A shout out to old people.
Otherwise, they may not hear it.
*.*
Some days I amaze myself.
Other days...
I'm looking for my car keys and then find them in my hand.
*.*
Oneliners:
Sausage puns are the wurst.
Of course trees poop, where do you think #2 pencils come from?
Deja poo: The feeling that you've heard this crap before.
Maybe the best part about growing up is that we're able to just live our lives now and not spend this time of year wondering who we're going to prom with.
I'm insanely busy this morning, but I can make time to get on Facebook and tell everyone how busy I am.
I just broke my record for most days lived.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
You can't be late until you show up.
How do nudists clean their glasses?
I'm glad we're the kind of people who aren't above pairing wine with nachos.
*.*
Lunching with a friend in a fast-food restaurant, I was telling her about a teenager who had rear-ended my car. The teen blamed me for the accident.
"She even called me every dirty name in the book!" I said.
Just then I looked over to the next table where two nine-year-old boys had apparently been paying close attention to my story.
One said to the other, "There's a book?"
*.*
It recently became clear to me that the letters "T" and "G" are too close together on the keyboard.
This is why I'll never be ending an email with the word "Regards" ever again.
Quote of the Times;
"Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked." - Psalm 97:10
Link of the Times;
Hollywood Is a Sex-Grooming Gang:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/hollywood-sex-grooming-gang-les-moonves-harvey-weinstein/
Issue of the Times;
Get Serious: About Purpose by Katherine Boyle
The most memorable business pitch I ever attended began with a young man crying. His company was raising a modest amount of capital to build drones that could protect American troops in battle. The pitch was unremarkable in the first few minutes, until the founder mentioned his family and friends who had served in Iraq. He then stopped speaking, was quiet for a few seconds, and started to sob uncontrollably.
I was in grad school at the time and had been instructed by a female professor never to offer to make men coffee, because women don’t do that anymore. But when he exited the room to compose himself, the rest of us sat in silence for what must have been 30 seconds, until I spoke—to ask if anyone needed a fresh cup. When the founder returned, he did a forceful presentation of the business, even though he left without funding that day.
None of us ever discussed what happened—even immediately after the meeting—until I bumped into the founder almost a decade later, and he alluded to “the worst pitch he ever did.”
“No, no,” I responded. “It was the best.”
That company now employs several hundred people and is valued at a couple billion dollars. I was an intern on the sidelines that day, but unlike any meeting I’ve ever witnessed, I remember the details of that one. The chair I squirmed in. The time of day: one p.m. The patterned blouse I stared at when looking down as he sobbed. Because even though that day ended with a rejection email, it was clear that this entrepreneur didn’t care what anyone thought. He knew his calling. His purpose.
Purpose is on the decline these days. A recent Wall Street Journal–NORC poll found that faith, family, and the flag—the constants that used to define our national character—have eroded in importance in the last 25 years. Only 38 percent of poll respondents said patriotism was very important to them, down from 70 percent in 1998. Of religion, 39 percent said it was very important, down from 62 percent.
Beyond God and country, a desire to have children and community involvement plummeted by double digits, too. Meanwhile, the once universal value of “tolerance for others” has declined from 80 percent to 58 percent in the last four years alone. We’re replacing “Love thy neighbor” with “Get off my lawn.” The only “value” that has inflated in recent years is the one that can be easily measured: money.
Pollsters described the findings as “surprising” and “dramatic.” Twitter found them dire, an acknowledgement of America’s great sadness. Some researchers responded with disbelief, saying the poll must have been flawed to yield such swift changes.
But do these plunging red lines really come as such a surprise?
It’s not hard to see why Americans are losing a sense of membership in any kind of mutual enterprise, especially since 2020, when the steepest drops in sentiment occurred. Between global lockdowns, a fentanyl epidemic, school shootings, seemingly inevitable great-power wars, and a looming recession, Americans are losing hope. It’s the sort of poll that if America were your best friend or your child, you’d urge her to seek help.
The decline in traditional values isn’t particularly new. The things that make people feel as though their presence matters, such as civic-mindedness and religious observance, have declined in tandem. From Bowling Alone in the late ’90s to Coming Apart in 2012 to a slew of recent “End of America” essays from every major publication, researchers believe these trends are accelerating further. This decline in civic belief and religiosity predated the mobile internet. We can’t blame the phones this time.
For a while, we tried in vain to replace the default traditional values with something equally noble or even more sophisticated. Classical liberalism, which upheld individual rights and liberty until we started hating half of the individuals in this country. New Atheism had a good run until “trust the science” became a meme. There was meditation. Yoga retreats. Eating clean. Worshipping politics and politicians. Chasing influence.
But it turns out none of those things filled the national void either. Perhaps if they had, we wouldn’t see story after story about teenage depression and midlife crisis depression and deaths of despair. We have become a treatment-resistant Prozac Nation.
Increasingly, the void is being filled with. . . you. A relentless focus on the self that tells us you are enough. When I asked ChatGPT for the origin of the phrase “You are enough,” it told me the saying is so ubiquitous it can’t give me an answer.
I’m not an expert in purpose, but I am in the business of finding it, in determined individuals who have a deep sense of why they’re put on this earth. I meet entrepreneurs at the earliest stage, often when they have only a team and a pipe dream. Sometimes, it’s a new type of satellite or a viral app; other times, trust me, it’s the most boring idea you’ve ever heard.
But if you talk to the most storied investors about what they’re searching for in the people who will build the Disneys or the Apples or the Teslas of the future, they’re not interviewing the person. Often they’re not even listening to the idea. They’re testing for how deeply—how obsessively—someone believes in something greater than themselves. This sense is so profound that sometimes it makes you uncomfortable. It makes you squirm in your chair. But it makes you feel something.
With this type of purpose—a calling—comes action. Practice. Silicon Valley’s infectious optimism is not because the ideas are all that mind-blowing. Many solid companies have mundane missions: software that helps salespeople sell stuff! Cybersecurity companies that stop phishing attacks! And yet, that practice of building, of doing and believing in something—anything—gives people the purpose that pulls them out of the malaise that is modern life.
And maybe that’s the secret of purpose. You don’t need to build a billion-dollar company. You don’t need to employ hundreds of people. You just need to act, and with that action comes purpose—a reason to get out of bed in the morning and build.
For too long, we’ve been told we can be anything, do anything, and that all criticisms of that anything are an attack on our identity and very being. That self-love and self-care are all we need to thrive. And yet, we’ve never seemed more miserable, never been more lost, and never less confident in what we stand for.
Maybe one day the all-knowing AI will tell us the truth:
Find a purpose outside yourself. You are not enough.
News of the Times;
Surprise! The COVID vaccines were never tested for safety:
https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/surprise-the-covid-vaccines-were
Elon Crushes BBC Reporter's Claims About 'Hate Speech' On Twitter:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/you-just-lied-elon-crushes-bbc-reporters-claims-about-hate-speech-twitter
Seymour Hersh: the CIA Knows Ukrainian Officials Are Skimming US Aid:
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/04/12/seymour-hersh-the-cia-knows-ukrainian-officials-are-skimming-us-aid/
Why are the SAS in Ukraine – and do we have a clue why we're involved in this war:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11976881/PETER-HITCHENS-SAS-Ukraine-clue-involved-war.html
If you use this common internet slang, the FBI thinks you’re a ‘violent extremist’:
https://www.based-politics.com/2023/04/10/red-pilled-fbi-docs-label-people-who-use-term-as-extremists/
The Secret Documents Warning Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Will Likely Stall:
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-secret-documents-warning-ukraines-counteroffensive-will-likely-stall/
A Member of the Tolerance Crowd Slaps a Middle Schooler:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/lincolnbrown/2023/04/11/a-member-of-the-tolerance-crowd-slaps-a-middle-schooler-n1686262
'Graceful as a dump truck':
https://www.wnd.com/2023/04/graceful-dump-truck-side-side-views-ballerina-vs-trans-ballet-dancer/
As number of women rises in higher ed, free speech declines on campuses:
https://www.thecollegefix.com/as-number-of-women-rises-in-higher-ed-free-speech-declines-on-campuses-survey/
Brattleboro women charged in connection to most recent murder:
https://www.mynbc5.com/article/brattleboro-women-charged-in-connection-to-most-recent-murder-at-a-shelter-in-town/43510991
German Mortgage Lending Collapses:
https://www.thefinancialtrends.com/2023/04/05/german-mortgage-lending-collapses/
At least 1,000 sex offenders - including multiple rapists - have avoided criminal records by apologising to their victims:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11904791/At-1-000-sex-offenders-avoided-criminal-records-past-two-years-apologising-victims.html
'Trans Person' Charged with Easter Murder of Cab Driver:
https://www.westernjournal.com/trans-person-charged-easter-murder-cab-driver-stabbing-captured-camera/
In the war on bacteria, it’s time to call in the phages:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/04/in-the-war-on-bacteria-its-time-to-call-in-the-phages/
Declassified Guantanamo court filing suggests some 9/11 hijackers were CIA agents:
https://www.rt.com/news/574490-cia-dirty-deeds-nine-eleven/
Purpose?
Millions?
Why are pedophiles terrible Blackjack players?
They don't hit on anything over 14.
*.*
Two little kids were arguing over who's dad has a better job.
First kid says, "My dad’s a doctor."
Second kid says, "Yeah, well my dad's lawyer."
Astonished the first kid says, "Honest?"
The second kid replied, "No, the usual kind."
*.*
Transgender visibility took yet another step forward today as Raytheon unveiled its new Patriot missile endorsed by transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney. President Biden immediately celebrated this new line of missiles, hailing it as a leap forward in lethal diversity.
"It's got this Dylan fella's face all over it," President Biden said in short remarks before he made several attempts to board Air Force One. "Not only is this missile an advanced and deadly tool in our arsenal, but it's also a symbol of everything the U.S. military has become. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!"
The missile features a trans flag and Mulvaney's image along with sparkling glitter and speakers to blast Lady Gaga songs as it soars through the sky toward its intended target. Upon impact, the missile is also designed to explode in an enormous mushroom cloud of pink confetti as it inflicts mass death and destruction. "This really is a perfect combination of modern warfare and fabulous transgender pride," said a Raytheon spokesperson. "And that's what we're all about here at Raytheon."
U.S. Military officials were hoping this would be the first of many Dylan Mulvaney-themed weaponry projects in the future, including pink Humvees, ICBMs, and machine guns that have had their barrels surgically removed.
At publishing time, rumors were already spreading that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to surrender after it was revealed Dylan Mulvaney would personally deliver the first batch of missiles to the Russia-Ukraine region.
*.*
A Greek man walks into a Greek tailor shop holding a pair of old tattered jeans.
The blind old tailor squints at him. "Euripedes?"
The man nods and holds up the pants. "Eumenedes?"
*.*
"Don't be afraid of the dog," said the lady to Little Johnny, who was delivering her groceries.
"You know the old proverb, 'A barking dog never bites?'"
"Yes," replied Little Johnny. "You know the proverb. I know the proverb. But does your dog know the proverb?"
Quote of the Times;
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” - Fleming
Link of the Times;
Twitter shows up fact-checker on Soros defense:
https://www.rt.com/news/574111-twitter-community-soros-bragg-trump/
Issue of the Times;
Democrats Are Taking in Multi-Millions from Foreigners and No One Seems to Care by Joe Hoft
This past week alone, there were multiple articles of top Democrats taking multi-millions from foreigners in gifts and contributions. This is supposed to be against the law for obvious reasons but no one seems to care.
Earlier this week Breitbart reported that Leonardo DiCaprio testified under oath in an Obama campaign money-laundering trial. DeCaprio told the court that he was surprised by the amount of money he saw being donated to the Obama campaign.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in Washington Monday to testify in the trial of Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel who is accused of illegally funneling money from fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Taek Low to the Barack Obama campaign through straw donors.
Michael, a founding member of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees, is accused of illegally funneling foreign donations to Obama’s 2012 campaign for president, that was sourced from a Malaysian financier. It is illegal for foreigners to donate money to U.S. political campaigns.
DiCaprio, 48, testified that he was surprised by the amount of money he saw being donated to the Obama campaign.
“It was a significant sum — something to the tune of $20-30 million,” DiCaprio said on the stand, according to the New York Post. “I said, ‘Wow that’s a lot of money!’”
The Hollywood star was called to testify because he had been a close U.S. associate of Low, having taken his donations for charities as well as financing for his award winning 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
Low was well-known among Hollywood A-Listers for throwing lavish parties, inviting top executives and actors on expensive vacations, doling out flights on his private jet, and attending and donating at numerous charity events. But he is now accused of embezzling his millions and is on the run.
Obama was famous for disregarding the law and doing whatever he wanted. The leftwing media never called him out for this. This attitude and practice is the current modus operandi in the US government today.
Breitbart also reported this week on the Democrat’s new George Soros: Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. This guy is donating huge sums to Democrat causes that are destroying the country.
Billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss national who lives in Wyoming, has become a “Democrat-aligned mega-donor,” according to the Associated Press (AP), thanks to his funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing groups.
“Newly available tax documents show that his giving through the Berger Action Fund, which describes itself as advocating for ‘solutions to some of our world’s biggest problems,’ swelled in 2021 to $72 million, cementing Wyss’ status as a Democratic-aligned megadonor,” the AP reports.
Wyss, who built his fortune creating the medical device company Synthes USA, which was sold in 2012 to Johnson & Johnson for $20 billion, has routed nearly $340 million through the Berger Action Fund to left-wing organizations like Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund since 2016.
Both groups have worked to build support for President Joe Biden’s agenda.
Specifically, Sixteen Thirty Fund is a left-wing lobbying organization that promotes “equity and racial justice” as well as universal healthcare and climate change legislation. The Sixteen Thirty Fund also shifts money to left-wing political organizations like the scandal-plagued Lincoln Project and the pro-Biden group Unite the Country.
As Politico reported in 2021, the group spent $410 million in the 2020 presidential election to unseat then-President Donald Trump and win Democrats a Senate majority with ad campaigns and a huge get-out-the-vote effort. Since 2016, Wyss has donated $208 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
TGP wrote about Wyss in 2021 noting that despite his huge amounts of donations to the Democrats, there is no evidence that he is a US citizen.
In 2020, three individuals with foreign roots financed the Democrats. Wyss and George Soros were two of the three with the third being Pierre Omidyar.
These men have issues even with their citizenship status.
Hansjörg Wyss, the richest man in Switzerland, may not even be a United States citizen. The article notes that his $135 million in STF dark money donations were “earmarked for non-electoral purposes”.
George Soros illegally immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. Aside from his history of Nazi collaboration which should have barred his entry and made him deportable, an account states that his visa was based on a false affidavit filed on his behalf.
Pierre Omidyar, an Iranian immigrant, currently the richest man in Hawaii, is a Big Tech billionaire born to wealthy foreign students in Paris, who brought him here as a child. His mother, a Berkeley academic, heads a pro-Iran group financed by her son’s fortune.
Omidyar injected an estimated $45 million into an STF fund.
The billionaires handled their own initiatives related to this past election.
Omidyar finances both Black Lives Matter and Never Trumpers. The eBay billionaire is the hidden hand behind the fake “Facebook whistleblower” advocating censoring conservatives. He has a project to “reimagine capitalism” while funding The Intercept which openly touts Marxism.
Soros is equally devious, having secretly funded J Street so that the anti-Israel group could pretend to be moderate opponents without being associated with a noted enemy of the Jewish State. Publicly, he bashes Xi and China, while his Quincy Institute defends the People’s Republic of China and advocates alongside the “Squad” against any anti-China measures.
Wyss has plowed a fortune into American politics without ever even going on the record as to whether he holds American citizenship. Meanwhile Wyss’ Hub Project, operating out of STF, set up fronts like Floridians for a Fair Shake, Keep Iowa Healthy, and North Carolinians for a Fair Economy that went after Republicans. This isn’t politics: it’s a hostile foreign takeover.
Omidyar also is heavily involved in the covert efforts by Big Tech targeting US citizens.
These people are doing this because they can. There is no pushback from the right. It’s time for that to stop.
News of the Times;
The Pentagon Leak Is Really Bad:
https://victorygirlsblog.com/the-pentagon-leak-is-really-bad-so-is-governments-response/
Our French Revolution:
https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/05/our-french-revolution/
The Condition Of Our Society Has Never Been This Bad:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/the-condition-of-our-society-has-never-been-this-bad-and-it-is-only-going-to-get-worse/
A Lot of the Trans Folks Are Self-Identifying as Violent Now:
https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2023/04/07/the-morning-briefing-a-lot-of-the-trans-folks-are-self-identifying-as-violent-now-n1685256
San Francisco, RIP?:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/san-francisco-rip.php
SF Death Trap:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/sf-death-trap-cycling-champ-mowed-car-liberal-city-compared-3rd-world-country/
The undisputed least tolerant religious group (Islam) in the world complains that Muslims don’t feel welcome in America:
https://barenakedislam.com/2023/04/05/oh-this-is-rich-the-undisputed-least-tolerant-religious-group-islam-in-the-world-complains-that-muslims-dont-feel-welcome-in-america/
U.S. sweating bullets as officials realize they sent too much ammo to Ukraine:
https://www.wnd.com/2023/04/u-s-sweating-bullets-officials-realize-sent-much-ammo-ukraine/
Rabbi Explains How Jews ‘Made A Mint’ Off European Wars:
https://christiansfortruth.com/rabbi-explains-how-jews-made-a-mint-off-european-wars-and-back-stabbed-their-countries-in-the-process/
Former NCAA Champion Swimmer Riley Gaines Assaulted by Man in Dress – Held Hostage by Angry Mob:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/fking-bch-former-ncaa-champion-swimmer-riley-gaines-assaulted-by-man-in-dress-and-held-hostage-by-crowd-after-giving-speech-on-saving-womens-sports-at-san-francisco-state-university-video/
Two Florida women arrested after taunting, abusing elderly woman on live stream:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/two-florida-women-arrested-taunting-abusing-elderly-women-live-stream-deputies-say
Court backs Indiana teacher firing over transgender students’ names:
https://www.wane.com/top-stories/court-backs-indiana-teacher-firing-over-transgender-students-names/
McDonald’s Layoffs Hold An Economic Warning:
https://victorygirlsblog.com/mcdonalds-layoffs-hold-an-economic-warning/
A Texas Woman Stopped By McDonald’s For Breakfast:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-texas-woman-stopped-by-mcdonald-s-for-breakfast-then-a-man-out-on-bond-for-murder-robbed-and-ran-over-her/ar-AA19sUx1
Covid vaccines have caused a surge in IRS estate tax revenues as fully vaccinated wealthy people DIE:
https://www.dcclothesline.com/2023/04/04/vax-for-tax-covid-vaccines-have-caused-a-surge-in-irs-estate-tax-revenues-as-fully-vaccinated-wealthy-people-die/
They don't hit on anything over 14.
*.*
Two little kids were arguing over who's dad has a better job.
First kid says, "My dad’s a doctor."
Second kid says, "Yeah, well my dad's lawyer."
Astonished the first kid says, "Honest?"
The second kid replied, "No, the usual kind."
*.*
Transgender visibility took yet another step forward today as Raytheon unveiled its new Patriot missile endorsed by transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney. President Biden immediately celebrated this new line of missiles, hailing it as a leap forward in lethal diversity.
"It's got this Dylan fella's face all over it," President Biden said in short remarks before he made several attempts to board Air Force One. "Not only is this missile an advanced and deadly tool in our arsenal, but it's also a symbol of everything the U.S. military has become. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!"
The missile features a trans flag and Mulvaney's image along with sparkling glitter and speakers to blast Lady Gaga songs as it soars through the sky toward its intended target. Upon impact, the missile is also designed to explode in an enormous mushroom cloud of pink confetti as it inflicts mass death and destruction. "This really is a perfect combination of modern warfare and fabulous transgender pride," said a Raytheon spokesperson. "And that's what we're all about here at Raytheon."
U.S. Military officials were hoping this would be the first of many Dylan Mulvaney-themed weaponry projects in the future, including pink Humvees, ICBMs, and machine guns that have had their barrels surgically removed.
At publishing time, rumors were already spreading that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to surrender after it was revealed Dylan Mulvaney would personally deliver the first batch of missiles to the Russia-Ukraine region.
*.*
A Greek man walks into a Greek tailor shop holding a pair of old tattered jeans.
The blind old tailor squints at him. "Euripedes?"
The man nods and holds up the pants. "Eumenedes?"
*.*
"Don't be afraid of the dog," said the lady to Little Johnny, who was delivering her groceries.
"You know the old proverb, 'A barking dog never bites?'"
"Yes," replied Little Johnny. "You know the proverb. I know the proverb. But does your dog know the proverb?"
Quote of the Times;
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” - Fleming
Link of the Times;
Twitter shows up fact-checker on Soros defense:
https://www.rt.com/news/574111-twitter-community-soros-bragg-trump/
Issue of the Times;
Democrats Are Taking in Multi-Millions from Foreigners and No One Seems to Care by Joe Hoft
This past week alone, there were multiple articles of top Democrats taking multi-millions from foreigners in gifts and contributions. This is supposed to be against the law for obvious reasons but no one seems to care.
Earlier this week Breitbart reported that Leonardo DiCaprio testified under oath in an Obama campaign money-laundering trial. DeCaprio told the court that he was surprised by the amount of money he saw being donated to the Obama campaign.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in Washington Monday to testify in the trial of Fugees rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel who is accused of illegally funneling money from fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Taek Low to the Barack Obama campaign through straw donors.
Michael, a founding member of the 1990s hip-hop group the Fugees, is accused of illegally funneling foreign donations to Obama’s 2012 campaign for president, that was sourced from a Malaysian financier. It is illegal for foreigners to donate money to U.S. political campaigns.
DiCaprio, 48, testified that he was surprised by the amount of money he saw being donated to the Obama campaign.
“It was a significant sum — something to the tune of $20-30 million,” DiCaprio said on the stand, according to the New York Post. “I said, ‘Wow that’s a lot of money!’”
The Hollywood star was called to testify because he had been a close U.S. associate of Low, having taken his donations for charities as well as financing for his award winning 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street.
Low was well-known among Hollywood A-Listers for throwing lavish parties, inviting top executives and actors on expensive vacations, doling out flights on his private jet, and attending and donating at numerous charity events. But he is now accused of embezzling his millions and is on the run.
Obama was famous for disregarding the law and doing whatever he wanted. The leftwing media never called him out for this. This attitude and practice is the current modus operandi in the US government today.
Breitbart also reported this week on the Democrat’s new George Soros: Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss. This guy is donating huge sums to Democrat causes that are destroying the country.
Billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss national who lives in Wyoming, has become a “Democrat-aligned mega-donor,” according to the Associated Press (AP), thanks to his funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing groups.
“Newly available tax documents show that his giving through the Berger Action Fund, which describes itself as advocating for ‘solutions to some of our world’s biggest problems,’ swelled in 2021 to $72 million, cementing Wyss’ status as a Democratic-aligned megadonor,” the AP reports.
Wyss, who built his fortune creating the medical device company Synthes USA, which was sold in 2012 to Johnson & Johnson for $20 billion, has routed nearly $340 million through the Berger Action Fund to left-wing organizations like Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund since 2016.
Both groups have worked to build support for President Joe Biden’s agenda.
Specifically, Sixteen Thirty Fund is a left-wing lobbying organization that promotes “equity and racial justice” as well as universal healthcare and climate change legislation. The Sixteen Thirty Fund also shifts money to left-wing political organizations like the scandal-plagued Lincoln Project and the pro-Biden group Unite the Country.
As Politico reported in 2021, the group spent $410 million in the 2020 presidential election to unseat then-President Donald Trump and win Democrats a Senate majority with ad campaigns and a huge get-out-the-vote effort. Since 2016, Wyss has donated $208 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
TGP wrote about Wyss in 2021 noting that despite his huge amounts of donations to the Democrats, there is no evidence that he is a US citizen.
In 2020, three individuals with foreign roots financed the Democrats. Wyss and George Soros were two of the three with the third being Pierre Omidyar.
These men have issues even with their citizenship status.
Hansjörg Wyss, the richest man in Switzerland, may not even be a United States citizen. The article notes that his $135 million in STF dark money donations were “earmarked for non-electoral purposes”.
George Soros illegally immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. Aside from his history of Nazi collaboration which should have barred his entry and made him deportable, an account states that his visa was based on a false affidavit filed on his behalf.
Pierre Omidyar, an Iranian immigrant, currently the richest man in Hawaii, is a Big Tech billionaire born to wealthy foreign students in Paris, who brought him here as a child. His mother, a Berkeley academic, heads a pro-Iran group financed by her son’s fortune.
Omidyar injected an estimated $45 million into an STF fund.
The billionaires handled their own initiatives related to this past election.
Omidyar finances both Black Lives Matter and Never Trumpers. The eBay billionaire is the hidden hand behind the fake “Facebook whistleblower” advocating censoring conservatives. He has a project to “reimagine capitalism” while funding The Intercept which openly touts Marxism.
Soros is equally devious, having secretly funded J Street so that the anti-Israel group could pretend to be moderate opponents without being associated with a noted enemy of the Jewish State. Publicly, he bashes Xi and China, while his Quincy Institute defends the People’s Republic of China and advocates alongside the “Squad” against any anti-China measures.
Wyss has plowed a fortune into American politics without ever even going on the record as to whether he holds American citizenship. Meanwhile Wyss’ Hub Project, operating out of STF, set up fronts like Floridians for a Fair Shake, Keep Iowa Healthy, and North Carolinians for a Fair Economy that went after Republicans. This isn’t politics: it’s a hostile foreign takeover.
Omidyar also is heavily involved in the covert efforts by Big Tech targeting US citizens.
These people are doing this because they can. There is no pushback from the right. It’s time for that to stop.
News of the Times;
The Pentagon Leak Is Really Bad:
https://victorygirlsblog.com/the-pentagon-leak-is-really-bad-so-is-governments-response/
Our French Revolution:
https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/05/our-french-revolution/
The Condition Of Our Society Has Never Been This Bad:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/the-condition-of-our-society-has-never-been-this-bad-and-it-is-only-going-to-get-worse/
A Lot of the Trans Folks Are Self-Identifying as Violent Now:
https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2023/04/07/the-morning-briefing-a-lot-of-the-trans-folks-are-self-identifying-as-violent-now-n1685256
San Francisco, RIP?:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/san-francisco-rip.php
SF Death Trap:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/sf-death-trap-cycling-champ-mowed-car-liberal-city-compared-3rd-world-country/
The undisputed least tolerant religious group (Islam) in the world complains that Muslims don’t feel welcome in America:
https://barenakedislam.com/2023/04/05/oh-this-is-rich-the-undisputed-least-tolerant-religious-group-islam-in-the-world-complains-that-muslims-dont-feel-welcome-in-america/
U.S. sweating bullets as officials realize they sent too much ammo to Ukraine:
https://www.wnd.com/2023/04/u-s-sweating-bullets-officials-realize-sent-much-ammo-ukraine/
Rabbi Explains How Jews ‘Made A Mint’ Off European Wars:
https://christiansfortruth.com/rabbi-explains-how-jews-made-a-mint-off-european-wars-and-back-stabbed-their-countries-in-the-process/
Former NCAA Champion Swimmer Riley Gaines Assaulted by Man in Dress – Held Hostage by Angry Mob:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/fking-bch-former-ncaa-champion-swimmer-riley-gaines-assaulted-by-man-in-dress-and-held-hostage-by-crowd-after-giving-speech-on-saving-womens-sports-at-san-francisco-state-university-video/
Two Florida women arrested after taunting, abusing elderly woman on live stream:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/two-florida-women-arrested-taunting-abusing-elderly-women-live-stream-deputies-say
Court backs Indiana teacher firing over transgender students’ names:
https://www.wane.com/top-stories/court-backs-indiana-teacher-firing-over-transgender-students-names/
McDonald’s Layoffs Hold An Economic Warning:
https://victorygirlsblog.com/mcdonalds-layoffs-hold-an-economic-warning/
A Texas Woman Stopped By McDonald’s For Breakfast:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-texas-woman-stopped-by-mcdonald-s-for-breakfast-then-a-man-out-on-bond-for-murder-robbed-and-ran-over-her/ar-AA19sUx1
Covid vaccines have caused a surge in IRS estate tax revenues as fully vaccinated wealthy people DIE:
https://www.dcclothesline.com/2023/04/04/vax-for-tax-covid-vaccines-have-caused-a-surge-in-irs-estate-tax-revenues-as-fully-vaccinated-wealthy-people-die/
Mulvaney?
A boiled egg in the morning.
It's pretty hard to beat.
*.*
I woke up this morning and nothing hurt for a few minutes.
Thought I was dead.
*.*
A pastor assured his congregation he was their servant and that they should feel free to call him anytime they had a problem.
That night the pastor's phone rang at 3 a.m. On the other end was a dear elderly lady who said, "Pastor, I can't sleep."
"I'm so sorry to hear that," he comforted her. "But what can I do about it?" the pastor asked.
She sweetly replied, "Preach to me a while."
*.*
My mate got fired from his job recently.
He was working in a board games shop, got fired for stealing.
He was taking a lot of risks.
*.*
Why did the baker have smelly hands?
He kneaded a poo.
Quote of the Times;
Nashville. Trump indicted. Mackey convicted. They want you demoralized and blackpilled. Don’t be. Christ is King. Hate their evil with a righteous hatred, as we are commanded. – Torba
Link of the Times;
Study Confirms Trans 'Social Contagion' Theory:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/04/03/study-confirms-trans-social-contagion-theory-n1684173
Issue of the Times;
Report Reveals the Alarming Reason Why Bud Light and Nike are Shoving “Transgender” Dylan Mulvaney in America’s Face by Cullen Linebarger
Almost no one in America had ever heard of Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male pretending to be female before this year. Now he is suddenly all over the news.
The reason behind his sudden emergence is chilling. The New York Post exclusively revealed that The Human Rights Campaign, the forefront of the leftist LGBTQ mafia, is utilizing a social credit score to force companies like Nike and Anheuser-Busch to advance their poisonous agenda.
These are precisely the tactics Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pulls with their citizens and companies when they say or do something contrary to the CCP’s mission.
In addition, the HRC publicly threatens organizations every year by sending a list of demands in person over what they want displayed in public. Clearly, Mulvaney was part of those marching orders.
The HRC is backed by hedge funds such as Blackrock and Vanguard, the top shareholders of most American publicly-traded corporations. Failure to advance the woke agenda would lead to these companies pulling their funds from Nike, Anheuser-Busch, and other major companies, leading to the loss of millions of dollars.
All of this means that major corporations actually lose more by not embracing the woke left than from angering conservatives. So much for the “get woke, go broke” slogan.
The New York Post reported:
Executives at companies like Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade, whose brand endorsements have turned controversial trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney into today’s woke “It girl,” aren’t just virtue signaling.
They’re handing out lucrative deals to what were once considered fringe celebrities because they have to — or risk failing an all-important social credit score that could make or break their businesses.
At stake is their Corporate Equality Index — or CEI — score, which is overseen by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the world.
HRC, which has received millions from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation among others, issues report cards for America’s biggest corporations via the CEI: awarding or subtracting points for how well companies adhere to what HRC calls its “rating criteria.”
The HRC lists five major rating criteria, each with its own lengthy subsets, for companies to gain — or lose — CEI points. The main categories are: “Workforce Protections,” “Inclusive Benefits,” “Supporting an Inclusive Culture,” “Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Citizenship.”
A company can lose CEI points if it doesn’t fulfill HRC’s demand for “integration of intersectionality in professional development, skills-based or other training” or if it doesn’t use a “supplier diversity program with demonstrated effort to include certified LGBTQ+ suppliers.”
James Lindsay, a political podcaster who runs a site called New Discourses, told The Post that the Human Rights campaign administers the CEI ranking “like an extortion racket, like the Mafia.
It doesn’t just sit back passively either. HRC sends representatives to corporations every year telling them what kind of stuff they have to make visible at the company. They give them a list of demands and if they don’t follow through there’s a threat that you won’t keep your CEI score.”
As a result, some American CEOs are more concerned about pleasing BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Bank — who are among the top shareholders of most American publicly-traded corporations (including Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade) — than they are about irritating conservatives, numerous sources told The Post.
“The big fund managers like BlackRock all embrace this ESG orthodoxy in how they apply pressure to top corporate management teams and boards and they determine, in many cases, executive compensation and bonuses and who gets re-elected or re-appointed to boards,” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for president as a Republican and authored “Woke Inc.: Inside America’s Social Justice Scam,” told The Post. “They can make it very difficult for you if you don’t abide by their agendas.”
In 2018, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who oversees assets worth $8.6 trillion and has been called the “face of ESG,” wrote a now-infamous letter to CEOs titled “A Sense of Purpose” that pushed a “new model of governance” in line with ESG values.
“Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose,” Fink wrote. “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.”
Fink also let it be known “that if a company doesn’t engage with the community and have a sense of purpose “it will ultimately lose the license to operate from key stakeholders.”
News of the Times;
Biden Says the Quiet Part Out Loud:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/biden-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-all-but-admits-to-coordinating-to-stop-trump-from-taking-power-again/
Were Recent Bank Failures the Result of Lax Regulation:
https://mises.org/wire/were-recent-bank-failures-result-lax-regulation-word-no
Feds LEAK indictment to disgraced Russiagate reporter:
https://www.revolver.news/2023/04/feds-leak-indictment-to-disgraced-russia-gate-reporter-isikoff/
Biden To Deploy “Army” Of Social Media Influencers, Station Them In White House:
https://summit.news/2023/04/10/report-biden-to-deploy-army-of-social-media-influencers-station-them-in-white-house/
Biden Admin: ‘Natural Immunity Is Not Something We Believe In’:
https://slaynews.com/news/biden-admin-natural-immunity-is-not-something-we-believe-in/
China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies:
https://unusualwhales.com/news/china-and-brazil-have-reached-a-deal-to-trade-in-their-own-currencies-ditching-the-us-dollar-as-an-intermediary
US Is Spying On Zelensky:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-spying-zelensky-heres-whats-known-so-far-leaked-intelligence-files
What Caused the Tennessee Legislature to Devolve Into Mayhem:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/04/04/what-caused-the-tennessee-legislature-to-devolve-into-mayhem-last-night-n2621509
James O’Keefe Uncovers Possible Lucrative Money-Laundering Scheme for Dems:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/03/29/james-okeefe-uncovers-possible-lucrative-money-laundering-scheme-for-dems-n1682689
L.A. City Council Democrat Convicted of Corruption; Ties to Mayor Karen Bass:
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2023/03/31/l-a-city-council-democrat-convicted-of-corruption-ties-to-mayor-karen-bass/
Diversity Training Disaster:
https://www.takimag.com/article/diversity-training-disaster/
Video Shows Undercover Police Officers Posing As Rioters on J6:
https://newspunch.com/video-shows-undercover-police-officers-posing-as-rioters-on-j6/
Muslims murder over 60 Christians, at least one in jihad attack on worship service:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/04/nigeria-muslims-murder-over-60-christians-at-least-one-in-jihad-attack-on-worship-service
Newly-Elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Declares Blacks Should Be Free To LOOT Without Fear Of Criminal Prosecution:
https://en-volve.com/2023/04/06/watch-newly-elected-chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-declares-blacks-should-be-free-to-loot-without-fear-of-criminal-prosecution/
“I’m a Racist, F**k White People”:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/im-a-racist-fk-white-people-radical-leftist-harasses-trump-supporters-in-nyc-democrats-hand-out-whistles-to-drown-out-marjorie-taylor-greene-during-speech-video/
It's pretty hard to beat.
*.*
I woke up this morning and nothing hurt for a few minutes.
Thought I was dead.
*.*
A pastor assured his congregation he was their servant and that they should feel free to call him anytime they had a problem.
That night the pastor's phone rang at 3 a.m. On the other end was a dear elderly lady who said, "Pastor, I can't sleep."
"I'm so sorry to hear that," he comforted her. "But what can I do about it?" the pastor asked.
She sweetly replied, "Preach to me a while."
*.*
My mate got fired from his job recently.
He was working in a board games shop, got fired for stealing.
He was taking a lot of risks.
*.*
Why did the baker have smelly hands?
He kneaded a poo.
Quote of the Times;
Nashville. Trump indicted. Mackey convicted. They want you demoralized and blackpilled. Don’t be. Christ is King. Hate their evil with a righteous hatred, as we are commanded. – Torba
Link of the Times;
Study Confirms Trans 'Social Contagion' Theory:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/04/03/study-confirms-trans-social-contagion-theory-n1684173
Issue of the Times;
Report Reveals the Alarming Reason Why Bud Light and Nike are Shoving “Transgender” Dylan Mulvaney in America’s Face by Cullen Linebarger
Almost no one in America had ever heard of Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male pretending to be female before this year. Now he is suddenly all over the news.
The reason behind his sudden emergence is chilling. The New York Post exclusively revealed that The Human Rights Campaign, the forefront of the leftist LGBTQ mafia, is utilizing a social credit score to force companies like Nike and Anheuser-Busch to advance their poisonous agenda.
These are precisely the tactics Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pulls with their citizens and companies when they say or do something contrary to the CCP’s mission.
In addition, the HRC publicly threatens organizations every year by sending a list of demands in person over what they want displayed in public. Clearly, Mulvaney was part of those marching orders.
The HRC is backed by hedge funds such as Blackrock and Vanguard, the top shareholders of most American publicly-traded corporations. Failure to advance the woke agenda would lead to these companies pulling their funds from Nike, Anheuser-Busch, and other major companies, leading to the loss of millions of dollars.
All of this means that major corporations actually lose more by not embracing the woke left than from angering conservatives. So much for the “get woke, go broke” slogan.
The New York Post reported:
Executives at companies like Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade, whose brand endorsements have turned controversial trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney into today’s woke “It girl,” aren’t just virtue signaling.
They’re handing out lucrative deals to what were once considered fringe celebrities because they have to — or risk failing an all-important social credit score that could make or break their businesses.
At stake is their Corporate Equality Index — or CEI — score, which is overseen by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the world.
HRC, which has received millions from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation among others, issues report cards for America’s biggest corporations via the CEI: awarding or subtracting points for how well companies adhere to what HRC calls its “rating criteria.”
The HRC lists five major rating criteria, each with its own lengthy subsets, for companies to gain — or lose — CEI points. The main categories are: “Workforce Protections,” “Inclusive Benefits,” “Supporting an Inclusive Culture,” “Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Citizenship.”
A company can lose CEI points if it doesn’t fulfill HRC’s demand for “integration of intersectionality in professional development, skills-based or other training” or if it doesn’t use a “supplier diversity program with demonstrated effort to include certified LGBTQ+ suppliers.”
James Lindsay, a political podcaster who runs a site called New Discourses, told The Post that the Human Rights campaign administers the CEI ranking “like an extortion racket, like the Mafia.
It doesn’t just sit back passively either. HRC sends representatives to corporations every year telling them what kind of stuff they have to make visible at the company. They give them a list of demands and if they don’t follow through there’s a threat that you won’t keep your CEI score.”
As a result, some American CEOs are more concerned about pleasing BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Bank — who are among the top shareholders of most American publicly-traded corporations (including Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade) — than they are about irritating conservatives, numerous sources told The Post.
“The big fund managers like BlackRock all embrace this ESG orthodoxy in how they apply pressure to top corporate management teams and boards and they determine, in many cases, executive compensation and bonuses and who gets re-elected or re-appointed to boards,” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for president as a Republican and authored “Woke Inc.: Inside America’s Social Justice Scam,” told The Post. “They can make it very difficult for you if you don’t abide by their agendas.”
In 2018, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who oversees assets worth $8.6 trillion and has been called the “face of ESG,” wrote a now-infamous letter to CEOs titled “A Sense of Purpose” that pushed a “new model of governance” in line with ESG values.
“Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose,” Fink wrote. “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.”
Fink also let it be known “that if a company doesn’t engage with the community and have a sense of purpose “it will ultimately lose the license to operate from key stakeholders.”
News of the Times;
Biden Says the Quiet Part Out Loud:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/biden-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-all-but-admits-to-coordinating-to-stop-trump-from-taking-power-again/
Were Recent Bank Failures the Result of Lax Regulation:
https://mises.org/wire/were-recent-bank-failures-result-lax-regulation-word-no
Feds LEAK indictment to disgraced Russiagate reporter:
https://www.revolver.news/2023/04/feds-leak-indictment-to-disgraced-russia-gate-reporter-isikoff/
Biden To Deploy “Army” Of Social Media Influencers, Station Them In White House:
https://summit.news/2023/04/10/report-biden-to-deploy-army-of-social-media-influencers-station-them-in-white-house/
Biden Admin: ‘Natural Immunity Is Not Something We Believe In’:
https://slaynews.com/news/biden-admin-natural-immunity-is-not-something-we-believe-in/
China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies:
https://unusualwhales.com/news/china-and-brazil-have-reached-a-deal-to-trade-in-their-own-currencies-ditching-the-us-dollar-as-an-intermediary
US Is Spying On Zelensky:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-spying-zelensky-heres-whats-known-so-far-leaked-intelligence-files
What Caused the Tennessee Legislature to Devolve Into Mayhem:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/04/04/what-caused-the-tennessee-legislature-to-devolve-into-mayhem-last-night-n2621509
James O’Keefe Uncovers Possible Lucrative Money-Laundering Scheme for Dems:
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/03/29/james-okeefe-uncovers-possible-lucrative-money-laundering-scheme-for-dems-n1682689
L.A. City Council Democrat Convicted of Corruption; Ties to Mayor Karen Bass:
https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2023/03/31/l-a-city-council-democrat-convicted-of-corruption-ties-to-mayor-karen-bass/
Diversity Training Disaster:
https://www.takimag.com/article/diversity-training-disaster/
Video Shows Undercover Police Officers Posing As Rioters on J6:
https://newspunch.com/video-shows-undercover-police-officers-posing-as-rioters-on-j6/
Muslims murder over 60 Christians, at least one in jihad attack on worship service:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/04/nigeria-muslims-murder-over-60-christians-at-least-one-in-jihad-attack-on-worship-service
Newly-Elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Declares Blacks Should Be Free To LOOT Without Fear Of Criminal Prosecution:
https://en-volve.com/2023/04/06/watch-newly-elected-chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-declares-blacks-should-be-free-to-loot-without-fear-of-criminal-prosecution/
“I’m a Racist, F**k White People”:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/im-a-racist-fk-white-people-radical-leftist-harasses-trump-supporters-in-nyc-democrats-hand-out-whistles-to-drown-out-marjorie-taylor-greene-during-speech-video/
Version?
According to a study by Wordfinder, Montana is the most polite state in the U.S.!
We can't tell you what New York said about coming in last.
*.*
I was walking through the park I saw an old man feeding some birds.
I thought to myself "I wonder how long he's been dead."
*.*
In a match made in heaven, a beverage that tries to pass itself as beer has hired as its spokesperson a man trying to pass himself off as a woman.
"For decades, we've been putting carbonated backwash in a beer can and pretending it's beer," said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth. "Who better to represent our brand than a guy throwing on a dress and pretending he's a woman?"
Long a staple drink of people who hate actual beer, Bud Light felt putting Dylan Mulvaney's face on a can would also attract people who hate actual women. "As a man acting out the most horrendously offensive stereotypes of women, Mulvaney taps into the soul of people who despise real women," said Mr. Whitworth. "As a company dedicated to serving those who detest real beer, the partnership made perfect sense. The new beer can just shouts, 'Come, enjoy this atrocious substitute for the real thing'."
While a few in the media questioned the move, so far Bud Light fans have welcomed drinking out of a can featuring the face of a guy with a little girl fetish. "It really completes the experience," said Bud Light fan Mason Olsen. "If that dude with his massive jaw can pretend to be a little girl - well, I can pretend this is real beer. It's pretty inspiring."
*.*
I want to be 14 again so I can ruin my life differently.
I have new ideas.
*.*
What's the difference between a Ritz and a lesbian?
One is a snack cracker.
Quote of the Times;
An irreligious society cannot endure the truth of the human condition. It prefers a lie, no matter how idiotic it may be. – Davila
Link of the Times;
The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington:
https://www.gunowners.org/
Issue of the Times;
The Parable of the Drowning Man: Communist Version by Monalisa Foster
What a communist parable actually teaches
We were having an interesting discussion on my FB wall about free will because I made the observation that even God left Man free will, whereas Man would definitely not and it segued into some comments about Christianity. If you read my previous Pretending to Sleep posts about coming to America, I wrote a little bit about my relationship with religion, particularly organized religion (i.e. I am not a fan or a practitioner). Nevertheless, I do have an appreciation for the Great Clockmaker (as my friend Justin dubbed it) and my religious friends with whom I apparently have more in common than not.
There is a Christian story involving a flood, called the “Parable of the Drowning Man.”
The parable of the drowning man, also known as Two Boats and a Helicopter, is a short story, often told as a joke, most often about a devoutly Christian man, frequently a minister, who refuses several rescue attempts in the face of approaching floodwaters, each time telling the would-be rescuers that God will save him. After turning down the last, he drowns in the flood. After his death, the man meets God and asks why he did not intervene. God responds that he sent all the would-be rescuers to the man's aid on the expectation he would accept the help.—Wikipedia
The version I was taught is a little different. Now, do keep in mind that I’m paraphrasing, not quoting, and that there are probably variations of this, as there often are (Ivan and the Goat comes to mind for example):
A boyar (large landowner) and a peasant escape a sudden flood and somehow end up in a tree. The flood sweeps everything away, so it’s just the two of them. The boyar filled his pockets with gold; the peasant with bread.
Time passes and the boyar offers the peasant some of his gold in exchange for the bread, at which point the peasant speaks truth-to-power and lectures the boyar on his choices (something which happens only in parables and revisionist fantasies).
Weak with hunger, the boyar falls out of the tree and drowns. Sustained by the bread, the peasant survives and when the flood waters recede, he gets down, pilfers the drowned boyar’s pockets for the gold and takes it with him to give to his village to rebuild a new, fairer, equal society or some such BS.
Like all parables, it has a message: in this case, death to the boyars. Or perhaps, “don’t worry, in the end, fate (clears throat: some undefinable power in the Universe) will take care of evildoers.”
The message is not “wealth is bad” because it is wealth that is used to build the new communist society. Now, we could argue ad infinitum about whom the gold actually belonged to (yawn; I’m not gonna convince you and you’re not gonna convince me so let’s just skip ahead to “let’s agree to disagree”) in the first place.
The ethics of what people would do in a life-or-death situation like this aside (hint: you don’t know what you’ll actually do until you have to, no matter how much you’d like to think of yourself as virtuous), what’s really interesting about this parable is how clearly it announces the intentions of communism—only when the bad people are dead will the downtrodden be able to build paradise.
So don’t say that you’ve not been warned, especially if the 100 million deaths in the 20th century alone are just not proof enough for you. “It’ll be different this time. We (the ones we’ve been waiting for, the right people) will be in charge.” Sure, sure.
And please don’t miss the irony of the actual economics that are implied here which is to say that the assumption is that that gold would actually end up doing good in the hands of people who ended up with it, especially the modern version of those people. There’s a reason that the Pareto Principle (power law distribution) is an actual thing that manifests again and again. Just like there’s a reason that collective farms lead to shortages, starvation, and slave labor (the actual result of communism). Somehow (shocker!) it’s always that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” who are in charge when these things “happen.”
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”—Margaret Thatcher
Thatcher was absolutely right and I don’t see her being disproven now or ever. The only error in that statement was the use of the word “socialism.”
Remember, it’s not like they’re not telling you what their intent is.
The goal of socialism is communism—Vladimir Lenin
You’re just not willing to listen.
News of the Times;
Gulag America: Biden DOJ convicts Doug Mackey for anti-Hillary memes:
https://www.revolver.news/2023/03/gulag-america-biden-doj-convicts-doug-mackey-for-anti-hillary-memes-faces-up-to-10-years-in-prison/
The U.S. Government Is Building A Vast Surveillance And Speech Suppression Web Around Every American:
https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/21/grants-reveal-federal-governments-horrific-plans-to-censor-all-americans-speech/
Manhattan Assistant DA Nukes Twitter Account After Anti-Trump Bias Exposed:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/manhattan-assistant-da-nukes-twitter-account-after-anti-trump-bias-exposed
Nearly 300 Suspected Terrorists Apprehended Crossing Open Border in Fiscal Year 2023 To Date:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/report-nearly-300-suspected-terrorists-apprehended-crossing-open-border-in-fiscal-year-2023-to-date-mostly-at-northern-border/
The African power grid collapse is spreading:
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/03/25/the-african-power-grid-collapse-is-spreading-n539215
Former Dem Mayor Guilty of Lewd Conduct With Child Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison:
https://resistthemainstream.com/former-dem-mayor-guilty-of-lewd-conduct-with-child-sentenced-to-7-years-in-prison/
Remember That Gay Couple Married by RBG? They Just Got Charged With Rape:
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/remember-that-gay-couple-married-by-rbg-they-just-got-charged-with-rape/
CDC team got sick while investigating health risks from Ohio toxic train derailment:
https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-team-got-sick-while-181833527.html
Men who robbed 4 victims in River North have extensive juvenile backgrounds, prosecutors say:
https://cwbchicago.com/2023/03/men-who-robbed-4-victims-in-river-north-have-extensive-juvenile-backgrounds-prosecutors-say.html
Disney Gives Florida the Finger Again:
http://arkhavencomics.com/2023/03/30/disney-gives-florida-the-finger-again/
Disney Flexes by Hosting Major LGBT Rights Summit in Florida After DeSantis Restored Their Tax Breaks:
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/disney-flexes-by-hosting-major-lgbt-rights-summit-in-florida-after-ron-desantis-restored-their-tax-breaks/
Denver Suburb Caps Number Of Gas Stations To 'Promote Electric Vehicles':
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/denver-suburb-caps-number-gas-stations-promote-electric-vehicles
Covid-19 DID Discriminate By Race:
https://vdare.com/articles/i-was-right-again-ruling-class-wrong-covid-19-did-discriminate-by-race
Eminent Oxford Scientist Says Wind Power “Fails on Every Count”:
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/03/25/eminent-oxford-scientist-says-wind-power-will-cost-trillions-trash-the-environment-and-be-entirely-unnecessary/
The Implausibility of a Net Zero Carbon Energy Future is Now Obvious:
https://mishtalk.com/economics/in-germany-there-will-be-no-clean-e-fuels-left-for-cars
We can't tell you what New York said about coming in last.
*.*
I was walking through the park I saw an old man feeding some birds.
I thought to myself "I wonder how long he's been dead."
*.*
In a match made in heaven, a beverage that tries to pass itself as beer has hired as its spokesperson a man trying to pass himself off as a woman.
"For decades, we've been putting carbonated backwash in a beer can and pretending it's beer," said Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth. "Who better to represent our brand than a guy throwing on a dress and pretending he's a woman?"
Long a staple drink of people who hate actual beer, Bud Light felt putting Dylan Mulvaney's face on a can would also attract people who hate actual women. "As a man acting out the most horrendously offensive stereotypes of women, Mulvaney taps into the soul of people who despise real women," said Mr. Whitworth. "As a company dedicated to serving those who detest real beer, the partnership made perfect sense. The new beer can just shouts, 'Come, enjoy this atrocious substitute for the real thing'."
While a few in the media questioned the move, so far Bud Light fans have welcomed drinking out of a can featuring the face of a guy with a little girl fetish. "It really completes the experience," said Bud Light fan Mason Olsen. "If that dude with his massive jaw can pretend to be a little girl - well, I can pretend this is real beer. It's pretty inspiring."
*.*
I want to be 14 again so I can ruin my life differently.
I have new ideas.
*.*
What's the difference between a Ritz and a lesbian?
One is a snack cracker.
Quote of the Times;
An irreligious society cannot endure the truth of the human condition. It prefers a lie, no matter how idiotic it may be. – Davila
Link of the Times;
The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington:
https://www.gunowners.org/
Issue of the Times;
The Parable of the Drowning Man: Communist Version by Monalisa Foster
What a communist parable actually teaches
We were having an interesting discussion on my FB wall about free will because I made the observation that even God left Man free will, whereas Man would definitely not and it segued into some comments about Christianity. If you read my previous Pretending to Sleep posts about coming to America, I wrote a little bit about my relationship with religion, particularly organized religion (i.e. I am not a fan or a practitioner). Nevertheless, I do have an appreciation for the Great Clockmaker (as my friend Justin dubbed it) and my religious friends with whom I apparently have more in common than not.
There is a Christian story involving a flood, called the “Parable of the Drowning Man.”
The parable of the drowning man, also known as Two Boats and a Helicopter, is a short story, often told as a joke, most often about a devoutly Christian man, frequently a minister, who refuses several rescue attempts in the face of approaching floodwaters, each time telling the would-be rescuers that God will save him. After turning down the last, he drowns in the flood. After his death, the man meets God and asks why he did not intervene. God responds that he sent all the would-be rescuers to the man's aid on the expectation he would accept the help.—Wikipedia
The version I was taught is a little different. Now, do keep in mind that I’m paraphrasing, not quoting, and that there are probably variations of this, as there often are (Ivan and the Goat comes to mind for example):
A boyar (large landowner) and a peasant escape a sudden flood and somehow end up in a tree. The flood sweeps everything away, so it’s just the two of them. The boyar filled his pockets with gold; the peasant with bread.
Time passes and the boyar offers the peasant some of his gold in exchange for the bread, at which point the peasant speaks truth-to-power and lectures the boyar on his choices (something which happens only in parables and revisionist fantasies).
Weak with hunger, the boyar falls out of the tree and drowns. Sustained by the bread, the peasant survives and when the flood waters recede, he gets down, pilfers the drowned boyar’s pockets for the gold and takes it with him to give to his village to rebuild a new, fairer, equal society or some such BS.
Like all parables, it has a message: in this case, death to the boyars. Or perhaps, “don’t worry, in the end, fate (clears throat: some undefinable power in the Universe) will take care of evildoers.”
The message is not “wealth is bad” because it is wealth that is used to build the new communist society. Now, we could argue ad infinitum about whom the gold actually belonged to (yawn; I’m not gonna convince you and you’re not gonna convince me so let’s just skip ahead to “let’s agree to disagree”) in the first place.
The ethics of what people would do in a life-or-death situation like this aside (hint: you don’t know what you’ll actually do until you have to, no matter how much you’d like to think of yourself as virtuous), what’s really interesting about this parable is how clearly it announces the intentions of communism—only when the bad people are dead will the downtrodden be able to build paradise.
So don’t say that you’ve not been warned, especially if the 100 million deaths in the 20th century alone are just not proof enough for you. “It’ll be different this time. We (the ones we’ve been waiting for, the right people) will be in charge.” Sure, sure.
And please don’t miss the irony of the actual economics that are implied here which is to say that the assumption is that that gold would actually end up doing good in the hands of people who ended up with it, especially the modern version of those people. There’s a reason that the Pareto Principle (power law distribution) is an actual thing that manifests again and again. Just like there’s a reason that collective farms lead to shortages, starvation, and slave labor (the actual result of communism). Somehow (shocker!) it’s always that “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for” who are in charge when these things “happen.”
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”—Margaret Thatcher
Thatcher was absolutely right and I don’t see her being disproven now or ever. The only error in that statement was the use of the word “socialism.”
Remember, it’s not like they’re not telling you what their intent is.
The goal of socialism is communism—Vladimir Lenin
You’re just not willing to listen.
News of the Times;
Gulag America: Biden DOJ convicts Doug Mackey for anti-Hillary memes:
https://www.revolver.news/2023/03/gulag-america-biden-doj-convicts-doug-mackey-for-anti-hillary-memes-faces-up-to-10-years-in-prison/
The U.S. Government Is Building A Vast Surveillance And Speech Suppression Web Around Every American:
https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/21/grants-reveal-federal-governments-horrific-plans-to-censor-all-americans-speech/
Manhattan Assistant DA Nukes Twitter Account After Anti-Trump Bias Exposed:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/manhattan-assistant-da-nukes-twitter-account-after-anti-trump-bias-exposed
Nearly 300 Suspected Terrorists Apprehended Crossing Open Border in Fiscal Year 2023 To Date:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/report-nearly-300-suspected-terrorists-apprehended-crossing-open-border-in-fiscal-year-2023-to-date-mostly-at-northern-border/
The African power grid collapse is spreading:
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/03/25/the-african-power-grid-collapse-is-spreading-n539215
Former Dem Mayor Guilty of Lewd Conduct With Child Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison:
https://resistthemainstream.com/former-dem-mayor-guilty-of-lewd-conduct-with-child-sentenced-to-7-years-in-prison/
Remember That Gay Couple Married by RBG? They Just Got Charged With Rape:
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/remember-that-gay-couple-married-by-rbg-they-just-got-charged-with-rape/
CDC team got sick while investigating health risks from Ohio toxic train derailment:
https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-team-got-sick-while-181833527.html
Men who robbed 4 victims in River North have extensive juvenile backgrounds, prosecutors say:
https://cwbchicago.com/2023/03/men-who-robbed-4-victims-in-river-north-have-extensive-juvenile-backgrounds-prosecutors-say.html
Disney Gives Florida the Finger Again:
http://arkhavencomics.com/2023/03/30/disney-gives-florida-the-finger-again/
Disney Flexes by Hosting Major LGBT Rights Summit in Florida After DeSantis Restored Their Tax Breaks:
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/disney-flexes-by-hosting-major-lgbt-rights-summit-in-florida-after-ron-desantis-restored-their-tax-breaks/
Denver Suburb Caps Number Of Gas Stations To 'Promote Electric Vehicles':
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/denver-suburb-caps-number-gas-stations-promote-electric-vehicles
Covid-19 DID Discriminate By Race:
https://vdare.com/articles/i-was-right-again-ruling-class-wrong-covid-19-did-discriminate-by-race
Eminent Oxford Scientist Says Wind Power “Fails on Every Count”:
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/03/25/eminent-oxford-scientist-says-wind-power-will-cost-trillions-trash-the-environment-and-be-entirely-unnecessary/
The Implausibility of a Net Zero Carbon Energy Future is Now Obvious:
https://mishtalk.com/economics/in-germany-there-will-be-no-clean-e-fuels-left-for-cars
Sink?
My wife and I are a temperamental couple.
I’ve got a temper and she’s mental.
*.*
I love the US Congress.
It's the best Congress that money can buy.
*.*
Oneliners:
The older I get, the more I understand why roosters start out the day screaming.
China's president getting together with Putin gives me that same feeling when I see my brother-in-law talking with my ex-wife.
Life is too short to not wake up hungover in a pirate costume.
Like a good neighbor, stay over there.
To everyone that signed my 7th grade yearbook, you'll be glad to know that I stayed cool.
If my memory was any worse, I could plan my own surprise party.
If you think things can't get worse, it's probably only because you lack sufficient imagination.
I feel like getting something done today, so I'm just going to sit here until that feeling passes.
That awkward moment when you spell a word so wrong that autocorrect responds with, "I got nothin', man."
It's time to call Cargo Pants what they really are: Purse Pants!
*.*
I need a drink.
Just kidding.
I need 10.
*.*
Why didn't NASA send a duck into space?
The bill would be astronomical.
Quote of the Times;
Taking responsibility means never blaming anyone else for anything you are being, doing, having or feeling. Taking responsibility means not blaming yourself. Taking responsibility means being aware of where and when you are not taking responsibility so that you can eventually change. Taking responsibility means being aware of the payoffs that keep you stuck.
Link of the Times;
Born into it: Southern Nationalism:
https://identitydixie.com/2023/02/25/born-into-it-southern-nationalism/
Issue of the Times;
When Communism Came To America by C. Bradley Thompson
Believe it or not, England’s first seventeenth-century American colonies were founded on “communist” principles! Let that sink in for a moment.
Fortunately, this curious experiment with simple communism lasted about as long as it takes for people to die of starvation under collective ownership and wealth redistribution.
This essay tells the story of how two of America’s earliest and best-known colonies—Jamestown and Plymouth—were first founded on communist principles.
By communism, I do not mean Marxian communism or any variant of it. There were no theories of dialectical materialism, class struggle, or proletarian revolution in seventeenth century England or in colonial America. Nor do I mean to suggest anachronistically that the Jamestown and Plymouth colonists were communists or socialists of the twentieth-century variety. There were no Lenins, Maos, or Pol Pots amongst these colonial settlers.
What then do I mean by calling the Jamestown and Plymouth experiments “communist”?
Due to the peculiarities of their charters and the instructions of their investors, the leaders and settlers of these two colonies unwittingly set up a de facto system that unintentionally mirrored the principles of what we today call communism.
In many ways, what I am describing is really a form of corporatism that built into its day-to-day operations the core moral tenet of primitive communism, i.e., the Marxian principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (See Karl Marx’s 1875 “Critique of the Gotha Programme”). The colonies were, as we shall see momentarily, built on a mixture of corporatist and communist principles that we can call “corporate communism” or “joint-stock communism.”
In what follows, I begin by providing my own quick history as to why and how the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were founded and a brief history of their near-disastrous experiments with corporate communism. Section two of this essay examines first-hand, eye-witness accounts of how and why the Jamestown and Plymouth ventures were saved by replacing their common-property regime with a private-property order. Finally, and getting to the real purpose of this essay, I shall elucidate how two of America’s most thoughtful founding fathers—James Wilson and John Marshall—understood and evaluated the Jamestown and Plymouth experiments with simple communism.
The Rise and Fall of Colonial Communism
So, how did joint-stock communism come to America?
At the dawn of the seventeenth century, Old World Europeans of all descriptions—e.g., kings, aristocratic adventurers, merchants, religious dissenters, peasants, and petty criminals—looked westward to the vast and relatively unpopulated New World with a sense of wonder, hope, and terror.
The Old World ancient regime from which they longed to escape was defined by feudalism, absolute monarchy, state-controlled churches, socio-economic inequality, scarce land, crushing regulations, taxes, rents, dues, religious, ethnic and class discrimination, and crushing poverty. The freedom to think, act, and acquire wealth was largely denied to most Britons and continental Europeans.
Across the ocean, however, was a new world of unlimited potential unencumbered by the frozen cake of feudal restrictions. The New World was a refuge for men and women to start over, where rationality, independence, courage, ability, hard work, gumption, and daring would determine a man’s future, not the circumstances of his birth.
This Elysium promised to its pioneer settlers the freedom to produce and the right to keep what they earned. The cleansing acid of freedom, competition, and profit dissolved any remnants of the Old World’s canon and feudal law.
The great question of the time was this: how might this new world be settled? Would the governments of the Old World extend their crushing institutions to the New World, or would this new world be left alone by the old as an asylum for escaping refugees. As we shall see, the answer to this question is a bit of both.
Our story begins with the centralized State of the English Crown, which arbitrarily assumed sovereign ownership over a vast expanse of North American land. King James I then granted royal charters to two joint-stock companies of profit-seeking merchants to settle much of this newly claimed territory.
The South Virginia Company (also known as the London Company) was given the land between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth parallels, approximately from Cape Fear to the Potomac River. The North Virginia Company (also known as the Plymouth Company) was given the land between the forty-first and forty-fifth parallels, roughly from Long Island to Maine. The London and Plymouth companies were each given a monopoly of legalized coercion in their respective territories, and each was granted the power to allocate land in any way it wished.
In 1607, the London company sent its first ships to Virginia and set up a colony on the Chesapeake Bay at Jamestown. Thirteen years later, the North Virginia Company settled its colonists at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. Both colonies were established as commercial, joint-stock ventures.
Strictly speaking, the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were not created by or for the English State. The English Crown did not rule over, finance (other than the land grants), or provide military assistance to these semi-private ventures, but it did expect a return on its investment.
But there was a twist to the founding of these commercial enterprises.
At both Jamestown and Plymouth, the North and South Virginia companies set up joint-stock, collectivist systems of economic ownership and production. The two companies owned the land and the tools of production, and they required all residents of the colonies to work in the fields under a company overseer and then to turn over the (unequal) fruits of their individual labor to the common, company storehouse.
By the terms of the two companies’ joint-stock arrangement, everything produced by the members of each company belonged to the company and was redistributed equally. This arrangement was to last five to seven years in both colonies at which point each company would be terminated and the assets divided as a percentage of one’s investment.
As with all systems of communist production and redistribution, both the Jamestown and Plymouth experiments failed disastrously. In both colonies, the result was predictable—predictable at least to those of us who lived through the death and destruction of twentieth-century Marxian communism.
The adventurers at Jamestown and the Pilgrims at Plymouth learned the hard way that the spirit and system of communism cuts against the grain of human nature. Almost immediately, the lazy and profligate were incentivized to become lazier and more profligate and the hardworking and thrifty were likewise incentivized to work and save less. Loafers received an equal share of the storehouse goods irrespective of their effort and unproductivity and the hardworking received an unequal share relative to their production.
As a result, the overall productivity at Jamestown and Plymouth declined precipitously to dangerously low levels such that all residents of the colonies were on the brink of penury, famine, and starvation. Not surprisingly, both colonies fell into a state of constant bickering, quarrels, and factional disputes, thereby keeping the colonies in a state of endless disturbance.
Joint-stock communism was an unqualified failure. As a result, the survival of the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies was very much in doubt.
Something had to be done. The only solution to this problem was, of course, to stimulate individual self-interest by privatizing property and permitting individuals to keep and enjoy the fruits of their labor, which is precisely what both colonies did after a few years.
At both Jamestown and Plymouth, the introduction of private ownership in land and the permitting of individuals to keep the profits of their labor resulted in a dramatic transformation in the attitudes and behaviors of the colonists. In both colonies, unoccupied lands were apportioned to individuals by their respective companies for private use and private profit. Not surprisingly, by unleashing the tapped energy associated with individual self-interest, productivity and produce increased significantly. Instituting a private property regime ended the “starving years.”
How Seventeenth-Century Contemporaries Saw Jamestown and Plymouth
Fortunately, the colonists at Jamestown and Plymouth have left us with vivid descriptions of how and why their forms of corporate communism failed and how and why the only solution to their maladies was to establish a private property order.
In 1614, for instance, Ralph Hamor, Jr., Secretary of State for the Jamestown colony and a first-hand witness to their collectivist fiasco reported that “When our people were fed out of the common store and labored jointly in the manuring of ground and planting corn, . . . the most honest of them . . . would not take so much faithful and true pains in a week as . . . now he will do in day” were he to have his own land and could keep the fruits of his labor. The colony’s redistributivist policies under the commonstore disincentivized men to work because, according to Hamor, they figured out very quickly that the system “must maintain them.”
But when Governor Thomas Dale temporarily gave to each man three “English acres” on loan to hold and work as a private garden, productivity began to improve almost immediately. Shortly thereafter the colony began to assign freeholds of 100 acres in fee simple to the “old planters who had come to Jamestown in 1609-10, which meant that individuals now owned the land they had been temporarily allotted and they were now effectively independent of the Company and the storehouse. By the “blessing of God, and their owne industry,” Hamor declared, the colonists began to prosper.
With the introduction of these new measures by 1618, a private property and free enterprise regime was established to replace the old “communist” system of centralized company ownership and storehouse distribution. Individuals now had the right to produce solely for their own benefit.
The effect of these reforms on the well-being of the residents was felt immediately. A group of original “ancient planters” declared that these anti-communist reforms had given; such encouragement to every person here that all of them followed their particular labors with singular alacrity and industry, so that . . . within the space of three years, our country flourished with many new erected Plantations. . . . The plenty of these times likewise was such that all men generally were sufficiently furnished with corn, and many also had plenty of cattle, swine, poultry, and other good provisions to nourish them.
Likewise, Captain John Smith, one of the first founders of the Jamestown colony, recognized the failure that was corporate communism:
When our people were fed out of the common store and laboured jointly together, glad was he could slip from his labour, or slumber over his taske, he cared not how, nay the most honest among them would hardly take so much true paines in a weeke, as now for themselves they will doe in a day; neither care they for the increase, presuming that howsoever the harvest prospered, the general store must maintaine them, so that wee reaped not so much corne from the labours of thirtie, as now three or four doe provide for themselves.
Smith and his fellow Virginians quickly came to see that collective ownership of the means of production and the redistribution of wealth brings out some of the worst elements of human nature. Hard work was replaced with shiftlessness, honesty with dishonesty, justice with injustice, responsibility with irresponsibility, benevolence with malevolence, and cooperation was replaced with conflict. Hard work and ability became a mortgage against a man’s wellbeing, and the coin of the realm in Jamestown became need and suffering. As it always does, joint-stock communism created a system of dog-eat-dog competition for the diminishing returns of declining productivity.
Jamestown was eventually saved by renouncing communism and instituting a private property regime that rewarded hard work. And what was good for Jamestown was of course good for the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
The first wave of English Puritans to come to America were the so-called Pilgrims, who arrived in 1620 aboard the Mayflower. Unlike the settlers who first arrived at Jamestown just over a decade earlier, the Pilgrims came to America to establish a New Jerusalem based on apostolic altruism and communal sharing (see Acts 2, 4-5). But very much like what happened at Jamestown, the Pilgrims’ experiment in simple communism ended as a calamity.
At Company direction, all property at the Plymouth colony was collectivized and wealth was redistributed under the directorship of the Company. William Bradford, one of the principal founders of the Plymouth colony and its longest serving governor, has given us our most complete picture of life during the early years of the colony. According to Bradford, the Plymouth colony was founded on “that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients” that the “taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing.”
Nothing could have been further from the truth of course, and the result was predictable. Communism, whether of the Platonic, Christian, or joint-stock variety, “was found,” according to Bradford, “to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.” Plymouth’s central planners acted “as if they were wiser than God,” with the all-too-inevitable result that morale and production collapsed.
Under the Platonic-apostolic plan of redistributivist ethics, the hardest working and most productive Pilgrims were given, Bradford notes, the same “division of victuals and clothes” as those who were “weak and not able to do a quarter the other could.” Not surprisingly, the most moral citizens of the community believed this equal distribution of wealth was a form of “injustice,” and the women in the community came to resent being commanded to work for families other than their own, which they considered to be a form of “slavery.”
The result of Plymouth’s experiment with apostolic communism was twofold: first, neighbors (and they were all neighbors) came to resent each other; and second, the productive stopped producing. Why work hard when others are not but the rewards are the same? Christian love was transformed overnight into Christian resentment.
Production at Plymouth declined precipitously and the colony quickly descended into destitution and near starvation. Within a short period of time, Platonic communism turned—ironically enough—into a Hobbesian state of nature that was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Something had to be done to save the colony from famine and death.
On the brink of starvation and extinction, the colony’s elders “began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still languish in misery.” Under Bradford’s leadership, the Plymouth community did an about-face.
The only solution—obviously—was to abandon communism and to invoke a private property regime. Every family was therefore assigned a small “parcel of land” for personal use and cultivation. The result was, according to Bradford, nothing short of miraculous! As it turned out, the Puritan God favored capitalism over socialism! Production and wealth increased overnight.
According to Bradford, the introduction of private property at Plymouth “had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.
Note that “industriousness” and a new-found energy to work grew out of the private ownership of property and with industriousness comes frugality and with both comes wealth accumulation.
News of the Times;
China and Russia Sign Major Economic Agreement Today:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/the-lines-are-drawn-china-and-russia-sign-major-economic-agreement-today/
Joe Biden's Department of Energy just moved to ban nearly all gas stoves:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/biden-regulatory-move-to-ban-gas-stoves
The Needle and the Damage Done:
https://heroesvsvillains.substack.com/p/the-needle-and-the-damage-done
Remember Obama’s death panels:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-03-20-obama-death-panels-medicare-ai-algorithms.html
Miami Beach mayor declares state of emergency:
https://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2023/03/20/miami-beach-mayor-declares-state-of-emergency-we-dont-want-spring-break-in-our-city-n537978
Black Lives Matter and Related Causes Received Nearly $83 Billion from Corporations:
https://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2023/03/14/black-lives-matter-movement-received-nearly-83-billion-from-corporations/
Forgiving Themselves To Death:
https://vdare.com/articles/forgiving-themselves-to-death-a-mind-virus-is-causing-whites-to-excuse-non-white-criminality
Here's a hilarious thread of 28 everyday things that have now been labeled racist:
https://notthebee.com/article/thread-things-that-are-now-racist
How The U Of California Uses Quotas When They Are Banned By Law From Using Quotas:
https://vdare.com/posts/the-big-squeeze-how-the-u-of-california-uses-quotas-when-they-are-banned-by-law-from-using-quotas
U.S.-Style Gang Culture Arrives In Snowy Northern Finland, Police In Shock:
https://vdare.com/articles/u-s-style-gang-culture-arrives-in-snowy-northern-finland-police-in-shock
French mayor in support of new asylum center in seaside town has his house burned down:
https://rmx.news/france/french-mayor-in-support-of-new-asylum-center-in-seaside-town-has-his-house-burned-down/
Fear, burnout and insubordination: Insiders spill details about life at the highest levels of FBI:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/20/fbi-discrimination-case-00087650?cid=apn
We need a 'national divorce' between red & blue states:
https://www.wnd.com/2023/03/mtgs-right-need-national-divorce-red-blue-states/
Why science and its journals should remain free of ideology:
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2023/03/22/why-science-and-its-journals-should-remain-free-of-ideology-an-example-from-nature/
Guess Who The Daddy Is of The Girl BUSTED On Major Drug Charges, Then Let Right Out of Jail:
https://dailyheadlines.com/guess-who-the-daddy-is-of-the-girl-busted-on-major-drug-charges-then-let-right-out-of-jail-watch-5/
I’ve got a temper and she’s mental.
*.*
I love the US Congress.
It's the best Congress that money can buy.
*.*
Oneliners:
The older I get, the more I understand why roosters start out the day screaming.
China's president getting together with Putin gives me that same feeling when I see my brother-in-law talking with my ex-wife.
Life is too short to not wake up hungover in a pirate costume.
Like a good neighbor, stay over there.
To everyone that signed my 7th grade yearbook, you'll be glad to know that I stayed cool.
If my memory was any worse, I could plan my own surprise party.
If you think things can't get worse, it's probably only because you lack sufficient imagination.
I feel like getting something done today, so I'm just going to sit here until that feeling passes.
That awkward moment when you spell a word so wrong that autocorrect responds with, "I got nothin', man."
It's time to call Cargo Pants what they really are: Purse Pants!
*.*
I need a drink.
Just kidding.
I need 10.
*.*
Why didn't NASA send a duck into space?
The bill would be astronomical.
Quote of the Times;
Taking responsibility means never blaming anyone else for anything you are being, doing, having or feeling. Taking responsibility means not blaming yourself. Taking responsibility means being aware of where and when you are not taking responsibility so that you can eventually change. Taking responsibility means being aware of the payoffs that keep you stuck.
Link of the Times;
Born into it: Southern Nationalism:
https://identitydixie.com/2023/02/25/born-into-it-southern-nationalism/
Issue of the Times;
When Communism Came To America by C. Bradley Thompson
Believe it or not, England’s first seventeenth-century American colonies were founded on “communist” principles! Let that sink in for a moment.
Fortunately, this curious experiment with simple communism lasted about as long as it takes for people to die of starvation under collective ownership and wealth redistribution.
This essay tells the story of how two of America’s earliest and best-known colonies—Jamestown and Plymouth—were first founded on communist principles.
By communism, I do not mean Marxian communism or any variant of it. There were no theories of dialectical materialism, class struggle, or proletarian revolution in seventeenth century England or in colonial America. Nor do I mean to suggest anachronistically that the Jamestown and Plymouth colonists were communists or socialists of the twentieth-century variety. There were no Lenins, Maos, or Pol Pots amongst these colonial settlers.
What then do I mean by calling the Jamestown and Plymouth experiments “communist”?
Due to the peculiarities of their charters and the instructions of their investors, the leaders and settlers of these two colonies unwittingly set up a de facto system that unintentionally mirrored the principles of what we today call communism.
In many ways, what I am describing is really a form of corporatism that built into its day-to-day operations the core moral tenet of primitive communism, i.e., the Marxian principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (See Karl Marx’s 1875 “Critique of the Gotha Programme”). The colonies were, as we shall see momentarily, built on a mixture of corporatist and communist principles that we can call “corporate communism” or “joint-stock communism.”
In what follows, I begin by providing my own quick history as to why and how the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were founded and a brief history of their near-disastrous experiments with corporate communism. Section two of this essay examines first-hand, eye-witness accounts of how and why the Jamestown and Plymouth ventures were saved by replacing their common-property regime with a private-property order. Finally, and getting to the real purpose of this essay, I shall elucidate how two of America’s most thoughtful founding fathers—James Wilson and John Marshall—understood and evaluated the Jamestown and Plymouth experiments with simple communism.
The Rise and Fall of Colonial Communism
So, how did joint-stock communism come to America?
At the dawn of the seventeenth century, Old World Europeans of all descriptions—e.g., kings, aristocratic adventurers, merchants, religious dissenters, peasants, and petty criminals—looked westward to the vast and relatively unpopulated New World with a sense of wonder, hope, and terror.
The Old World ancient regime from which they longed to escape was defined by feudalism, absolute monarchy, state-controlled churches, socio-economic inequality, scarce land, crushing regulations, taxes, rents, dues, religious, ethnic and class discrimination, and crushing poverty. The freedom to think, act, and acquire wealth was largely denied to most Britons and continental Europeans.
Across the ocean, however, was a new world of unlimited potential unencumbered by the frozen cake of feudal restrictions. The New World was a refuge for men and women to start over, where rationality, independence, courage, ability, hard work, gumption, and daring would determine a man’s future, not the circumstances of his birth.
This Elysium promised to its pioneer settlers the freedom to produce and the right to keep what they earned. The cleansing acid of freedom, competition, and profit dissolved any remnants of the Old World’s canon and feudal law.
The great question of the time was this: how might this new world be settled? Would the governments of the Old World extend their crushing institutions to the New World, or would this new world be left alone by the old as an asylum for escaping refugees. As we shall see, the answer to this question is a bit of both.
Our story begins with the centralized State of the English Crown, which arbitrarily assumed sovereign ownership over a vast expanse of North American land. King James I then granted royal charters to two joint-stock companies of profit-seeking merchants to settle much of this newly claimed territory.
The South Virginia Company (also known as the London Company) was given the land between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth parallels, approximately from Cape Fear to the Potomac River. The North Virginia Company (also known as the Plymouth Company) was given the land between the forty-first and forty-fifth parallels, roughly from Long Island to Maine. The London and Plymouth companies were each given a monopoly of legalized coercion in their respective territories, and each was granted the power to allocate land in any way it wished.
In 1607, the London company sent its first ships to Virginia and set up a colony on the Chesapeake Bay at Jamestown. Thirteen years later, the North Virginia Company settled its colonists at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. Both colonies were established as commercial, joint-stock ventures.
Strictly speaking, the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were not created by or for the English State. The English Crown did not rule over, finance (other than the land grants), or provide military assistance to these semi-private ventures, but it did expect a return on its investment.
But there was a twist to the founding of these commercial enterprises.
At both Jamestown and Plymouth, the North and South Virginia companies set up joint-stock, collectivist systems of economic ownership and production. The two companies owned the land and the tools of production, and they required all residents of the colonies to work in the fields under a company overseer and then to turn over the (unequal) fruits of their individual labor to the common, company storehouse.
By the terms of the two companies’ joint-stock arrangement, everything produced by the members of each company belonged to the company and was redistributed equally. This arrangement was to last five to seven years in both colonies at which point each company would be terminated and the assets divided as a percentage of one’s investment.
As with all systems of communist production and redistribution, both the Jamestown and Plymouth experiments failed disastrously. In both colonies, the result was predictable—predictable at least to those of us who lived through the death and destruction of twentieth-century Marxian communism.
The adventurers at Jamestown and the Pilgrims at Plymouth learned the hard way that the spirit and system of communism cuts against the grain of human nature. Almost immediately, the lazy and profligate were incentivized to become lazier and more profligate and the hardworking and thrifty were likewise incentivized to work and save less. Loafers received an equal share of the storehouse goods irrespective of their effort and unproductivity and the hardworking received an unequal share relative to their production.
As a result, the overall productivity at Jamestown and Plymouth declined precipitously to dangerously low levels such that all residents of the colonies were on the brink of penury, famine, and starvation. Not surprisingly, both colonies fell into a state of constant bickering, quarrels, and factional disputes, thereby keeping the colonies in a state of endless disturbance.
Joint-stock communism was an unqualified failure. As a result, the survival of the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies was very much in doubt.
Something had to be done. The only solution to this problem was, of course, to stimulate individual self-interest by privatizing property and permitting individuals to keep and enjoy the fruits of their labor, which is precisely what both colonies did after a few years.
At both Jamestown and Plymouth, the introduction of private ownership in land and the permitting of individuals to keep the profits of their labor resulted in a dramatic transformation in the attitudes and behaviors of the colonists. In both colonies, unoccupied lands were apportioned to individuals by their respective companies for private use and private profit. Not surprisingly, by unleashing the tapped energy associated with individual self-interest, productivity and produce increased significantly. Instituting a private property regime ended the “starving years.”
How Seventeenth-Century Contemporaries Saw Jamestown and Plymouth
Fortunately, the colonists at Jamestown and Plymouth have left us with vivid descriptions of how and why their forms of corporate communism failed and how and why the only solution to their maladies was to establish a private property order.
In 1614, for instance, Ralph Hamor, Jr., Secretary of State for the Jamestown colony and a first-hand witness to their collectivist fiasco reported that “When our people were fed out of the common store and labored jointly in the manuring of ground and planting corn, . . . the most honest of them . . . would not take so much faithful and true pains in a week as . . . now he will do in day” were he to have his own land and could keep the fruits of his labor. The colony’s redistributivist policies under the commonstore disincentivized men to work because, according to Hamor, they figured out very quickly that the system “must maintain them.”
But when Governor Thomas Dale temporarily gave to each man three “English acres” on loan to hold and work as a private garden, productivity began to improve almost immediately. Shortly thereafter the colony began to assign freeholds of 100 acres in fee simple to the “old planters who had come to Jamestown in 1609-10, which meant that individuals now owned the land they had been temporarily allotted and they were now effectively independent of the Company and the storehouse. By the “blessing of God, and their owne industry,” Hamor declared, the colonists began to prosper.
With the introduction of these new measures by 1618, a private property and free enterprise regime was established to replace the old “communist” system of centralized company ownership and storehouse distribution. Individuals now had the right to produce solely for their own benefit.
The effect of these reforms on the well-being of the residents was felt immediately. A group of original “ancient planters” declared that these anti-communist reforms had given; such encouragement to every person here that all of them followed their particular labors with singular alacrity and industry, so that . . . within the space of three years, our country flourished with many new erected Plantations. . . . The plenty of these times likewise was such that all men generally were sufficiently furnished with corn, and many also had plenty of cattle, swine, poultry, and other good provisions to nourish them.
Likewise, Captain John Smith, one of the first founders of the Jamestown colony, recognized the failure that was corporate communism:
When our people were fed out of the common store and laboured jointly together, glad was he could slip from his labour, or slumber over his taske, he cared not how, nay the most honest among them would hardly take so much true paines in a weeke, as now for themselves they will doe in a day; neither care they for the increase, presuming that howsoever the harvest prospered, the general store must maintaine them, so that wee reaped not so much corne from the labours of thirtie, as now three or four doe provide for themselves.
Smith and his fellow Virginians quickly came to see that collective ownership of the means of production and the redistribution of wealth brings out some of the worst elements of human nature. Hard work was replaced with shiftlessness, honesty with dishonesty, justice with injustice, responsibility with irresponsibility, benevolence with malevolence, and cooperation was replaced with conflict. Hard work and ability became a mortgage against a man’s wellbeing, and the coin of the realm in Jamestown became need and suffering. As it always does, joint-stock communism created a system of dog-eat-dog competition for the diminishing returns of declining productivity.
Jamestown was eventually saved by renouncing communism and instituting a private property regime that rewarded hard work. And what was good for Jamestown was of course good for the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
The first wave of English Puritans to come to America were the so-called Pilgrims, who arrived in 1620 aboard the Mayflower. Unlike the settlers who first arrived at Jamestown just over a decade earlier, the Pilgrims came to America to establish a New Jerusalem based on apostolic altruism and communal sharing (see Acts 2, 4-5). But very much like what happened at Jamestown, the Pilgrims’ experiment in simple communism ended as a calamity.
At Company direction, all property at the Plymouth colony was collectivized and wealth was redistributed under the directorship of the Company. William Bradford, one of the principal founders of the Plymouth colony and its longest serving governor, has given us our most complete picture of life during the early years of the colony. According to Bradford, the Plymouth colony was founded on “that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients” that the “taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing.”
Nothing could have been further from the truth of course, and the result was predictable. Communism, whether of the Platonic, Christian, or joint-stock variety, “was found,” according to Bradford, “to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.” Plymouth’s central planners acted “as if they were wiser than God,” with the all-too-inevitable result that morale and production collapsed.
Under the Platonic-apostolic plan of redistributivist ethics, the hardest working and most productive Pilgrims were given, Bradford notes, the same “division of victuals and clothes” as those who were “weak and not able to do a quarter the other could.” Not surprisingly, the most moral citizens of the community believed this equal distribution of wealth was a form of “injustice,” and the women in the community came to resent being commanded to work for families other than their own, which they considered to be a form of “slavery.”
The result of Plymouth’s experiment with apostolic communism was twofold: first, neighbors (and they were all neighbors) came to resent each other; and second, the productive stopped producing. Why work hard when others are not but the rewards are the same? Christian love was transformed overnight into Christian resentment.
Production at Plymouth declined precipitously and the colony quickly descended into destitution and near starvation. Within a short period of time, Platonic communism turned—ironically enough—into a Hobbesian state of nature that was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Something had to be done to save the colony from famine and death.
On the brink of starvation and extinction, the colony’s elders “began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still languish in misery.” Under Bradford’s leadership, the Plymouth community did an about-face.
The only solution—obviously—was to abandon communism and to invoke a private property regime. Every family was therefore assigned a small “parcel of land” for personal use and cultivation. The result was, according to Bradford, nothing short of miraculous! As it turned out, the Puritan God favored capitalism over socialism! Production and wealth increased overnight.
According to Bradford, the introduction of private property at Plymouth “had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.
Note that “industriousness” and a new-found energy to work grew out of the private ownership of property and with industriousness comes frugality and with both comes wealth accumulation.
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And someone shot a duck.
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No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.