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⭐️⭐️ DOOR TO DOOR DICKDOWN⭐️⭐️ Missionary Temptation Explodes 😏 🔹Internet Papi 🔹Devin BWC 🚪😌🙏 Internet Papi chills at home when Elder Devin knocks, all buttoned-up and ready to save his soul! Papi smirks and yanks the nervous missionary inside 🔥 He drops to his knees, pulls down Devin’s pants,... show more

JOE BETA | The Clubhouse

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#PursuitofJade Douyin update Fan Changyu and Yu Qianqian team up to shut down the ex-mother-in-law for badmouthing Changyu 🔥👏 😈 When it comes to marriage, what matters is matching families and status. If someone lacks character and proper upbringing, such a marriage must never be made. 👤 Right. 🐷 You sold your Mr. Song scholar for a pretty good price. 😈 You... you little brat. 🐷 😝 😈 Her name is Fan Changyu. She was notorious in Xigu Alley for being a jinx. Perhaps Shopkeeper Yu was unaware of her background, which is why he allowed such a curse through his door. Qianqian: What do you mean, "jinx enters the house"? I heard she supported her scholar fiancé for years. Once he passed the imperial examination and became a provincial scholar, that ungrateful mother and son broke off the engagement. If you ask me, that mother and son are the real ungrateful wolves and the true jinxes. Madam Song, who claims to be so refined and educated, how could she gossip like common street vendors?

#PursuitofJade Douyin update Fan Changyu and Yu Qianqian team up to shut down the ex-mother-in-law for badmouthing Changyu 🔥👏 😈 When it comes to marriage, what matters is matching families and status. If someone lacks character and proper upbringing, such a marriage must never be made. 👤 Right. 🐷 You sold your Mr. Song scholar for a pretty good price. 😈 You... you little brat. 🐷 😝 😈 Her name is Fan Changyu. She was notorious in Xigu Alley for being a jinx. Perhaps Shopkeeper Yu was unaware of her background, which is why he allowed such a curse through his door. Qianqian: What do you mean, "jinx enters the house"? I heard she supported her scholar fiancé for years. Once he passed the imperial examination and became a provincial scholar, that ungrateful mother and son broke off the engagement. If you ask me, that mother and son are the real ungrateful wolves and the true jinxes. Madam Song, who claims to be so refined and educated, how could she gossip like common street vendors?

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Flew this tight little white twink all the way to Dubai to be our personal cum-guzzling fuck toy, breeding bitch, and eager pink boy-cunt for the entire week. We parade and pose him like a trophy wherever we go, but behind closed doors we three huge hung Black Bulls are viciously destroying and wrecking his sloppy, greedy boy-pussy — brutally stretching, pile-driving, and gaping his hungry fuckhole raw with our thick veiny BBCs until it’s completely ruined, prolapsed, wrecked, and turned into a sloppy dripping cum-sleeve. By the end of the week this little snowbunny won’t be walking straight, just waddling bow-legged with our thick loads bubbling and leaking out of his destroyed cunt down his thighs. Hope he packed a fucking diaper for that long flight home 😈🍆💦💦💦 #BBC #Interracial #SizeQueen #BlackDaddies #BoyPussy #TwinkDestruction #LuxuryBBC #BreedingSeason #HeightDifference #Snowbunny #BBCGang #PinkBoyPussy #CumDump #HoleWrecker #BBCBreeding #GapingBoy #SloppyCunt #BoyCunt #CumSleeve #ProlapsedPussy #BBCWorship

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I think CihAl's consummation (or whatever else you'd like to call it) scene is probably one of the most well-thought-out ones of the series. It's perfect for Alya and Cihan's characters. And, if you watch the build-up, you can pinpoint where both decide to take their relationship to the next step. Let's start with my baby girl. Alya makes up her mind that she's done minding the distance between Cihan and herself pretty early on after she enters her room. The way she turns and looks back at the door with a half-smile. Then the camera pans in on the liquor, almost as if to say, she's thinking maybe she needs a little fortitude. And in the next room, Cihan is going through the same restlessness, almost like he's chomping at the bit too, but can't bring himself to act on what he's thinking. Next up, Alya downs some liquid courage and fills her glass again, almost as if a plan's forming in her head. And when she walks out of her room, she pauses, staring at Cihan's door. Eventually, she decides against it because, like the queen she is, she wants a neutral setting, not to overwhelm Cihan, but to engage Cihan's caution, and to see if he's ready to leave it behind. A broken vase later, when Cihan finally descends the steps to go to his wife, Alya gives him a very unconvincing performance of drunkenness. She wants to invite him to sit with her and iron a few things out between them. This is where her playacting is important because it gives them both protection. If Cihan isn't ready to move forward, she can retreat with her dignity, and he wouldn't have to feel pressured or remorseful. But, Cihan, being the brainiac he is, understands his wife is up to something. And, of course, he wants her like crazy, too, so he decides to play along while upping the ante a little - which is why he offers to carry her to her room. Her room. Not his. Because no matter what transpires, his priority is her comfort. So, up they go, and when he lays her down on her bed, Alya pulls him to sit next to her, and switches to phase two. Remember when I said she doesn't want to override him? Her sequence of questions is a gentle attempt to determine if she's read him correctly. That his guilt is no longer the determining factor in their relationship, without triggering any resentment. Why are we staying in separate rooms? Aren't we married? Don't you love me? Don't I love you? Aren't you my husband? Am I not your wife? Then why are we sleeping in separate beds? See? It's a logical dismantling of the remaining distance between them. And every time Cihan answers, it gives her more courage to move forward, it gives her more hope. Cihan isn't being led; he's an active participant, and he is choosing to be. Step by step, to move forward with Alya, by staying in the conversation, to meet her halfway. Then comes the cute nose-rubbing session, and you can see Cihan wants to give in. But old habits die hard, so he has to be sure. Did you drink too much he asks, and that's when Alya gives up her game. Because she's sure too. She tells him how she only drank one glass of wine and how she broke that vase on purpose. Because when they're so close to the brink, she lays all her cards on the table, like always. It isn't like her to hide. And when Cihan brings the topic back to her drunkenness again, that's him proceeding with care. Baby steps. This is his life we're talking about... I mean, his wife. So, Alya Hanim takes up the challenge and asks, 'Would I only want to when I'm drunk?' things are clear as day. The proverbial bulb goes on in Ciho's head. His 'I don't know, maybe' is him being coy, like the imp he is. But all that playfulness goes out the window when his wife says, 'Wouldn't you like to find out?' I think Alya may have managed to give Cihan a mini heart attack with those words, because his answer is so faint, it's laughable. From that point on, it's all engines go for both of them. They're sure now, their minds and hearts are on the same page. After that, it's all love, desire, flirtatiousness, playful goading, and everything that's quintessentially CihAl. Brilliantly written and masterfully portrayed. #CihAl #UzakŞehir

I think CihAl's consummation (or whatever else you'd like to call it) scene is probably one of the most well-thought-out ones of the series. It's perfect for Alya and Cihan's characters. And, if you watch the build-up, you can pinpoint where both decide to take their relationship to the next step. Let's start with my baby girl. Alya makes up her mind that she's done minding the distance between Cihan and herself pretty early on after she enters her room. The way she turns and looks back at the door with a half-smile. Then the camera pans in on the liquor, almost as if to say, she's thinking maybe she needs a little fortitude. And in the next room, Cihan is going through the same restlessness, almost like he's chomping at the bit too, but can't bring himself to act on what he's thinking. Next up, Alya downs some liquid courage and fills her glass again, almost as if a plan's forming in her head. And when she walks out of her room, she pauses, staring at Cihan's door. Eventually, she decides against it because, like the queen she is, she wants a neutral setting, not to overwhelm Cihan, but to engage Cihan's caution, and to see if he's ready to leave it behind. A broken vase later, when Cihan finally descends the steps to go to his wife, Alya gives him a very unconvincing performance of drunkenness. She wants to invite him to sit with her and iron a few things out between them. This is where her playacting is important because it gives them both protection. If Cihan isn't ready to move forward, she can retreat with her dignity, and he wouldn't have to feel pressured or remorseful. But, Cihan, being the brainiac he is, understands his wife is up to something. And, of course, he wants her like crazy, too, so he decides to play along while upping the ante a little - which is why he offers to carry her to her room. Her room. Not his. Because no matter what transpires, his priority is her comfort. So, up they go, and when he lays her down on her bed, Alya pulls him to sit next to her, and switches to phase two. Remember when I said she doesn't want to override him? Her sequence of questions is a gentle attempt to determine if she's read him correctly. That his guilt is no longer the determining factor in their relationship, without triggering any resentment. Why are we staying in separate rooms? Aren't we married? Don't you love me? Don't I love you? Aren't you my husband? Am I not your wife? Then why are we sleeping in separate beds? See? It's a logical dismantling of the remaining distance between them. And every time Cihan answers, it gives her more courage to move forward, it gives her more hope. Cihan isn't being led; he's an active participant, and he is choosing to be. Step by step, to move forward with Alya, by staying in the conversation, to meet her halfway. Then comes the cute nose-rubbing session, and you can see Cihan wants to give in. But old habits die hard, so he has to be sure. Did you drink too much he asks, and that's when Alya gives up her game. Because she's sure too. She tells him how she only drank one glass of wine and how she broke that vase on purpose. Because when they're so close to the brink, she lays all her cards on the table, like always. It isn't like her to hide. And when Cihan brings the topic back to her drunkenness again, that's him proceeding with care. Baby steps. This is his life we're talking about... I mean, his wife. So, Alya Hanim takes up the challenge and asks, 'Would I only want to when I'm drunk?' things are clear as day. The proverbial bulb goes on in Ciho's head. His 'I don't know, maybe' is him being coy, like the imp he is. But all that playfulness goes out the window when his wife says, 'Wouldn't you like to find out?' I think Alya may have managed to give Cihan a mini heart attack with those words, because his answer is so faint, it's laughable. From that point on, it's all engines go for both of them. They're sure now, their minds and hearts are on the same page. After that, it's all love, desire, flirtatiousness, playful goading, and everything that's quintessentially CihAl. Brilliantly written and masterfully portrayed. #CihAl #UzakŞehir

CocoLoco

37,805 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

Inside VP Shettima's Philosophy of Humble Service By Stanley Nkwocha Beyond his administrative prowess and impressive work ethic, which are immediately apparent even to first-time visitors, working closely with Vice President Kashim Shettima Senator Kashim Shettima teaches one the essence of compelling humility. I can confidently say that humility is deeply embedded in his character and radiates from him naturally. Having travelled with him on most of his trips, every day serves as a lesson on how not to let power go to one's head. What is even more remarkable is how he maintains his composure and humility despite having served as governor for eight years. Having known him for more than two decades, I am continually amazed and humbled by how he blends respect and dignity for human life, treating both the humble and the mighty with equal regard. I say this with all respect and a sense of responsibility. Just last Saturday, as we made our way to his relatively modest house in Maiduguri—where he had come to spend Eid Mubarak and attend to some official duties—a crowd had gathered to welcome him and seek entry into his residence. As is typical with VIP protection, the security personnel attached to him would not allow this for obvious security reasons. When it comes to protecting VIPs, their professionalism never wavers. They protect vigilantly and never compromise. Unfortunately for them, this VP always prefers simplicity and maintaining a down-to-earth approach. Upon noticing the crowd being kept away from his residence, a visibly upset VP stepped out of his vehicle and ordered in Hausa: "Open the gates for them. Let everyone in. We'll all go in together." I watched as his main sitting room filled to capacity within seconds. Minutes later, everyone joined him for prayers and subsequently shared a meal with him. As I observed people dining with the Vice President, several recent incidents came to mind. One occurred during an international trip to Switzerland, another at the office, and most recently at the Presidential wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport last Friday. The latter involved former President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, VP Shettima had just concluded a session and returned to his accommodation to prepare for the next one when he noticed some aides who had come to welcome him back. The elevator had opened for him when he suddenly turned back and looked at the aides, asking, "Have you all eaten?" Noticing their hesitation to respond, especially in a foreign land where most would crave Nigerian food but it might not be readily available, the VP responded immediately without waiting for their answer: "Let's all go upstairs and have a meal together." It's difficult to describe how everyone felt at home with the VP as they took advantage of his warm invitation, including myself. Another humbling experience occurred during the last Christmas holiday when a trip was scheduled for him. The Christians on his main team—about four of us out of eight—had naturally reported for duty. When he arrived and we were about to head to the airport with our luggage, he sharply asked, "Where are you guys going?" Before we could answer, he said firmly, "Go home and spend the holiday with your loved ones. Come back after the holidays. If there's anything urgent, I'll call." We stood speechless as we watched the convoy speed away. While such sensitivity was certainly noteworthy, perhaps the humility he displayed recently when he encountered former President Olusegun Obasanjo Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport was most remarkable. Having just landed in Abuja from Mokwa in Niger State, where he had gone to inspect flood devastation in the area, the VP's motorcade was positioned to escort him from the airport according to protocol. As he approached the motorcade, he was informed that elder statesman and former President Olusegun Obasanjo would arrive within minutes, scheduled to fly out of Abuja from the same terminal. Immediately, VP Shettima ordered his motorcade to move aside to make way for the former President's arrival and decided to wait respectfully to honour the elder statesman. As soon as the former President's motorcade stopped and his car door opened, the VP approached him and shook his hand, extending warm pleasantries. While they exchanged friendly conversation, it was easy to see the mutual respect and esteem both men held for each other. It was only after OBJ departed that the VP's motorcade proceeded to escort him away. These moments, seemingly small yet profoundly telling, capture the essence of a leader who has never forgotten where he came from or the people who serve alongside him. In a world where power often breeds arrogance and distance, VP Shettima stands as a rare example of how authority can coexist with authentic humility. Humility, loyalty, and unwavering respect might be mere words to some; however, they continue to define this VP's character. Indeed, I dare say these qualities, along with his astute competence, must have endeared him to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Bola Ahmed Tinubu and continue to do so. For those who hope for discord between the two leaders, they will be disappointed. The commitment, loyalty, humility, and total dedication to the Renewed Hope Agenda that the Vice President demonstrates with graceful humility are noticed by many, except perhaps by a few who covet the VP's position. As the Vice President often says, "Gentlemen, let's keep our eyes on the ball. Let no one distract us. This President must succeed. Everyone should focus their energy on supporting his administration's efforts. Don't mind those sponsored troublemakers writing lies always." As we continue to work toward the historic success of President Tinubu's administration and his enduring legacy, the manner in which the VP gracefully discharges his duties with such loyalty and humility remains exemplary to me. Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to The President on Media & Communications (Office of The Vice President).

Inside VP Shettima's Philosophy of Humble Service By Stanley Nkwocha Beyond his administrative prowess and impressive work ethic, which are immediately apparent even to first-time visitors, working closely with Vice President Kashim Shettima Senator Kashim Shettima teaches one the essence of compelling humility. I can confidently say that humility is deeply embedded in his character and radiates from him naturally. Having travelled with him on most of his trips, every day serves as a lesson on how not to let power go to one's head. What is even more remarkable is how he maintains his composure and humility despite having served as governor for eight years. Having known him for more than two decades, I am continually amazed and humbled by how he blends respect and dignity for human life, treating both the humble and the mighty with equal regard. I say this with all respect and a sense of responsibility. Just last Saturday, as we made our way to his relatively modest house in Maiduguri—where he had come to spend Eid Mubarak and attend to some official duties—a crowd had gathered to welcome him and seek entry into his residence. As is typical with VIP protection, the security personnel attached to him would not allow this for obvious security reasons. When it comes to protecting VIPs, their professionalism never wavers. They protect vigilantly and never compromise. Unfortunately for them, this VP always prefers simplicity and maintaining a down-to-earth approach. Upon noticing the crowd being kept away from his residence, a visibly upset VP stepped out of his vehicle and ordered in Hausa: "Open the gates for them. Let everyone in. We'll all go in together." I watched as his main sitting room filled to capacity within seconds. Minutes later, everyone joined him for prayers and subsequently shared a meal with him. As I observed people dining with the Vice President, several recent incidents came to mind. One occurred during an international trip to Switzerland, another at the office, and most recently at the Presidential wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport last Friday. The latter involved former President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the recent World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, VP Shettima had just concluded a session and returned to his accommodation to prepare for the next one when he noticed some aides who had come to welcome him back. The elevator had opened for him when he suddenly turned back and looked at the aides, asking, "Have you all eaten?" Noticing their hesitation to respond, especially in a foreign land where most would crave Nigerian food but it might not be readily available, the VP responded immediately without waiting for their answer: "Let's all go upstairs and have a meal together." It's difficult to describe how everyone felt at home with the VP as they took advantage of his warm invitation, including myself. Another humbling experience occurred during the last Christmas holiday when a trip was scheduled for him. The Christians on his main team—about four of us out of eight—had naturally reported for duty. When he arrived and we were about to head to the airport with our luggage, he sharply asked, "Where are you guys going?" Before we could answer, he said firmly, "Go home and spend the holiday with your loved ones. Come back after the holidays. If there's anything urgent, I'll call." We stood speechless as we watched the convoy speed away. While such sensitivity was certainly noteworthy, perhaps the humility he displayed recently when he encountered former President Olusegun Obasanjo Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport was most remarkable. Having just landed in Abuja from Mokwa in Niger State, where he had gone to inspect flood devastation in the area, the VP's motorcade was positioned to escort him from the airport according to protocol. As he approached the motorcade, he was informed that elder statesman and former President Olusegun Obasanjo would arrive within minutes, scheduled to fly out of Abuja from the same terminal. Immediately, VP Shettima ordered his motorcade to move aside to make way for the former President's arrival and decided to wait respectfully to honour the elder statesman. As soon as the former President's motorcade stopped and his car door opened, the VP approached him and shook his hand, extending warm pleasantries. While they exchanged friendly conversation, it was easy to see the mutual respect and esteem both men held for each other. It was only after OBJ departed that the VP's motorcade proceeded to escort him away. These moments, seemingly small yet profoundly telling, capture the essence of a leader who has never forgotten where he came from or the people who serve alongside him. In a world where power often breeds arrogance and distance, VP Shettima stands as a rare example of how authority can coexist with authentic humility. Humility, loyalty, and unwavering respect might be mere words to some; however, they continue to define this VP's character. Indeed, I dare say these qualities, along with his astute competence, must have endeared him to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Bola Ahmed Tinubu and continue to do so. For those who hope for discord between the two leaders, they will be disappointed. The commitment, loyalty, humility, and total dedication to the Renewed Hope Agenda that the Vice President demonstrates with graceful humility are noticed by many, except perhaps by a few who covet the VP's position. As the Vice President often says, "Gentlemen, let's keep our eyes on the ball. Let no one distract us. This President must succeed. Everyone should focus their energy on supporting his administration's efforts. Don't mind those sponsored troublemakers writing lies always." As we continue to work toward the historic success of President Tinubu's administration and his enduring legacy, the manner in which the VP gracefully discharges his duties with such loyalty and humility remains exemplary to me. Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to The President on Media & Communications (Office of The Vice President).

Stanley Nkwocha

29,528 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

It's been fun going through and posting about all my past projects with you guys. 😊 Today brings us to the dating show on FOX I did for a whole season, "Take Me Out" with George Lopez. The point of the show was that they'd parade men out, and you'd hit a buzzer and explain why or why not you liked them. Of course, if you got a date....you were off the show, which I didn't want. So as you can probably tell from some of my completely bullsh*t answers, I avoided actually getting a date until the very last episode where they ended up making it a whole segment. (For what it's worth, my date was also probably the nicest guy that was on the show. I remember for his talent portion he came out and sang opera.) What you didn't see in the edited version for TV, was that while some girls barely got to say anything, producers had George go to me every other time just to see what crazy things I would say. I was doing stand up and improv in LA at the time, and I always saw these reality shows as an opportunity to hone my skills. Ultimately, I ended up doing over 40 Network reality shows in a very short amount of time....always playing the same exaggerated version of myself. I'd ham up this bimbo act (I know why I was hired) but actually always ended up saying very clever and funny things. I understood the assignment and what it takes to get the most screen time. 😈 #DaysOfMindy #DaysOfMindy10 (These hashtags should help you find any other projects you might have missed the posting of on IG)

It's been fun going through and posting about all my past projects with you guys. 😊 Today brings us to the dating show on FOX I did for a whole season, "Take Me Out" with George Lopez. The point of the show was that they'd parade men out, and you'd hit a buzzer and explain why or why not you liked them. Of course, if you got a date....you were off the show, which I didn't want. So as you can probably tell from some of my completely bullsh*t answers, I avoided actually getting a date until the very last episode where they ended up making it a whole segment. (For what it's worth, my date was also probably the nicest guy that was on the show. I remember for his talent portion he came out and sang opera.) What you didn't see in the edited version for TV, was that while some girls barely got to say anything, producers had George go to me every other time just to see what crazy things I would say. I was doing stand up and improv in LA at the time, and I always saw these reality shows as an opportunity to hone my skills. Ultimately, I ended up doing over 40 Network reality shows in a very short amount of time....always playing the same exaggerated version of myself. I'd ham up this bimbo act (I know why I was hired) but actually always ended up saying very clever and funny things. I understood the assignment and what it takes to get the most screen time. 😈 #DaysOfMindy #DaysOfMindy10 (These hashtags should help you find any other projects you might have missed the posting of on IG)

Mindy MF Robinson 🦄

20,739 Aufrufe • vor 6 Monaten

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

196,905 Aufrufe • vor 7 Monaten

$🚨Hero police officer reveals his fears after being sacked for tackling knife-wielding teenager - as Home Secretary faces calls to step in An award-winning police officer who was sacked for a 'lack of respect' after arresting a knife-carrying teenager has claimed the saga has left him worrying about whether he can 'pay his mortgage'. The shocking footage shows how PC Lorne Castle grabbed the 15-year-old boy, who was suspected of assault, and pushed him into a wall before slamming him into the ground and proceeding to place his hand over the youth's face while shouting threats and curse words. During the commotion a Stanley-type knife fell out of the teenager's waistband. PC Castle, 46, was dismissed from Dorset Police over the Bournemouth arrest, sparking a wave of criticism as it emerged the teen was suspected of assaulting two people including an elderly gentlemen. He has now lifted the lid on a nightmare 16 months which he said 'could have broken him' - as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper faces calls to step in. The police officer told GB News: 'I came into police nine or 10 years ago. Prior to that, I was in the sports industry, went to Bournemouth University where I did law. 'I've had a confident life and am happy and get on with people. The last year and a half, when they've put me on restricted duties, I'm not allowed face-to-face contact with people. 'I'm isolated. I don't know whether I'm going to be able to pay the mortgage and bring money home until I see how this goes.' PC Castle also gave an insight into what was going through his head during the incident, which resulted in him being found guilty of gross misconduct. 'My intent was to arrest a potentially violent suspect without injuries,' he said. 'He was arrested, no injuries and no complaint, and a knife was removed from the street. 'It's not a nice situation for anyone to be in...other officers have been in that situation and that's why I am here now. Any mistake, pause or hesitation can have dramatic results. 'My intention was good and that's why I have maintained my innocence, because I know my own mindset. 'If I know it can be analysed like a sport, armchair critiquing, some time down the line, it's gonna make you pause. Whether that's good or bad it needs to be looked at.' It comes after Dorset Police released the full bodycam footage from PC Castle's partner on the stop, allowing the public to judge the chaotic episode for themselves. Following the arrest PC Castle's colleagues reported concerns about his conduct to senior officers, prompting a 16-month investigation and gross misconduct proceedings. A misconduct panel last week found PC Castle made the boy feel 'frightened and intimidated' and showed him a 'lack of courtesy and respect' during the arrest in January last year. The officer admitted that he 'lost control' during the arrest and tearfully apologised for his 'out of character' actions at a police disciplinary hearing. The panel, led by Wiltshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Deborah Smith, found him guilty of gross misconduct. They said he failed to act with self-control, did not treat the boy with courtesy or respect and that his 'shouting, swearing, finger pointing, taking hold of the boy's face suggested use of leg restraints was not necessary, reasonable or proportionate'. It was alleged the officer also grabbed the boy's throat but this was not proven. PC Castle was dismissed without notice and barred from serving again. The bodycam footage showed how PC Castle was the first out of the patrol car before putting the boy to the wall and then pushing him to the ground while shouting: 'You're under arrest'. While on top of the teenager on the ground, he then shouted: 'Get on the ground. Get down. Get down. 'Show me your f***ing hands, now. Put your f***ing hands behind your [back].' The teen, who is clearly distressed, screams and told PC Castle 'I can't' - as the officer is on top of him. PC Castle's female colleague can then by heard trying to intervene to de-escalate the situation, but Castle would not be stopped. While pointing his finger into the teen's face, he yelled: 'Right, listen, stop screaming like a little b****. Do you understand that? Shut up.' He continues: 'Roll over. Right, you try resisting again, do you understand? Right, shut up. 'If you try resisting one more time - right get your f***ing hands behind your back, do you understand? 'One hand at a time! One hand at a time. Stop screaming.' Speaking into his radio PC Castle then asks for another unit to be sent over because the suspect is 'being a little b****.' He then begins yelling at the boy again, while still on top of him on the ground, and pointing into his face. 'Right, stop resisting or I'm going to smash you. Do you understand? Put your hands behind your back.' PC Castle then tells members of the public who are watching on: 'Move back, now.' He places his hands on top of the boy's face, prompting him to cry out in what appears to be pain. He shouts: 'You are under arrest at the moment on suspicion of assault. Right do not move.' It is just 90 seconds after PC Castle opened the car door. Throughout the arrest, the 15-year-old could be heard screaming and shouting 'what have I done wrong?'. At one point he starts crying and appears to be struggling to draw breath. On the day of the arrest, the panel heard that the boy was suspected of assaulting an elderly man while riding an e-scooter before getting embroiled in a fracas with another youth outside McDonalds. PC Castle, who has twice won a national bravery award including one for saving an elderly woman from drowning in a swollen river in 2023, spotted the suspect walking up Richmond Hill in Bournemouth before the stop. His colleague attempted to step in to calm the situation several times but was all but ignored by PC Castle, video footage shows. Giving evidence, PC Castle said he became 'overwhelmed and scared' when the boy resisted as his mind flashed back to his arrest of a county lines drug dealer 18 months earlier which led him fearing for his life. As the officer struggled with the dealer, his associate who was stood behind was being told to 'cut him' - before an off-duty officer intervened to defend him. PC Castle admitted he had overstepped the mark with his language and aggression and broke down in tears as he said: 'I'm embarrassed by the video and I apologise for my actions. 'Anyone who knows me in public or private life knows that is not how I behave. When he started screaming and resisting I panicked and became overwhelmed. 'I did not choke the suspect and I did not get him in a headlock. I was trying to keep his head still with the palm of my hand so he did not hit his head. 'I did not put my full weight on him as my knees were on the concrete. I only applied enough weight to keep his body still. 'During the arrest I saw the knife fall out of his waistband so he was arrested for a knife offence. I think the arrest needed to be made but I lost control of the situation.' Mark Ley Morgan, representing Dorset Police at the hearing, said the knife was not relevant as PC Castle did not know the boy had it when making the arrest. Mr Morgan said: 'PC Castle breached standards of professional behaviour by failing to act with self control and failing to treat him with courtesy or respect. 'He abused his power and authority and his behaviour undermined confidence in the police. 'It was totally unnecessary and disproportionate, and it is so serious that dismissal would be justified.' 'PC Castle has let the police service and his colleagues down and he does not represent the many hard-working officers and staff of Dorset Police. 'The outcome reflects the seriousness of this matter and ensures that he will no longer hold a role in policing and the privilege of constable. 'I am grateful to the officers for having the courage to do the right thing and report their concerns about PC Castle's actions.' After the hearing, Dorset Police Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Farrell acknowledged that officers did a 'tough job' but said PC Castle let the force down by his actions. She said: 'I have never been in any doubt that PC Castle's actions were excessive, aggressive and inappropriate and I can understand the communities we serve will be concerned about this case. But the judgment proved divisive with many reacting online and speaking out in support of the officer. Norman Brennan, a retired police officer and founder of the campaign group Protect the Protectors, accused Dorset Police of throwing PC Castle ‘under a bus’. He said: 'Senior officers at Dorset Police have taken leave of their senses.. This decision epitomises how they have lost touch with the danger and reality of frontline policing. It is bloody madness. 'Police officers when facing volatile or violent situations will at times swear and use some unsavoury words. 'All arrests involve some form of force and pushing someone even in the face during a struggle is not always intentional and even if it is its part and parcel in many arrests when restraining a suspect. No arrest is without some sort of force. 'I'm sick and tired of officers being disciplined for things like this and I think the majority of the public would think this is absolutely bonkers. 'Many senior officers kowtow to the constant criticism of the police in a sort of appeasement and often throw officers under the bus or to the wolves as sacrificial lambs. Cases like this are more likely to deter people from joining the police.'$

🚨Hero police officer reveals his fears after being sacked for tackling knife-wielding teenager - as Home Secretary faces calls to step in An award-winning police officer who was sacked for a 'lack of respect' after arresting a knife-carrying teenager has claimed the saga has left him worrying about whether he can 'pay his mortgage'. The shocking footage shows how PC Lorne Castle grabbed the 15-year-old boy, who was suspected of assault, and pushed him into a wall before slamming him into the ground and proceeding to place his hand over the youth's face while shouting threats and curse words. During the commotion a Stanley-type knife fell out of the teenager's waistband. PC Castle, 46, was dismissed from Dorset Police over the Bournemouth arrest, sparking a wave of criticism as it emerged the teen was suspected of assaulting two people including an elderly gentlemen. He has now lifted the lid on a nightmare 16 months which he said 'could have broken him' - as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper faces calls to step in. The police officer told GB News: 'I came into police nine or 10 years ago. Prior to that, I was in the sports industry, went to Bournemouth University where I did law. 'I've had a confident life and am happy and get on with people. The last year and a half, when they've put me on restricted duties, I'm not allowed face-to-face contact with people. 'I'm isolated. I don't know whether I'm going to be able to pay the mortgage and bring money home until I see how this goes.' PC Castle also gave an insight into what was going through his head during the incident, which resulted in him being found guilty of gross misconduct. 'My intent was to arrest a potentially violent suspect without injuries,' he said. 'He was arrested, no injuries and no complaint, and a knife was removed from the street. 'It's not a nice situation for anyone to be in...other officers have been in that situation and that's why I am here now. Any mistake, pause or hesitation can have dramatic results. 'My intention was good and that's why I have maintained my innocence, because I know my own mindset. 'If I know it can be analysed like a sport, armchair critiquing, some time down the line, it's gonna make you pause. Whether that's good or bad it needs to be looked at.' It comes after Dorset Police released the full bodycam footage from PC Castle's partner on the stop, allowing the public to judge the chaotic episode for themselves. Following the arrest PC Castle's colleagues reported concerns about his conduct to senior officers, prompting a 16-month investigation and gross misconduct proceedings. A misconduct panel last week found PC Castle made the boy feel 'frightened and intimidated' and showed him a 'lack of courtesy and respect' during the arrest in January last year. The officer admitted that he 'lost control' during the arrest and tearfully apologised for his 'out of character' actions at a police disciplinary hearing. The panel, led by Wiltshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Deborah Smith, found him guilty of gross misconduct. They said he failed to act with self-control, did not treat the boy with courtesy or respect and that his 'shouting, swearing, finger pointing, taking hold of the boy's face suggested use of leg restraints was not necessary, reasonable or proportionate'. It was alleged the officer also grabbed the boy's throat but this was not proven. PC Castle was dismissed without notice and barred from serving again. The bodycam footage showed how PC Castle was the first out of the patrol car before putting the boy to the wall and then pushing him to the ground while shouting: 'You're under arrest'. While on top of the teenager on the ground, he then shouted: 'Get on the ground. Get down. Get down. 'Show me your fing hands, now. Put your fing hands behind your [back].' The teen, who is clearly distressed, screams and told PC Castle 'I can't' - as the officer is on top of him. PC Castle's female colleague can then by heard trying to intervene to de-escalate the situation, but Castle would not be stopped. While pointing his finger into the teen's face, he yelled: 'Right, listen, stop screaming like a little b**. Do you understand that? Shut up.' He continues: 'Roll over. Right, you try resisting again, do you understand? Right, shut up. 'If you try resisting one more time - right get your f*ing hands behind your back, do you understand? 'One hand at a time! One hand at a time. Stop screaming.' Speaking into his radio PC Castle then asks for another unit to be sent over because the suspect is 'being a little b****.' He then begins yelling at the boy again, while still on top of him on the ground, and pointing into his face. 'Right, stop resisting or I'm going to smash you. Do you understand? Put your hands behind your back.' PC Castle then tells members of the public who are watching on: 'Move back, now.' He places his hands on top of the boy's face, prompting him to cry out in what appears to be pain. He shouts: 'You are under arrest at the moment on suspicion of assault. Right do not move.' It is just 90 seconds after PC Castle opened the car door. Throughout the arrest, the 15-year-old could be heard screaming and shouting 'what have I done wrong?'. At one point he starts crying and appears to be struggling to draw breath. On the day of the arrest, the panel heard that the boy was suspected of assaulting an elderly man while riding an e-scooter before getting embroiled in a fracas with another youth outside McDonalds. PC Castle, who has twice won a national bravery award including one for saving an elderly woman from drowning in a swollen river in 2023, spotted the suspect walking up Richmond Hill in Bournemouth before the stop. His colleague attempted to step in to calm the situation several times but was all but ignored by PC Castle, video footage shows. Giving evidence, PC Castle said he became 'overwhelmed and scared' when the boy resisted as his mind flashed back to his arrest of a county lines drug dealer 18 months earlier which led him fearing for his life. As the officer struggled with the dealer, his associate who was stood behind was being told to 'cut him' - before an off-duty officer intervened to defend him. PC Castle admitted he had overstepped the mark with his language and aggression and broke down in tears as he said: 'I'm embarrassed by the video and I apologise for my actions. 'Anyone who knows me in public or private life knows that is not how I behave. When he started screaming and resisting I panicked and became overwhelmed. 'I did not choke the suspect and I did not get him in a headlock. I was trying to keep his head still with the palm of my hand so he did not hit his head. 'I did not put my full weight on him as my knees were on the concrete. I only applied enough weight to keep his body still. 'During the arrest I saw the knife fall out of his waistband so he was arrested for a knife offence. I think the arrest needed to be made but I lost control of the situation.' Mark Ley Morgan, representing Dorset Police at the hearing, said the knife was not relevant as PC Castle did not know the boy had it when making the arrest. Mr Morgan said: 'PC Castle breached standards of professional behaviour by failing to act with self control and failing to treat him with courtesy or respect. 'He abused his power and authority and his behaviour undermined confidence in the police. 'It was totally unnecessary and disproportionate, and it is so serious that dismissal would be justified.' 'PC Castle has let the police service and his colleagues down and he does not represent the many hard-working officers and staff of Dorset Police. 'The outcome reflects the seriousness of this matter and ensures that he will no longer hold a role in policing and the privilege of constable. 'I am grateful to the officers for having the courage to do the right thing and report their concerns about PC Castle's actions.' After the hearing, Dorset Police Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Farrell acknowledged that officers did a 'tough job' but said PC Castle let the force down by his actions. She said: 'I have never been in any doubt that PC Castle's actions were excessive, aggressive and inappropriate and I can understand the communities we serve will be concerned about this case. But the judgment proved divisive with many reacting online and speaking out in support of the officer. Norman Brennan, a retired police officer and founder of the campaign group Protect the Protectors, accused Dorset Police of throwing PC Castle ‘under a bus’. He said: 'Senior officers at Dorset Police have taken leave of their senses.. This decision epitomises how they have lost touch with the danger and reality of frontline policing. It is bloody madness. 'Police officers when facing volatile or violent situations will at times swear and use some unsavoury words. 'All arrests involve some form of force and pushing someone even in the face during a struggle is not always intentional and even if it is its part and parcel in many arrests when restraining a suspect. No arrest is without some sort of force. 'I'm sick and tired of officers being disciplined for things like this and I think the majority of the public would think this is absolutely bonkers. 'Many senior officers kowtow to the constant criticism of the police in a sort of appeasement and often throw officers under the bus or to the wolves as sacrificial lambs. Cases like this are more likely to deter people from joining the police.'

Grifty

103,498 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

🔊This world is about to witness one of the most glorious fulfillment of prophecy ever spoken by Jesus Christ: THE RAPTURE OF HIS CHURCH! This is the very moment He has longed for since Calvary. A mystery He personally revealed 2,000 years ago to His disciples during a sacred, private event—and in the same way, it will take place again: a sudden, invitation-only event for His TRUE followers! The time to follow Jesus is NOW— KEEP LOOKING UP! 🔎Let's take a quick look and see "how" Jesus talked about the rapture: (John 14) 👉🏼During the Passover meal, Jesus, after telling Judas, 'What you do, do quickly,' initiated an evening of unfolding profound mysteries. The first revelation: The Rapture of the Church. 👉🏼He was talking to His disciples, not to Judas, Jews, or others—ONLY His disciples. He said to them: 'Love each other as I loved you,' highlighting the crucial quality of a true disciple—to love His people, just as He did. 👉🏼He continues by explaining that He is about to be taken, and wherever He goes, they cannot follow Him at the moment. However, He adds, "You shall follow Me afterward." Then He says: 📖“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and RECEIVE you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” 🔓This was not a talk from someone who is about to die intended to make His friends/disciples feel better about his death. This is not a happy talk, to counteract the depression or sorrow they were feeling — THIS IS A REVELATION! This is simple and straightforward, He is going to prepare a place for us to "take us" there! He revealed this new information in obedience to the Father. This was nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. This was meant to be in the New Testament, this is the Blessed Hope that Paul will talk more about it later on. 👉🏼On this intimate night, just hours before His crucifixion, Jesus unveiled profound revelations: He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; He is in the Father and the Father in Him; then He promised the Holy Spirit; He revealed the indwelling of the Father and Son in us; and He showed us the true vine, among others. And in the midst of all these revelations, He disclosed the Rapture of the Church—revealing this sacred mystery hidden for ages less than a day before He laid down His life, at the very final hour! Why do we know this is NOT His Second Coming? Let's read His ascension in Acts: 📖" ...until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen.." Acts 1:1-2 📖"... while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9-10 Who was invited to this Ascension event?❓ 👉🏼Were the unbelievers Sadducees, and Pharisees, present to witness Christ's ascension? NO! 👉🏼Were the representatives of Rome there? NO! 👉🏼Were the skeptics or the fence-sitters invited to look for just one more sign that Jesus was the Messiah in order to get them on board with the program? NO! 💡THE TRUTH IS: this invitation was reserved ONLY for His disciples—a private, invitation-only event, hidden from the world! Unlike the Second Coming, which every eye will witness—“even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him” (Rev 1:7)—the Rapture is sudden, personal, and reserved exclusively for those who belong to Him. 🔥Let’s be perfectly clear: the Rapture of the Church is a doctrine introduced by JESUS Himself, not an invention of Tim LaHaye, Scofield, or John Nelson Darby—they only amplified what Jesus already revealed to His disciples. Do not let the enemy deceive you! 🎺This will be the glorious fulfillment of Jesus’ own promise: He will return for His Church, His Bride, just as He ascended on the clouds before His disciples. In a sudden, majestic moment—with the shout of the Lord, the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God—the dead in Christ will rise first, and those who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Him in the air. This is the very hour Paul longed for until his last breath, the moment his prophetic words come to life: 📖"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." 1 Thes 4:15-17 🔊 Church! Jesus is saying to us, “Let not your heart be troubled!”—even as we live in the horrible lawlessness of these last days! He went to prepare a place for us, His Bride—and that place is already ready! As He is about to carry us home, His joy and excitement far surpass anything we could ever feel—He has been longing for this moment since the foundation of the world! Get your hearts, your minds, your very souls ready—our time to leave this world and go Home is almost here! Soon, we will see Jesus face to face! KEEP PREACHING THE GOSPEL. KEEP LOOKING UP —WE’RE GOING HOME! ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ⚠️ IF YOU ARE NOT IN CHRIST, TURN TO JESUS RIGHT NOW! Believe Jesus is the Son of God, who died on the cross for our sins, He was buried and resurrected during the third day, according to the Scriptures, so we can have eternal life with Him. The moment you believe in Him and that He died for your sins - you're saved, justified, sealed until the day of redemption, and rapture ready! The Holy Spirit will come to live inside of you - He will help you, guide you, change you, be with you FOREVER! 📖"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 📖"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Eph 2:8-9 ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ Maranatha!! 🤍

🔊This world is about to witness one of the most glorious fulfillment of prophecy ever spoken by Jesus Christ: THE RAPTURE OF HIS CHURCH! This is the very moment He has longed for since Calvary. A mystery He personally revealed 2,000 years ago to His disciples during a sacred, private event—and in the same way, it will take place again: a sudden, invitation-only event for His TRUE followers! The time to follow Jesus is NOW— KEEP LOOKING UP! 🔎Let's take a quick look and see "how" Jesus talked about the rapture: (John 14) 👉🏼During the Passover meal, Jesus, after telling Judas, 'What you do, do quickly,' initiated an evening of unfolding profound mysteries. The first revelation: The Rapture of the Church. 👉🏼He was talking to His disciples, not to Judas, Jews, or others—ONLY His disciples. He said to them: 'Love each other as I loved you,' highlighting the crucial quality of a true disciple—to love His people, just as He did. 👉🏼He continues by explaining that He is about to be taken, and wherever He goes, they cannot follow Him at the moment. However, He adds, "You shall follow Me afterward." Then He says: 📖“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and RECEIVE you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” 🔓This was not a talk from someone who is about to die intended to make His friends/disciples feel better about his death. This is not a happy talk, to counteract the depression or sorrow they were feeling — THIS IS A REVELATION! This is simple and straightforward, He is going to prepare a place for us to "take us" there! He revealed this new information in obedience to the Father. This was nowhere to be found in the Old Testament. This was meant to be in the New Testament, this is the Blessed Hope that Paul will talk more about it later on. 👉🏼On this intimate night, just hours before His crucifixion, Jesus unveiled profound revelations: He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; He is in the Father and the Father in Him; then He promised the Holy Spirit; He revealed the indwelling of the Father and Son in us; and He showed us the true vine, among others. And in the midst of all these revelations, He disclosed the Rapture of the Church—revealing this sacred mystery hidden for ages less than a day before He laid down His life, at the very final hour! Why do we know this is NOT His Second Coming? Let's read His ascension in Acts: 📖" ...until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen.." Acts 1:1-2 📖"... while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9-10 Who was invited to this Ascension event?❓ 👉🏼Were the unbelievers Sadducees, and Pharisees, present to witness Christ's ascension? NO! 👉🏼Were the representatives of Rome there? NO! 👉🏼Were the skeptics or the fence-sitters invited to look for just one more sign that Jesus was the Messiah in order to get them on board with the program? NO! 💡THE TRUTH IS: this invitation was reserved ONLY for His disciples—a private, invitation-only event, hidden from the world! Unlike the Second Coming, which every eye will witness—“even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him” (Rev 1:7)—the Rapture is sudden, personal, and reserved exclusively for those who belong to Him. 🔥Let’s be perfectly clear: the Rapture of the Church is a doctrine introduced by JESUS Himself, not an invention of Tim LaHaye, Scofield, or John Nelson Darby—they only amplified what Jesus already revealed to His disciples. Do not let the enemy deceive you! 🎺This will be the glorious fulfillment of Jesus’ own promise: He will return for His Church, His Bride, just as He ascended on the clouds before His disciples. In a sudden, majestic moment—with the shout of the Lord, the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God—the dead in Christ will rise first, and those who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Him in the air. This is the very hour Paul longed for until his last breath, the moment his prophetic words come to life: 📖"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord." 1 Thes 4:15-17 🔊 Church! Jesus is saying to us, “Let not your heart be troubled!”—even as we live in the horrible lawlessness of these last days! He went to prepare a place for us, His Bride—and that place is already ready! As He is about to carry us home, His joy and excitement far surpass anything we could ever feel—He has been longing for this moment since the foundation of the world! Get your hearts, your minds, your very souls ready—our time to leave this world and go Home is almost here! Soon, we will see Jesus face to face! KEEP PREACHING THE GOSPEL. KEEP LOOKING UP —WE’RE GOING HOME! ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ ⚠️ IF YOU ARE NOT IN CHRIST, TURN TO JESUS RIGHT NOW! Believe Jesus is the Son of God, who died on the cross for our sins, He was buried and resurrected during the third day, according to the Scriptures, so we can have eternal life with Him. The moment you believe in Him and that He died for your sins - you're saved, justified, sealed until the day of redemption, and rapture ready! The Holy Spirit will come to live inside of you - He will help you, guide you, change you, be with you FOREVER! 📖"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 📖"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Eph 2:8-9 ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ Maranatha!! 🤍

Maranatha777

14,126 Aufrufe • vor 10 Monaten

"Leave this all behind. Shut up. Do not do anything." 🤬 What The F**k, Chuck? 🤬 (Make sure you read my comments in ( ). After Dylan Borland testified last month, I wrote this: ) "The most troubling thing is his visit to the ICIG. Seems the whole system is f**king corrupt." (Today, he shared more details, and it's much worse than I thought. When he told the ICIG he wanted to testify to Congress under oath, the reply was: ) "You already did that, and you're not doing it again." 🖕🖕🖕 (And the advice from the attorney who urged Borland to go to the ICIG?) "Leave this all behind. Shut up. Do not do anything." (This is very troubling. Especially if the person who said that was Charles "Chuck" McCullough.) ~ Borland: "So I get a phone call after Dave [Grusch] testifies, and they notify me, 'Hey, Dylan, we want you to go the IG.' And I said, 'All right. What about?' They're like, 'You know, this stuff.'" George Knapp: "They, meaning who? Congress?" Borland: "Uh, a staffer, and Dave. and an attorney, that you guys are aware of. I don't know if I can say their name. But an attorney you guys are aware of." Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell: "I think, just yeah, that's good." (The only attorney that I'm aware of who fits the bill is: Charles McCullough, who was the first ICIG (Intelligence Community Inspector General) and also the attorney for David Grusch. If it's him, that's very concerning. As you watch the clip, or read my transcript, you'll see why. And the ICIG was Thomas Monheim, who was also in that position when Grusch filed his whistleblower complaint, which he deemed, "urgent and credible." Monheim resigned in January of 2025.) ~ Borland: "All right. Um, and they're like, 'Go to the IG.' And I said, 'Am I safe? Is it what the country needs?' [And they said,] 'Yes, yes.' And I said, 'All right, let's make it happen.' And I go the IG. That was in, I wanna say September or October. I actually have the date for you guys if you need it. But I went there in 2023, late summer, early fall of 2023 and I go through the IG process. "And to be honest with you, out of everything, I really feel like the IG process was the worst. I think the people at AARO genuinely cared. But, my opinion, going through the IG and the questions they asked me, the things that were said to me made me feel like that was a fishing expedition. And the only thing they cared about was finding out how much I actually knew." Corbell: "Wow. That is highly disappointing." Borland: "It was very disappointing being in that room with the conversation and statements that were being made to me. Like, when somebody's asking you a question and the IG government employee cuts them off and says, 'You don't ask him that question' and then looks at me and tells me, 'You don't answer that question.' Yeah. "When they ask you, 'What do you want out of this?' And verbatim, direct-quote, on film. By all means, go get the recording, because they said they recorded it. But they said, 'What do you want out of this?' And I said, 'I want to look Congress in the eyes, tell them the truth under oath, so when I die I can answer for this and know I did my job.' And the response was, 'As far as we're concerned, you already did that, and you're not doing it again.' So..." Knapp: "So is this the actual Inspector General or..." Borland: "The ICIG, yes. I have his card at my house." (Again, Monheim.) Knapp: "You went through the whole thing." Borland: "I went through the whole thing." Knapp: "Who else is there?" Borland: "So, ICIG, assistant director, director, [government] attorney on my right." Corbell: "So you try to do this right. You go to ICIG, and you literally feel like that they are just trying to pump you to figure out how much you know, how dangerous you are to the Legacy program." Borland: "In my opinion, looking back on this, yes. Because, the way they ask[ed] questions, the statements they made to each other, the statements they made to me, 100% seemed like they wanted to find out how much I knew. And at the end of this, which you're aware of the conversation I had with the attorney, it was. 'You are credible, not urgent. Go disappear in the winds. Leave this all behind. Shut up. Do not do anything. Your entire...everything you said,' which goes back to what we talked...I mean, I talked about my childhood in there. I was told, everything I talked about in that room, now is up for executive review. And I brought up to the attorney, 'I talked about my childhood, is that now up for it? I talked about unclassified information, readily available on the internet.' And they said, 'Dylan, every single thing you talked about is now subject to executive review. Do not go outside of those bounds.'" Knapp: "Your whole life." Borland: "Pretty damn much." (If this is McCullough being referred to here, I have a problem with it. Borland took the advice of McCullough, Grusch and a congressional staffer by going to ICIG and it turned out to be a 💩 show. Now he's telling Borland to disappear and leave it all behind? WTF?) Corbell: "It's like a great way to lock somebody down if you want to kind of intake their whole whistleblower story, what they know, and then say, 'Now that you've testified to ICIG, you have to walk away.'" Knapp: "Well you realize they say that, and that this has been, in essence, a waste of time, that you walked into sort of a trap. I mean, I can imagine how depressing it would be." Borland: "Depressing. It pissed me off, because I was already blacklisted from the IC. And I told the attorney that, I told the IG that. Like, I already know that there are things that are in place for me, getting jobs, working in this field, that, years back, are in play. And it's happened to me since I've gone to the IG, which goes back to retaliation. Like, technically, I'm still being retaliated against." Knapp: "The Inspector General's office is there to hear about wrongdoing and things that shouldn't be happening in the agencies that it oversees." Borland: "I...you would think, but this is now me being black pilled, and there's a joke amongst all the military guys, which is: The JAG isn't for you, the JAG is for the DOD. The IG isn't for us, the IG is for the government. And that's the way I feel now." (The Air Force JAG (Judge Advocate General) corps provides comprehensive legal services to the U.S. Air Force and Space Force. ~AI) Knapp: "Did you share this with the attorney who had been advising you about seeing these guys? We're not saying who it is." Corbell: "I think with the client, I just think you're not supposed to do that. It's not like a big secret, I'm just trying to be respectful." Borland: "I made it aware to them that the statement that he had made to me was of grave concern. It made no sense. And I had asked, 'How do I do DOPSR? Because I do not trust this process at all anymore.' And, basically, from that point, I was completely shut out for over a year, a year and a half.' Corbell: "I think lawyers are...try to protect their clients. You know, I don't think it's nefarious. I think that they're just trying to do...or guide their client in what's best for their well being." Knapp: "Yeah, well, especially somebody who has been around and knows what could happen." Corbell: "Knows his stuff. That's unfortunate. Borland: "Don't disagree." (I would like to know why McCullough, Grusch and a congressional staffer sent Borland to the ICIG? Did they have any idea this would happen? And was it McCullough who shut out Borland for a year and a half? If so, why? Nefarious shouldn't be ruled out.)

"Leave this all behind. Shut up. Do not do anything." 🤬 What The Fk, Chuck? 🤬 (Make sure you read my comments in ( ). After Dylan Borland testified last month, I wrote this: ) "The most troubling thing is his visit to the ICIG. Seems the whole system is fking corrupt." (Today, he shared more details, and it's much worse than I thought. When he told the ICIG he wanted to testify to Congress under oath, the reply was: ) "You already did that, and you're not doing it again." 🖕🖕🖕 (And the advice from the attorney who urged Borland to go to the ICIG?) "Leave this all behind. Shut up. Do not do anything." (This is very troubling. Especially if the person who said that was Charles "Chuck" McCullough.) ~ Borland: "So I get a phone call after Dave [Grusch] testifies, and they notify me, 'Hey, Dylan, we want you to go the IG.' And I said, 'All right. What about?' They're like, 'You know, this stuff.'" George Knapp: "They, meaning who? Congress?" Borland: "Uh, a staffer, and Dave. and an attorney, that you guys are aware of. I don't know if I can say their name. But an attorney you guys are aware of." Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell: "I think, just yeah, that's good." (The only attorney that I'm aware of who fits the bill is: Charles McCullough, who was the first ICIG (Intelligence Community Inspector General) and also the attorney for David Grusch. If it's him, that's very concerning. As you watch the clip, or read my transcript, you'll see why. And the ICIG was Thomas Monheim, who was also in that position when Grusch filed his whistleblower complaint, which he deemed, "urgent and credible." Monheim resigned in January of 2025.) ~ Borland: "All right. Um, and they're like, 'Go to the IG.' And I said, 'Am I safe? Is it what the country needs?' [And they said,] 'Yes, yes.' And I said, 'All right, let's make it happen.' And I go the IG. That was in, I wanna say September or October. I actually have the date for you guys if you need it. But I went there in 2023, late summer, early fall of 2023 and I go through the IG process. "And to be honest with you, out of everything, I really feel like the IG process was the worst. I think the people at AARO genuinely cared. But, my opinion, going through the IG and the questions they asked me, the things that were said to me made me feel like that was a fishing expedition. And the only thing they cared about was finding out how much I actually knew." Corbell: "Wow. That is highly disappointing." Borland: "It was very disappointing being in that room with the conversation and statements that were being made to me. Like, when somebody's asking you a question and the IG government employee cuts them off and says, 'You don't ask him that question' and then looks at me and tells me, 'You don't answer that question.' Yeah. "When they ask you, 'What do you want out of this?' And verbatim, direct-quote, on film. By all means, go get the recording, because they said they recorded it. But they said, 'What do you want out of this?' And I said, 'I want to look Congress in the eyes, tell them the truth under oath, so when I die I can answer for this and know I did my job.' And the response was, 'As far as we're concerned, you already did that, and you're not doing it again.' So..." Knapp: "So is this the actual Inspector General or..." Borland: "The ICIG, yes. I have his card at my house." (Again, Monheim.) Knapp: "You went through the whole thing." Borland: "I went through the whole thing." Knapp: "Who else is there?" Borland: "So, ICIG, assistant director, director, [government] attorney on my right." Corbell: "So you try to do this right. You go to ICIG, and you literally feel like that they are just trying to pump you to figure out how much you know, how dangerous you are to the Legacy program." Borland: "In my opinion, looking back on this, yes. Because, the way they ask[ed] questions, the statements they made to each other, the statements they made to me, 100% seemed like they wanted to find out how much I knew. And at the end of this, which you're aware of the conversation I had with the attorney, it was. 'You are credible, not urgent. Go disappear in the winds. Leave this all behind. Shut up. Do not do anything. Your entire...everything you said,' which goes back to what we talked...I mean, I talked about my childhood in there. I was told, everything I talked about in that room, now is up for executive review. And I brought up to the attorney, 'I talked about my childhood, is that now up for it? I talked about unclassified information, readily available on the internet.' And they said, 'Dylan, every single thing you talked about is now subject to executive review. Do not go outside of those bounds.'" Knapp: "Your whole life." Borland: "Pretty damn much." (If this is McCullough being referred to here, I have a problem with it. Borland took the advice of McCullough, Grusch and a congressional staffer by going to ICIG and it turned out to be a 💩 show. Now he's telling Borland to disappear and leave it all behind? WTF?) Corbell: "It's like a great way to lock somebody down if you want to kind of intake their whole whistleblower story, what they know, and then say, 'Now that you've testified to ICIG, you have to walk away.'" Knapp: "Well you realize they say that, and that this has been, in essence, a waste of time, that you walked into sort of a trap. I mean, I can imagine how depressing it would be." Borland: "Depressing. It pissed me off, because I was already blacklisted from the IC. And I told the attorney that, I told the IG that. Like, I already know that there are things that are in place for me, getting jobs, working in this field, that, years back, are in play. And it's happened to me since I've gone to the IG, which goes back to retaliation. Like, technically, I'm still being retaliated against." Knapp: "The Inspector General's office is there to hear about wrongdoing and things that shouldn't be happening in the agencies that it oversees." Borland: "I...you would think, but this is now me being black pilled, and there's a joke amongst all the military guys, which is: The JAG isn't for you, the JAG is for the DOD. The IG isn't for us, the IG is for the government. And that's the way I feel now." (The Air Force JAG (Judge Advocate General) corps provides comprehensive legal services to the U.S. Air Force and Space Force. ~AI) Knapp: "Did you share this with the attorney who had been advising you about seeing these guys? We're not saying who it is." Corbell: "I think with the client, I just think you're not supposed to do that. It's not like a big secret, I'm just trying to be respectful." Borland: "I made it aware to them that the statement that he had made to me was of grave concern. It made no sense. And I had asked, 'How do I do DOPSR? Because I do not trust this process at all anymore.' And, basically, from that point, I was completely shut out for over a year, a year and a half.' Corbell: "I think lawyers are...try to protect their clients. You know, I don't think it's nefarious. I think that they're just trying to do...or guide their client in what's best for their well being." Knapp: "Yeah, well, especially somebody who has been around and knows what could happen." Corbell: "Knows his stuff. That's unfortunate. Borland: "Don't disagree." (I would like to know why McCullough, Grusch and a congressional staffer sent Borland to the ICIG? Did they have any idea this would happen? And was it McCullough who shut out Borland for a year and a half? If so, why? Nefarious shouldn't be ruled out.)

Joe Murgia

13,066 Aufrufe • vor 10 Monaten

In 2018, Jeff Bezos sat down for a 70-minute interview with David Rubenstein in front of Washington's most powerful crowd and explained exactly how he thinks, decides and lives. He didn't lecture on algorithms or logistics once. He talked about knee pads, regret and going to bed early: 1. Three good decisions a day is enough Most executives think leadership means firing off calls nonstop. Bezos rejects that entirely. He explained that "As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high quality decisions." Then he made the number explicit: "If I make, like, three good decisions a day, that's enough. And they should be as high quality as I can make them." 2. Protect the hours when your brain actually works He doesn't schedule his day randomly. He books his hardest thinking early and is honest about when he runs out of gas. "I like to do my high IQ meetings before lunch," he says. "Because by 5 p.m., I'm like, 'I can't think about that today. Let's try this again tomorrow.'" 3. Sleep is a strategic decision, not a luxury Bezos ran the maths on cutting his sleep to squeeze in more decisions and rejected it outright, asking "Is that really worth it if the quality of these decisions might be lower because you're tired, or grouchy or any number of things?" For him the answer was simple: "I think better, I have more energy, my mood is better." 4. Puttering in the morning isn't wasted time He doesn't rush into his inbox the second he wakes up. "I like to putter in the mornings. I like to read the newspaper. I like to drink coffee." That slow start is what makes the sharp decisions later in the day possible. 5. Trust your gut on the decisions that matter most Most founders assume the biggest calls need the most data. Bezos found the opposite. "All of my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition, guts, ... not analysis." He was careful to add the nuance though: "If you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out in life that your most important decisions are always made with instinct and intuition." 6. Everything you're impressed by started small People meet Bezos now and see a trillion-dollar company. He remembers something else. "Everything I've ever done has started small. It's hard to remember for you guys, but for me it's like yesterday I was driving the packages to the post office myself and hoping one day we could afford a forklift." 7. The best idea in the room usually isn't yours Early on, Bezos was packing boxes on a concrete floor at 1am and pitched a fix for his aching knees. He admits "I didn't have packing tables. I said to one of the software engineers who was packing alongside me, 'You know what we should do? We should get knee pads.'" The engineer wasn't impressed. "And he looked at me like I was the dumbest guy he had ever seen in his life, and he said 'Jeff, we should get packing tables.'" Bezos didn't defend his own idea. He bought the tables the next day. 8. Don't feel smarter when the stock goes up Amazon's share price has swung wildly for two decades, and Bezos has trained his whole company not to read into the swings. He repeats a version of this line at every all-hands: "When the stock is up 30 percent in a month, don't feel 30 percent smarter, because when the stock is down 30 percent in a month, it's not going to feel so good to feel 30 percent dumber." He leans on the Buffett line he can't stop quoting, that "in the short run the stock market is a voting machine, in the long run it's a weighing machine." 9. Regret is about the things you didn't try Weighing whether to leave a stable Wall Street job to sell books on the internet, Bezos didn't build a spreadsheet. He thought about which choice he'd regret more at 80. His conclusion: "Our regrets are acts of omission, they're things we didn't try, it's the path untraveled." That single idea, more than any business plan, is what got Amazon started. 10. Being scrutinised is the price of being big, not something personal Asked about regulators and critics circling the tech industry, Bezos didn't get defensive. "All big institutions of any kind are going to be and should be examined, scrutinized, inspected," he said. Then he added the line that reframes the whole thing: "It's not personal, it's kind of what we as a society want to have happen." Here's the thing though.... Bezos didn't need to give this interview. He was already the richest man alive before he sat down with Rubenstein that night. But by then he'd already made himself public, buying a newspaper, showing up on stages, letting cameras into rooms most billionaires avoid. T hat single 70-minute conversation about knee pads and regret has been quoted by CNBC, Fortune, Yahoo and Bloomberg for seven years and counting. The companies made him powerful. Choosing to be visible is what made every one of his sentences travel far beyond that room in Washington, and kept compounding long after the microphones switched off. Speaking of compounding: We build massive distribution and grow personal brands on X and beyond without our clients lifting a finger. If you're a founder or VC looking for that kind of exposure, book a call below. Over a billion views and $4m attributable revenue for 17 clients to date.

In 2018, Jeff Bezos sat down for a 70-minute interview with David Rubenstein in front of Washington's most powerful crowd and explained exactly how he thinks, decides and lives. He didn't lecture on algorithms or logistics once. He talked about knee pads, regret and going to bed early: 1. Three good decisions a day is enough Most executives think leadership means firing off calls nonstop. Bezos rejects that entirely. He explained that "As a senior executive, you get paid to make a small number of high quality decisions." Then he made the number explicit: "If I make, like, three good decisions a day, that's enough. And they should be as high quality as I can make them." 2. Protect the hours when your brain actually works He doesn't schedule his day randomly. He books his hardest thinking early and is honest about when he runs out of gas. "I like to do my high IQ meetings before lunch," he says. "Because by 5 p.m., I'm like, 'I can't think about that today. Let's try this again tomorrow.'" 3. Sleep is a strategic decision, not a luxury Bezos ran the maths on cutting his sleep to squeeze in more decisions and rejected it outright, asking "Is that really worth it if the quality of these decisions might be lower because you're tired, or grouchy or any number of things?" For him the answer was simple: "I think better, I have more energy, my mood is better." 4. Puttering in the morning isn't wasted time He doesn't rush into his inbox the second he wakes up. "I like to putter in the mornings. I like to read the newspaper. I like to drink coffee." That slow start is what makes the sharp decisions later in the day possible. 5. Trust your gut on the decisions that matter most Most founders assume the biggest calls need the most data. Bezos found the opposite. "All of my best decisions in business and in life have been made with heart, intuition, guts, ... not analysis." He was careful to add the nuance though: "If you can make a decision with analysis, you should do so. But it turns out in life that your most important decisions are always made with instinct and intuition." 6. Everything you're impressed by started small People meet Bezos now and see a trillion-dollar company. He remembers something else. "Everything I've ever done has started small. It's hard to remember for you guys, but for me it's like yesterday I was driving the packages to the post office myself and hoping one day we could afford a forklift." 7. The best idea in the room usually isn't yours Early on, Bezos was packing boxes on a concrete floor at 1am and pitched a fix for his aching knees. He admits "I didn't have packing tables. I said to one of the software engineers who was packing alongside me, 'You know what we should do? We should get knee pads.'" The engineer wasn't impressed. "And he looked at me like I was the dumbest guy he had ever seen in his life, and he said 'Jeff, we should get packing tables.'" Bezos didn't defend his own idea. He bought the tables the next day. 8. Don't feel smarter when the stock goes up Amazon's share price has swung wildly for two decades, and Bezos has trained his whole company not to read into the swings. He repeats a version of this line at every all-hands: "When the stock is up 30 percent in a month, don't feel 30 percent smarter, because when the stock is down 30 percent in a month, it's not going to feel so good to feel 30 percent dumber." He leans on the Buffett line he can't stop quoting, that "in the short run the stock market is a voting machine, in the long run it's a weighing machine." 9. Regret is about the things you didn't try Weighing whether to leave a stable Wall Street job to sell books on the internet, Bezos didn't build a spreadsheet. He thought about which choice he'd regret more at 80. His conclusion: "Our regrets are acts of omission, they're things we didn't try, it's the path untraveled." That single idea, more than any business plan, is what got Amazon started. 10. Being scrutinised is the price of being big, not something personal Asked about regulators and critics circling the tech industry, Bezos didn't get defensive. "All big institutions of any kind are going to be and should be examined, scrutinized, inspected," he said. Then he added the line that reframes the whole thing: "It's not personal, it's kind of what we as a society want to have happen." Here's the thing though.... Bezos didn't need to give this interview. He was already the richest man alive before he sat down with Rubenstein that night. But by then he'd already made himself public, buying a newspaper, showing up on stages, letting cameras into rooms most billionaires avoid. T hat single 70-minute conversation about knee pads and regret has been quoted by CNBC, Fortune, Yahoo and Bloomberg for seven years and counting. The companies made him powerful. Choosing to be visible is what made every one of his sentences travel far beyond that room in Washington, and kept compounding long after the microphones switched off. Speaking of compounding: We build massive distribution and grow personal brands on X and beyond without our clients lifting a finger. If you're a founder or VC looking for that kind of exposure, book a call below. Over a billion views and $4m attributable revenue for 17 clients to date.

Lewis 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

15,749 Aufrufe • vor 8 Tagen

Dumbing Down II "By Faith, this is the last rent I am paying as a single lady. If you support me to pay this rent, by the grace of God, this time next year, I will be in my husband's house." is back begging for support to pay another rent. Not because God didn't bring eligible suitors her way, but because her PASTOR has replaced the Holy Spirit in her life. Pastors ruin a lot of destinies when they insist on playing God instead of their primary role as destiny guides. Many members have submitted their free will to their pastors, giving their pastors the power that God himself didn't take from us from the dawn of creation. When you take the ability of the individual to act as a free agent in the name of religion, you reduce him or her to a puppet and yourself to a puppeteer. You want to pull the strings of the lives of thousands of born-again Christians at the same time while rendering them useless to follow their paths in Christ and grow into mature sons. I was at a Church in Anthony village about three years ago to minister, and I met this young man who was schooled at a very prestigious university in the USA. He was the in-house IT consultant of the church, and the pastor placed him on a monthly stipend while he was working for God. It was the Pastor who introduced the young man to me while boasting that God had given him the most capable hands to help him in ministry. I asked him if he had any Python, Java, cloud engineering, data management, digital marketing, coding, or similar tasks available for the young man in the church. He said no. I said, "You are giving this young man the job that any young school leaver who is proficient in computer appreciation can do, and you don't see it as limiting his capabilities and rendering his skills obsolete?" You would rather boast that you are ruining a destiny to build up your own profile rather than set this young man on the path of excellence? Did God call him into ministry as a preacher? Is he understudying you in preparation for his own ministry? The pastor said, "No, I plan that as the church expands, he will head our digital infrastructure and position us for the future." I said, "He can do that as a consultant or even as a member, he shouldn't be doing that while you are paying him 100,000 Naira a month. He should be out there, flying with his peers and earning in dollars! The only exception is if the Lord has called him to be a preacher and he is understudying you as your personal assistant, as led by the Lord as part of his season of preparation. Anything other than that is injurious to his destiny!" The pastor had never seen it that way When I was done ministering in the church, the young man hugged me and thanked me profusely. He said his mother sent him to the pastor when he returned from the USA and the pastor immediately told him that God had need of him in the ministry or he would die without fulfilling his purpose. Why do pastors do this? I have another case from the Northern part of Nigeria. A young lady reached out to me seeking clarity regarding her future She said her Apostle told her she has been raised by God to sing in his church choir, but she is a medical doctor by training and desires to further her studies abroad Every time she raised the issue with the Apostle, he shut her down and told her she was struggling with the will of God "Why can't you just submit to God and serve in the choir and watch as God will take your voice all over the world as this ministry grows?" The young lady said she knows she has a good voice and sings very well as one who is full of the Holy Spirit, but she does not want to be "Sinach", she wants to fulfil her dream of practising as a Pediatrician. She was wary of incurring the wrath and curse of the Apostle, however, and did not know how to extricate herself from the situation. The apostle did not see anything wrong with his actions because he was a user of people who believed that in order to fulfill his own desire to become a big ministry, others could not thrive and grow in their visions and ministries as ordained by God. This is witchcraft. It is not of God. Jesus didn't lead his disciples this way. Insecurity is the undoing of many African so-called Pastors and Spiritual leaders, and they hide behind the illusion of divinity to put others in bondage. I experienced this firsthand as a young graduate, so I understand how a pastor trying to build his ministry could see the potential in a young man or woman and try very hard to turn such a person into servants and house helps in the name of discipling them or training them for kingdom relevance You graduate from the University and join the labour force, you apply for many jobs, and at a point, you tell yourself it is important to seek supernatural guidance in your quest to fulfil destiny Somebody somewhere tells you about a church or a ministry, you join, and you are convinced the church is good. You also tell your friends, and they join. But you are all fresh graduates who are heading into the future one way or the other, but this pastor wants you to be his flock. To him, his church of ten members had suddenly become a church of 30 members because of you guys, and he wants to keep the numbers growing, so he begins to give you prophesies that were not of God but with the aim of keeping you in the fold for as long as possible. He told young graduates who ought to go for NYSC that God is telling him they should give it up for service to God in the vineyard. The mother of two of the ladies in the fellowship, whose daughters told that the pastor told them not to go for NYSC, quickly removed them from the fellowship before the seed of corruption being planted by this pastor would bear fruit The others also left as soon as they could gather their wit People who you ought to guide on their path in sincerity ran as far as they could from you based on how you chose to manipulate rather than nurture them. A married woman whose husband worked abroad was a trained secretary, and while her husband was abroad, catering to the needs of the family, he begged her to stop working so that she could focus on raising the children. She was raising five children all by herself, and combining this with a job seemed a bit too much at the time. One of the vital institutions for raising godly children was the church This woman attended church regularly with her children and even volunteered to spend any free time she had typing the pastor's sermons, Sunday School pamphlets, handouts, books, journals, and other church reports and documents She was not officially employed to do the work; she just saw that she could take some of the secretarial duties on during her downtime, and she did so with all sincerity. The church enjoyed her free services for five years until the pastor forgot completely that she was doing the church a favour One day, the woman came to church to tell the pastor that her husband would be returning home to visit the family, and she would not be available for a few days because she had to pick her husband up from the airport and ensure that he settled in properly. Unfortunately, that weekend was the weekend of the church's anniversary, and the pastor had a lot of secretarial work to do. He told the woman God said she should pick one. Heaven or marriage. He said if she goes to pick her husband from the airport, she has chosen the world and forsaken the Lord. The woman wept all the way home, It was not the thank you, thou faithful servant report she had worked day and night for many years to get that she received. She went to pick her husband from the airport and distanced herself from any church founded by any individual after that experience. She said the ambition of church founders requires that they use people to build, even though they lacked the resources to pay or compensate such people, so they resort to blackmail, coercion, lies, fake prophesies, promises, and manipulations to get things done while keeping their followers on a leash. Followers are also enablers as they refuse to read the Bible for themselves and walk in the light of the word of God. No one should be able to take you captive in the name of God, Jesus, all the angels, or any form of miracle if you know the word of God. The word of God is profitable to make one wise, and therefore, anyone who knows the word of God cannot fall victim to any false doctrine, teaching, spiritual manipulations, or lies. All the false teachings of someone being a covering for someone else came from these manipulative narratives, and believers should be wise to them. I have seen a pastor declare that his church is the only church in Africa that is licensed by God to take people to heaven, and some members believed him. The day he said that, all his members ought to laugh, pick up their Bibles, and leave without looking back. Self-aggrandisement has become the order of the day in some churches, the pastor sells himself as the be-all and end-all of the member's spiritual enlightenment, and the members sheepishly surrender their eyes of their understanding to him or her. He or she must determine where they work, whom they marry, who they associate with, whose music they must listen to, and whose sermons they must hear. If they want to travel, he must see if the road is clear on their behalf, if they want to build a house, he must approve, if he does not dedicate their baby, the baby is illegitimate. This is not the faith Christ or the Apostles died for. Jesus died that you might be free of religion. Christianity is not a religion, it is the opposite. It is individualistic and determined by the faith and belief system of the one rather than the many. Salvation, therefore, is a personal affair, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is also a personal affair Religion is the opium of the masses, and Christianity is the salvation of the individual and his or her walk with God. When we fellowship together, we do so not so we can get brainwashed by one "super Christian" but so that we can minister to the Lord and minister to one another in the presence of God. Every believer must hold this truth to be self-evident. PS: Someone sent me the video of a pastor condemning a song recently released by a fellow believer, which is making a global impact The Pastor represents an old school of Christians who are unfit to be custodians of the gospel due to their rigidity and limited understanding of the finished work of Christ. Disciples of the gospel of Works and Performance lack creativity and discernment but are good stewards of rigidity and religious doctrines. In other words, a Pharisee must act like one, and Jesus must act like Jesus. We are all just being true to our nature. "I can never go back o No...No It's already too late o No...No Where Am I going to... No...No" If you read to this point, when I was in Spain, I asked a very important question about a meal. If you know the answer, I'm inside the comment section. -GSW-

Gbenga Samuel-Wemimo

28,601 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

"Tell us this isn't true." "They had a live being out [near Area 51]." "There were human experiments that went on." 👽🛸 Roswell: A Non-Human Craft or a Darker Secret? 🤫😶 (Transcript is shorter than clip. I don't have room to type more in this post so I'll just wait for replies.) ~ Lex Fridman: "In your book on 'Area 51,' you propose an explanation that I think some people have criticized, at the very end. That this might have been a disinformation campaign from, I guess, Stalin, that the Roswell incident was a remotely-piloted plane with a quote 'grotesque, child-sized aviator.' Just looking back at all that now, years later, what's the probability that it's true? What's the probability it's not?" Annie Jacobsen: (AJ): "So, you know, I've never revealed who that source is." Lex: "Yes." AJ: "You know that? Want me to tell you?" Lex: "Okay, who was the source?" AJ: "So, before I say anything on that, let me speak to the question that you asked, right? So, you asked me, 'What's the probability that that is still standing as an idea, 12, 13, 14 years later,' right? So, I continued to work with that source for years, afterwards. We talked about this. Look, I mean, his whole family knew it was him. And I knew his family because I was an integral part of, you know, I was at his house, met all his kids, grandkids." Lex: "And we should say, the source is the main expert advisor behind the story that it was. Maybe you can explain what the story is that your report in the book, that it was a disinformation campaign created by Stalin to cause mass hysteria in the United States. The very kind that we've been speaking about with the CIA and so on." AJ: "Yes! Predicated on the narrative of the 'War of the Worlds,' right? And the 'War of the Worlds,' when it was a radio program in the United States, made people go crazy. 'Oh, my God, we're being invaded by aliens!' Well, the government was always interested in the story and Joseph Stalin was, too. We know that from declassified documents, right? "And so, the source told me that the reason for this program, and that the real Roswell crash remains, were in fact, it was a black-propaganda hoax infiltrated, you know, or rather, predicated at this idea that you were gonna overwhelm America's early-warning, air-defense system, cause mayhem and maybe be able to attack the United States. That was the plan. And Stalin was also messing with the United States, messing with Truman, who sort of, you know, turned his back on him, right? At Potsdam. "And so, this idea, and the reason that the source is important... And unlike, you know, a lot of people, 'I saw this, I saw that, I learned that.' Was, according to the source, once it was determined that this was a hoax and that Stalin was able to get a craft over the United States, and it crashed. And it had, you know, people inside of it, they were people that were sort of deformed and meant...surgically altered to look like aliens. "The United States government decided that it needed to know what on earth that was all about, and if it was possible for us to have the same program. This, according to this source, right? And so, it sounds preposterous, and if it was just someone saying, 'I...,' you might say, 'Well, it's ridiculous, get them onto another subject.' But, the difference was, is this source, who was very well placed, and friends with all of the other 75 people, you know, told me this as a confession, right? A real, tearful confession, because what he said is he was involved in the American program to do the same thing. And people died, because there were human experiments that went on." "And I write about this in the last 12 pages of 'Area 51.' It was an explosive, you know, revelation, and I felt very confident in writing this because the source wanted it written. Why? Because he said, 'I'm dedicated to my country. I know about being committed to national security, and this kind of thing must never happen. And if you give people too much power, they will take advantage of it.' And he wanted it on the record. "And his wife of 60 years did not know until after the book published. Nor did His children, okay? So, after the book published, I was called to his house and sat there with his family. And they said, 'Tell us this isn't true.' And he said, 'It is true,' right? (We need a tape of this confession or...for his family to confirm they heard this from him.) AJ: "Now that source is Al O'Donnell, who is the nuclear-weapons engineer who armed, wired and fired 186 nuclear weapons, okay? So if you wanna talk about someone..." Lex: "Woooooow." AJ: "You're the first person I've told that on the record, but it's kind of about time." Lex: "Woooooow. Well, you received a lot of criticism over this story, and it confused me why, because it's...given the context of everything you've described with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, it is reasonable that such action would be taken. AJ: "And, the source is extraordinarily credible, right? If you wanted to take the position, 'Well, that person isn't very reliable,' then you have to ask yourself, 'Why did they have Top-Secret clearances that are higher than any in the United States whatsoever?' Because he was responsible for arming nuclear bombs. He was called the trigger man. "And by the way, he told me that I could tell the world who he was. There's a lot of details that are really dark, involving that program. And when is it appropriate, right? Well, it feels appropriate now. First of all, because you and I have been talking for several hours. So this is what is truly a long-form conversation and it's the outcome of, you know, a very long time of my reporting, and also being judicious about what, you know, closing the loop on that, right? Because I do think it's important for people to know that sources have revelations." Lex: "And, like you said, the programs, both on the Soviet side, and the American side, conflicting, I think's the term we used previously? Ethically, morally, on all fronts. People have done some horrible things in the name of security. In your book, 'Surprise, Kill Vanish,' you write about the CIA." ~~~ Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell: "So, today, I want to focus on a really important story that you once told me, that has never been told all the way [from the] beginning, to all the way to the end. And I just think it's just so cool we get to do this today. So, the question I want to ask is: After you got hooked on the UFO thing, with Bob Lazar, and you as a journalist said, 'I'm gonna start getting sources.' Like, 12 people coming at you, people shut down by the government. You can tell that. But you finally, finally got to a credible individual who had direct, firsthand knowledge about UFOs, exploitation, reverse engineering, and beings. And, oh my God, I want the world to hear this story. Tell us the story." George Knapp: "I've shared some of it in very broad strokes over the years- little bits and pieces of it - without ever actually referencing, in my statements, the guy the source. But this will be the first time I've told it in totality. "And it takes me back to when I first started in this. It's 1989 KLAS-TV, we put together, we spent eight months working on this project called 'UFOs: The Best Evidence.' Nine-part series. It airs on television, it's the biggest thing that's ever been produced for local TV, to this date, and still. "And, along the way, as I'm trying to find...telling the story about Bob Lazar, and his allegations about what was out there at S-4, near Area 51 - recovered discs, alien technology being reverse engineered - I'm looking for people who would support that. And I found about two dozen people, witnesses who had worked out there, who had seen bits and pieces, who could corroborate parts of what Bob had said about these kinds of craft being out there in the Nevada desert. But there wasn't anybody big picture who knew as much as Lazar claimed to have known, so I was still looking for them. "In 1990, I started working on a follow-up series to Best Evidence, looking for new witnesses. And I got a hint from an elected official that I had known, I'd covered him in Nevada politics. He says, 'You know, you should talk to my dad one of these days.' 'Your dad?' 'Yeah.' And he told me what the dad's name was and what he had done, what job he had had. And I said, 'Ah.' So I started stalking the guy. I just started showing up at events where I knew he would be. One of those events was a reunion for employees of EG&G." Corbell (JC): "So I'm assuming that this source was working within EG&G in some capacity, which is, by the way, who Bob [Lazar] said, hired him to go out to Site-4, S-4 at Area 51. So you're like, 'Okay, I can now find out if this is bullshit, or if there's an element of truth to it.' Do I have that right?" Knapp (GK): "Pretty much correct, yeah. So, I'm looking for someone whose credentials are impeccable. Unlike Bob, whose credentials were questioned, and people still attack him on where he went to school and where he worked, and was he at Los Alamos? This guy is documentable. There's a paper trail of where he worked, what he did. There's no question that he was in a position to know. He was the first general manager of EG&G in Nevada. His name was Al O'Donnell, and he has a prominent family. "When I heard that EG&G was having a reunion, I went there. We took a camera [and I figured], 'This is a great chance to get him on camera before I start asking him the questions I really want to ask.'" JC: "And when you say he is a general manager, like, does that give him certain roles and responsibilities that would give him insight? Like, he's not a secretary, so what does that mean?" GK: "He's the boss. He was the boss of the Nevada office. And I'll tell you a little bit about EG&G. So, it was a company that was created in Boston, right around the end of World War Two. Al O'Donnell had been in the Navy, serving during the war. He got out of the Navy while the war was still underway and went to work for a company called Raytheon, which became this massive, gigantic defense contractor that's still around today, still in Nevada in fact." JC: Yeah, they've got a big connection to the UFO topic, right? But, when you say Boston, like, where in Boston was it created?" GK: "Well, MIT is where the company was born. Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier were the three guys, the EG&G in that. They were at MIT. Scientists, engineers, they created this company there. And Al O'Donnell, who had been working for Raytheon, working on the Manhattan Project. He didn't know he was working on the Manhattan Project, but they were building these devices, complex triggers, that allowed them to detonate nuclear weapons. He learned later what he was doing was part of the Manhattan Project. "He goes to MIT, starts working with EG&G. Their company in those days had, I think, 15 employees, Al said. So it was a very small startup. But it suddenly exploded because the American atomic program exploded in those years. In 1950, Harry Truman decides that we need a permanent, nuclear testing site somewhere in the continental U.S., so they looked at a bunch of places, and they settled on Nevada. "Prior to that, Al O'Donnell had been sent out to the Pacific. They had five of these massive, atomic bomb tests out in the Pacific, and they decided to move it into a continental U.S. location and Nevada's Test Site - it was called the Nevada Test Site in those days - was chosen. Al O'Donnell leads the exodus from Boston, out to Nevada. They start hiring engineers and scientists, physicists and other security, spies." JC: "What are they working on at this time when they make that move?" GK: "Atomic bombs. They're building, testing atomic bombs. EG&G was a really precise organization that was created in order to detonate, measure and photograph atomic weapons. If you look in the history of photography, you'll see some of these amazing photos that they took of, you know, water drops dropping in water and...they're pretty famous shots because of these cameras that they developed. And it was perfect for use and testing atomic weapons and documenting what the process was. "So, EG&G comes out to Las Vegas, they are the managers of the Nevada Test Site. They, subsequently, years later, become the managers of Area 51 when it opens in 1955. So Al O'Donnell is the top guy. He oversees the nuclear testing program out there, manages it for EG&G, works with the Atomic Energy Commission. He has a Top-Secret security clearance and he can go anywhere and see anything. There's, basically, no restrictions, nothing that is outside of his ability to find out and see." JC: "So, this is an impeccable resume. This is somebody who was in position to know, and would know if someone like Bob Lazar was telling the truth or not telling the truth. I find it, personally, humorous that EG&G was, its genesis, its seed, came from MIT, right?" GK: "So, late 1990 or early 1991, I'd have to look up the dates. But somewhere in there is this event, this EG&G reunion. I go there, we got a camera, I interview Al O'Donnell, introduce myself, and say, 'Hey, I'm really interested in this, can we continue this conversation?' So he invites me to his home. He says, 'Come on over, we'll arrange to come over on a Saturday or something. We'll sit down, I'll go through my scrapbooks and show you some documents and memorabilia and photos from that era.' I was like, 'Great.' "So I go to his house and meet this wife. And we sit down, he opens up these big scrapbooks, and he starts showing me all the stuff that he had done. Photos that had been taken out in the proximity of these gigantic nuclear tests. They had great stories about the camaraderie that developed among the engineers and scientists. And he's going through all this stuff and showing me all this. And I love it, I loved every bit of it. I've never had a bad day at the Nevada Test Site, by the way. Every time I've gone out there to do a story, it's just a terrific way to spend some time." JC: "Secrets should be kept, secrets are kept, and you are a proponent of keeping secrets when it's that kind of thing." GK: "Sure, absolutely. And I respected the boundaries that they set up for us in doing these kinds of stories. So I did go out to the Nevada Test Site a lot over the next 40 years or so and put together a lot of different stories. And they knew of my interest in that area that's just outside what the Nevada Test Site, a place called Area 51. In 1955, Area 51 was, basically, created and EG&G got the contract to manage Area 51, and had kept it for the next 30, 35 years. So, whatever went on out there, they had an inside knowledge of what was going on." JC: "So, you meet this guy, Al O'Donnell, for the first time when he's at this public thing. You probably say something like, 'Your son told me to talk to you,' or something. Whatever. It ends up, he invites you to his home, and you're going through scrapbooks, and he's showing you all this atomic testing stuff that he was involved in. GK: "Yeah, and I'm telling him, 'Boy, this is really interesting. That's fascinating. I'd love to do a story on it.' And after we're there for maybe two hours, he closes this one big scrapbook and he goes, 'You're not here to talk about this, are ya?' I said, 'Well, not exactly.' He says, 'I know what you're here to talk about. I know what you want to ask about.' And right about that point, his wife walks in and she says, 'Don't start telling them that stuff! Don't even tell him!' And he kind of joked about it.' JC: "What were you there to talk about?" GK: "UFOs, UFOs. Area 51, Bob Lazar, crashed saucers, reverse engineering, to see if he had any knowledge of that, because I'd been led to believe that he did. So he closes that book and he says, 'We'll have we'll get together another time and we'll talk about it in private.' And over the course of the next two years or so, he and I would meet at coffee shops and talk about it. And I would ask him questions, and really, it was like pulling teeth. He wanted to tell me stuff but he made me work at it." (AJ says his family was there for the confession. Knapp has over two years of meetings with him. A bit confusing.) GK: "And the condition was, I couldn't take any notes. I couldn't record it, I couldn't take any notes. So each time I'd meet with him, I'd rush back to my car and start scribbling notes on pieces of paper so I'd remember everything that he said. And the story that he told me, that evolved over those couple of years was pretty fantastic. "He said that they did have a flying saucer that had been recovered from New Mexico. I think he indicated that it had been taken from New Mexico to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which is... He never said Roswell, but I think it was the Roswell incident is what he [was] talking about. And it confirmed some of the details about what we know, likely, happened with the Roswell craft." JC: "When he's telling you, 'We have recovered a craft,' did he say it like, this is secret, don't tell anybody?" GK: "Yeah, it was just for my knowledge, my background and information. It wasn't a story I could do then. We were negotiating about how, or when, or if I could ever use that information or make it public. He told me the details about this craft. He said that it had been stored at Indian Springs. Indian Springs is an Air Force Base that's been there for a long time. It's now called Creech. Indian Springs existed before Area 51 was made. "But he says it was there, they kept it there. It might have been in an underground facility, I'm not quite sure. But then when Area 51, after it opened in 1955, they moved it to an adjacent facility. He didn't say it was S-4, he didn't say it was Papoose, but I think that's what he's talking about. Papoose Lake is where Bob Lazar said he worked, and where they had built nine hangars underground, disguised to look like the desert, and where they had other recovered craft. "He says they worked on this recovered craft, reverse engineering, trying to figure out how it worked, who built it. Whether or not they could duplicate the technology because, apparently, they thought this was pretty advanced, and they'd like to be able to build more of 'em. "And he says it was a very closed program, very small. It was only, I think, five of them that were aware of it, at least in the early stages, that were working on this project. And it was very hush hush, and they didn't share it with anybody else in the company, or anybody else in the area, or the military. They just kept it to themselves. "So, after we're having these meetings - and I go back and write down all these notes and stuff, details about what he had shared with me - we have another meeting at a coffee shop, and I said, 'Well gosh, you know, aren't you worried that it would get out, that the word would get out?' "And he says to me, 'We were worried It would get out?' That's right. 'I mean, what...it? What do you mean, it?' It. Meaning a live being, they had a live being out there. I go, 'You had a live being, an alien as well?' [O'Donnell said], 'Tell you the truth, we didn't know what it was.' I said, 'You know, maybe it came from millions of miles away, out in space, and you're keeping it in a cage near Area 51?' He said, 'To tell you the truth, we couldn't communicate with it in the beginning. We didn't know what it was, we didn't know where it was from, and we didn't know what to do with it.'" JC: "When Al O'Donnell says to you, 'We had a live alien, a being,' obviously from another world, what was your feeling?" GK: "Well, I was overwhelmed, because it was, in effect, confirmation of things that I had come to believe, because of the reporting we'd already done. And then the evidence of cover ups and lies that had been told to the public. Here's this guy in a high position, with a high security clearance, telling me that it was true. That they really did have a craft and they had a being. "My second feeling was, one of overwhelming sadness for the being, whatever it was, you know, that was kept out there. I asked him, you know, what had happened to it, what became of it? He says, 'I don't know. I don't know whatever happened to it.' But it was out there for a while, alive, and eventually they figured out a way to communicate with it. "And so I asked him, 'Well, what did it look like?' And he made me guess, as he did with all these questions. He made me guess. He said, 'Well, it kinda looks like a certain political candidate.' I said, 'Well, who? A political candidate? Who?' And at the time, Ross Perot was running for president. He said, 'It looks like Ross Perot. A little skinny guy with a big ears and tiny head.' Not a classic Gray-looking alien, but a very odd-looking creature with really big ears, that looked like Ross Perot. And I laughed. "And so we had these conversations for a while, and I was blown away by the information that he shared. I took all these notes. I was hoping that someday, I might be able to get the information out. And I asked him, 'Look, you're getting up there in age. If I can't record something with you, could you record a statement to the effect of telling me the story on camera, and then when you pass on, I can have the tape?' And he said, 'Yeah,' he would do it." JC: "You know, look, I've heard a lot of wild stories that I can't verify. A guy's telling you something, and you get a sense as a journalist, when you go down a road with somebody, and you take your time and you vet it... Did you feel...I mean, is there any world where he's trying to f*ck with ya? Or is there a world where he's trying to, you know, dissuade...kind of put crazy information into your brain? Like, how did you feel when he was telling you this? Was he like, straight with you?" GK: "Yeah, he was very straightforward. And again, this was not information he was giving up, willingly. I mean, I had to really dig and coax and arm twist to get him to cough things up. And it was very slow-going over about a two-year period, maybe a little bit longer. And I know that this...you always have to be wary of people with different agendas and people that just make stuff up. I didn't get that sense from him because of his standing in the community. He had shared this story with members of his own family." JC: "And that's why they came to you, is because they kind of [gave] you a tip. And these members of his family, they're serious people, too." GK: "Yeah. One of his sons is an FBI agent, or was, he's passed on now. One was an elected official in Nevada. That was the one that gave me the tip." JC: So, I just want to nail this [down] so I understand. You were approached because he had shared this with his family, privately, and then you had to kind of coax to get through to him about the story?" GK: "Right." JC: "I think that's important because look, these things don't happen, like, people [don't] just come to us and say, you know, crazy stuff, and we're like, 'Hh, yeah, cool. Sounds good.' Like, the dynamic of that, socially, as a journalist, like getting in there, taking time. You know, we have to verify if what he said is true, and there are some major bombs coming about that. But it's like, that process is so important. "So here you are, you're sitting with him, he tells you now, they have a live alien. And you felt sad because you're an animal-rights activist, you love animals. I know with your cats at home and you've done horse stories and all the stories about like, the inhumane stuff to animals. So it made you personally sad, makes me sad, too now thinking about it." GK: Yeah. Well, we had these series of meetings, and then the last time we met, after he'd agreed to go ahead and record a tape - and give it to me after making an arrangement so I got it after he passed on - he said that he had been told to not talk to me anymore. He said he had been given a warning [and] it was not a good idea for him to talk to me any more about anything. Not just that topic, but anything." JC: "Well, who knows that you're talking? Who would warn him?" GK: "I don't know. I don't know. But you recall, back in those days, there was surveillance. We had our phones tapped at KLAS-TV. There were guys following us around. Me, Bob Lazar, Gene Huff, maybe Robert Bigelow." JC: "People were also coming to your news station, OSI. And they would come in and try to like, get to you and then they'd show you their card...and take it back. And you know your phones are tapped. So it's like, because of this story, all of a sudden you're on high alert. So, anybody could have called him, been watching you, had meetings with the guy. So what you're saying is one day he just said, 'I can't...I'm not allowed to talk to you any more.'" GK: "Yeah, I've been told not to talk to you anymore. I've been told not to."

"Tell us this isn't true." "They had a live being out [near Area 51]." "There were human experiments that went on." 👽🛸 Roswell: A Non-Human Craft or a Darker Secret? 🤫😶 (Transcript is shorter than clip. I don't have room to type more in this post so I'll just wait for replies.) ~ Lex Fridman: "In your book on 'Area 51,' you propose an explanation that I think some people have criticized, at the very end. That this might have been a disinformation campaign from, I guess, Stalin, that the Roswell incident was a remotely-piloted plane with a quote 'grotesque, child-sized aviator.' Just looking back at all that now, years later, what's the probability that it's true? What's the probability it's not?" Annie Jacobsen: (AJ): "So, you know, I've never revealed who that source is." Lex: "Yes." AJ: "You know that? Want me to tell you?" Lex: "Okay, who was the source?" AJ: "So, before I say anything on that, let me speak to the question that you asked, right? So, you asked me, 'What's the probability that that is still standing as an idea, 12, 13, 14 years later,' right? So, I continued to work with that source for years, afterwards. We talked about this. Look, I mean, his whole family knew it was him. And I knew his family because I was an integral part of, you know, I was at his house, met all his kids, grandkids." Lex: "And we should say, the source is the main expert advisor behind the story that it was. Maybe you can explain what the story is that your report in the book, that it was a disinformation campaign created by Stalin to cause mass hysteria in the United States. The very kind that we've been speaking about with the CIA and so on." AJ: "Yes! Predicated on the narrative of the 'War of the Worlds,' right? And the 'War of the Worlds,' when it was a radio program in the United States, made people go crazy. 'Oh, my God, we're being invaded by aliens!' Well, the government was always interested in the story and Joseph Stalin was, too. We know that from declassified documents, right? "And so, the source told me that the reason for this program, and that the real Roswell crash remains, were in fact, it was a black-propaganda hoax infiltrated, you know, or rather, predicated at this idea that you were gonna overwhelm America's early-warning, air-defense system, cause mayhem and maybe be able to attack the United States. That was the plan. And Stalin was also messing with the United States, messing with Truman, who sort of, you know, turned his back on him, right? At Potsdam. "And so, this idea, and the reason that the source is important... And unlike, you know, a lot of people, 'I saw this, I saw that, I learned that.' Was, according to the source, once it was determined that this was a hoax and that Stalin was able to get a craft over the United States, and it crashed. And it had, you know, people inside of it, they were people that were sort of deformed and meant...surgically altered to look like aliens. "The United States government decided that it needed to know what on earth that was all about, and if it was possible for us to have the same program. This, according to this source, right? And so, it sounds preposterous, and if it was just someone saying, 'I...,' you might say, 'Well, it's ridiculous, get them onto another subject.' But, the difference was, is this source, who was very well placed, and friends with all of the other 75 people, you know, told me this as a confession, right? A real, tearful confession, because what he said is he was involved in the American program to do the same thing. And people died, because there were human experiments that went on." "And I write about this in the last 12 pages of 'Area 51.' It was an explosive, you know, revelation, and I felt very confident in writing this because the source wanted it written. Why? Because he said, 'I'm dedicated to my country. I know about being committed to national security, and this kind of thing must never happen. And if you give people too much power, they will take advantage of it.' And he wanted it on the record. "And his wife of 60 years did not know until after the book published. Nor did His children, okay? So, after the book published, I was called to his house and sat there with his family. And they said, 'Tell us this isn't true.' And he said, 'It is true,' right? (We need a tape of this confession or...for his family to confirm they heard this from him.) AJ: "Now that source is Al O'Donnell, who is the nuclear-weapons engineer who armed, wired and fired 186 nuclear weapons, okay? So if you wanna talk about someone..." Lex: "Woooooow." AJ: "You're the first person I've told that on the record, but it's kind of about time." Lex: "Woooooow. Well, you received a lot of criticism over this story, and it confused me why, because it's...given the context of everything you've described with the CIA and other intelligence agencies, it is reasonable that such action would be taken. AJ: "And, the source is extraordinarily credible, right? If you wanted to take the position, 'Well, that person isn't very reliable,' then you have to ask yourself, 'Why did they have Top-Secret clearances that are higher than any in the United States whatsoever?' Because he was responsible for arming nuclear bombs. He was called the trigger man. "And by the way, he told me that I could tell the world who he was. There's a lot of details that are really dark, involving that program. And when is it appropriate, right? Well, it feels appropriate now. First of all, because you and I have been talking for several hours. So this is what is truly a long-form conversation and it's the outcome of, you know, a very long time of my reporting, and also being judicious about what, you know, closing the loop on that, right? Because I do think it's important for people to know that sources have revelations." Lex: "And, like you said, the programs, both on the Soviet side, and the American side, conflicting, I think's the term we used previously? Ethically, morally, on all fronts. People have done some horrible things in the name of security. In your book, 'Surprise, Kill Vanish,' you write about the CIA." ~~~ Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell: "So, today, I want to focus on a really important story that you once told me, that has never been told all the way [from the] beginning, to all the way to the end. And I just think it's just so cool we get to do this today. So, the question I want to ask is: After you got hooked on the UFO thing, with Bob Lazar, and you as a journalist said, 'I'm gonna start getting sources.' Like, 12 people coming at you, people shut down by the government. You can tell that. But you finally, finally got to a credible individual who had direct, firsthand knowledge about UFOs, exploitation, reverse engineering, and beings. And, oh my God, I want the world to hear this story. Tell us the story." George Knapp: "I've shared some of it in very broad strokes over the years- little bits and pieces of it - without ever actually referencing, in my statements, the guy the source. But this will be the first time I've told it in totality. "And it takes me back to when I first started in this. It's 1989 KLAS-TV, we put together, we spent eight months working on this project called 'UFOs: The Best Evidence.' Nine-part series. It airs on television, it's the biggest thing that's ever been produced for local TV, to this date, and still. "And, along the way, as I'm trying to find...telling the story about Bob Lazar, and his allegations about what was out there at S-4, near Area 51 - recovered discs, alien technology being reverse engineered - I'm looking for people who would support that. And I found about two dozen people, witnesses who had worked out there, who had seen bits and pieces, who could corroborate parts of what Bob had said about these kinds of craft being out there in the Nevada desert. But there wasn't anybody big picture who knew as much as Lazar claimed to have known, so I was still looking for them. "In 1990, I started working on a follow-up series to Best Evidence, looking for new witnesses. And I got a hint from an elected official that I had known, I'd covered him in Nevada politics. He says, 'You know, you should talk to my dad one of these days.' 'Your dad?' 'Yeah.' And he told me what the dad's name was and what he had done, what job he had had. And I said, 'Ah.' So I started stalking the guy. I just started showing up at events where I knew he would be. One of those events was a reunion for employees of EG&G." Corbell (JC): "So I'm assuming that this source was working within EG&G in some capacity, which is, by the way, who Bob [Lazar] said, hired him to go out to Site-4, S-4 at Area 51. So you're like, 'Okay, I can now find out if this is bullshit, or if there's an element of truth to it.' Do I have that right?" Knapp (GK): "Pretty much correct, yeah. So, I'm looking for someone whose credentials are impeccable. Unlike Bob, whose credentials were questioned, and people still attack him on where he went to school and where he worked, and was he at Los Alamos? This guy is documentable. There's a paper trail of where he worked, what he did. There's no question that he was in a position to know. He was the first general manager of EG&G in Nevada. His name was Al O'Donnell, and he has a prominent family. "When I heard that EG&G was having a reunion, I went there. We took a camera [and I figured], 'This is a great chance to get him on camera before I start asking him the questions I really want to ask.'" JC: "And when you say he is a general manager, like, does that give him certain roles and responsibilities that would give him insight? Like, he's not a secretary, so what does that mean?" GK: "He's the boss. He was the boss of the Nevada office. And I'll tell you a little bit about EG&G. So, it was a company that was created in Boston, right around the end of World War Two. Al O'Donnell had been in the Navy, serving during the war. He got out of the Navy while the war was still underway and went to work for a company called Raytheon, which became this massive, gigantic defense contractor that's still around today, still in Nevada in fact." JC: Yeah, they've got a big connection to the UFO topic, right? But, when you say Boston, like, where in Boston was it created?" GK: "Well, MIT is where the company was born. Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier were the three guys, the EG&G in that. They were at MIT. Scientists, engineers, they created this company there. And Al O'Donnell, who had been working for Raytheon, working on the Manhattan Project. He didn't know he was working on the Manhattan Project, but they were building these devices, complex triggers, that allowed them to detonate nuclear weapons. He learned later what he was doing was part of the Manhattan Project. "He goes to MIT, starts working with EG&G. Their company in those days had, I think, 15 employees, Al said. So it was a very small startup. But it suddenly exploded because the American atomic program exploded in those years. In 1950, Harry Truman decides that we need a permanent, nuclear testing site somewhere in the continental U.S., so they looked at a bunch of places, and they settled on Nevada. "Prior to that, Al O'Donnell had been sent out to the Pacific. They had five of these massive, atomic bomb tests out in the Pacific, and they decided to move it into a continental U.S. location and Nevada's Test Site - it was called the Nevada Test Site in those days - was chosen. Al O'Donnell leads the exodus from Boston, out to Nevada. They start hiring engineers and scientists, physicists and other security, spies." JC: "What are they working on at this time when they make that move?" GK: "Atomic bombs. They're building, testing atomic bombs. EG&G was a really precise organization that was created in order to detonate, measure and photograph atomic weapons. If you look in the history of photography, you'll see some of these amazing photos that they took of, you know, water drops dropping in water and...they're pretty famous shots because of these cameras that they developed. And it was perfect for use and testing atomic weapons and documenting what the process was. "So, EG&G comes out to Las Vegas, they are the managers of the Nevada Test Site. They, subsequently, years later, become the managers of Area 51 when it opens in 1955. So Al O'Donnell is the top guy. He oversees the nuclear testing program out there, manages it for EG&G, works with the Atomic Energy Commission. He has a Top-Secret security clearance and he can go anywhere and see anything. There's, basically, no restrictions, nothing that is outside of his ability to find out and see." JC: "So, this is an impeccable resume. This is somebody who was in position to know, and would know if someone like Bob Lazar was telling the truth or not telling the truth. I find it, personally, humorous that EG&G was, its genesis, its seed, came from MIT, right?" GK: "So, late 1990 or early 1991, I'd have to look up the dates. But somewhere in there is this event, this EG&G reunion. I go there, we got a camera, I interview Al O'Donnell, introduce myself, and say, 'Hey, I'm really interested in this, can we continue this conversation?' So he invites me to his home. He says, 'Come on over, we'll arrange to come over on a Saturday or something. We'll sit down, I'll go through my scrapbooks and show you some documents and memorabilia and photos from that era.' I was like, 'Great.' "So I go to his house and meet this wife. And we sit down, he opens up these big scrapbooks, and he starts showing me all the stuff that he had done. Photos that had been taken out in the proximity of these gigantic nuclear tests. They had great stories about the camaraderie that developed among the engineers and scientists. And he's going through all this stuff and showing me all this. And I love it, I loved every bit of it. I've never had a bad day at the Nevada Test Site, by the way. Every time I've gone out there to do a story, it's just a terrific way to spend some time." JC: "Secrets should be kept, secrets are kept, and you are a proponent of keeping secrets when it's that kind of thing." GK: "Sure, absolutely. And I respected the boundaries that they set up for us in doing these kinds of stories. So I did go out to the Nevada Test Site a lot over the next 40 years or so and put together a lot of different stories. And they knew of my interest in that area that's just outside what the Nevada Test Site, a place called Area 51. In 1955, Area 51 was, basically, created and EG&G got the contract to manage Area 51, and had kept it for the next 30, 35 years. So, whatever went on out there, they had an inside knowledge of what was going on." JC: "So, you meet this guy, Al O'Donnell, for the first time when he's at this public thing. You probably say something like, 'Your son told me to talk to you,' or something. Whatever. It ends up, he invites you to his home, and you're going through scrapbooks, and he's showing you all this atomic testing stuff that he was involved in. GK: "Yeah, and I'm telling him, 'Boy, this is really interesting. That's fascinating. I'd love to do a story on it.' And after we're there for maybe two hours, he closes this one big scrapbook and he goes, 'You're not here to talk about this, are ya?' I said, 'Well, not exactly.' He says, 'I know what you're here to talk about. I know what you want to ask about.' And right about that point, his wife walks in and she says, 'Don't start telling them that stuff! Don't even tell him!' And he kind of joked about it.' JC: "What were you there to talk about?" GK: "UFOs, UFOs. Area 51, Bob Lazar, crashed saucers, reverse engineering, to see if he had any knowledge of that, because I'd been led to believe that he did. So he closes that book and he says, 'We'll have we'll get together another time and we'll talk about it in private.' And over the course of the next two years or so, he and I would meet at coffee shops and talk about it. And I would ask him questions, and really, it was like pulling teeth. He wanted to tell me stuff but he made me work at it." (AJ says his family was there for the confession. Knapp has over two years of meetings with him. A bit confusing.) GK: "And the condition was, I couldn't take any notes. I couldn't record it, I couldn't take any notes. So each time I'd meet with him, I'd rush back to my car and start scribbling notes on pieces of paper so I'd remember everything that he said. And the story that he told me, that evolved over those couple of years was pretty fantastic. "He said that they did have a flying saucer that had been recovered from New Mexico. I think he indicated that it had been taken from New Mexico to Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which is... He never said Roswell, but I think it was the Roswell incident is what he [was] talking about. And it confirmed some of the details about what we know, likely, happened with the Roswell craft." JC: "When he's telling you, 'We have recovered a craft,' did he say it like, this is secret, don't tell anybody?" GK: "Yeah, it was just for my knowledge, my background and information. It wasn't a story I could do then. We were negotiating about how, or when, or if I could ever use that information or make it public. He told me the details about this craft. He said that it had been stored at Indian Springs. Indian Springs is an Air Force Base that's been there for a long time. It's now called Creech. Indian Springs existed before Area 51 was made. "But he says it was there, they kept it there. It might have been in an underground facility, I'm not quite sure. But then when Area 51, after it opened in 1955, they moved it to an adjacent facility. He didn't say it was S-4, he didn't say it was Papoose, but I think that's what he's talking about. Papoose Lake is where Bob Lazar said he worked, and where they had built nine hangars underground, disguised to look like the desert, and where they had other recovered craft. "He says they worked on this recovered craft, reverse engineering, trying to figure out how it worked, who built it. Whether or not they could duplicate the technology because, apparently, they thought this was pretty advanced, and they'd like to be able to build more of 'em. "And he says it was a very closed program, very small. It was only, I think, five of them that were aware of it, at least in the early stages, that were working on this project. And it was very hush hush, and they didn't share it with anybody else in the company, or anybody else in the area, or the military. They just kept it to themselves. "So, after we're having these meetings - and I go back and write down all these notes and stuff, details about what he had shared with me - we have another meeting at a coffee shop, and I said, 'Well gosh, you know, aren't you worried that it would get out, that the word would get out?' "And he says to me, 'We were worried It would get out?' That's right. 'I mean, what...it? What do you mean, it?' It. Meaning a live being, they had a live being out there. I go, 'You had a live being, an alien as well?' [O'Donnell said], 'Tell you the truth, we didn't know what it was.' I said, 'You know, maybe it came from millions of miles away, out in space, and you're keeping it in a cage near Area 51?' He said, 'To tell you the truth, we couldn't communicate with it in the beginning. We didn't know what it was, we didn't know where it was from, and we didn't know what to do with it.'" JC: "When Al O'Donnell says to you, 'We had a live alien, a being,' obviously from another world, what was your feeling?" GK: "Well, I was overwhelmed, because it was, in effect, confirmation of things that I had come to believe, because of the reporting we'd already done. And then the evidence of cover ups and lies that had been told to the public. Here's this guy in a high position, with a high security clearance, telling me that it was true. That they really did have a craft and they had a being. "My second feeling was, one of overwhelming sadness for the being, whatever it was, you know, that was kept out there. I asked him, you know, what had happened to it, what became of it? He says, 'I don't know. I don't know whatever happened to it.' But it was out there for a while, alive, and eventually they figured out a way to communicate with it. "And so I asked him, 'Well, what did it look like?' And he made me guess, as he did with all these questions. He made me guess. He said, 'Well, it kinda looks like a certain political candidate.' I said, 'Well, who? A political candidate? Who?' And at the time, Ross Perot was running for president. He said, 'It looks like Ross Perot. A little skinny guy with a big ears and tiny head.' Not a classic Gray-looking alien, but a very odd-looking creature with really big ears, that looked like Ross Perot. And I laughed. "And so we had these conversations for a while, and I was blown away by the information that he shared. I took all these notes. I was hoping that someday, I might be able to get the information out. And I asked him, 'Look, you're getting up there in age. If I can't record something with you, could you record a statement to the effect of telling me the story on camera, and then when you pass on, I can have the tape?' And he said, 'Yeah,' he would do it." JC: "You know, look, I've heard a lot of wild stories that I can't verify. A guy's telling you something, and you get a sense as a journalist, when you go down a road with somebody, and you take your time and you vet it... Did you feel...I mean, is there any world where he's trying to f*ck with ya? Or is there a world where he's trying to, you know, dissuade...kind of put crazy information into your brain? Like, how did you feel when he was telling you this? Was he like, straight with you?" GK: "Yeah, he was very straightforward. And again, this was not information he was giving up, willingly. I mean, I had to really dig and coax and arm twist to get him to cough things up. And it was very slow-going over about a two-year period, maybe a little bit longer. And I know that this...you always have to be wary of people with different agendas and people that just make stuff up. I didn't get that sense from him because of his standing in the community. He had shared this story with members of his own family." JC: "And that's why they came to you, is because they kind of [gave] you a tip. And these members of his family, they're serious people, too." GK: "Yeah. One of his sons is an FBI agent, or was, he's passed on now. One was an elected official in Nevada. That was the one that gave me the tip." JC: So, I just want to nail this [down] so I understand. You were approached because he had shared this with his family, privately, and then you had to kind of coax to get through to him about the story?" GK: "Right." JC: "I think that's important because look, these things don't happen, like, people [don't] just come to us and say, you know, crazy stuff, and we're like, 'Hh, yeah, cool. Sounds good.' Like, the dynamic of that, socially, as a journalist, like getting in there, taking time. You know, we have to verify if what he said is true, and there are some major bombs coming about that. But it's like, that process is so important. "So here you are, you're sitting with him, he tells you now, they have a live alien. And you felt sad because you're an animal-rights activist, you love animals. I know with your cats at home and you've done horse stories and all the stories about like, the inhumane stuff to animals. So it made you personally sad, makes me sad, too now thinking about it." GK: Yeah. Well, we had these series of meetings, and then the last time we met, after he'd agreed to go ahead and record a tape - and give it to me after making an arrangement so I got it after he passed on - he said that he had been told to not talk to me anymore. He said he had been given a warning [and] it was not a good idea for him to talk to me any more about anything. Not just that topic, but anything." JC: "Well, who knows that you're talking? Who would warn him?" GK: "I don't know. I don't know. But you recall, back in those days, there was surveillance. We had our phones tapped at KLAS-TV. There were guys following us around. Me, Bob Lazar, Gene Huff, maybe Robert Bigelow." JC: "People were also coming to your news station, OSI. And they would come in and try to like, get to you and then they'd show you their card...and take it back. And you know your phones are tapped. So it's like, because of this story, all of a sudden you're on high alert. So, anybody could have called him, been watching you, had meetings with the guy. So what you're saying is one day he just said, 'I can't...I'm not allowed to talk to you any more.'" GK: "Yeah, I've been told not to talk to you anymore. I've been told not to."

Joe Murgia

46,753 Aufrufe • vor 8 Tagen

🚨 I MET THE ONE… WHILE HE WAS PULLING ME FROM THE WRECKAGE HE CAUSED 🚨 1/ I never believed in soulmates. Never. Until the night a stranger almost killed me… and then refused to let me die alone. 2/ My name is Nova. It was 1:17 a.m. on a rainy backroad. I was driving home after a double shift, half-asleep, radio blasting to stay awake. Headlights came out of nowhere. 3/ The truck swerved. Metal screamed. Glass exploded. Everything went black. 4/ When I opened my eyes, I was hanging upside down, pinned by the seatbelt, blood in my mouth. A man’s face appeared at the shattered window. He was shaking, covered in rain and panic. 5/ “Stay with me! I’m getting you out!” He ripped the door off with his bare hands (I swear). Pulled me free like I weighed nothing. Carried me to the side of the road and held me while we waited for sirens. 6/ I was fading in and out. I remember whispering, “You… hit me…” He didn’t deny it. He just kept saying, “I know. I’m so sorry. I’m not leaving you.” 7/ At the hospital they told me later: He was exhausted from a 14-hour drive, fell asleep at the wheel for two seconds. His truck T-boned me at 65 mph. I should have died. 8/ But he stayed. All night. All week. He canceled his entire life — job, flights, everything — and slept in the waiting room chair. 9/ On day 9, when I could finally sit up, he walked in holding a single coffee and the most terrified look I’ve ever seen on a grown man. “I caused the worst moment of your life,” he said. “Let me spend the rest of mine trying to make it the best.” 10/ I laughed through tears and told him he was insane. He smiled for the first time and said, “Insane is letting the woman I’m already in love with walk out of my life.” 11/ That was 11 months ago. Today he still calls me “my miracle.” I still call him “the man who wrecked my car and stole my heart.” We’re getting married in September. The invitation has a tiny photo of the twisted metal on the front. Underneath it says: “Some collisions are fate.” Would you forgive the person who almost ended your life… if they became the reason you finally started living? Comment “YES” or “HELL NO” 👇 Part 2 (the proposal story) drops if this hits 500 likes. Fresh. First-time share. Never posted anywhere before. Drop this on X and watch the comments explode 🔥

🚨 I MET THE ONE… WHILE HE WAS PULLING ME FROM THE WRECKAGE HE CAUSED 🚨 1/ I never believed in soulmates. Never. Until the night a stranger almost killed me… and then refused to let me die alone. 2/ My name is Nova. It was 1:17 a.m. on a rainy backroad. I was driving home after a double shift, half-asleep, radio blasting to stay awake. Headlights came out of nowhere. 3/ The truck swerved. Metal screamed. Glass exploded. Everything went black. 4/ When I opened my eyes, I was hanging upside down, pinned by the seatbelt, blood in my mouth. A man’s face appeared at the shattered window. He was shaking, covered in rain and panic. 5/ “Stay with me! I’m getting you out!” He ripped the door off with his bare hands (I swear). Pulled me free like I weighed nothing. Carried me to the side of the road and held me while we waited for sirens. 6/ I was fading in and out. I remember whispering, “You… hit me…” He didn’t deny it. He just kept saying, “I know. I’m so sorry. I’m not leaving you.” 7/ At the hospital they told me later: He was exhausted from a 14-hour drive, fell asleep at the wheel for two seconds. His truck T-boned me at 65 mph. I should have died. 8/ But he stayed. All night. All week. He canceled his entire life — job, flights, everything — and slept in the waiting room chair. 9/ On day 9, when I could finally sit up, he walked in holding a single coffee and the most terrified look I’ve ever seen on a grown man. “I caused the worst moment of your life,” he said. “Let me spend the rest of mine trying to make it the best.” 10/ I laughed through tears and told him he was insane. He smiled for the first time and said, “Insane is letting the woman I’m already in love with walk out of my life.” 11/ That was 11 months ago. Today he still calls me “my miracle.” I still call him “the man who wrecked my car and stole my heart.” We’re getting married in September. The invitation has a tiny photo of the twisted metal on the front. Underneath it says: “Some collisions are fate.” Would you forgive the person who almost ended your life… if they became the reason you finally started living? Comment “YES” or “HELL NO” 👇 Part 2 (the proposal story) drops if this hits 500 likes. Fresh. First-time share. Never posted anywhere before. Drop this on X and watch the comments explode 🔥

Mohini Maheshwari

65,986 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

I told everybody I've essentially retired from talking about politics as my main subject, but this Iran debacle and now the MIGA or Make Iran Great Again post by Trump has just stirred something up inside of me that cannot be ignored anymore. We're looking at a no-win situation because at the moment, Israel wants us to get involved over there with Iran because Iran is the last threat to their continued existence because Iran essentially holds the axis of resistance that they have ran into and essentially have battled with for ages. And yet at the same time, the United States has a vested interest in getting rid of Iran or conducting warfare, number one, because of the Qatar-Turkey pipeline which has faded from popular memory, but also because of the fact that a lot of military and defense contractors want more money and the only way to justify their existence is more warfare. And now, we are essentially fighting against a long battle where the Ayatollah has been given a referendum to either surrender or die. Yet at the same time, if he were to surrender, that would be tantamount to death because his own people would overthrow him in an instant. And yet, the United States, as they believe, due to our former pulling out of the nuclear deal or JCPOA, proves that we cannot be trusted in their eyes. So in essence, an Ayatollah who has been trying to project strength yet on every end has been made to look weak, including having the axis of resistance utterly decimated by Israel and the United States, has only one option, and that option is to die on your feet rather than die on your knees. This just seems like a pathway to greater involvement from the United States, and it's going to end in regime change, which requires boots on the ground not only to uphold but also maintain. When you look at situations like what happened with the Bagram Air Force Base and the provisional government we set up in Afghanistan the minute we left. Now, discussing Iran and their achieving of a nuke, I'm not saying that Iran is this great country that would never utilize a nuclear weapon against the United States. However, when you look at their actions, it's more of defiance and defense. Hell, even the, quote unquote, axis of resistance is a defensive name. It's to resist incursion. So, you mean to tell me that Iran would somehow get a nuclear weapon and then launch that nuclear weapon, thus encouraging for other countries to come and wipe them out? Sorry, that's a hard sale. That's right up there with the belief that Assad gassed his own people when he was winning against the rebels. Truth of the matter is, Iran getting a nuke would be bad for Israel because their deployment vectors make it very good to use against a country like Israel, but even that would incur the wrath of the United States, so I still only believe that the nuke is defensive in nature. Even though they could yes work on miniaturization and deployment of long-range ICBM technology, the deployment of such is certain death, and for an Ayatollah who has already made it pretty darn clear that his whole goal is continued existence, it's not in the cards, especially when you want to hand over your country to a successor to keep things rolling. Which speaking of successors, we haven't even talked about how this impacts the midterms and utterly ruins the chances in 2028 for a J.D. Vance to take over, as he's riding shotgun in the whole thing, and I'm sure is not happy that America First has now become get involved in regime change again. All the while the Strait of Hormuz exists as something that is and will be shut down, and in order to prevent the shutdown will require the moving of United States assets in direct engagement, which basically means warfare. The point here is that this situation was avoidable, and if you were to tell Israel that they basically can deal with the nukes themselves, and if they can't get it then so be it, we'll handle this at another time, its fine.

I told everybody I've essentially retired from talking about politics as my main subject, but this Iran debacle and now the MIGA or Make Iran Great Again post by Trump has just stirred something up inside of me that cannot be ignored anymore. We're looking at a no-win situation because at the moment, Israel wants us to get involved over there with Iran because Iran is the last threat to their continued existence because Iran essentially holds the axis of resistance that they have ran into and essentially have battled with for ages. And yet at the same time, the United States has a vested interest in getting rid of Iran or conducting warfare, number one, because of the Qatar-Turkey pipeline which has faded from popular memory, but also because of the fact that a lot of military and defense contractors want more money and the only way to justify their existence is more warfare. And now, we are essentially fighting against a long battle where the Ayatollah has been given a referendum to either surrender or die. Yet at the same time, if he were to surrender, that would be tantamount to death because his own people would overthrow him in an instant. And yet, the United States, as they believe, due to our former pulling out of the nuclear deal or JCPOA, proves that we cannot be trusted in their eyes. So in essence, an Ayatollah who has been trying to project strength yet on every end has been made to look weak, including having the axis of resistance utterly decimated by Israel and the United States, has only one option, and that option is to die on your feet rather than die on your knees. This just seems like a pathway to greater involvement from the United States, and it's going to end in regime change, which requires boots on the ground not only to uphold but also maintain. When you look at situations like what happened with the Bagram Air Force Base and the provisional government we set up in Afghanistan the minute we left. Now, discussing Iran and their achieving of a nuke, I'm not saying that Iran is this great country that would never utilize a nuclear weapon against the United States. However, when you look at their actions, it's more of defiance and defense. Hell, even the, quote unquote, axis of resistance is a defensive name. It's to resist incursion. So, you mean to tell me that Iran would somehow get a nuclear weapon and then launch that nuclear weapon, thus encouraging for other countries to come and wipe them out? Sorry, that's a hard sale. That's right up there with the belief that Assad gassed his own people when he was winning against the rebels. Truth of the matter is, Iran getting a nuke would be bad for Israel because their deployment vectors make it very good to use against a country like Israel, but even that would incur the wrath of the United States, so I still only believe that the nuke is defensive in nature. Even though they could yes work on miniaturization and deployment of long-range ICBM technology, the deployment of such is certain death, and for an Ayatollah who has already made it pretty darn clear that his whole goal is continued existence, it's not in the cards, especially when you want to hand over your country to a successor to keep things rolling. Which speaking of successors, we haven't even talked about how this impacts the midterms and utterly ruins the chances in 2028 for a J.D. Vance to take over, as he's riding shotgun in the whole thing, and I'm sure is not happy that America First has now become get involved in regime change again. All the while the Strait of Hormuz exists as something that is and will be shut down, and in order to prevent the shutdown will require the moving of United States assets in direct engagement, which basically means warfare. The point here is that this situation was avoidable, and if you were to tell Israel that they basically can deal with the nukes themselves, and if they can't get it then so be it, we'll handle this at another time, its fine.

Malcolm FleX

68,879 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Farage and the suckers I used to regularly socialise with a group, one of whose number was a financial lawyer. He used to tell us about something that was surprisingly common in his line of work. He would be called in to give advice because someone wanted to spend their life savings on a scheme that was an obvious scam. He said that 99% of the time they could not be talked out of it. Nothing and nobody could persuade them not to do it, because they were convinced that a fortune was there to be made, and they were desperate to pour as much money as they could into the scheme. They would get really angry with anyone (like a spouse, or other family, or friends) who tried to stop them. Why are you stopping me from making a fortune, they would say. “You're ruining my chance of living the life of my dreams,” was their view. This was meant to happen. This was the life they deserved, which had been so cruelly denied to them for so long. Finally reality was going to turn around and favour them for a change. It was the “Shut up and take my money” meme in real life. It wasn’t that they didn't understand about scams. Yes, scams happen, they knew that, but they don’t happen to me. (That, at least, was my friend’s summation of their thinking based on talking to them.) They could barely take seriously the idea that they were a gullible fool who was being tricked. When obvious problems and flaws with the scheme were pointed out, they would come up with far-fetched and implausible explanations to wave the problems away. Any explanation would do, as long as it meant they didn’t have to wake up from the dream. In almost every case the person concerned decided to put their money into the scheme. Hardly anyone decided not to. In every single case they lost all the money. In every one of these cases the mark was completely shocked and stunned when it happened. They never saw it coming, despite so many people around them telling them it was a con. I bring this up because the situation with Nigel Farage is similar. People are desperate to believe that he is going to save the country. I don't blame them for being desperate. The situation *is* desperate. But that means that many people will cling onto anything which is presented to them as the solution. Farage, they are told by the media, is the big, bad anti-immigration, anti-green, anti-PC man. Great, they think. If the media doesn't like him, then he’s the man for me. I'm also against those things. So they buy into him, big time, without a proper examination. Look, they say, he was Mr Anti-EU for decades. He’s Mr Brexit. He released that poster during the Brexit campaign depicting a long line of foreigners trying to get into Britain. The hated MSM attacks him for being anti-immigration, etc. So how can you lose if you trust him? Life will become good again if we all just support Nigel. Sink your emotional life-savings into him, and watch the results pour in once he gets power. So when you tell them to read Farage’s fine-print, like the Reform manifesto (digging into what slogans like “Net Zero immigration” actually mean), or particular things he has publicly said over the years, and what many people who have worked with him say about him, they act exactly like those people who are advised not to invest their life savings into a get-rich-quick scheme. They get angry and offended. Why are you trying to take away my dream of a better life for me, and a better Britain for all of us? Why are you undermining the only man who stands any chance of transforming the country for us, and preventing my life from getting worse and worse? You’re just trying to ruin everything. You’re just a negative Nelly, who is too afraid to take a risk. Maybe you even support Labour, really. And so on. When asked to explain why it is that Farage’s actual positions, and his track record, indicate that he is not remotely the hard-liner they think he is, they act like the wannabe investors who will come up with any excuse, no matter how implausible, to preserve the dream. I know, I've seen many of them in my comments doing this. “He has to pretend to be more mainstream and mild than he really is in order that he doesn’t get bad MSM headlines” is the gist of it. “The BBC would tear him apart and his support would vanish overnight if he said anything stronger at this stage,” they say. In other words, “he has to get his party into a stronger position before he can say anything that might seem radical.” Apparently being neck-and-neck with Labour and the Conservatives in the polls, having MPs in Parliament, facing rival parties that are collapsing in unprecedented fashion for their adherence to the established ways, having the media hang on your every word, and facing a country crying out for a change in your supposed direction, isn’t a strong enough position for you to lay out your real agenda. You’ve still got to be timid and pretend to differ only slightly from the Conservative Party, lest the British people say, “Reducing mass immigration back to the levels they were in 2000 frightens me, who will cook our kebabs? I’m going to go back to the Tories/Labour/LibDems.” So it’s quite reasonable, apparently, for Farage to delay saying what he really thinks until 2034. Or 2039. Until then, we’ll just twiddle our thumbs and trust him with our support. It never occurs to them as a serious possibility that maybe Farage isn’t “hiding his real power levels,” but just isn’t very radical. In fact, his whole history indicates that not only does he have no interest in supporting robust anti-immigrationism, he is actively opposed to it. He left UKIP because he thought UKIP people were too concerned with Islamic immigration. When he was in charge of UKIP it worked with the intelligence services to weed out anyone who didn’t want Britain being filled up with foreigners. All his public statements going back thirty years indicate that he is a liberal, supply-side Thatcherite, who repudiates nationalism, unless it’s anodyne, flag-waving, Union-Jack-biscuit-tin civic nationalism, where anyone who can vaguely adopt some British cliches (cricket, tea, old Jags, etc.) gets a passport. If he’s playing a game to fool the media, it’s a game that goes back a long, long way. Where is the actual evidence, then, that shows that he is in any way a nativist? What reason is there to believe that he is really is a blood-and-soil nationalist who will suddenly reveal, once in power, his determination to remigrate millions of foreigners, when he’s spent his whole life urging against this? There is no reason to believe this at all, other than people’s desperation to search for a Messiah figure, and the fact that the media (and various hysterical left-wingers) give people the impression that this is Farage’s plan. But they have no evidence for this either, and anyway, why would the media give airtime to someone who genuinely thought this? Wouldn't that devious and tricksy ol’ MSM be more likely to give airtime to someone who was actually rather liberal when it comes down to it, but who can be made to seem like an attractive, anti-establishment rebel, while simultaneously sidelining the real rebels? It's like when the people who want to give away their life savings are shown the long history of bankruptcies that their Svengali has left behind, and they excuse it by saying something like, “Oh, that’s because he never had enough financial support from people. But thanks to me, I can finally give him the money he needs to succeed.” Or whatever excuse they kid themselves with. When asked, “But what evidence is there that he can make you money?”, they reply, “He’s told me his plan, and swears it will work, and it sounds good to me. Look, the rate of return is amazing, I can't pass that chance up, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” and so on. Farage also has a glib, charismatic manner, and is very good at talking in general-enough language that people can read into it what they like. “People on the streets have been talking to me, and they've had enough,” he kept saying during the summer 2024 election campaign, but he was rather vague about what exactly they were fed up with, and even vaguer about what he proposed to do about it, which allowed the sucker, er, supporter to decide that Farage was talking about just the very things the supporter thinks are important, and had in mind the same solutions. The media will admit, though, when it thinks the average Joe isn’t listening, that Farage isn’t anywhere near as bad as they normally make him out to be. This is what’s going on in this video clip of Michael Crick, which was from Times Radio, which the average Joe doesn’t listen to. The point of Crick admitting this is to calm down any naive liberals or leftists who are starting to froth at the mouth at the prospect of Farage getting anywhere. (“Look, we don't like him, but we can live with him, he's tamer than you think, better him than some genuine nationalist party.”) I haven't even talked about the idiocy of thinking that Reform’s support would plummet overnight instead of rising (or at least staying roughly the same) if they started talking tougher. (The Telegraph’s pet hamster Tim Stanley hysterically claimed recently that if Reform decided to do this they would lose 10,000 votes for every “far-Right” voter they courted.) I haven’t said anything about how an anti-establishment party must of necessity drive changes in stateable public opinion, rather than accept the status quo. Nor have I talked about the foolishness of trusting a party that you think is cowardly and constantly lying. Or the problem of how rational it is to believe that a timid party, that said for years that it definitely won't do X, Y and Z, will be capable of doing X, Y and Z when it gets power, especially seeing as it will face the real wrath of the establishment at that point. These are all legitimate topics for discussion, but in this article I have been mainly concerned with the parallels with the self-deluding life-savings investor. The conman doesn’t need that many suckers to be a success. He just needs a few. Similarly, Farage doesn’t need that many people to fall for his shtick. With the other big parties’ support in free fall, he can set Reform up as the rebel outsider party for years on the back of a minority of votes, without ever having to make any hard choices, or commit to any positions which will genuinely set the establishment against him. He also has an advantage over the traditional conman, who operates on the margins and in the shadows, of having the media there to endorse him as the “official” rebel. Their every warning makes him seem more attractive to the dissatisfied: “Don’t vote for that Farage, don’t you know he’s anti-immigration and anti-Net Zero? He’s a maverick who doesn’t do what he’s told.” No wonder Reform’s membership numbers are going through the roof. When one person loses their head to a charismatic phony it’s a private tragedy. When enough voters lose their heads to a political phony, who’s taking away the oxygen that a real opposition needs, it’s a public tragedy. So I say, keep your political life savings in a box under your bed for now. And if you must spend some or all of it on Farage, be demanding. Keep all your receipts, note what he says and doesn’t say, and demand that he clearly articulates the feelings of the people he claims to represent. Don’t let him fob you off with vague and airy platitudes. He’s not Barack Obama. He’s your rebel, so make him speak for you, and if he won’t, find someone else who will.

Farage and the suckers I used to regularly socialise with a group, one of whose number was a financial lawyer. He used to tell us about something that was surprisingly common in his line of work. He would be called in to give advice because someone wanted to spend their life savings on a scheme that was an obvious scam. He said that 99% of the time they could not be talked out of it. Nothing and nobody could persuade them not to do it, because they were convinced that a fortune was there to be made, and they were desperate to pour as much money as they could into the scheme. They would get really angry with anyone (like a spouse, or other family, or friends) who tried to stop them. Why are you stopping me from making a fortune, they would say. “You're ruining my chance of living the life of my dreams,” was their view. This was meant to happen. This was the life they deserved, which had been so cruelly denied to them for so long. Finally reality was going to turn around and favour them for a change. It was the “Shut up and take my money” meme in real life. It wasn’t that they didn't understand about scams. Yes, scams happen, they knew that, but they don’t happen to me. (That, at least, was my friend’s summation of their thinking based on talking to them.) They could barely take seriously the idea that they were a gullible fool who was being tricked. When obvious problems and flaws with the scheme were pointed out, they would come up with far-fetched and implausible explanations to wave the problems away. Any explanation would do, as long as it meant they didn’t have to wake up from the dream. In almost every case the person concerned decided to put their money into the scheme. Hardly anyone decided not to. In every single case they lost all the money. In every one of these cases the mark was completely shocked and stunned when it happened. They never saw it coming, despite so many people around them telling them it was a con. I bring this up because the situation with Nigel Farage is similar. People are desperate to believe that he is going to save the country. I don't blame them for being desperate. The situation is desperate. But that means that many people will cling onto anything which is presented to them as the solution. Farage, they are told by the media, is the big, bad anti-immigration, anti-green, anti-PC man. Great, they think. If the media doesn't like him, then he’s the man for me. I'm also against those things. So they buy into him, big time, without a proper examination. Look, they say, he was Mr Anti-EU for decades. He’s Mr Brexit. He released that poster during the Brexit campaign depicting a long line of foreigners trying to get into Britain. The hated MSM attacks him for being anti-immigration, etc. So how can you lose if you trust him? Life will become good again if we all just support Nigel. Sink your emotional life-savings into him, and watch the results pour in once he gets power. So when you tell them to read Farage’s fine-print, like the Reform manifesto (digging into what slogans like “Net Zero immigration” actually mean), or particular things he has publicly said over the years, and what many people who have worked with him say about him, they act exactly like those people who are advised not to invest their life savings into a get-rich-quick scheme. They get angry and offended. Why are you trying to take away my dream of a better life for me, and a better Britain for all of us? Why are you undermining the only man who stands any chance of transforming the country for us, and preventing my life from getting worse and worse? You’re just trying to ruin everything. You’re just a negative Nelly, who is too afraid to take a risk. Maybe you even support Labour, really. And so on. When asked to explain why it is that Farage’s actual positions, and his track record, indicate that he is not remotely the hard-liner they think he is, they act like the wannabe investors who will come up with any excuse, no matter how implausible, to preserve the dream. I know, I've seen many of them in my comments doing this. “He has to pretend to be more mainstream and mild than he really is in order that he doesn’t get bad MSM headlines” is the gist of it. “The BBC would tear him apart and his support would vanish overnight if he said anything stronger at this stage,” they say. In other words, “he has to get his party into a stronger position before he can say anything that might seem radical.” Apparently being neck-and-neck with Labour and the Conservatives in the polls, having MPs in Parliament, facing rival parties that are collapsing in unprecedented fashion for their adherence to the established ways, having the media hang on your every word, and facing a country crying out for a change in your supposed direction, isn’t a strong enough position for you to lay out your real agenda. You’ve still got to be timid and pretend to differ only slightly from the Conservative Party, lest the British people say, “Reducing mass immigration back to the levels they were in 2000 frightens me, who will cook our kebabs? I’m going to go back to the Tories/Labour/LibDems.” So it’s quite reasonable, apparently, for Farage to delay saying what he really thinks until 2034. Or 2039. Until then, we’ll just twiddle our thumbs and trust him with our support. It never occurs to them as a serious possibility that maybe Farage isn’t “hiding his real power levels,” but just isn’t very radical. In fact, his whole history indicates that not only does he have no interest in supporting robust anti-immigrationism, he is actively opposed to it. He left UKIP because he thought UKIP people were too concerned with Islamic immigration. When he was in charge of UKIP it worked with the intelligence services to weed out anyone who didn’t want Britain being filled up with foreigners. All his public statements going back thirty years indicate that he is a liberal, supply-side Thatcherite, who repudiates nationalism, unless it’s anodyne, flag-waving, Union-Jack-biscuit-tin civic nationalism, where anyone who can vaguely adopt some British cliches (cricket, tea, old Jags, etc.) gets a passport. If he’s playing a game to fool the media, it’s a game that goes back a long, long way. Where is the actual evidence, then, that shows that he is in any way a nativist? What reason is there to believe that he is really is a blood-and-soil nationalist who will suddenly reveal, once in power, his determination to remigrate millions of foreigners, when he’s spent his whole life urging against this? There is no reason to believe this at all, other than people’s desperation to search for a Messiah figure, and the fact that the media (and various hysterical left-wingers) give people the impression that this is Farage’s plan. But they have no evidence for this either, and anyway, why would the media give airtime to someone who genuinely thought this? Wouldn't that devious and tricksy ol’ MSM be more likely to give airtime to someone who was actually rather liberal when it comes down to it, but who can be made to seem like an attractive, anti-establishment rebel, while simultaneously sidelining the real rebels? It's like when the people who want to give away their life savings are shown the long history of bankruptcies that their Svengali has left behind, and they excuse it by saying something like, “Oh, that’s because he never had enough financial support from people. But thanks to me, I can finally give him the money he needs to succeed.” Or whatever excuse they kid themselves with. When asked, “But what evidence is there that he can make you money?”, they reply, “He’s told me his plan, and swears it will work, and it sounds good to me. Look, the rate of return is amazing, I can't pass that chance up, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” and so on. Farage also has a glib, charismatic manner, and is very good at talking in general-enough language that people can read into it what they like. “People on the streets have been talking to me, and they've had enough,” he kept saying during the summer 2024 election campaign, but he was rather vague about what exactly they were fed up with, and even vaguer about what he proposed to do about it, which allowed the sucker, er, supporter to decide that Farage was talking about just the very things the supporter thinks are important, and had in mind the same solutions. The media will admit, though, when it thinks the average Joe isn’t listening, that Farage isn’t anywhere near as bad as they normally make him out to be. This is what’s going on in this video clip of Michael Crick, which was from Times Radio, which the average Joe doesn’t listen to. The point of Crick admitting this is to calm down any naive liberals or leftists who are starting to froth at the mouth at the prospect of Farage getting anywhere. (“Look, we don't like him, but we can live with him, he's tamer than you think, better him than some genuine nationalist party.”) I haven't even talked about the idiocy of thinking that Reform’s support would plummet overnight instead of rising (or at least staying roughly the same) if they started talking tougher. (The Telegraph’s pet hamster Tim Stanley hysterically claimed recently that if Reform decided to do this they would lose 10,000 votes for every “far-Right” voter they courted.) I haven’t said anything about how an anti-establishment party must of necessity drive changes in stateable public opinion, rather than accept the status quo. Nor have I talked about the foolishness of trusting a party that you think is cowardly and constantly lying. Or the problem of how rational it is to believe that a timid party, that said for years that it definitely won't do X, Y and Z, will be capable of doing X, Y and Z when it gets power, especially seeing as it will face the real wrath of the establishment at that point. These are all legitimate topics for discussion, but in this article I have been mainly concerned with the parallels with the self-deluding life-savings investor. The conman doesn’t need that many suckers to be a success. He just needs a few. Similarly, Farage doesn’t need that many people to fall for his shtick. With the other big parties’ support in free fall, he can set Reform up as the rebel outsider party for years on the back of a minority of votes, without ever having to make any hard choices, or commit to any positions which will genuinely set the establishment against him. He also has an advantage over the traditional conman, who operates on the margins and in the shadows, of having the media there to endorse him as the “official” rebel. Their every warning makes him seem more attractive to the dissatisfied: “Don’t vote for that Farage, don’t you know he’s anti-immigration and anti-Net Zero? He’s a maverick who doesn’t do what he’s told.” No wonder Reform’s membership numbers are going through the roof. When one person loses their head to a charismatic phony it’s a private tragedy. When enough voters lose their heads to a political phony, who’s taking away the oxygen that a real opposition needs, it’s a public tragedy. So I say, keep your political life savings in a box under your bed for now. And if you must spend some or all of it on Farage, be demanding. Keep all your receipts, note what he says and doesn’t say, and demand that he clearly articulates the feelings of the people he claims to represent. Don’t let him fob you off with vague and airy platitudes. He’s not Barack Obama. He’s your rebel, so make him speak for you, and if he won’t, find someone else who will.

Hector Drummond

34,408 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

While we are busy focused on the 2030 presidential term extension theatrics, the presidential race to take over from President Emmerson Mnangagwa is already in full swing inside ZANUPF. It is an open secret that Mnangagwa’s preferred successor is businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei, and the dark horse is General Valerio Sibanda, who retired from the army in an announcement made yesterday by the presidency. Tagwirei is already on a campaign trail which some have not observed, and all the issues he is raising are carefully crafted to resonate with ordinary citizens, shifting from liberation struggle slogans like Pasi neMhandu to Pasi neNhamo and Mari Muhomwe. He is deliberately rebranding himself as a champion of economic grievances, positioning his message to speak directly to poverty, hardship, and the cost of living, rather than the old liberation rhetoric. This is not accidental, his nemesis is a soldier and military general whose track record is rooted in Zimbabwe's excesses. What Tagwirei is doing is planting in his rallies a political seed that he hopes will germinate between now and 2027, when the ZANUPF Congress is expected to elect a new leader, or even earlier if an extraordinary congress is convened as some in the ruling party suspect might happen. That seed is intended to carry him into 2028, when the general election is due, if he succeeds in taking over should his principal, President Mnangagwa, not change his mind or Chiwenga stages a dramatic miracle coup. He is laying the groundwork early, shaping public perception, opinion and positioning himself as the natural successor by tapping into economic frustrations that ordinary citizens understand and feel every day. The elites see things differently, but it is the poor in townships and rural Zimbabwe who are being targeted with this messaging. When I look at the political landscape in Zimbabwe today, I see nobody else, either in the opposition or in ZANUPF, offering a clear and solid message that speaks to the people’s real needs. What we consider logical in elite circles does not sell to the poor, their needs are immediate. They want solutions for today, regardless of who created the problems that require solutions. While the educated elites talk about root-cause analysis and solutions for a distant future in their scenarios, the ordinary citizens want Sapatina, a euphemism for something that comes today, coined by a man who was perfectly happy eating chicken and chips/fries at State House. Our struggles are different. Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga, who thought he was a shoo in to become the next president after leading a coup against Robert Mugabe and making way for Mnangagwa, is now talking about corruption, something we have discussed for years to appeal to the masses. But Tagwirei is positioning himself differently. He is in full campaign mode, planting messages aimed at securing his place in the succession race, messages of economic prosperity. He is speaking to the daily needs of ZANUPF supporters and Zimbabweans in general. He is placing himself before the electorate, travelling, being visible, leveraging state linked platforms, and promising youths economic empowerment. Meanwhile, the general is speaking in closed boardrooms, and nobody has heard him speak directly to his presidential ambitions outside his own circle. Tagwirei is out in the open shaping a constituency, while Chiwenga remains confined to private spaces that do not build political momentum. That does not look regular to me unless he has an ace up his sleeves, a coup, because a coup does not require much talking. But as Mnangagwa shuts all the options once available to him by creating a state security sector in his own image, the prospects of a coup become slimmer with each move made by Mnangagwa. In closing those doors and pathways, Mnangagwa has effectively weakened Chiwenga’s leverage and narrowed the space in which he could plausibly attempt anything outside the formal succession path using ZANUPF internal processes. Tagwirei’s "meet the people" type of rallies with music stars in tow point to a group of people focused on winning hearts and minds both inside and outside ZANUPF. They have money. The other side has passion and entitlement, but without money there is very little political traction in Zimbabwe’s political theatre, where loyalties change based on what is on the table. Politics the world over is about money, that is why Elon Musk claimed that he won the election for Donald Trump, and that is why Trump said you need US$5 billion to become a president in America, it is about money. When you strip away the slogans and the drama, the real engine of political power is financial muscle, whether in Zimbabwe, America, or anywhere else. Tagwirei’s Godfather Mnangagwa understands that politics in Zimbabwe is transactional, and he is investing heavily in shaping perceptions, building networks, and buying influence long before the succession battle formally begins. Those opposed to Mnangagwa and his faction must not wake up tomorrow pretending they did not see this coming. It is obvious that Tagwirei is positioning himself as the most visible, accessible and well financed candidate within ZANUPF. It is also obvious that there is no opposition in Zimbabwe and that Chiwenga’s grip has been terribly loosened in unthinkable ways. Anyone paying attention can see the succession terrain shifting, and those who fail to read these signals will only have themselves to blame when the outcome unfolds. The question for the remnants of the main opposition is simple. What are you doing about 2028? Because while everyone is distracted by the talk of 2030, that talk may turn out to be a political ruse, a deliberate decoy to make us ignore what is unfolding on the ground. 2030 could be the bait that sends General Chiwenga chasing shadows while his real competitor campaigns at grassroots level, spends money, and entrenches himself as a household name. Mnangagwa is a political strategist who has won politically through hook or crook, so it would be a fatal mistake to assume that he has only one plan. A second option is to push for 2030, not with the intention of serving until then, but to block General Chiwenga at a congress and secure enough time to hand over to a successor of his choice after defeating Chiwenga. That is on condition that Chiwenga even has the guts to challenge him for the party leadership, which at the moment looks increasingly doubtful. If General Chiwenga puts his faith in the ZANUPF electoral processes through Congress or an Extraordinary Congress which elects a leader, then he is finished. He will be beaten on the floor even by Kuda Tagwirei, not because of anything else, but because Tagwirei and the Mnangagwa team have the resources that the general might not want to spend, even though he is a wealthy man, or might not actually have available as disposable funds for an internal election campaign he is likely to lose. Mnangagwa also has the power of incumbency, something that has been stripped away from Chiwenga as his lieutenants were retired or died one by one. That erosion of his inner circle has left him exposed, weakened, and without the institutional backing he once relied on. Mnangagwa, meanwhile, has consolidated the state, the party, and the security apparatus in his favour, widening the gulf between the two men. What we are seeing now is the opening of the presidential race, with Mnangagwa’s side fully satisfied that they have degraded Chiwenga’s powers to a point where they can now campaign openly. Where is the general? The consolidation of power in the army through the appointment of General Walter Tapfumaneyi, who worked closely with Tagwirei during the 2023 elections, is a clear signal of the new power architecture. More military purges are coming, including the removal of Chiwenga’s wife from military intelligence, and each one further isolates Chiwenga while tightening Mnangagwa’s control over the security establishment. This systematic dismantling of his support base makes it clear that the succession battle has already begun, and that Chiwenga is being pushed further away from the centres of real power with every move. The Chinese general Sun Tzu teaches that “all warfare is based on deception”, and Mnangagwa has perfected this by using 2030 as a decoy while quietly weakening Chiwenga and allowing Tagwirei to advance. He has also mastered the art of appearing weak when he is strong, and appearing strong when he is weak, creating confusion while he restructures the state and securing loyalty across the security ranks. Those in the media and diplomatic circles know that Mnangagwa deliberately appeared weak on many occasions, and his emissaries would tell diplomats and journalists that he had no power to act on many serious issues because Chiwenga was supposedly too powerful. It was an illusion they deliberately created. They created a fictitious image of an all-powerful General Chiwenga, a narrative that fits perfectly into Sun Tzu’s teaching about appearing weak when you are strong and appearing strong when you are weak. There were also moments when Mnangagwa appeared very strong, such as in 2019 when Chiwenga's side thought of carrying out a coup. Mnangagwa projected firmness, yet behind the scenes he was weak, hesitant, and deeply indecisive in dealing with the unfolding crisis. If you remember the period when the internet was shut down, that moment exposed just how fragile the inner workings of power were, despite the public portrayal of a decisive leader. Mnangagwa’s team, led by Tagwirei, now embodies the wisdom that “victorious warriors win first and then go to war”, planting narratives, building visibility, and mobilising resources long before the battle officially begins. In this environment, the utter disarray in the opposition makes it effortless for ZANUPF to open war fronts within itself, because when the enemy outside has collapsed, the real contest becomes the fight to inherit the throne.

While we are busy focused on the 2030 presidential term extension theatrics, the presidential race to take over from President Emmerson Mnangagwa is already in full swing inside ZANUPF. It is an open secret that Mnangagwa’s preferred successor is businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei, and the dark horse is General Valerio Sibanda, who retired from the army in an announcement made yesterday by the presidency. Tagwirei is already on a campaign trail which some have not observed, and all the issues he is raising are carefully crafted to resonate with ordinary citizens, shifting from liberation struggle slogans like Pasi neMhandu to Pasi neNhamo and Mari Muhomwe. He is deliberately rebranding himself as a champion of economic grievances, positioning his message to speak directly to poverty, hardship, and the cost of living, rather than the old liberation rhetoric. This is not accidental, his nemesis is a soldier and military general whose track record is rooted in Zimbabwe's excesses. What Tagwirei is doing is planting in his rallies a political seed that he hopes will germinate between now and 2027, when the ZANUPF Congress is expected to elect a new leader, or even earlier if an extraordinary congress is convened as some in the ruling party suspect might happen. That seed is intended to carry him into 2028, when the general election is due, if he succeeds in taking over should his principal, President Mnangagwa, not change his mind or Chiwenga stages a dramatic miracle coup. He is laying the groundwork early, shaping public perception, opinion and positioning himself as the natural successor by tapping into economic frustrations that ordinary citizens understand and feel every day. The elites see things differently, but it is the poor in townships and rural Zimbabwe who are being targeted with this messaging. When I look at the political landscape in Zimbabwe today, I see nobody else, either in the opposition or in ZANUPF, offering a clear and solid message that speaks to the people’s real needs. What we consider logical in elite circles does not sell to the poor, their needs are immediate. They want solutions for today, regardless of who created the problems that require solutions. While the educated elites talk about root-cause analysis and solutions for a distant future in their scenarios, the ordinary citizens want Sapatina, a euphemism for something that comes today, coined by a man who was perfectly happy eating chicken and chips/fries at State House. Our struggles are different. Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga, who thought he was a shoo in to become the next president after leading a coup against Robert Mugabe and making way for Mnangagwa, is now talking about corruption, something we have discussed for years to appeal to the masses. But Tagwirei is positioning himself differently. He is in full campaign mode, planting messages aimed at securing his place in the succession race, messages of economic prosperity. He is speaking to the daily needs of ZANUPF supporters and Zimbabweans in general. He is placing himself before the electorate, travelling, being visible, leveraging state linked platforms, and promising youths economic empowerment. Meanwhile, the general is speaking in closed boardrooms, and nobody has heard him speak directly to his presidential ambitions outside his own circle. Tagwirei is out in the open shaping a constituency, while Chiwenga remains confined to private spaces that do not build political momentum. That does not look regular to me unless he has an ace up his sleeves, a coup, because a coup does not require much talking. But as Mnangagwa shuts all the options once available to him by creating a state security sector in his own image, the prospects of a coup become slimmer with each move made by Mnangagwa. In closing those doors and pathways, Mnangagwa has effectively weakened Chiwenga’s leverage and narrowed the space in which he could plausibly attempt anything outside the formal succession path using ZANUPF internal processes. Tagwirei’s "meet the people" type of rallies with music stars in tow point to a group of people focused on winning hearts and minds both inside and outside ZANUPF. They have money. The other side has passion and entitlement, but without money there is very little political traction in Zimbabwe’s political theatre, where loyalties change based on what is on the table. Politics the world over is about money, that is why Elon Musk claimed that he won the election for Donald Trump, and that is why Trump said you need US$5 billion to become a president in America, it is about money. When you strip away the slogans and the drama, the real engine of political power is financial muscle, whether in Zimbabwe, America, or anywhere else. Tagwirei’s Godfather Mnangagwa understands that politics in Zimbabwe is transactional, and he is investing heavily in shaping perceptions, building networks, and buying influence long before the succession battle formally begins. Those opposed to Mnangagwa and his faction must not wake up tomorrow pretending they did not see this coming. It is obvious that Tagwirei is positioning himself as the most visible, accessible and well financed candidate within ZANUPF. It is also obvious that there is no opposition in Zimbabwe and that Chiwenga’s grip has been terribly loosened in unthinkable ways. Anyone paying attention can see the succession terrain shifting, and those who fail to read these signals will only have themselves to blame when the outcome unfolds. The question for the remnants of the main opposition is simple. What are you doing about 2028? Because while everyone is distracted by the talk of 2030, that talk may turn out to be a political ruse, a deliberate decoy to make us ignore what is unfolding on the ground. 2030 could be the bait that sends General Chiwenga chasing shadows while his real competitor campaigns at grassroots level, spends money, and entrenches himself as a household name. Mnangagwa is a political strategist who has won politically through hook or crook, so it would be a fatal mistake to assume that he has only one plan. A second option is to push for 2030, not with the intention of serving until then, but to block General Chiwenga at a congress and secure enough time to hand over to a successor of his choice after defeating Chiwenga. That is on condition that Chiwenga even has the guts to challenge him for the party leadership, which at the moment looks increasingly doubtful. If General Chiwenga puts his faith in the ZANUPF electoral processes through Congress or an Extraordinary Congress which elects a leader, then he is finished. He will be beaten on the floor even by Kuda Tagwirei, not because of anything else, but because Tagwirei and the Mnangagwa team have the resources that the general might not want to spend, even though he is a wealthy man, or might not actually have available as disposable funds for an internal election campaign he is likely to lose. Mnangagwa also has the power of incumbency, something that has been stripped away from Chiwenga as his lieutenants were retired or died one by one. That erosion of his inner circle has left him exposed, weakened, and without the institutional backing he once relied on. Mnangagwa, meanwhile, has consolidated the state, the party, and the security apparatus in his favour, widening the gulf between the two men. What we are seeing now is the opening of the presidential race, with Mnangagwa’s side fully satisfied that they have degraded Chiwenga’s powers to a point where they can now campaign openly. Where is the general? The consolidation of power in the army through the appointment of General Walter Tapfumaneyi, who worked closely with Tagwirei during the 2023 elections, is a clear signal of the new power architecture. More military purges are coming, including the removal of Chiwenga’s wife from military intelligence, and each one further isolates Chiwenga while tightening Mnangagwa’s control over the security establishment. This systematic dismantling of his support base makes it clear that the succession battle has already begun, and that Chiwenga is being pushed further away from the centres of real power with every move. The Chinese general Sun Tzu teaches that “all warfare is based on deception”, and Mnangagwa has perfected this by using 2030 as a decoy while quietly weakening Chiwenga and allowing Tagwirei to advance. He has also mastered the art of appearing weak when he is strong, and appearing strong when he is weak, creating confusion while he restructures the state and securing loyalty across the security ranks. Those in the media and diplomatic circles know that Mnangagwa deliberately appeared weak on many occasions, and his emissaries would tell diplomats and journalists that he had no power to act on many serious issues because Chiwenga was supposedly too powerful. It was an illusion they deliberately created. They created a fictitious image of an all-powerful General Chiwenga, a narrative that fits perfectly into Sun Tzu’s teaching about appearing weak when you are strong and appearing strong when you are weak. There were also moments when Mnangagwa appeared very strong, such as in 2019 when Chiwenga's side thought of carrying out a coup. Mnangagwa projected firmness, yet behind the scenes he was weak, hesitant, and deeply indecisive in dealing with the unfolding crisis. If you remember the period when the internet was shut down, that moment exposed just how fragile the inner workings of power were, despite the public portrayal of a decisive leader. Mnangagwa’s team, led by Tagwirei, now embodies the wisdom that “victorious warriors win first and then go to war”, planting narratives, building visibility, and mobilising resources long before the battle officially begins. In this environment, the utter disarray in the opposition makes it effortless for ZANUPF to open war fronts within itself, because when the enemy outside has collapsed, the real contest becomes the fight to inherit the throne.

Hopewell Chin’ono

57,979 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten

Like seemingly everyone on this app I have plenty of opinions about Twitter > X and figure now is a good time to open up a bit about my experience at the company. I tweeted for years into the void for the love of it like many of you, but after selling my startup to Twitter in 2020 I finally got to see it from the inside. Up close it was both amazing and terrible, like so many other companies and things in life. As someone with a maniacal sense of urgency built into me, Twitter often felt siloed and bureaucratic. Dumb power plays, reorgs and team name changes for the sake of someone’s ego were distractions that occurred too regularly. You couldn’t just be a builder — you also needed to be a politician. I was shocked by how old and bespoke the infrastructure was, but there was little will to think beyond quarterly earnings calls because we were all beholden to the masters of mDAU and revenue growth as a public company. It often felt like things were held together with duct tape and glue, and that many people had just accepted that a small product change could take months or quarters to build. Management had become bloated to accommodate career growth and the company culture felt too soft and entitled for my own taste. Healthy debate and criticism was replaced by a default refrain of “no, that can’t be done” or “another team owns that so don’t touch it”. Teams could spend months building a feature and then some last-minute kerfuffle meant it’d get killed for being too risky. Just talking directly to customers could turn into a turf war and create deadlocks between functions. I recall one such episode where a teammate spent a month trying to get clearance to reach out to some creators. He went through 3 layers of management and 6 different functional teams. In the end 4 executives were involved in the approval. It was insanity, and unfortunately I saw several top performers get burnt out and demoralized after exhausting experiences like that. Most people were good at their jobs but it was nearly impossible to fire poor performers — instead they got shuffled around to other teams because few managers had the will or resources to figure out how to get them out. A high performance culture pulls everyone up, but the opposite weighs everyone down. Twitter often felt like a place that kept squandering its own potential, which was sad and frustrating to see. The person who was best at cutting through the BS and inspiring a vision during my tenure was Kayvon Beykpour, but he wasn’t fully empowered to run the company since he wasn’t the CEO. Despite those real issues, I was lucky enough to work with some of the most talented people in the business at Twitter in product, design, engineering, research, legal, BD, trust & safety, marketing, PR and more. Often it was a small cross-functional team of intrinsically motivated people who made the biggest impact by challenging some core assumption. Those teams were very fun to be on but they felt like the exception rather than the rule. The months of waiting for the deal to close in 2022 were particularly slow and painful; it felt like leadership hid behind lawyers and legal language as all answers about the company’s future notoriously included the phrase “fiduciary duty”. Colleagues openly talked about how Twitter was being sold because leadership didn’t have conviction in their own plan or ability to fix longstanding problems. Although I didn’t know much about Elon I was cautiously optimistic – I saw him as the guy who built incredible and enduring companies like Tesla and SpaceX, so perhaps his private ownership could shake things up and breathe new life into the company. My take on what’s happened since then is full of lived nuance. When people ask why I stayed it’s easy to answer: optimism, curiosity, personal growth and money. From the beginning I saw that some changes Elon was going to make were smart and others were stupid, but when I’m on a team I uphold the philosophy of “praise in public and criticize in private”. I was far from a silent wallflower. I shared my opinions openly and pushed back often, both before and after the acquisition. I made peace with the fact that I didn’t have psychological safety at Twitter 2.0 and that meant I could be fired at any moment, and for no reason at all. I watched it happen repeatedly and saw how negatively it impacted team morale. Although I couldn’t change the situation I did my best to shine a light on folks who were doing important work while being an emotionally supportive leader for those who were struggling to adapt to the more brutalist and hardcore culture. In person Elon is oddly charming and he’s genuinely funny. He also has personality quirks like telling the same stories and jokes over and over. The challenge is his personality and demeanor can turn on a dime going from excited to angry. Since it was hard to read what mood he might be in and what his reaction would be to any given thing, people quickly became afraid of being called into meetings or having to share negative news with him. At times it felt like the inner circle was too zealous and fanatical in their unwavering support of everything he said. When individuals encouraged me to be careful about what I said I politely thanked them and said I would not be taking their advice. I had no interest in adding to a culture of fear or walking on eggshells around Elon. Either he would respect me for being real or he could fire me. Either outcome was okay. I quickly learned that product and business decisions were nearly always the result of him following his gut instinct, and he didn’t seem compelled to seek out or rely on a lot of data or expertise to inform it. That was particularly frustrating for me since I believed I had useful institutional knowledge that could help him make better decisions. Instead he'd poll Twitter, ask a friend, or even ask his biographer for product advice. At times it seemed he trusted random feedback more than the people in the room who spent their lives dedicated to tackling the problem at hand. I never figured out why and remain puzzled by it. I don’t think things had to be as difficult or dramatic as they turned out to be but I can’t say I’d bet against Elon or count him out. He’s smart and has enough money to make a lot of mistakes and then course correct when things go awry. As the largest shareholder he can tank the value in the short-term, but eventually he’ll need things to turn around. His focus on speed is incredible and he’s obviously not afraid of blowing things up, but now the real measure will be how it get reconstructed and if enough people want the new everything app he is building. I learned a ton from watching Elon up close – the good, the bad and the ugly. His boldness, passion and storytelling is inspiring, but his lack of process and empathy is painful. Elon has an exceptional talent for tackling hard physics-based problems but products that facilitate human connection and communication require a different type of social-emotional intelligence. Social networks are hard to kill but they’re not immune from death spirals. Only time will tell what the outcome will be but I hope X finds its footing because competition is good for consumers. In the meantime, I have a lot of empathy for the employees who are working tirelessly behind the scenes, the advertisers who want a stable platform to sell their stuff on, and the customers who are experiencing chaotic updates. It’s been a madhouse. Twitter moved at the speed of molasses and suffered from bureaucracy but now X is run by a mercurial leader whose instinct is driven by the unique and undoubtedly weird experience of being the biggest voice on the platform. Many of you know me from the sleeping bag incident where I slept on a conference room floor, so I figure, let’s talk about that too. Going viral was an odd and interesting experience. I was attacked by people on the left and called a billionaire bootlicker, while simultaneously being attacked by people on the right for being a working mom who was demonized as an example of a woman choosing her career over her family. Thankfully I can laugh at myself and I don’t take armchair keyboard ideologues too seriously. Being the main character on the timeline, even for a few minutes, requires a thick skin and a strong sense of self. The real story is pretty simple. I was given a nearly impossible deadline for his first project and as the product lead I would never ask anyone to do anything I wasn’t willing to do myself. So I worked round the clock alongside an amazing team spanning many timezones, and we delivered it on schedule – truly against the odds. It was intense but also fun. Those first few months were wildly crazy but I wanted to be there and I have no regrets. Showing up and giving it your all should, in most cases, be celebrated. Obviously you can’t work at that pace forever but there are moments where bursts are mission critical. I’ve pulled many all-nighters in my career and also when I was a student for something that mattered to me. I don’t regret putting in long hours or being ambitious, and feel proud of how far I’ve come from where I started thanks in part to that type of work ethic. I think of life as a game, and being at Twitter after the acquisition was like playing life at Level 10 on Hard Mode. Since I like taking on difficult challenges I found it interesting and rewarding because I was growing and learning so rapidly. I realize our society today trends toward polarization but when it comes to this app, its owner, and its future, I am neither a fangirl nor a hater — I’m an optimistic pragmatist. This may really irritate the internet but you cannot pigeonhole me into some radical position of either loving or hating every change that’s occurred. I escaped my fundamentalist upbringing and am a free thinker these days. Everyone can be seen as both a hero or a villain, depending on who is telling what angle of the story. Elon doesn’t deserve to be venerated or vilified. He’s a complicated person with an unfathomable amount of financial and geopolitical power which is why humanity needs him to err on the side of goodness, rather than political divisiveness and pettiness. I disagree with many of his decisions and am surprised by his willingness to burn so much down, but with enough money and time, something new & innovative may emerge. I hope it does. Sometimes I get asked about how I felt when I got laid off, and the truth is it was the best gift I’ve ever received. Sure the headlines and punchlines wrote themselves but I was battle hardened by then. I knew that I’d worked in a way where I could walk out with my head held high. I have no bitterness about the Product Management team being dismantled, and it made sense for me to exit as nearly all of the remaining PMs were let go. Going on a sabbatical afterward has been exactly what I needed to decompress and I’m finally feeling rested and relaxed. I’m a creative and a builder, so sooner than later I’ll jump back into a high intensity company but I’m grateful for this season of thinking, reading, traveling and being with people I love. After having time to reflect I believe more than ever that the very best outcomes flow from great leadership that combines the head and the heart. I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that in all of this there is also a cautionary tale for anyone who succeeds at something — which is that the higher you climb, the smaller your world becomes. It’s a strange paradox but the richest and most powerful people are also some of the most isolated. I found myself frequently looking at Elon and seeing a person who seemed quite alone because his time and energy was so purely devoted to work, which is not the model of a life I want to live. Money and fame can create psychological prisons which may worsen mental health conditions. We’ve all seen high profile cases of celebrities who end up with some combination of depression, paranoia, delusions of grandeur, mania and/or erratic behavior. Living in an echo chamber is dangerous and being at the top makes a person even more susceptible to being surrounded by yes people when nearly everyone around you is on the payroll and somehow stands to benefit from being in your orbit. Figuring out how to keep “better angels” around in the form of family, friends, and teammates is critical to staying on the rails and enduring intense ups and downs. Everyone needs to hear hard truths sometimes and if you fire all the people who speak up then the reality distortion field may just turn into a vortex. I was drawn to Twitter because I’m obsessed with the problem of loneliness and connection between people. I find it fascinating & troubling that humans are getting lonelier as we simultaneously create a world that’s both safer and wealthier. I don’t believe that trade-off has to exist, which is why I keep returning to that theme in my personal and professional life. I realize this is too long of a tweet but Twitter was a weird and special place on the internet, and I’m grateful to have played a teeny tiny role in its story and evolution. I’m here for whatever comes next — on this app and in new places. Consumer social is very much alive and at a fascinating juncture, so I’ll be watching and participating and sharing hot takes because I don’t want to, and probably can’t, turn that part of me off. Perhaps X becomes a resounding success. Or it fails epically. Either way, I expect it will continue to be a very entertaining ride. 🫡

Esther Crawford ✨

5,496,646 Aufrufe • vor 3 Jahren

This is Apollo. This story still stings. I returned from a tour in Iraq in early 2015. My wife was pregnant with our first son. I knew I would not be going anywhere for several months, unless there was a dire need. We decided the time was right to get a dog to add to our growing family. I don't remember how we found Apollo. We got him from the shelter, but I don't know if Dolly saw him online or if we just stumbled across him. I was struck by his amazing eyes. I'd had an Australian Shepherd before and I knew it was a breed that I loved. He hopped right in my car. Dolly even took the back seat so I could sit next to my new best friend. Together, we brought him to his new home. What a great dog he was. We immediately became tied at the hip. I took him for walks, runs, and hikes off leash. I put in the time to train him; we would walk to the bakery or the butcher shop (at the time, we lived the town life), tell him to sit outside, and he would be there on the sidewalk still sitting here when we came out. It was wonderful having such a happy and well-trained dog. Everybody loved him. They'd never seen a dog with eyes like his. I'm sure he loved all the attention too. My first concern came with my newborn son. He did not do as well with children as I would have liked. At times, he gave him a sideways glance that I didn't like. I kept an eye on him as best I could when he was around my son, but he had given me no reason not to trust him, so I didn't worry much. He was wonderful in every other way. Then, suddenly, he wasn't. We had a notary over to collect signatures from us so we could close on a refinance of our home. After sitting at our dining room table for about an hour, signing papers, the notary rose to leave. Apollo, who had been sitting at my feet, must have been startled by the sudden movement. Like a bolt of lightning, he bit. Just once, but it was a shock. The notary was a real mensch. He didn't get angry. He showed humanity. He knew that we would never have had Apollo unrestrained if we had had any idea that he would do something like that. If only everyone was so understanding as he. But fear crept into my heart that there was something about my dog that was not compatible with the family life that we had. We kept Apollo on a shorter leash after that, both figuratively and literally. The off leash hikes were a thing of the past, but we hoped this would prove to be just a one-off anomaly. It wasn't. A month and a half later, just days out from another deployment, I was sitting in my living room talking to a very good friend, a Master Gunnery Sergeant in the USMC (who, as an aside, donated $1,000 to our GiveSendGo campaign to #SaveLucy, thank you 🙏). Apollo was familiar with him already, so I was off my guard, and didn't notice Apollo giving him the stinkeye until it was too late. Apollo lunged and bit. He immediately backed off, but the horrid realization came to me at that moment that my fears were true. My options were limited on the eve of a deployment. To socialize Apollo and train this behavior out of him would take time. I didn't have time. We also didn't have family in the area and Dolly was pregnant again. I couldn't leave my pregnant wife alone for the duration of my tour with a dog who had shown a tendency to bite. I couldn't turn a blind eye to the sideways look he occasionally gave my infant son. Not anymore. I made the devastating decision to rehome him. On what I knew would be our final ride together, he hopped right into the front seat and looked at me, tongue dangling out of his mouth in a happy, sloppy pant, his nub of a tail bobbing up and down, wondering what wonderful adventure daddy was taking him on this time. I'm sure he was confident it was going to be a great time no matter what. It felt like betrayal to me. When we reached the shelter, he faithfully followed me in. We sat in a corner. He leaned against my legs and I stroked his head one final time. It felt like we sat there forever, but I didn't mind. I would have been happy for time to stop, to stay in that moment, just me and my dog, stripped of all externalities, for eternity. But time didn't stop. At length, the door opened and a lady entered. Apollo pressed in against my shins. His 40 pound weight felt heavy. Crushing. I gave him one last embrace, then closed my eyes. "That's a good boy," I whispered, though I couldn't bring myself to look. "I'll always love you." She took Apollo and led him through the door, never for me to see him again. Even today, when I close my eyes, I can still feel the weight of his warm body pressing against mine, trusting me to keep him safe. That was as hard a thing as I've ever done in my life. It was a no-kill shelter, but I played things close to the chest. I did not tell them the worst details. I only mentioned my fear of possible aggression against my child while I was deployed. I did not want to jeopardize Apollo's chance at another opportunity. For months, I kept checking the shelter's website for information about him, but I never saw an update. I do not know what became of him, sadly. I got back home and Dolly asked me where Apollo was. I don't remember if I said anything. I was numb. I hadn't told her where I was going or what I was doing. I had not wanted anything to change my mind. I knew my heart wasn't in it, but I wasn't going to be stopped. It was the right thing to do for my wife, son, and community. Her tears flowed when she realized what I had done. She also loved Apollo. I went to lay on the bed upstairs and be alone. Just weeks later, in a mudhole in the desert, I met my sweet Lucy and my heart began to heal. Saving her from that war zone helped me deal with the lingering guilt I felt about Apollo. I continue to feel the sting of that experience. I wouldn't change what I did though. I love dogs. I will always stand up for dogs when they are mistreated. I will adopt unwanted dogs when I am able. A great measure of a man is how he treats dogs. I aim to always pass that test. But I will always defend human life. Only humans are made in the image of God. I hope and pray that God has a place for dogs when this life is over, but humans He created with souls destined for glory. "You have never talked to a mere mortal," CS Lewis explained. "Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." I completely agree. I love dogs. They have no guile in them, no duplicity. A dog will not tell you a lie. I like them better than I like people, often. But I cannot choose a dog over a life that was uniquely created to glorify the Almighty (Isaiah 43:7). I will always protect human life. That is why I served. That is why I deployed several times. To protect people, even when they didn't realize they needed protecting. I failed once. I received a report about a plot to blow up a bomb in Beirut. I got it out with all the speed and precision I could, but it got bogged down by the sideshow of the editing process for hours. I got distracted and didn't follow up on it aggressively. In the end, I'm sure the bureaucrats in their cubicles transliterated the names correctly. I'm sure they crossed every T and dotted every I. But at a price. A devastating price. I woke up the next morning to read in the news that a bomb had gone off in Beirut. It was carried out by the people my report said would carry it out. It took place in the exact locale I said it would take place. 43 people dead. Hundreds wounded. Families shattered. I didn't know these people, but my heart sank. Human life is sacred. I will always work to defend it. If I can save a few dogs along the way, great. That is also the Lord's work. But I will never keep a dog that is a danger to my neighbors. Whatever their sins, their harassment, libel, and cunning deceits, they are made in the image of God with souls destined for eternity. Lucy, my 11-year-old dog that survived ISIS, is no danger to my them. I know it in my very bones. The Mountains Have Eyes said that the DA told him I was not a responsible dog owner when he called to inquire about Lucy. This viewpoint is informed by a false impression given to her by our gossipy, well-connected neighbors, not by the facts. I want to tell her about Apollo. Dolly Spice- Jones 🌱🎵 Leisha

This is Apollo. This story still stings. I returned from a tour in Iraq in early 2015. My wife was pregnant with our first son. I knew I would not be going anywhere for several months, unless there was a dire need. We decided the time was right to get a dog to add to our growing family. I don't remember how we found Apollo. We got him from the shelter, but I don't know if Dolly saw him online or if we just stumbled across him. I was struck by his amazing eyes. I'd had an Australian Shepherd before and I knew it was a breed that I loved. He hopped right in my car. Dolly even took the back seat so I could sit next to my new best friend. Together, we brought him to his new home. What a great dog he was. We immediately became tied at the hip. I took him for walks, runs, and hikes off leash. I put in the time to train him; we would walk to the bakery or the butcher shop (at the time, we lived the town life), tell him to sit outside, and he would be there on the sidewalk still sitting here when we came out. It was wonderful having such a happy and well-trained dog. Everybody loved him. They'd never seen a dog with eyes like his. I'm sure he loved all the attention too. My first concern came with my newborn son. He did not do as well with children as I would have liked. At times, he gave him a sideways glance that I didn't like. I kept an eye on him as best I could when he was around my son, but he had given me no reason not to trust him, so I didn't worry much. He was wonderful in every other way. Then, suddenly, he wasn't. We had a notary over to collect signatures from us so we could close on a refinance of our home. After sitting at our dining room table for about an hour, signing papers, the notary rose to leave. Apollo, who had been sitting at my feet, must have been startled by the sudden movement. Like a bolt of lightning, he bit. Just once, but it was a shock. The notary was a real mensch. He didn't get angry. He showed humanity. He knew that we would never have had Apollo unrestrained if we had had any idea that he would do something like that. If only everyone was so understanding as he. But fear crept into my heart that there was something about my dog that was not compatible with the family life that we had. We kept Apollo on a shorter leash after that, both figuratively and literally. The off leash hikes were a thing of the past, but we hoped this would prove to be just a one-off anomaly. It wasn't. A month and a half later, just days out from another deployment, I was sitting in my living room talking to a very good friend, a Master Gunnery Sergeant in the USMC (who, as an aside, donated $1,000 to our GiveSendGo campaign to #SaveLucy, thank you 🙏). Apollo was familiar with him already, so I was off my guard, and didn't notice Apollo giving him the stinkeye until it was too late. Apollo lunged and bit. He immediately backed off, but the horrid realization came to me at that moment that my fears were true. My options were limited on the eve of a deployment. To socialize Apollo and train this behavior out of him would take time. I didn't have time. We also didn't have family in the area and Dolly was pregnant again. I couldn't leave my pregnant wife alone for the duration of my tour with a dog who had shown a tendency to bite. I couldn't turn a blind eye to the sideways look he occasionally gave my infant son. Not anymore. I made the devastating decision to rehome him. On what I knew would be our final ride together, he hopped right into the front seat and looked at me, tongue dangling out of his mouth in a happy, sloppy pant, his nub of a tail bobbing up and down, wondering what wonderful adventure daddy was taking him on this time. I'm sure he was confident it was going to be a great time no matter what. It felt like betrayal to me. When we reached the shelter, he faithfully followed me in. We sat in a corner. He leaned against my legs and I stroked his head one final time. It felt like we sat there forever, but I didn't mind. I would have been happy for time to stop, to stay in that moment, just me and my dog, stripped of all externalities, for eternity. But time didn't stop. At length, the door opened and a lady entered. Apollo pressed in against my shins. His 40 pound weight felt heavy. Crushing. I gave him one last embrace, then closed my eyes. "That's a good boy," I whispered, though I couldn't bring myself to look. "I'll always love you." She took Apollo and led him through the door, never for me to see him again. Even today, when I close my eyes, I can still feel the weight of his warm body pressing against mine, trusting me to keep him safe. That was as hard a thing as I've ever done in my life. It was a no-kill shelter, but I played things close to the chest. I did not tell them the worst details. I only mentioned my fear of possible aggression against my child while I was deployed. I did not want to jeopardize Apollo's chance at another opportunity. For months, I kept checking the shelter's website for information about him, but I never saw an update. I do not know what became of him, sadly. I got back home and Dolly asked me where Apollo was. I don't remember if I said anything. I was numb. I hadn't told her where I was going or what I was doing. I had not wanted anything to change my mind. I knew my heart wasn't in it, but I wasn't going to be stopped. It was the right thing to do for my wife, son, and community. Her tears flowed when she realized what I had done. She also loved Apollo. I went to lay on the bed upstairs and be alone. Just weeks later, in a mudhole in the desert, I met my sweet Lucy and my heart began to heal. Saving her from that war zone helped me deal with the lingering guilt I felt about Apollo. I continue to feel the sting of that experience. I wouldn't change what I did though. I love dogs. I will always stand up for dogs when they are mistreated. I will adopt unwanted dogs when I am able. A great measure of a man is how he treats dogs. I aim to always pass that test. But I will always defend human life. Only humans are made in the image of God. I hope and pray that God has a place for dogs when this life is over, but humans He created with souls destined for glory. "You have never talked to a mere mortal," CS Lewis explained. "Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." I completely agree. I love dogs. They have no guile in them, no duplicity. A dog will not tell you a lie. I like them better than I like people, often. But I cannot choose a dog over a life that was uniquely created to glorify the Almighty (Isaiah 43:7). I will always protect human life. That is why I served. That is why I deployed several times. To protect people, even when they didn't realize they needed protecting. I failed once. I received a report about a plot to blow up a bomb in Beirut. I got it out with all the speed and precision I could, but it got bogged down by the sideshow of the editing process for hours. I got distracted and didn't follow up on it aggressively. In the end, I'm sure the bureaucrats in their cubicles transliterated the names correctly. I'm sure they crossed every T and dotted every I. But at a price. A devastating price. I woke up the next morning to read in the news that a bomb had gone off in Beirut. It was carried out by the people my report said would carry it out. It took place in the exact locale I said it would take place. 43 people dead. Hundreds wounded. Families shattered. I didn't know these people, but my heart sank. Human life is sacred. I will always work to defend it. If I can save a few dogs along the way, great. That is also the Lord's work. But I will never keep a dog that is a danger to my neighbors. Whatever their sins, their harassment, libel, and cunning deceits, they are made in the image of God with souls destined for eternity. Lucy, my 11-year-old dog that survived ISIS, is no danger to my them. I know it in my very bones. The Mountains Have Eyes said that the DA told him I was not a responsible dog owner when he called to inquire about Lucy. This viewpoint is informed by a false impression given to her by our gossipy, well-connected neighbors, not by the facts. I want to tell her about Apollo. Dolly Spice- Jones 🌱🎵 Leisha

Brendan M. Jones 🇺🇸

15,769 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

Four words gave him away. NOT UP FOR NEGOTIATION. That's not a leader talking. That's a man reading out a pitch somebody else wrote for him. The man with all the answers, here at last to save a Britain he's spent twenty five years climbing over. Burnham didn't win an election. Burnham was INSTALLED. Four weeks. That's the gap between him becoming an MP and them fitting him for Prime Minister. No seat in June. Running the country by July, and not one of you was ever asked. He isn't the change. He's the COVER STORY. He says devolution. Power to the people. It's a SMOKESCREEN. Watch the salesman at the front and you miss the hands working behind him. He didn't dodge the press because he's shy. He dodged them because he CAN'T ANSWER THEM. The Times watched his last interview and called him utterly unconvincing. Then he announced he's rebuilding the whole country and took not one question. Strange sort of saviour, won't take a single question about the miracle. Watch the pitch. His direction is NOT UP FOR NEGOTIATION. Fixed. Final. No say for you. Then he promises an INCLUSIVE team. Then refuses to name a single soul on it. Then tells you to ignore anyone who goes looking. Inclusive. While he decides everything and names nobody. The most secretive move in politics, wrapped in the friendliest word in the dictionary, and the room clapped like he'd cured something. The team was picked months ago. He's just not allowed to read out the names yet. The salesman, caught pricing up the goods himself AND IT WAS NEVER SUDDEN Last August, already the most popular man in his party. September, a network quietly forms around him. They call it Mainstream. January, he tries to get into Parliament and the Prime Minister himself votes to BLOCK him. Blocked and it changed nothing. Five months later he walks through a different door like the lock was never there. The one man who could have stood against him folded inside the hour. No contest. A coronation, dressed up as a choice. The Prime Minister tried to stop this and couldn't. So ask yourself who actually can. WATCH THE TRICKS IN THE PITCH He says a more streamlined state. Then announces a brand new Downing Street. New building. New staff. New bills. Streamlined, while making it bigger. You actually could not write it. The room clapped for forty five seconds and not one of them did the sum. He says power will flow to every corner of Britain. But the hand on the tap stays in Manchester, in his fist. He keeps saying devolution, but the mayors he hands it to don't control the money. The Treasury does. The experts even have a name for it. A performed illusion of reform. Devolution isn't the gift. It's the wrapping paper. Then he reached for Germany to sound clever. But Germany's regions have their own constitutions, power no centre can rip back. Britain has one Parliament, and it can take back every crumb overnight. Wallpaper over a promise with nothing behind it. Then he walked off and took not one question. THE BIT THAT HITS YOUR FRONT DOOR Forget the sales patter a second. Here's what he's actually selling you. He wants your water. Your energy. Your home. Sold to you as public ownership. So who sets your bill then. Not you. Not anyone you ever voted for. A handful of people you've never heard of, who answer to nobody. Then he wants a tax on what your house is WORTH. Not what you earn. What it's worth just sitting there and because it's tied to house prices, the dearer your area, the harder you're hit. London alone, SEVEN BILLION pounds. Some homes, a THOUSAND pounds a year more. Just for owning the bricks around you. For a roof you already paid for. That lands on top of the heaviest tax burden this country has carried since 1948. Before this man has passed a single law. New office. New tax. New ten year plan. Spend, spend, spend. Tax, tax, tax. And nobody, anywhere, has told you what the bill comes to. Some rescue. Now glance at the roof over your head. 172,000 children sitting in B&Bs tonight, and the homes that are left bought up for the Home Office while you stay on the list. Your own government, bidding against you for the same bricks. Funny, that. MEET THE SALESMAN He's run for leader twice. Lost both times. The public have never once chosen him for anything bigger than Manchester. Watch how the great saviour actually moves. Blairite under Blair. Stayed under Corbyn when every other Blairite walked. Backed Starmer when Starmer rose. Now Reform surges and suddenly he agrees with Farage. Blair, Corbyn, Starmer, Farage. Four men, four directions, and he turned to face every one the moment it started winning. That's not conviction. That's a WEATHER VANE, spinning whichever way the wind pays best. He sold this country compulsory ID cards twenty years ago. Hold that thought next time he plays the man who'll set you free. A month into running our hospitals, patients were dying in their own urine. He opened an inquiry, then bolted the doors on it, and knocked back eighty one pleas to hold it in public. It took losing power for the truth to get out. A grooming gang ran riot on his patch as Mayor. Three jailed out of ninety seven. His response was called supine, and supine is the kind word for it. Twenty five years. Same pitch every time. THE HANDS BEHIND HIM One man gave up his seat for Burnham, and was already writing his lines while he did it. Both jobs at once. His chief of staff spent years on the payroll of Apple, Amazon and BP. Now he's the voice in Burnham's ear. The woman shaping his economy ran a think tank, walked into Downing Street, walked back out, and is on her way back in. Nobody ever voted for her once. Mainstream signed off the whole pitch months before he had a seat. He didn't write a word of it. Somebody handed it to him finished and pushed him out in front of the cameras. He's the face on the front of it. Reading lines other men wrote. Taking the credit that belongs to the people behind him who'll never once step into view. THIS IS THE PART THAT NEVER MOVES Here's the bit the great man will never tell you. The salesman at the front is the only part of this you get to vote for and the only part that ever changes. Behind him sits everything that actually runs the country. Officials who never face an election and never leave. Lobbyists who cycle through every government no matter the colour of the rosette. Think tanks that write the policy before a minister reads it. Burnham's own right hand was paid by Apple, Amazon and BP. Not one of them British. Not one on any ballot you've ever seen. The money behind this doesn't stop at Dover. The Cabinet Secretary who built the borders scheme is one face of it. There are hundreds more you'll never be shown. They were here before Burnham. They'll be here after him. Before Starmer, before the Tories, and long after Reform has had its turn. They don't change the country. They just change the suit. Starmer in his glasses. Burnham with his accent. Different face. Same con. Same hands behind it. You change the salesman. You never touch the people he's selling for. He isn't the change you're praying for. He's a twice rejected man with a weather vane where his spine should be, wheeled out in front of something that was running long before him and will run long after. It doesn't care who's clapping. It just needs a face at the front, and a room that wants to believe.

BanksyCat

131,558 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

I've become a missionary with one message. Every time I meet a young person, the same words: have children, get married, build a family. I did not decide on this calling. It overtook me. And it overtook me for a single reason. I had no idea. I genuinely did not understand how much joy, how much meaning, how much sheer beauty pours out of a child until I was holding one of my own and felt the floor of my life drop into something deeper than I knew was there. I grew up white, affluent, secular, comfortable, and insulated. That world does not put babies in front of you. None of my friends were starting families. Out of my whole circle, almost no one has a big one. We were not formed by the presence of children. We were formed by their absence, by the strange quiet of homes built for two careers and no cradle. And a person believes what his world shows him. So we believed. What we believed was a lie. It is a lie with an author, and that the author is the enemy of joy himself. It is the gospel of the world, and its commandment is wait. Wait until you are older. Wait until the career is built and the savings are stacked and the twenties are properly spent. Enjoy your freedom. You are not ready. It does not arrive sounding like temptation. It arrives sounding like wisdom, like prudence, like the responsible thing, and that is exactly why it works. The most effective lies are the ones that wear the face of virtue. And the maddening thing is that it collapses from every angle at once. It is not rooted in biology, because the body is made for this work precisely in the years we are told to postpone it. The flesh keeps a calendar the culture pretends not to see. And it is not rooted in theology either. You will not find this deferral anywhere in the Christian imagination, in any of the fathers, in any of the scriptures. So choose whatever lens you like. Take the cold secular measure or the ancient sacred one. By either light the counsel is rotten. It is bad for the body and bad for the soul and bad for the society downstream of both. This is why I have come to see it as one of the central tragedies of my generation. Every age carries its own wound. The Great Depression was a depression of bread, a scarcity in the world of matter, hunger you could measure. Ours is a depression of a different order. It is a famine of the spirit in the middle of abundance. We have more than any people who ever lived and we are starving in a way our ancestors would not recognize, because the thing we are refusing cannot be bought and cannot be banked. The ones most made to give and receive this love are quietly declining it. They are walking away from the one inheritance that actually compounds, and the cruelest part is that they do not feel the loss as loss. You cannot grieve what you were taught not to want. That is the deepest cut of it. The lie does not only steal the thing. It steals the capacity to know the thing was stolen. A man can spend his whole life on the far side of a door he never knew was a door, mistaking the wall for the edge of the world. Because this beauty is not ordinary beauty. It is not the pleasure of a good meal or a clear morning. It is participation in something that comes down from above, the same generative love that spoke everything out of nothing and called it good. To make a person, to be undone and remade by loving that person more than your own life, is to be drawn for a moment inside the very act that holds the cosmos together. A child does not merely add to your life. A child reorders the soul. It teaches you what you are by asking everything of you, and you discover, kneeling there exhausted at three in the morning, that you had a capacity for self gift you never suspected, a depth in yourself you had no other way to reach. In the Gospel of John, on the last night, Jesus prays, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. And I have come to understand why family is the road into that fullness, why it is not one path among many but the one most fitted to the shape of the promise. Consider who is praying. Christ does not come to us as a lone figure dropped out of the sky. He comes out of a family older than the world, the eternal communion of Father and Son, the love between them so total and so alive that theologians dared to call it a third person. Before there was anything, there was a family. The deepest fact about reality is not a force or a law or a void. It is a household. It is begetting and being begotten, giving and receiving, a Father who is only a Father because there is a Son. So when Jesus speaks of joy made complete, he is not pointing away from family toward something higher. He is pointing toward the very thing he came from, the life he has known from eternity and came to share. His joy is the joy of belonging utterly to a Father and pouring himself out for those he loves. When you marry, when you bring a child into the world, when you wear yourself down in the small unseen labors of a home, you are not stepping outside that divine life. You are stepping into a small image of it. Your family is a created echo of an uncreated one. The love you give your child rhymes with the love the Father has for the Son. The exhaustion, the tenderness, the way a parent would tear the sky open to protect a sleeping infant, all of it is the heavens pressed faintly into flesh, the eternal household leaving its fingerprint on yours. That is why the joy is not merely added to family but completed in it. We were made in the image of a God who is, at his very root, relation and gift and generation. To found a family is to do the most Godlike thing a creature can do, to participate from below in the begetting that God does from all eternity. Your home becomes a window. Through it, dimly and imperfectly, you glimpse the country you came from and are going to. And now a word for the young people reading this, the ones who do not yet have children. I want to tell you what it is like from where I stand. When I am out somewhere, a restaurant, anywhere, and a large family comes through the door, the noise and the chaos and the small bodies of them, something happens in me on two levels at once. The first is joy. A pure gladness at the sight, the way you feel watching something good and alive. But underneath it, almost in the same instant, a sadness reaches up and takes hold of my heart. Because I know now, at my age, after my own years of waiting, that I will never have that. I will never know the particular fruit of a family that large, the fullness of that table, the weight of all those lives gathered under one roof. The door to it has quietly closed, and I felt it close. And I am telling you plainly, because I love you and have no reason to lie to you: you will feel this too. You will. The day will come when you see what you passed up, and you will recognize the ache for what it is, and it will be too late to answer it. So please, learn from a man who got it wrong. Let my regret be worth something by becoming your wisdom. Do not wait yourself into a grief you cannot undo. Choose now, while the door is open, so that you may step into a joy that does not end.

I've become a missionary with one message. Every time I meet a young person, the same words: have children, get married, build a family. I did not decide on this calling. It overtook me. And it overtook me for a single reason. I had no idea. I genuinely did not understand how much joy, how much meaning, how much sheer beauty pours out of a child until I was holding one of my own and felt the floor of my life drop into something deeper than I knew was there. I grew up white, affluent, secular, comfortable, and insulated. That world does not put babies in front of you. None of my friends were starting families. Out of my whole circle, almost no one has a big one. We were not formed by the presence of children. We were formed by their absence, by the strange quiet of homes built for two careers and no cradle. And a person believes what his world shows him. So we believed. What we believed was a lie. It is a lie with an author, and that the author is the enemy of joy himself. It is the gospel of the world, and its commandment is wait. Wait until you are older. Wait until the career is built and the savings are stacked and the twenties are properly spent. Enjoy your freedom. You are not ready. It does not arrive sounding like temptation. It arrives sounding like wisdom, like prudence, like the responsible thing, and that is exactly why it works. The most effective lies are the ones that wear the face of virtue. And the maddening thing is that it collapses from every angle at once. It is not rooted in biology, because the body is made for this work precisely in the years we are told to postpone it. The flesh keeps a calendar the culture pretends not to see. And it is not rooted in theology either. You will not find this deferral anywhere in the Christian imagination, in any of the fathers, in any of the scriptures. So choose whatever lens you like. Take the cold secular measure or the ancient sacred one. By either light the counsel is rotten. It is bad for the body and bad for the soul and bad for the society downstream of both. This is why I have come to see it as one of the central tragedies of my generation. Every age carries its own wound. The Great Depression was a depression of bread, a scarcity in the world of matter, hunger you could measure. Ours is a depression of a different order. It is a famine of the spirit in the middle of abundance. We have more than any people who ever lived and we are starving in a way our ancestors would not recognize, because the thing we are refusing cannot be bought and cannot be banked. The ones most made to give and receive this love are quietly declining it. They are walking away from the one inheritance that actually compounds, and the cruelest part is that they do not feel the loss as loss. You cannot grieve what you were taught not to want. That is the deepest cut of it. The lie does not only steal the thing. It steals the capacity to know the thing was stolen. A man can spend his whole life on the far side of a door he never knew was a door, mistaking the wall for the edge of the world. Because this beauty is not ordinary beauty. It is not the pleasure of a good meal or a clear morning. It is participation in something that comes down from above, the same generative love that spoke everything out of nothing and called it good. To make a person, to be undone and remade by loving that person more than your own life, is to be drawn for a moment inside the very act that holds the cosmos together. A child does not merely add to your life. A child reorders the soul. It teaches you what you are by asking everything of you, and you discover, kneeling there exhausted at three in the morning, that you had a capacity for self gift you never suspected, a depth in yourself you had no other way to reach. In the Gospel of John, on the last night, Jesus prays, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. And I have come to understand why family is the road into that fullness, why it is not one path among many but the one most fitted to the shape of the promise. Consider who is praying. Christ does not come to us as a lone figure dropped out of the sky. He comes out of a family older than the world, the eternal communion of Father and Son, the love between them so total and so alive that theologians dared to call it a third person. Before there was anything, there was a family. The deepest fact about reality is not a force or a law or a void. It is a household. It is begetting and being begotten, giving and receiving, a Father who is only a Father because there is a Son. So when Jesus speaks of joy made complete, he is not pointing away from family toward something higher. He is pointing toward the very thing he came from, the life he has known from eternity and came to share. His joy is the joy of belonging utterly to a Father and pouring himself out for those he loves. When you marry, when you bring a child into the world, when you wear yourself down in the small unseen labors of a home, you are not stepping outside that divine life. You are stepping into a small image of it. Your family is a created echo of an uncreated one. The love you give your child rhymes with the love the Father has for the Son. The exhaustion, the tenderness, the way a parent would tear the sky open to protect a sleeping infant, all of it is the heavens pressed faintly into flesh, the eternal household leaving its fingerprint on yours. That is why the joy is not merely added to family but completed in it. We were made in the image of a God who is, at his very root, relation and gift and generation. To found a family is to do the most Godlike thing a creature can do, to participate from below in the begetting that God does from all eternity. Your home becomes a window. Through it, dimly and imperfectly, you glimpse the country you came from and are going to. And now a word for the young people reading this, the ones who do not yet have children. I want to tell you what it is like from where I stand. When I am out somewhere, a restaurant, anywhere, and a large family comes through the door, the noise and the chaos and the small bodies of them, something happens in me on two levels at once. The first is joy. A pure gladness at the sight, the way you feel watching something good and alive. But underneath it, almost in the same instant, a sadness reaches up and takes hold of my heart. Because I know now, at my age, after my own years of waiting, that I will never have that. I will never know the particular fruit of a family that large, the fullness of that table, the weight of all those lives gathered under one roof. The door to it has quietly closed, and I felt it close. And I am telling you plainly, because I love you and have no reason to lie to you: you will feel this too. You will. The day will come when you see what you passed up, and you will recognize the ache for what it is, and it will be too late to answer it. So please, learn from a man who got it wrong. Let my regret be worth something by becoming your wisdom. Do not wait yourself into a grief you cannot undo. Choose now, while the door is open, so that you may step into a joy that does not end.

Kirk Rollins

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