimately you need a stabilization of demand. I think they've seen that in spots like China, Europe, and that is important in terms of the course of the reality going forward." 🤖 Tesla's future valuation hinges on AI, not just cars Tesla should be viewed primarily as an AI, autonomous driving, and robotaxi company, which will be the primary driver for its next trillion-dollar valuation increase. "To get the incremental trillion dollars valuation, trillion and a half, it's going to be in AI. It's going to be really what I view—this is much more of an AI company, disruptive tech, than a car company." 🛣️ The timeline for "Physical AI" and a second-half ramp-up is crucial Along with Nvidia, Tesla is one of the top two "physical AI" investments in the market today. To turn the stock around, management needs to outline a realistic timeline for production and city rollouts for the second half of the year. "You look for physical AI, the two best physical AI plays in the market today are Nvidia and Tesla. But really right now, it's the path to actually start to see the ramp in the second half of the year. This is a very important conference call." 🛡️ The autonomous rollout is deliberately cautious While the rollout of autonomous features in cities has been slower than expected, this is an intentional and careful strategy to avoid safety issues as they ramp up city by city. "If you look, it's been slower than expected, but then that's also been carefully done because the last thing they want to do is ultimately have some issue. So you're seeing city by city them ramping." 🌎 Tesla is positioned to dominate the global autonomous market Tesla is expected to eventually command 80% of the world's autonomous market, starting with smaller city networks. Because of this, Dan expects the stock to significantly outperform over the next 3 to 6 months. "In my opinion, they're going to own 80% of the autonomous market in the world, but it's been talked about, it does all start with rolling it out, showing the physical AI play. It's been underperforming this year, but I believe if we sit here three, six months from now, it has actually significantly outperformed." 🚀 A potential merger with SpaceX is on the horizon A major "golden goose" for investors is the expectation that Tesla could merge with SpaceX within the next year, creating a broader trend for investors to capitalize on. "It's our view that in the next year Tesla eventually merges with SpaceX, and this is just an important dynamic as it plays out. I think that's sort of part of the golden goose for us as investors start to play this broader trend."

🚨 According to Dan Ives, TESLA IS NOW MORE AN AI COMPANY THAN A CAR COMPANY 🏆 Here are the key takeaways from Ives regarding Tesla's strategic direction and future valuation after the Q1.2026 earnings release 🔥 📈 Earnings matter for tracking demand stabilization Investors still need to pay attention to earnings numbers because they indicate whether demand is stabilizing, particularly in key markets like China and Europe. "But you care because ultimately you need a stabilization of demand. I think they've seen that in spots like China, Europe, and that is important in terms of the course of the reality going forward." 🤖 Tesla's future valuation hinges on AI, not just cars Tesla should be viewed primarily as an AI, autonomous driving, and robotaxi company, which will be the primary driver for its next trillion-dollar valuation increase. "To get the incremental trillion dollars valuation, trillion and a half, it's going to be in AI. It's going to be really what I view—this is much more of an AI company, disruptive tech, than a car company." 🛣️ The timeline for "Physical AI" and a second-half ramp-up is crucial Along with Nvidia, Tesla is one of the top two "physical AI" investments in the market today. To turn the stock around, management needs to outline a realistic timeline for production and city rollouts for the second half of the year. "You look for physical AI, the two best physical AI plays in the market today are Nvidia and Tesla. But really right now, it's the path to actually start to see the ramp in the second half of the year. This is a very important conference call." 🛡️ The autonomous rollout is deliberately cautious While the rollout of autonomous features in cities has been slower than expected, this is an intentional and careful strategy to avoid safety issues as they ramp up city by city. "If you look, it's been slower than expected, but then that's also been carefully done because the last thing they want to do is ultimately have some issue. So you're seeing city by city them ramping." 🌎 Tesla is positioned to dominate the global autonomous market Tesla is expected to eventually command 80% of the world's autonomous market, starting with smaller city networks. Because of this, Dan expects the stock to significantly outperform over the next 3 to 6 months. "In my opinion, they're going to own 80% of the autonomous market in the world, but it's been talked about, it does all start with rolling it out, showing the physical AI play. It's been underperforming this year, but I believe if we sit here three, six months from now, it has actually significantly outperformed." 🚀 A potential merger with SpaceX is on the horizon A major "golden goose" for investors is the expectation that Tesla could merge with SpaceX within the next year, creating a broader trend for investors to capitalize on. "It's our view that in the next year Tesla eventually merges with SpaceX, and this is just an important dynamic as it plays out. I think that's sort of part of the golden goose for us as investors start to play this broader trend."

Ming

11,605 views • 4 months ago

Min Hee-jin (NewJeans Producer) NHK Music Interview 🔗 “Meticulously planned debut ‘Attention’” 🧢: When I was preparing to launch NewJeans, I really struggled with deciding what our first piece of content should be. I thought about it for a long time and considered many possibilities. It was a project that came with high expectations, and for me personally, it was also my first opportunity to prove myself. So how I presented it mattered enormously. Even down to the smallest details… like the impression the very first released photo might give, or what kind of impact we could make at launch. I thought hard about what kind of content would be the most effective… should it be a video or a photo? What time of day would be most effective to release it? I consider things like that very carefully. For example, the way a person experiences content at night versus during the day can feel quite different emotionally. So I even thought about those subtle aspects. Eventually, the conclusion I reached was: “Let’s make the most of our situation.” At the time, the members hadn’t been revealed, and no one knew how many of them there were or what kind of group this would be. So I wanted to maximize that curiosity. You know how the more something is concealed, the more curious people become? I wanted to build that curiosity to a peak and then release everything all at once. That’s why we decided not to release a teaser and instead go straight into a full music video. (This was actually inspired by Hyein suggesting we skip teasers.) I didn’t think still images or photos would be enough to fully convey the feeling I wanted to express. I felt that video and music together would evoke the emotional response I was looking for because people experience things synesthetically. When sound, image, and feeling come together, the emotional impact is stronger. I believed the best way to present the members’ images was through music and a moving picture… that’s why we led with a music video. In the debut music video, “Attention,” there’s a scene where the members act out a little drama. I paid very close attention to that moment and created music that would fit it precisely. For me, I don’t just make content… I design the entire process of how it should be shown for the greatest effect. And I believe that’s incredibly important. That first feeling someone gets when they encounter something… that emotion, that spark… is so important to me. I’m very detail-oriented, but I also value fun deeply. So rather than just releasing content, I want to enjoy the process leading up to it. Even when we released our second album, since we shot the entire music video across the country, the sequence of how we released the videos was critical for me. It’s hard to explain all this simply in an interview, but maybe some people noticed: the first content we released that time was actually a teaser for the last track, “ASAP,” and then we followed that with the full music video for “New Jeans,” which was the first track. That order was a carefully calculated strategy. It was designed to guide the audience’s emotional journey. Seeing the audience react just as I had hoped—that whole process was honestly so fun and thrilling for me. I think I really enjoy that kind of thing. ——— “How 'Ditto' was born” 🧢: People often praise the music of NewJeans, and I hear a lot of talk about genres. But actually, I don’t feel bound by genre at all. I love a wide variety of music. I’m not the type to insist on only one particular genre. What I love are songs that blend genres cleverly… those are my personal favorites. So going forward, my focus is not on genre but on whether something feels fresh and whether it can create an emotional moment. I don’t want to define what kind of music we make. And I think you have to experience the flow of the times to really understand what’s meaningful in a given moment. For instance, the song “Ditto” was chosen because it delivered emotion. It matched perfectly with the winter album concept I had envisioned, both in terms of timing and mood. When I hear a song, I tend to trust my gut. I have a pretty strong intuition for which songs will resonate. It’s not about objectively predicting what will be a “hit,” but about whether a song moves your heart… you can just feel it. Of course, my own taste plays a big role. But I think that’s actually my strength as a producer, not as a composer. When I hear a song, I can immediately picture the visual… what kind of story, what kind of vibe it could carry. That allows me to work faster. For example, when expressing something like school uniforms, there are so many possible variations. But I always like to start from the basics… what’s the original idea of a school uniform? I try to return to that. So with “Ditto,” I wanted to tap into something primal… the pure, basic feeling of liking someone. That kind of emotion is universal. Everyone has it; it’s wired into us. When I saw Director Shin Woo-seok’s interpretation of it, I thought, “Yes, that’s it.” That’s the kind of complete interpretation I look for. I believe the completion of a project comes from every person involved thinking about their part down to the final detail… the maximum quality they can bring out. My role is to unify and refine all of that. I draw out the essence of each person’s creativity, trimming away anything unnecessary. So the final product is something that’s polished and high-quality, just the way I envisioned it. That’s my working style. So it’s not like I’m fixated on retro or stuck in a particular style. I don’t think human taste has changed all that much. Things people liked in the past are the same things we like now. It’s just the form of expression that changes with time. I don’t feel bound by “past” or “present.” I don’t even think in those boundaries. To me, it’s all just good taste. You know how kids sometimes have their own little treasure boxes when they’re young? I think my work is kind of like that. I want to make things that never feel dated—that are timelessly enjoyable. ——— “Dance Expression and 'Hype Boy'” 🧢: I had a vision of what kind of girl group I wanted to create. That’s why I chose a song like “Hype Boy.” And to bring out that feeling, we created four different versions of the music video. Every choice had a purpose, everything was designed to maximize the experience of the song. “Hype Boy” is such a unique song. It has this strange, piercing melody that gives people chills in a good way. To emphasize that tingling feeling, I had to break away from the standard K-pop choreography format… you know, the kind where everyone is in perfect formation, doing synchronized moves. But our songs don’t suit that kind of choreography. Our dances are much harder. They require the body to move very naturally with the groove of the melody and beat. So I think our members are incredible. It’s not easy to express naturalness with your body, and you have to really enjoy it to make it look effortless. But they pulled it off so well. They’re still young, but they’re so talented. And through it all, I wanted to avoid making them look like they were performing just for business. I wanted them to show the pure joy and bright spirit that’s natural for people their age… genuine, carefree, radiant. ——— “The difference between NewJeans and conventional K-POP” 🧢: Ah, for me, it’s all about naturalness. And honestly, naturalness isn’t something you can produce or direct into existence. It comes from how I interact with the NewJeans members on a daily basis… what kind of environment they practice in, how they live and work. There are so many things that don’t appear on camera, but those unseen aspects have to be in place in order for true naturalness to come through. That’s why I wanted to create that kind of environment for the girls. And also, I wanted to shape my own working environment in that way too. Only then can something truly natural, something unforced and not overly stimulating, really come out. To begin with, I don’t believe anyone can be completely natural in front of a camera or under the gaze of others. It’s human nature to become self-conscious. That’s why I think naturalness is our strength, but it can’t be our concept. If you try to turn “naturalness” into a concept, it actually becomes incredibly artificial. So why do I place so much importance on naturalness? It’s because the girls are still so young. While other kids their age are going through school and having a wide range of life experiences, these members are living very different lives. Before they officially debuted, I told them, “This is like studying together with me.” Our standard contract is seven years, which is about the same length as going through high school and college in Korea: three years of high school and four years of university. So I told them, “We’re going to school together. We’re learning together.” And in that sense, I want to be a good teacher to them. They’re also surrounded by an incredibly professional team, people they’d never meet even in a traditional school setting. I’ve never really liked the word idol. These days, that word is used more like a job title, something manufactured by the industry, and it’s far from its original meaning. To me, the term idol feels misplaced. It doesn’t really reflect who these artists are or what they represent. And I’m not the kind of person who clings to labels or terminology. In fact, what I really want is to break the stereotypes and preconceptions that come with the idol industry. I want us to show people something different… to challenge those assumptions and redefine what this can look like. That’s the kind of mindset I have. ——— “Isn't it difficult for the members to express "naturalness"?” 🧢: There were a lot of things I considered when forming the group. First and foremost, I think it was important that the members shared a similar vibe… like how I prefer working with staff who align with my taste. It’s important for the crew to be on the same wavelength. And by that, I mean more than just getting along… it also extends to shared values. Of course, people won’t all share identical values, but when we’re facing in a similar direction, everything becomes easier. It’s also just more efficient to work with people who have overlapping tastes. Now, when it comes to our members, they each have their own individual tastes, but those preferences are still in development. Just like we all went through as kids, they’re still growing, still discovering themselves. They’re not in a finished state. So we didn’t cast them based on some complete or polished version of themselves. It wasn’t like, “This person is fully formed, let’s pick her.” It was more like, “Ah, she has potential, there’s something there.” That sense of a spark… those were the kinds of subtleties I paid attention to. I didn’t cast anyone just because they were pretty or could sing well. I don’t work like that. I really value those finer, more delicate aspects. Even the design of the light stick wasn’t something that came from a long strategic planning session… it was actually a spontaneous idea. I didn’t sit down and think, “Let’s make a light stick like this.” NewJeans didn’t have a fixed logo, but I felt we still needed a unifying symbol. So one night, just before going to sleep, I kept thinking about it. Right before dozing off, I started sketching and it turned into a rabbit’s face. When I drew it out, the shape just continued and turned into a bunny. To me, the NewJeans members are like little bunnies… playful, innocent. Their visuals also resemble rabbits in a way. And rabbits symbolize abundance. That made me think: “Ah, maybe our fans will multiply like rabbits. That would be great.” So that bunny face became both a symbol for the members and the fans. The image came to me all at once, and I imagined a venue completely filled with bunny light sticks. That vision led to the creation of the light stick itself. Since I always prioritize fun in everything I do, the next idea that came to mind was making the light stick customizable. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if fans could personalize their bunny?” That way, each rabbit would represent a different person’s character. So we included accessories, allowing everyone to customize their own bunny. It’s symbolic of all these different bunnies coming together and enjoying a good time as one. Our light stick has a big head, so when it’s used in a concert hall, it lights up in heart shapes that are very visible. That was the image I really wanted. And that bunny face… it’s also a heart. It represents both the face of NewJeans and our hearts. It’s the love we’re showing to our fans, and the love we want to receive in return. Every time I see it, I feel deeply moved. It’s very emotional for me because it’s a perfect realization of what I envisioned. As someone with a background in creative direction, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing an idea materialize exactly the way you imagined it. That kind of work holds deep meaning for me. ⸻ 🧢: Looking back, I think in 2023 we were able to achieve almost everything we had hoped for. I’m so incredibly grateful for that. Of course, this is an ongoing challenge… and the better things go, the more pressure there is. That’s why I always try to return to my original mindset. Just like I tell the members, I try to remind myself of the beginning and keep things fun. Back then, when we were first putting out content, planning the music, and working on visuals, I felt this thrill… this rush of excitement. I don’t want to forget that feeling. So I try hard to engrave that emotion into every album we release. I’m constantly working to rediscover the joy in all of it. So for 2024, I hope everyone can look forward to us with fresh anticipation. And even if we come out with something completely new, I hope people will receive it warmly and with excitement. That’s really my deepest wish. 🙏

1tokki

17,635 views • 1 year ago

Akira Kurosawa on his experience watching 'Solaris' (1972) & drinking vodka with Andrei Tarkovsky in Moscow: "I met Tarkovsky for the first time when I attended my welcome luncheon at the Mosfilm during my first visit to Soviet Russia. He was small, thin, looked a little frail, and at the same time exceptionally intelligent, and unusually shrewd and sensitive. I thought he somehow resembled Toru Takemitsu, but I don’t know why. Then he excused himself saying, “I still have work to do,” and disappeared, and after a while I heard such a big explosion as to make all the glass windows of the dining hall tremble hard. Seeing me taken aback, the boss of the Mosfilm said with a meaningful smile: “You know another world war does not break out. Tarkovsky just launched a rocket. This work with Tarkovsky, however, has proved a Great War for me.” That was the way I knew Tarkovsky was shooting 'Solaris' (1972). After the luncheon party, I visited his set for Solaris. There it was. I saw a burnt down rocket was there at the corner of the space station set. I am sorry I forgot to ask him as to how he had shot the launching of the rocket on the set. The set of the satellite base was beautifully made at a huge cost, for it was all made up of thick duralumin. It glittered in its cold metallic silver light, and I found light rays of red, or blue or green delicately winking or waving from electric light bulbs buried in the gagues on the equipment lined up in there. And above on the ceiling of the corridor ran two duralumin rails from which hanged a small wheel of a camera which could move around freely inside the satellite base. Tarkovsky guided me around the set, explaining to me as cheerfully as a young boy who is given a golden opportunity to show someone his favorite toybox. Bondarchuk, who came with me, asked him about the cost of the set, and left his eyes wide open when Tarkovsky answered it. The cost was so huge: about six hundred million yen as to make Bondarchuk, who directed that grand spectacle of a movie “War and Peace,” agape in wonder. Now I came to fully realize why the boss of the Mosfilm said it was “a Great War for me.” But it takes a huge talent and effort to spend such a huge cost. Thinking “This is a tremendous task” I closely gazed at his back when he was leading me around the set in enthusiasm. Concerning Solaris, I find many people complaining that it is too long, but I do not think so. They especially find too lengthy the description of nature in the introductory scenes, but these layers of memory of farewell to this earthly nature submerge themselves deep below the bottom of the story after the main character has been sent in a rocket into the satellite station base in the universe, and they almost torture the soul of the viewer like a kind of irresistible nostalghia toward mother earth nature, which resembles homesickness. Without the presence of beautiful nature sequences on earth as a long introduction, you could not make the audience directly conceive the sense of having-no-way-out harboured by the people “jailed” inside the satellite base. I saw this film late at night in a preview room in Moscow for the first time, and soon I felt my heart aching in agony with a longing to returning to the earth as quickly as possible. Marvellous progress in science we have been enjoying, but where will it lead humanity after all? Sheer fearful emotion this film succeeds in conjuring up in our soul. Without it, a science fiction movie would be nothing more than a petty fancy. These thoughts came and went while I was gazing at the screen. Tarkovsky was together with me then. He was at the corner of the studio. When the film was over, he stood up, looking at me as if he felt timid. I said to him, “Very good. It makes me feel real fear.” Tarkovsky smiled shyly, but happily. And we toasted vodka at the restaurant in the Film Institute. Tarkovsky, who didn’t drink usually, drank a lot of vodka, and went so far as to turn off the speaker from which music had floated into the restaurant, and began to sing the theme of samurai from Seven Samurai at the top of his voice. As if to rival him, I joined in. For I was at that moment very happy to find myself living on Earth. Solaris makes a viewer feel this, and even this single fact shows us that Solaris is no ordinary SF film. It truly somehow provokes pure horror in our soul. And it is under the total grip of the deep insights of Tarkovsky. There must be many, many things still unknown to humanity in this world: the abyss of the cosmos which a man had to look into, strange visitors in the satellite base, time running in reverse, from death to life, strangely moving sense of levitation, his home which is in the mind of the main character in the satellite station is wet and soaked with water. It seems to me to be sweat and tears that in his heartbreaking agony he squeezed out of his whole being. And what makes us shudder is the shot of the location of Akasakamitsuke, Tokyo, Japan. By a skillful use of mirrors, he turned flows of head lights and tail lamps of cars, multiplied and amplified, into a vintage image of the future city. Every shot of Solaris bears witness to the almost dazzling talents inherent in Tarkovsky. Many people grumble that Tarkovsky’s films are difficult, but I don’t think so. His films just show how extraordinarily sensitive Tarkovsky is. He made a film titled 'Mirror' (1975) after Solaris. Mirror deals with his cherished memories in his childhood, and many people say again it is disturbingly difficult. Yes, at a glance, it seems to have no rational development in its storytelling. But we have to remember: it is impossible that in our soul our childhood memories should arrange themselves in a static, logical sequence. A strange train of fragments of early memory images shattered and broken can bring about the poetry in our infancy. Once you are convinced of its truthfulness, you may find Mirror the easiest film to understand. But Tarkovsky remains silent, without saying things like that at all. His very attitude makes me believe that he has wonderful potentials in his future. There can be no bright future for those who are ready to explain everything about their own film." ("Akira Kurosawa on watching ‘Solaris’ with Andrei Tarkovsky", Cinephilia & Beyond)

Akira Kurosawa on his experience watching 'Solaris' (1972) & drinking vodka with Andrei Tarkovsky in Moscow: "I met Tarkovsky for the first time when I attended my welcome luncheon at the Mosfilm during my first visit to Soviet Russia. He was small, thin, looked a little frail, and at the same time exceptionally intelligent, and unusually shrewd and sensitive. I thought he somehow resembled Toru Takemitsu, but I don’t know why. Then he excused himself saying, “I still have work to do,” and disappeared, and after a while I heard such a big explosion as to make all the glass windows of the dining hall tremble hard. Seeing me taken aback, the boss of the Mosfilm said with a meaningful smile: “You know another world war does not break out. Tarkovsky just launched a rocket. This work with Tarkovsky, however, has proved a Great War for me.” That was the way I knew Tarkovsky was shooting 'Solaris' (1972). After the luncheon party, I visited his set for Solaris. There it was. I saw a burnt down rocket was there at the corner of the space station set. I am sorry I forgot to ask him as to how he had shot the launching of the rocket on the set. The set of the satellite base was beautifully made at a huge cost, for it was all made up of thick duralumin. It glittered in its cold metallic silver light, and I found light rays of red, or blue or green delicately winking or waving from electric light bulbs buried in the gagues on the equipment lined up in there. And above on the ceiling of the corridor ran two duralumin rails from which hanged a small wheel of a camera which could move around freely inside the satellite base. Tarkovsky guided me around the set, explaining to me as cheerfully as a young boy who is given a golden opportunity to show someone his favorite toybox. Bondarchuk, who came with me, asked him about the cost of the set, and left his eyes wide open when Tarkovsky answered it. The cost was so huge: about six hundred million yen as to make Bondarchuk, who directed that grand spectacle of a movie “War and Peace,” agape in wonder. Now I came to fully realize why the boss of the Mosfilm said it was “a Great War for me.” But it takes a huge talent and effort to spend such a huge cost. Thinking “This is a tremendous task” I closely gazed at his back when he was leading me around the set in enthusiasm. Concerning Solaris, I find many people complaining that it is too long, but I do not think so. They especially find too lengthy the description of nature in the introductory scenes, but these layers of memory of farewell to this earthly nature submerge themselves deep below the bottom of the story after the main character has been sent in a rocket into the satellite station base in the universe, and they almost torture the soul of the viewer like a kind of irresistible nostalghia toward mother earth nature, which resembles homesickness. Without the presence of beautiful nature sequences on earth as a long introduction, you could not make the audience directly conceive the sense of having-no-way-out harboured by the people “jailed” inside the satellite base. I saw this film late at night in a preview room in Moscow for the first time, and soon I felt my heart aching in agony with a longing to returning to the earth as quickly as possible. Marvellous progress in science we have been enjoying, but where will it lead humanity after all? Sheer fearful emotion this film succeeds in conjuring up in our soul. Without it, a science fiction movie would be nothing more than a petty fancy. These thoughts came and went while I was gazing at the screen. Tarkovsky was together with me then. He was at the corner of the studio. When the film was over, he stood up, looking at me as if he felt timid. I said to him, “Very good. It makes me feel real fear.” Tarkovsky smiled shyly, but happily. And we toasted vodka at the restaurant in the Film Institute. Tarkovsky, who didn’t drink usually, drank a lot of vodka, and went so far as to turn off the speaker from which music had floated into the restaurant, and began to sing the theme of samurai from Seven Samurai at the top of his voice. As if to rival him, I joined in. For I was at that moment very happy to find myself living on Earth. Solaris makes a viewer feel this, and even this single fact shows us that Solaris is no ordinary SF film. It truly somehow provokes pure horror in our soul. And it is under the total grip of the deep insights of Tarkovsky. There must be many, many things still unknown to humanity in this world: the abyss of the cosmos which a man had to look into, strange visitors in the satellite base, time running in reverse, from death to life, strangely moving sense of levitation, his home which is in the mind of the main character in the satellite station is wet and soaked with water. It seems to me to be sweat and tears that in his heartbreaking agony he squeezed out of his whole being. And what makes us shudder is the shot of the location of Akasakamitsuke, Tokyo, Japan. By a skillful use of mirrors, he turned flows of head lights and tail lamps of cars, multiplied and amplified, into a vintage image of the future city. Every shot of Solaris bears witness to the almost dazzling talents inherent in Tarkovsky. Many people grumble that Tarkovsky’s films are difficult, but I don’t think so. His films just show how extraordinarily sensitive Tarkovsky is. He made a film titled 'Mirror' (1975) after Solaris. Mirror deals with his cherished memories in his childhood, and many people say again it is disturbingly difficult. Yes, at a glance, it seems to have no rational development in its storytelling. But we have to remember: it is impossible that in our soul our childhood memories should arrange themselves in a static, logical sequence. A strange train of fragments of early memory images shattered and broken can bring about the poetry in our infancy. Once you are convinced of its truthfulness, you may find Mirror the easiest film to understand. But Tarkovsky remains silent, without saying things like that at all. His very attitude makes me believe that he has wonderful potentials in his future. There can be no bright future for those who are ready to explain everything about their own film." ("Akira Kurosawa on watching ‘Solaris’ with Andrei Tarkovsky", Cinephilia & Beyond)

DepressedBergman

198,415 views • 9 months ago

My fellow Kenyans, Many of you have seen my recent posts about the deadly cancer that is corruption in our country. In my last post, I tried to paint a picture of the disconnect between our potential as a country and the economic circumstances we find ourselves in today, and the connection between corruption and the incalculable pain and suffering and cruelty that is meted out every single day to the most vulnerable among us by thieves operating out of public office. And after covering the goings-on in Mandera County, I told you that in my honest opinion, our governments exist to cater for the filthy-rich lifestyles of the vilest and most corrupt among us, at the expense of everyone else. I received tremendous support from all of you, for speaking on behalf of so many struggling Kenyans who don’t have a voice, or the audience necessary to spark the much-needed discussion about where we are heading as a country. But even with all that support, I have received messages asking me to be careful. One compatriot told me: “prepare to be relentlessly pursued, threatened, enticed, guilt-tripped, and gas-lit”. This is from a someone who knows how our government operates, and how it uses violence and its monopoly on power to silence those who question why politicians are stealing so much. I am not naive about the dangers of speaking up and calling out thieves who control state machinery, and who possess the ability to shut me up in a few seconds. But I will tell you why we CAN NOT and MUST NOT keep quiet. In November of 2023, I stumbled upon the story of a young man from Turkana, Calvin Esekon Esewit , who, despite scoring an A-, and getting an acceptance into medical school, spent two years not knowing whether his dreams of becoming a doctor would ever come true. I was moved by that story in a way that I can never adequately explain. I could not understand how it is possible that, in our country, a young man who appears to be every parent’s dream child can spend two years in limbo while we as a country possess the ability to invest in our best and brightest. And so, I spent weeks trying to chase down Calvin to see how I could help him attend college. After a lot of searching, I finally found Calvin, and by this time he had managed to get some help and is now in college. While this story has a great ending, it did not to be this way. And we know that the number of cases that end like this, with some success, are a small fraction of those ones which end tragically, with broken dreams. This is what happens when corruption consumes anything and everything in a country. It destroys lives. See attached video to learn about Calvin's story. I tell you all this story because it provides context to today's topic. For one story like this one that you see on the news, there are millions that never make the news. But they are real situations, nonetheless. There are millions of your compatriots who are devastated by this killer cancer of corruption that is perpetuated by people that you and I have put into public office ostensibly to improve our lives. They go into these offices and abuse the trust you bestowed upon them and deny you and everyone else a decent opportunity in life. You see, Calvin and millions of other victims of this shameless level of corruption and plunder have no voice, and no real ability to look the thieves that are destroying lives and generations of Kenyans in eye and tell them to stop this unbearable pain and the cruelty. This is the reason I embarked on this journey to attempt to expose this shameful situation. Watch the attached video of Calvin’s situation, and I am sure that you will agree that the millions of Calvins in our country need a voice, NO MATTER THE RISK. The thieves that are destroying the futures of millions of children just so they can have beachside homes in Miami, Dubai and other places count on the idea that most people will fear for their lives, and therefore not speak up. They count on the growing apathy in the Kenyan psyche. But we cannot give in to that. We cannot cower to thieves. We must look them straight in the eye and tell them that they MUST STOP. If we don't, our children and their children are guaranteed the same level of cruelty. And so with that, today I want to talk about the utterly insane crime scene that is Turkana County. I don’t know any other way to describe it, other than, it is a “shit-show”. Just follow along, and let me know if you disagree. As I did in my previous commentary, I will ask you to indulge me a little bit, and allow me to use a couple of pictures, because pictures speak louder than a thousand words. The first picture shows the state-of-the art County Government offices, that the County Government of Turkana decided to invest an ungodly amount of money on. Close to a billion shillings. The second picture is a classroom in session. In Turkana County. These two realities are occurring in parallel in the same county, at the same time. Ladies and gentlemen, let me just tell you that I do not go out of my way to find bad news. I want stories that would help re-affirm our belief in the fundamental decency of human beings. When I find good news as I review these Counties’ decisions and how they behave with our resources, I will be the first one to report it to you. But I don’t have any good news today. I have bad news. If you read my commentary yesterday and were offended by what you saw, I am afraid you might not make it to the end of this article, because what you will hear will be quite shocking. The cancer of corruption, particularly at the County Government level, is worse than your wildest imagination. And so, as I like to do, I like to start off by putting some numbers on the table for us to use as reference points. Bear in my that all the information I put in this article is publicly available. Nothing came to me through a whistle blower. The first number is KSH 100 Billion. With a B. In the last decade or so, you and I, through the National Government, has sent over KSH 100 billion to Turkana County. To support recurrent expenditure, and development. For example, in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, we sent KSH 12.6 billion. In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, we sent KSH 11.4 billion. And on and on and on. The second number is 1 million. This is the population of Turkana County. The third number is KSH 18.4 billion. This was Turkana County’s budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The fourth number is KSH 190 million. This was the amount of money that Turkana County was able to generate on its own accord within the county, from all its investments and other activities in the period in question. This number is an important proxy, in my view, for the value of the county’s economic prospects for the foreseeable future, and to people that are not driven by greed and corruption, would be an important consideration when they are thinking about how and where to deploy your money as taxpayers. If you are doing the math, Turkana County, for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, was only able to raise 1% of the funds needed to keep the lights on. 99% came from you and I, and a tiny amount from grants. The next number is KSH 129, 040. This is the average ANNUAL [emphasis added] income of a resident of Turkana County ( Keep that number in mind when we are discussing the massive theft of public funds by Turkana County leaders. The next number is 80%. 80% of the residents of Turkana County live below the poverty line. They have a really difficult time putting food on the table. ( The next number is KSH 12 Million. This is the basic salary of the Governor of Turkana County before other benefits that, as I explained yesterday, can often double the salary. Remember the “housing allowance”, the “hardship allowance”, the “commuter allowance”, the “risk allowance”, the “extraneous allowance”, etc.? Remember that? I still cannot figure out, for the life of me, what “extraneous” means in the context of County business, but we don’t time to dwell on this. The next number is 93. The Governor of Turkana County makes 93 times the average Turkana County resident’s annual income. 93 times! The next number is 82%. This was the percentage of people that were illiterate in Turkana County in 2013 ( Could not read or write. A point to note about the above literacy figure. Ten years later, and despite over KSH 100 billion is spent in Turkana County, including many billions for education, that literacy rate HAS NOT CHANGED ONE BIT. Only 20% of the population can read or write today. ( KSH 829 million. This is how much it cost to build the County Government offices. Yes, the ones shown in the first picture. KSH 120 million. The County Government decided that it was prudent to pay a contractor KSH 120 million to construct the Governor’s personal residence. Get this, even after this payment, no construction took place. The money was stolen. All of it. KSH 90 Million. This is the amount that the County Government paid to another contractor, to build the Governor a mansion, having previously lost KSH 120 million. So, the tally for the Governor’s residence now stands at KSH 210 million. Never mind that the limit allowed by law is KSH 45 million. KSH 5 billion. In the last days of his term in office, an outgoing Governor of Turkana, Koli Nanok, EGH. , sought to inflate pending bills by adding KSH 5 billion so that it can be paid to his criminal cartel. KSH 5 billion. We have our key numbers, ladies and gentlemen, so let us discuss. So, we have a county that is dead last in literacy, and in the top 2 of the poorest counties in the republic. Only 20% of the population can read. The Governor earns 92 times the average citizen. The Governor lives in a house that cost over KSH 200 million. When he leaves his house in the morning, he goes to his office that cost KSH 829 million. And this is all happening when 80% of the County residents struggle to put food on the table. Those are the facts, and they are not in dispute. During the same time, the County Government geniuses decide to build the Speaker of the County Assembly a house. And a home office, and a garage. The house was initially estimated to cost KSH 75 million. But due to circumstances that not a soul in the government could explain to auditors, the contract expired before the house was completed, and the County Government found a new contractor to complete the job for an additional KSH 29 million. But this palace in the jungle worth apparently worth over KSH 100 million in Turkana County was not enough. The County proceeded to build the Speaker a guest house for another KSH 19 million, and a few other amenities, and so the whole cost went to KSH 276 million! The legal limit for a Speaker’s house is KSH 35 million, and they spent close to KSH 130 million just for one residence. By this time, I am sure you are getting tired of these obscene numbers. You and I work, and pay taxes. Nobody pays you 92 times the income your average neighbor is making. And for sure nobody will drop KSH 100 million to build you a house. These are the perks of working in government in a poor country. Go figure. And so, as a country, we need to answer for ourselves the question I posed yesterday, which is, what is the point of government? What is its role in our lives. If this level of criminality and pillaging can occur in our country in the midst of so much poverty, questioning the need for government is a totally valid question. I said in my last post that, when the average citizen looks at the thug on the street and the government, and is unable to discern any meaningful difference between them, that society from that point on is on its journey to becoming a failed state. A journey to anarchy. Over the last two months or so, Kenyans have been shouting at the top of their lungs, begging for their government to listen. To hear them out. Kenyans have asked that their government stop this unbelievable level of plunder. Dozens of Kenyans have died, thousands injured, and many more are missing today. To this day, the people that govern us continue to use the power of the gun to subdue Kenyans, until they can take everything in their sight. And so, as a society, we all have to ask whether today there is any difference between the thug on the street and our governments. Every Kenyan will have to answer this question for themselves. And before answering this question, everyone needs to remember the many Calvins in our society. Smart, upright children whose only crime is to be born in an unforgiving, lawless, and corrupt purgatory that is Kenya today. For myself, I have concluded that there is no difference between the thug on the street and our governments, county and national alike. If you can see any meaningful difference, let me know. I am willing to listen. So despite over KSH 100 billion in money sent to Turkana County, there is almost no measurable improvement in people’s life today. None. And it makes sense, when you look at how that money is spent. I want you to forget for a second the obscene obsession by the County Government with spending ungodly amounts of money on themselves. The houses, etc. If you step back and look at how the government is actually spending the hard-earned money on other things, you will be depressed. I am telling you that I wept three times in the middle of the night trying to make sense of this crazy situation in Turkana County. Three times. I have never imagined that human beings can be so greedy and cold-blooded. Think about this: In the couple of years I reviewed, the County spent around KSH 400 million annually in “tourism” initiatives, including marketing, and apparently upgrading certain facilities. KSH 400 million for tourism. In Turkana County. In 1 year. KSH 400 million per year in marketing and other money pits. The government’s own website says that the county gets around 3000 visitors per month. Around 36,000 per year. That’s them saying that, on their website. Are you curious to know the return on that KSH 400 million investment? I have an answer for you. Remember that I told you that the County has never raised more than KSH 200 million in a year within the county, despite its KSH 18.4 billion budget? Let me walk you through the breakdown of the absolutely embarrassing shit-show that is the County Government’s “own source revenue” operations. In 2022-2023, the County Government collected KSH 190 million locally against their KSH 18.4 billion budget. 1% of the budget. Remember, there is absolutely no requirement on the County to cut costs, or achieve certain local revenue targets today. So they raised KSH 45 million in single business permits, KSH 72 million in CESS, KSH 8 million in market fee, KSH 9 million in “slaughter fees”. And then finally, there is the return on the tourism investment that you were looking for. A whopping KSH 209, 000 in “park fees”. KSH 209,000 in fees, after investing KSH 400 million. And so, take this as an example and extrapolate it across the entire budget, and you can see how one can spend KSH 100 billion and get NOTHING in return. You don’t need to be a genius to see the absurdity of this situation. Let me explain using an example that should illustrate the utter dimwittedness of this situation. Remember the KSH 100 billion sent to Turkana by you and me? Part of this amount is supposed to be for “service delivery”, or “recurrent expenditure”. Usually about 70% of the budget. The balance, 30%, is designed to go to development projects. With that in mind, from KSH 100 billion, the County apparently has made KSH 30 billion worth of investments, right? 30% of the KSH 100 billion. Now, if you employed someone to run a business for you, and they asked you to invest KSH 30 billion, which is no small fortune, at some point you would have to start seeing returns, right? That’s common sense, isn’t it? So, when we look at the revenues streams that make up this paltry sum of KSH 190 million, and see things like “slaughter fees’ and “market fees”, what does it tell you? It tells me there is no real “development” happening in that county. Trust me, if you had real development totaling KSH 30 billion, you would have corporate taxes in the hundreds of millions or billions, a booming real estate market, rising wages and standards of living, etc., low unemployment, etc. You would not have 80% of the people living hand-to mouth, and a County Government that can not afford to support itself for 5 days out of the year that has 365 days! We do not have enough time, trust me, to deal with the shit-show that is Turkana County. Dealing with that mess would require a forensic team. I will just highlight a few of other “in your-face” type of theft of public funds, and then conclude my submission. A government that has a budget of KSH 18.4 billion annually, and which has never raised more than 1% of its budget had the wisdom to do the following with your money: · Spend KSH 222 million on a project building something that NOBODY uses. You got that right. They spent KSH 222 million on a facility that NOBODY uses. KSH 222 million gone to waste, in a county that is dead last in pretty much all measures of human progress. · Remember the County Government offices that cost KSH 829 million? The County spent KSH 82 million on “air-conditioning” for that building. · Despite the County Spending hundreds of millions for the top three officers of the County, the Governor and his Deputy, in the 2022-2023 year, illegally charged the county (you and I) KSH 2.2 million in housing allowance! · Built two facilities for KSH 16 million, that were completed, but NOBODY uses them. · Entered into a contract for the construction of a plastic use facility for KSH 13 million in 2021. The contractor gets paid KSH 4.9 million, and has never been seen since. · Paid out KSH 62 million in salaries that were not supportable in just one year. They could not point to anybody and say, that is who we paid. · Paid out KSH 27 million in legal fees that nobody could say what they related to. And the County’s Legal Advisor, who, in 2022-2023, had a budget of KSH 123 million, apparently did not know anything about it! · Had an outstanding bill at Kenya Revenue Authority in the amount of KSH 486 million, that did not show up on the County Government’s financial statements. Think about that. KSH 486 million owned to the Kenya Revenue Authority, and that liability is not on the financial statements! This only means that someone took those funds for themselves, which is why the liability would be missing from the county’s books. · Could not account for KSH 367 million in expenditures for 2022-2023. KSH 367 million, in unexplained expenses. · Awarded a contract worth over KSH 200 million to a bidder with no bank statement, against the law. This contract was entered into and approved before the statutory time after the bidding process lapsed. Someone was in a hurry to get paid. KSH 200 million, illegally awarded to a bidder who did not have a 6-month bank statement. · Apparently purchased KSH 1.5 billion in assets in 2022-2023, but kept no records of the said assets. For this reason, NOBODY can verify where these assets are located. KSH 1.5 billion. Let me just say this. In my last article, the most common critique was that it was too long. Too many words. I did not intend to make another long article. Trust me when I tell you this, we do not have the time to detail half of the problems in Turkana County. For just 1 year! We do not. Now, you recall my point about how societies descend to madness and anarchy. In our country today, our leaders are accusing those of us who are agitating for honest and transparent governance of being traitors to the country. They call us anarchists, criminals, and merchants of chaos. They are questioning our patriotism. You have all seen the government and its horde of propagandists threatening the Ford Foundation and others because they may have helped civil society keep the lights on, and investigative journalists to have the capacity to continue to do the Lord’s work of investigating criminality in government. As though citizens are so dumb and ignorant, that they cannot see what is going on. The reason why millions of Calvins in this country will never graduate from college and earn a decent living is not because of the Ford Foundation. No. It is because of the thieves we have in office today, like the ones in Turkana County. In this post, I copy our leaders, the President and his deputy. I copy them because I want them to help Kenyans understand the following conundrum, about crime and criminals. There is nothing so special or peculiar about criminals or where they pop up. There are criminals in the US, Canada, France, and other places. Just like we have criminals in Kenya. The difference between banana republics and failed states, and civilized societies, is WHAT we do to and about criminals. In civilized societies, criminals are prosecuted and punished heavily. They are shunned. In some places, those charged with serious crimes such as corruption are executed. These are societies that are committed to sending the message that corruption, which robs citizens of their rights, is not acceptable. And they demonstrate this commitment by heavily punishing those who steal from the most vulnerable in society. In Kenya, we see the opposite. Criminals are exalted. They are promoted and embraced in government. It was just last week that the president unveiled his nominees for his Cabinet. Among them, are the likes of Hassan Ali Joho, EGH. , @GovWOparanya , and Davis Chirchir, ALL people who have been accused or charged with massive corruption against Kenyans. And am sure you remember that I mentioned Koli Nanok, EGH. , the man who tried to steal KSH 5 billion in his last days in office. Would you believe it if I told you that he works in government, at State House? He plunded billions of your money, got no measurable improvement in the lives of his subjects, and now has a government job in State House. Let that sink in. And so, the question is, how is it that in a country of 55 million people, with thousands of highly qualified people who have never ever stolen from Kenyans, he ends up with the criminals and thieves in the government, despite the fact that their crimes are in the public domain? How is this possible? Is it possible that these thieves possess a certain unique ability to run government, save Kenyans billions, and solve problems in a way that the president performs a cost-benefit analysis, and the benefits outweigh the costs of their theft? If not, what message does it send to Kenyans, when their own president puts into office known thieves? I think that is a fair question, don’t you? Dr. Ekuru Aukot Rigathi Gachagua William Samoei Ruto, PhD Okiya Omtatah Okoiti Citizen TV Kenya Nation Breaking News TI-Kenya CNN County Government of Turkana

My fellow Kenyans, Many of you have seen my recent posts about the deadly cancer that is corruption in our country. In my last post, I tried to paint a picture of the disconnect between our potential as a country and the economic circumstances we find ourselves in today, and the connection between corruption and the incalculable pain and suffering and cruelty that is meted out every single day to the most vulnerable among us by thieves operating out of public office. And after covering the goings-on in Mandera County, I told you that in my honest opinion, our governments exist to cater for the filthy-rich lifestyles of the vilest and most corrupt among us, at the expense of everyone else. I received tremendous support from all of you, for speaking on behalf of so many struggling Kenyans who don’t have a voice, or the audience necessary to spark the much-needed discussion about where we are heading as a country. But even with all that support, I have received messages asking me to be careful. One compatriot told me: “prepare to be relentlessly pursued, threatened, enticed, guilt-tripped, and gas-lit”. This is from a someone who knows how our government operates, and how it uses violence and its monopoly on power to silence those who question why politicians are stealing so much. I am not naive about the dangers of speaking up and calling out thieves who control state machinery, and who possess the ability to shut me up in a few seconds. But I will tell you why we CAN NOT and MUST NOT keep quiet. In November of 2023, I stumbled upon the story of a young man from Turkana, Calvin Esekon Esewit , who, despite scoring an A-, and getting an acceptance into medical school, spent two years not knowing whether his dreams of becoming a doctor would ever come true. I was moved by that story in a way that I can never adequately explain. I could not understand how it is possible that, in our country, a young man who appears to be every parent’s dream child can spend two years in limbo while we as a country possess the ability to invest in our best and brightest. And so, I spent weeks trying to chase down Calvin to see how I could help him attend college. After a lot of searching, I finally found Calvin, and by this time he had managed to get some help and is now in college. While this story has a great ending, it did not to be this way. And we know that the number of cases that end like this, with some success, are a small fraction of those ones which end tragically, with broken dreams. This is what happens when corruption consumes anything and everything in a country. It destroys lives. See attached video to learn about Calvin's story. I tell you all this story because it provides context to today's topic. For one story like this one that you see on the news, there are millions that never make the news. But they are real situations, nonetheless. There are millions of your compatriots who are devastated by this killer cancer of corruption that is perpetuated by people that you and I have put into public office ostensibly to improve our lives. They go into these offices and abuse the trust you bestowed upon them and deny you and everyone else a decent opportunity in life. You see, Calvin and millions of other victims of this shameless level of corruption and plunder have no voice, and no real ability to look the thieves that are destroying lives and generations of Kenyans in eye and tell them to stop this unbearable pain and the cruelty. This is the reason I embarked on this journey to attempt to expose this shameful situation. Watch the attached video of Calvin’s situation, and I am sure that you will agree that the millions of Calvins in our country need a voice, NO MATTER THE RISK. The thieves that are destroying the futures of millions of children just so they can have beachside homes in Miami, Dubai and other places count on the idea that most people will fear for their lives, and therefore not speak up. They count on the growing apathy in the Kenyan psyche. But we cannot give in to that. We cannot cower to thieves. We must look them straight in the eye and tell them that they MUST STOP. If we don't, our children and their children are guaranteed the same level of cruelty. And so with that, today I want to talk about the utterly insane crime scene that is Turkana County. I don’t know any other way to describe it, other than, it is a “shit-show”. Just follow along, and let me know if you disagree. As I did in my previous commentary, I will ask you to indulge me a little bit, and allow me to use a couple of pictures, because pictures speak louder than a thousand words. The first picture shows the state-of-the art County Government offices, that the County Government of Turkana decided to invest an ungodly amount of money on. Close to a billion shillings. The second picture is a classroom in session. In Turkana County. These two realities are occurring in parallel in the same county, at the same time. Ladies and gentlemen, let me just tell you that I do not go out of my way to find bad news. I want stories that would help re-affirm our belief in the fundamental decency of human beings. When I find good news as I review these Counties’ decisions and how they behave with our resources, I will be the first one to report it to you. But I don’t have any good news today. I have bad news. If you read my commentary yesterday and were offended by what you saw, I am afraid you might not make it to the end of this article, because what you will hear will be quite shocking. The cancer of corruption, particularly at the County Government level, is worse than your wildest imagination. And so, as I like to do, I like to start off by putting some numbers on the table for us to use as reference points. Bear in my that all the information I put in this article is publicly available. Nothing came to me through a whistle blower. The first number is KSH 100 Billion. With a B. In the last decade or so, you and I, through the National Government, has sent over KSH 100 billion to Turkana County. To support recurrent expenditure, and development. For example, in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, we sent KSH 12.6 billion. In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, we sent KSH 11.4 billion. And on and on and on. The second number is 1 million. This is the population of Turkana County. The third number is KSH 18.4 billion. This was Turkana County’s budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The fourth number is KSH 190 million. This was the amount of money that Turkana County was able to generate on its own accord within the county, from all its investments and other activities in the period in question. This number is an important proxy, in my view, for the value of the county’s economic prospects for the foreseeable future, and to people that are not driven by greed and corruption, would be an important consideration when they are thinking about how and where to deploy your money as taxpayers. If you are doing the math, Turkana County, for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, was only able to raise 1% of the funds needed to keep the lights on. 99% came from you and I, and a tiny amount from grants. The next number is KSH 129, 040. This is the average ANNUAL [emphasis added] income of a resident of Turkana County ( Keep that number in mind when we are discussing the massive theft of public funds by Turkana County leaders. The next number is 80%. 80% of the residents of Turkana County live below the poverty line. They have a really difficult time putting food on the table. ( The next number is KSH 12 Million. This is the basic salary of the Governor of Turkana County before other benefits that, as I explained yesterday, can often double the salary. Remember the “housing allowance”, the “hardship allowance”, the “commuter allowance”, the “risk allowance”, the “extraneous allowance”, etc.? Remember that? I still cannot figure out, for the life of me, what “extraneous” means in the context of County business, but we don’t time to dwell on this. The next number is 93. The Governor of Turkana County makes 93 times the average Turkana County resident’s annual income. 93 times! The next number is 82%. This was the percentage of people that were illiterate in Turkana County in 2013 ( Could not read or write. A point to note about the above literacy figure. Ten years later, and despite over KSH 100 billion is spent in Turkana County, including many billions for education, that literacy rate HAS NOT CHANGED ONE BIT. Only 20% of the population can read or write today. ( KSH 829 million. This is how much it cost to build the County Government offices. Yes, the ones shown in the first picture. KSH 120 million. The County Government decided that it was prudent to pay a contractor KSH 120 million to construct the Governor’s personal residence. Get this, even after this payment, no construction took place. The money was stolen. All of it. KSH 90 Million. This is the amount that the County Government paid to another contractor, to build the Governor a mansion, having previously lost KSH 120 million. So, the tally for the Governor’s residence now stands at KSH 210 million. Never mind that the limit allowed by law is KSH 45 million. KSH 5 billion. In the last days of his term in office, an outgoing Governor of Turkana, Koli Nanok, EGH. , sought to inflate pending bills by adding KSH 5 billion so that it can be paid to his criminal cartel. KSH 5 billion. We have our key numbers, ladies and gentlemen, so let us discuss. So, we have a county that is dead last in literacy, and in the top 2 of the poorest counties in the republic. Only 20% of the population can read. The Governor earns 92 times the average citizen. The Governor lives in a house that cost over KSH 200 million. When he leaves his house in the morning, he goes to his office that cost KSH 829 million. And this is all happening when 80% of the County residents struggle to put food on the table. Those are the facts, and they are not in dispute. During the same time, the County Government geniuses decide to build the Speaker of the County Assembly a house. And a home office, and a garage. The house was initially estimated to cost KSH 75 million. But due to circumstances that not a soul in the government could explain to auditors, the contract expired before the house was completed, and the County Government found a new contractor to complete the job for an additional KSH 29 million. But this palace in the jungle worth apparently worth over KSH 100 million in Turkana County was not enough. The County proceeded to build the Speaker a guest house for another KSH 19 million, and a few other amenities, and so the whole cost went to KSH 276 million! The legal limit for a Speaker’s house is KSH 35 million, and they spent close to KSH 130 million just for one residence. By this time, I am sure you are getting tired of these obscene numbers. You and I work, and pay taxes. Nobody pays you 92 times the income your average neighbor is making. And for sure nobody will drop KSH 100 million to build you a house. These are the perks of working in government in a poor country. Go figure. And so, as a country, we need to answer for ourselves the question I posed yesterday, which is, what is the point of government? What is its role in our lives. If this level of criminality and pillaging can occur in our country in the midst of so much poverty, questioning the need for government is a totally valid question. I said in my last post that, when the average citizen looks at the thug on the street and the government, and is unable to discern any meaningful difference between them, that society from that point on is on its journey to becoming a failed state. A journey to anarchy. Over the last two months or so, Kenyans have been shouting at the top of their lungs, begging for their government to listen. To hear them out. Kenyans have asked that their government stop this unbelievable level of plunder. Dozens of Kenyans have died, thousands injured, and many more are missing today. To this day, the people that govern us continue to use the power of the gun to subdue Kenyans, until they can take everything in their sight. And so, as a society, we all have to ask whether today there is any difference between the thug on the street and our governments. Every Kenyan will have to answer this question for themselves. And before answering this question, everyone needs to remember the many Calvins in our society. Smart, upright children whose only crime is to be born in an unforgiving, lawless, and corrupt purgatory that is Kenya today. For myself, I have concluded that there is no difference between the thug on the street and our governments, county and national alike. If you can see any meaningful difference, let me know. I am willing to listen. So despite over KSH 100 billion in money sent to Turkana County, there is almost no measurable improvement in people’s life today. None. And it makes sense, when you look at how that money is spent. I want you to forget for a second the obscene obsession by the County Government with spending ungodly amounts of money on themselves. The houses, etc. If you step back and look at how the government is actually spending the hard-earned money on other things, you will be depressed. I am telling you that I wept three times in the middle of the night trying to make sense of this crazy situation in Turkana County. Three times. I have never imagined that human beings can be so greedy and cold-blooded. Think about this: In the couple of years I reviewed, the County spent around KSH 400 million annually in “tourism” initiatives, including marketing, and apparently upgrading certain facilities. KSH 400 million for tourism. In Turkana County. In 1 year. KSH 400 million per year in marketing and other money pits. The government’s own website says that the county gets around 3000 visitors per month. Around 36,000 per year. That’s them saying that, on their website. Are you curious to know the return on that KSH 400 million investment? I have an answer for you. Remember that I told you that the County has never raised more than KSH 200 million in a year within the county, despite its KSH 18.4 billion budget? Let me walk you through the breakdown of the absolutely embarrassing shit-show that is the County Government’s “own source revenue” operations. In 2022-2023, the County Government collected KSH 190 million locally against their KSH 18.4 billion budget. 1% of the budget. Remember, there is absolutely no requirement on the County to cut costs, or achieve certain local revenue targets today. So they raised KSH 45 million in single business permits, KSH 72 million in CESS, KSH 8 million in market fee, KSH 9 million in “slaughter fees”. And then finally, there is the return on the tourism investment that you were looking for. A whopping KSH 209, 000 in “park fees”. KSH 209,000 in fees, after investing KSH 400 million. And so, take this as an example and extrapolate it across the entire budget, and you can see how one can spend KSH 100 billion and get NOTHING in return. You don’t need to be a genius to see the absurdity of this situation. Let me explain using an example that should illustrate the utter dimwittedness of this situation. Remember the KSH 100 billion sent to Turkana by you and me? Part of this amount is supposed to be for “service delivery”, or “recurrent expenditure”. Usually about 70% of the budget. The balance, 30%, is designed to go to development projects. With that in mind, from KSH 100 billion, the County apparently has made KSH 30 billion worth of investments, right? 30% of the KSH 100 billion. Now, if you employed someone to run a business for you, and they asked you to invest KSH 30 billion, which is no small fortune, at some point you would have to start seeing returns, right? That’s common sense, isn’t it? So, when we look at the revenues streams that make up this paltry sum of KSH 190 million, and see things like “slaughter fees’ and “market fees”, what does it tell you? It tells me there is no real “development” happening in that county. Trust me, if you had real development totaling KSH 30 billion, you would have corporate taxes in the hundreds of millions or billions, a booming real estate market, rising wages and standards of living, etc., low unemployment, etc. You would not have 80% of the people living hand-to mouth, and a County Government that can not afford to support itself for 5 days out of the year that has 365 days! We do not have enough time, trust me, to deal with the shit-show that is Turkana County. Dealing with that mess would require a forensic team. I will just highlight a few of other “in your-face” type of theft of public funds, and then conclude my submission. A government that has a budget of KSH 18.4 billion annually, and which has never raised more than 1% of its budget had the wisdom to do the following with your money: · Spend KSH 222 million on a project building something that NOBODY uses. You got that right. They spent KSH 222 million on a facility that NOBODY uses. KSH 222 million gone to waste, in a county that is dead last in pretty much all measures of human progress. · Remember the County Government offices that cost KSH 829 million? The County spent KSH 82 million on “air-conditioning” for that building. · Despite the County Spending hundreds of millions for the top three officers of the County, the Governor and his Deputy, in the 2022-2023 year, illegally charged the county (you and I) KSH 2.2 million in housing allowance! · Built two facilities for KSH 16 million, that were completed, but NOBODY uses them. · Entered into a contract for the construction of a plastic use facility for KSH 13 million in 2021. The contractor gets paid KSH 4.9 million, and has never been seen since. · Paid out KSH 62 million in salaries that were not supportable in just one year. They could not point to anybody and say, that is who we paid. · Paid out KSH 27 million in legal fees that nobody could say what they related to. And the County’s Legal Advisor, who, in 2022-2023, had a budget of KSH 123 million, apparently did not know anything about it! · Had an outstanding bill at Kenya Revenue Authority in the amount of KSH 486 million, that did not show up on the County Government’s financial statements. Think about that. KSH 486 million owned to the Kenya Revenue Authority, and that liability is not on the financial statements! This only means that someone took those funds for themselves, which is why the liability would be missing from the county’s books. · Could not account for KSH 367 million in expenditures for 2022-2023. KSH 367 million, in unexplained expenses. · Awarded a contract worth over KSH 200 million to a bidder with no bank statement, against the law. This contract was entered into and approved before the statutory time after the bidding process lapsed. Someone was in a hurry to get paid. KSH 200 million, illegally awarded to a bidder who did not have a 6-month bank statement. · Apparently purchased KSH 1.5 billion in assets in 2022-2023, but kept no records of the said assets. For this reason, NOBODY can verify where these assets are located. KSH 1.5 billion. Let me just say this. In my last article, the most common critique was that it was too long. Too many words. I did not intend to make another long article. Trust me when I tell you this, we do not have the time to detail half of the problems in Turkana County. For just 1 year! We do not. Now, you recall my point about how societies descend to madness and anarchy. In our country today, our leaders are accusing those of us who are agitating for honest and transparent governance of being traitors to the country. They call us anarchists, criminals, and merchants of chaos. They are questioning our patriotism. You have all seen the government and its horde of propagandists threatening the Ford Foundation and others because they may have helped civil society keep the lights on, and investigative journalists to have the capacity to continue to do the Lord’s work of investigating criminality in government. As though citizens are so dumb and ignorant, that they cannot see what is going on. The reason why millions of Calvins in this country will never graduate from college and earn a decent living is not because of the Ford Foundation. No. It is because of the thieves we have in office today, like the ones in Turkana County. In this post, I copy our leaders, the President and his deputy. I copy them because I want them to help Kenyans understand the following conundrum, about crime and criminals. There is nothing so special or peculiar about criminals or where they pop up. There are criminals in the US, Canada, France, and other places. Just like we have criminals in Kenya. The difference between banana republics and failed states, and civilized societies, is WHAT we do to and about criminals. In civilized societies, criminals are prosecuted and punished heavily. They are shunned. In some places, those charged with serious crimes such as corruption are executed. These are societies that are committed to sending the message that corruption, which robs citizens of their rights, is not acceptable. And they demonstrate this commitment by heavily punishing those who steal from the most vulnerable in society. In Kenya, we see the opposite. Criminals are exalted. They are promoted and embraced in government. It was just last week that the president unveiled his nominees for his Cabinet. Among them, are the likes of Hassan Ali Joho, EGH. , @GovWOparanya , and Davis Chirchir, ALL people who have been accused or charged with massive corruption against Kenyans. And am sure you remember that I mentioned Koli Nanok, EGH. , the man who tried to steal KSH 5 billion in his last days in office. Would you believe it if I told you that he works in government, at State House? He plunded billions of your money, got no measurable improvement in the lives of his subjects, and now has a government job in State House. Let that sink in. And so, the question is, how is it that in a country of 55 million people, with thousands of highly qualified people who have never ever stolen from Kenyans, he ends up with the criminals and thieves in the government, despite the fact that their crimes are in the public domain? How is this possible? Is it possible that these thieves possess a certain unique ability to run government, save Kenyans billions, and solve problems in a way that the president performs a cost-benefit analysis, and the benefits outweigh the costs of their theft? If not, what message does it send to Kenyans, when their own president puts into office known thieves? I think that is a fair question, don’t you? Dr. Ekuru Aukot Rigathi Gachagua William Samoei Ruto, PhD Okiya Omtatah Okoiti Citizen TV Kenya Nation Breaking News TI-Kenya CNN County Government of Turkana

Bonnie Mwangi, CPA, LLM, MBA

107,583 views • 2 years ago

Israel Apologists Lie About Their Feelings And Beliefs, And Other Notes One of the most frustrating things about Israel apologists is how they constantly pretend to believe things they don’t really believe in order to push Israeli PR. There’s a tweet going around by a rabbi named Elchanan Poupko that says “I had never met a Zionist who does not care also for the lives of innocent Palestinians. I have never met an anti-zionist who does care for the lives of israelis. That is the difference between us.” This person does not believe his own claim. He is knowingly lying about what he thinks is true about Zionists. A Penn State survey published in Israeli media last year found that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza. Nearly half, 47 percent, said the IDF should kill all inhabitants of any city they capture — that’s inhabitants, not combatants. Rabbi Poupko may not be aware of this specific poll, but he does interact with Zionists on a regular basis. He personally knows Zionists who would tell him to his face that his claim is false, and he is fully aware of this. He is knowingly lying in order to promote the information interests of a genocidal apartheid state. They do this all the time, with everything. They’ll falsely claim pro-Palestine protests make them feel unsafe just to get laws passed to shut down the demonstrations. They’ll pretend to believe that phrases like “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada” are hateful slogans which encourage antisemitic attacks. They’ll regurgitate ridiculous hasbara slogans like “human shields” and “world’s most moral army” which they know for a fact are false. They just make whatever noises they need to make to keep the western weapons shipments heading to Tel Aviv. And, I mean, of course they do. They’re bad people. They’d support a genocide, so there’s not a lot they wouldn’t do. Of course they’ll lie and manipulate to advance the agendas of their favorite ethnonationalist war machine. Israel supporters are awful. ❖ A Jesus statue vandalized by Israeli soldiers has been treated with more solemnity and contrition than any IDF massacre of real human beings over the past three years. Top Israeli officials like Benjamin Netanyahu and Gideon Saar have posted statements condemning the incident, and the Israeli military has issued an apology and sentenced two men to thirty days in jail over the incident. This is happening because Israel knows its American support base of Christian conservatives will care more about the statue than all of the IDF’s attacks on Palestinian, Lebanese and Iranian human beings combined since 2023. Middle easterners are so dehumanized in their eyes that they are viewed as less valuable than a Jesus-shaped piece of fiberglass. Israel will let its soldiers commit every humanitarian abuse in the book, but jeopardizing the support base that keeps the weapons flowing? That’s a no-no. ❖ On Monday, President Trump said on social media that “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran.” On Tuesday, the State Department issued a press release which included the words “the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally.” So I guess the official answer to the question of whether the US went to war with Iran at Israel’s request depends on the mood of the day and which administration figure happens to be speaking at the moment. ❖ Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a security assessment on Thursday that Israel is “awaiting a green light from the United States, first and foremost to complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty, the initiator of the extermination plan against Israel, and the successors of the successors of the leadership of the Iranian terror regime, and in addition to return Iran to the age of darkness and stone by blowing up central energy and electricity facilities and crushing national economic infrastructure.” These freaks speak this way about the savagery they intend to inflict upon Iran, and yet to this day whenever I oppose this crazy evil war I still get bootlickers in my replies babbling about how the war is about freeing the Iranian people. ❖ The use of trained rape dogs in Israeli prisons is so well–documented at this point that there is no valid reason to doubt it is happening. All the hasbarists can say is “It’s crazy to think Israel would do something so evil!” Which nobody who’s been paying attention believes. ❖ People who advocate a “demilitarized” Palestinian state are admitting they know Israel would continue attacking and abusing the Palestinians under a two-state solution and they want to ensure that the Palestinians are powerless to stop it. They don’t want Israel to be forced to get along with its neighbors like every normal country on earth. They want to ensure that Israel can continue terrorizing the Palestinians at every whim without the normal force deterrence systems possessed by any real state. ❖ If your strongest argument for censoring anti-Israel speech begins with the words “It makes Jewish people feel,” then your argument isn’t strong enough to be taken seriously. We’re talking about genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and nonstop wars here. Feelings take a backseat to these issues — even the feelings of people who strongly believe their feelings matter more than human lives. Feeling uncomfortable feelings is fine and normal. We’re all supposed to feel uncomfortable feelings from time to time, especially when terrible things are happening. I myself have been feeling many uncomfortable feelings while scrolling my social media feed since October 2023, but I don’t feel entitled enough to believe laws should be passed and the internet should be censored in order to shelter me from experiencing those feelings. Suck it up, buttercup. These are conversations that need to be had. ❖ The food and fuel crisis that’s about to hit is the fault of the US and Israel. All US and Israeli allies should end the alliances and collaborate with nations around the world to establish a new order of international power. I’ll keep repeating this as life gets harder for us all. ❖

Israel Apologists Lie About Their Feelings And Beliefs, And Other Notes One of the most frustrating things about Israel apologists is how they constantly pretend to believe things they don’t really believe in order to push Israeli PR. There’s a tweet going around by a rabbi named Elchanan Poupko that says “I had never met a Zionist who does not care also for the lives of innocent Palestinians. I have never met an anti-zionist who does care for the lives of israelis. That is the difference between us.” This person does not believe his own claim. He is knowingly lying about what he thinks is true about Zionists. A Penn State survey published in Israeli media last year found that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza. Nearly half, 47 percent, said the IDF should kill all inhabitants of any city they capture — that’s inhabitants, not combatants. Rabbi Poupko may not be aware of this specific poll, but he does interact with Zionists on a regular basis. He personally knows Zionists who would tell him to his face that his claim is false, and he is fully aware of this. He is knowingly lying in order to promote the information interests of a genocidal apartheid state. They do this all the time, with everything. They’ll falsely claim pro-Palestine protests make them feel unsafe just to get laws passed to shut down the demonstrations. They’ll pretend to believe that phrases like “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada” are hateful slogans which encourage antisemitic attacks. They’ll regurgitate ridiculous hasbara slogans like “human shields” and “world’s most moral army” which they know for a fact are false. They just make whatever noises they need to make to keep the western weapons shipments heading to Tel Aviv. And, I mean, of course they do. They’re bad people. They’d support a genocide, so there’s not a lot they wouldn’t do. Of course they’ll lie and manipulate to advance the agendas of their favorite ethnonationalist war machine. Israel supporters are awful. ❖ A Jesus statue vandalized by Israeli soldiers has been treated with more solemnity and contrition than any IDF massacre of real human beings over the past three years. Top Israeli officials like Benjamin Netanyahu and Gideon Saar have posted statements condemning the incident, and the Israeli military has issued an apology and sentenced two men to thirty days in jail over the incident. This is happening because Israel knows its American support base of Christian conservatives will care more about the statue than all of the IDF’s attacks on Palestinian, Lebanese and Iranian human beings combined since 2023. Middle easterners are so dehumanized in their eyes that they are viewed as less valuable than a Jesus-shaped piece of fiberglass. Israel will let its soldiers commit every humanitarian abuse in the book, but jeopardizing the support base that keeps the weapons flowing? That’s a no-no. ❖ On Monday, President Trump said on social media that “Israel never talked me into the war with Iran.” On Tuesday, the State Department issued a press release which included the words “the United States is engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defense of its Israeli ally.” So I guess the official answer to the question of whether the US went to war with Iran at Israel’s request depends on the mood of the day and which administration figure happens to be speaking at the moment. ❖ Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a security assessment on Thursday that Israel is “awaiting a green light from the United States, first and foremost to complete the elimination of the Khamenei dynasty, the initiator of the extermination plan against Israel, and the successors of the successors of the leadership of the Iranian terror regime, and in addition to return Iran to the age of darkness and stone by blowing up central energy and electricity facilities and crushing national economic infrastructure.” These freaks speak this way about the savagery they intend to inflict upon Iran, and yet to this day whenever I oppose this crazy evil war I still get bootlickers in my replies babbling about how the war is about freeing the Iranian people. ❖ The use of trained rape dogs in Israeli prisons is so well–documented at this point that there is no valid reason to doubt it is happening. All the hasbarists can say is “It’s crazy to think Israel would do something so evil!” Which nobody who’s been paying attention believes. ❖ People who advocate a “demilitarized” Palestinian state are admitting they know Israel would continue attacking and abusing the Palestinians under a two-state solution and they want to ensure that the Palestinians are powerless to stop it. They don’t want Israel to be forced to get along with its neighbors like every normal country on earth. They want to ensure that Israel can continue terrorizing the Palestinians at every whim without the normal force deterrence systems possessed by any real state. ❖ If your strongest argument for censoring anti-Israel speech begins with the words “It makes Jewish people feel,” then your argument isn’t strong enough to be taken seriously. We’re talking about genocide, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and nonstop wars here. Feelings take a backseat to these issues — even the feelings of people who strongly believe their feelings matter more than human lives. Feeling uncomfortable feelings is fine and normal. We’re all supposed to feel uncomfortable feelings from time to time, especially when terrible things are happening. I myself have been feeling many uncomfortable feelings while scrolling my social media feed since October 2023, but I don’t feel entitled enough to believe laws should be passed and the internet should be censored in order to shelter me from experiencing those feelings. Suck it up, buttercup. These are conversations that need to be had. ❖ The food and fuel crisis that’s about to hit is the fault of the US and Israel. All US and Israeli allies should end the alliances and collaborate with nations around the world to establish a new order of international power. I’ll keep repeating this as life gets harder for us all. ❖

Caitlin Johnstone

22,864 views • 4 months ago