Month: March 2025

It’s a Different World

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In Elena Gorokhova’s 2010 memoir “A Mountain of Crumbs” she famously writes: “The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they’re lying, they know we know they’re lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.”

I guess that’s the only difference between us and the Soviets.  A lot of us didn’t know how much they were lying to us.  Probably it’s because the living is so much easier here than in Soviet Russia, that for most people we could assume that things were being run pretty well and we didn’t have to mistrust everything that our government said and did.

So maybe we didn’t get smarter.  Instead, life got tougher and so it was easier to see when they were lying and cheating us.  After all, when things are great and you have everything you need the fact that a lying skunk like Joe Biden is skimming a little from government contractors doesn’t seem like the end of the world.

But when the bottom falls out and they’re selling off your country by the metric ton and telling you it’s your own fault.  And then when they cause a plague and then gaslight you into locking yourself in your house for a couple of years it kind of becomes obvious what’s going on.  They lied about the border, they lied about crime, they lied about inflation, they lied about energy prices, they lied about COVID, they lied about the vaccines, they lied about transgender children, they lied about the elections, they lied about Trump, they lied about Joe Biden’s dementia and finally they lied about Kamala’s polls.

But in our favor, we didn’t pretend to believe them.  At least not those of us with normal intelligence.  So, we’re not as bad off as Soviet Russia.  The difference is we haven’t let them cow us into saying that 2 + 2 = 5.

But all of this came up because of that NY Times opinion article that owned up to all the lies about COVID that the government and the experts told.  A lot of us didn’t believe the lies because we had a little sense about how ridiculous it was to think that anything less than a biohazard pressure suit and a washdown airlock would keep us safe from an airborne respiratory virus.  But I shouldn’t be surprised that a lot of people would think, “The government wouldn’t lie to us about something that important.”

Well, guess what?  They did.  And that’s what’s so powerful about this moment.  Eureka!  Now what else have they lied to us about?  Until now the government has been protected from the worst suspicions because no one wants to feel like a paranoid mental case.

“There’s no way the CIA killed Kennedy.”  Wanna bet?

“There’s no way we knew Sadaam didn’t have a nuclear program.” Wanna bet?

“There’s no way the FBI had men on the ground on January 6th.  Wanna bet?

“There’s no way the CIA, the FBI and the Secret Service were responsible for letting that kid get a clip of ammo off at that Trump rally.”  Wanna bet?

Are all of these things 100% certain?  No.  But now that we know what goes on with our government is it as likely as not?  I’d say certainly.  So, let’s say half of them are true.  Look where that leaves us if half of those are true.  Look at where we are even if none of those are true but their actual lies make us all conspiracy theorists from now on.  And we have no choice.  Once you’ve seen some of the things we’ve seen; the COVID lies, you can’t unsee them.  You can no longer trust your government.  They have to be kept in check.  They have to be held accountable.  It’s different world.

Even the NY Times Finally Admits the Truth About COVID

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Five years after the height of the COVID masquerade the New York Times finally allows at least the outlines of the true story to show up in its opinion page.  Even in this article the author bends over backward to pretend that the liars had the best intentions.  But it’s so blatantly clear by the actions of the authorities that they were hiding a disgusting truth.  Wuhan was the source of the virus and the United States funded the research that created it.

We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives

If for no other reason I hope RFK Jr has the foresight to shut down the funding on all these types of frankensteinian experiments.  Creating pathogens that have the potential to infect billions and then depending on the fail safe protocols of a third rate research laboratory to save you from a mishap is worse than stupid.  It’s war crime grade irresponsible.

But let’s face facts, this is not health research.  These are CIA bio-weapons labs.  And for all we’ll ever know they released it on purpose to take advantage politically of the ensuing chaos.  Our own government is full of sociopaths that have no qualms about wreaking havoc on our lives through fear and violence.  And they wonder why we fear and hate them more than the Russians and the Chinese.

DOGE, cut off their cash.  It may save all our lives.

What Is This Quintessence of Dust

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It struck me recently, out of nowhere, that we humans are very strange creatures?  That the things we do are irrational and confusing.  We spend most of our lives doing things that bore us or depress us or cause us grief.  That what we want or what we think we must do is often diametrically opposed to what’s good for our minds, bodies and spirits.

There’s nothing profound about these insights.  It’s just that every once in a while, you look around at what you’re doing and what you should be doing and they don’t line up.  I guess it’s an artifact of the complexity of our hyper-complicated world.  Our ancestors in the trees were never confused about what to do.  There were no choices.  You mostly looked for food to eat all day long and then went to sleep hoping that the neighborhood leopard didn’t come to visit during the night.  Even our paleolithic predecessors didn’t have much leeway on what went on during the day.  Maybe the top caveman decided which beta caveman became a hunter or spearhead chipper or fire-tender or whatever other careers were being advertised in the Bedrock Gazette.  But I’m sure it was a lot simpler back then and existential angst must have been at a very manageable level.  And people didn’t live very long so there wasn’t time to reflect on the vicissitudes of Cro-Magnon time management.

I suspect we’re currently at a high point for personal discontent.  Partially it’s because the complexity of our civilization doesn’t make it easy to decide what path to take.  Hunters and spearhead chippers are no longer in high demand.  Even cutting-edge professions can become obsolete almost overnight.  Also, the coping mechanisms we formerly had for dealing with limited opportunities; religion and family have mostly receded in importance.  Now we’re down to antidepressants and government welfare programs.  And neither of these seems to sooth the soul.

A return to religion was a periodic reaction in America.  Going all the way back to the Puritans they would have a religious revival about every seventy-five years or so.  One or more great preachers would appear and exhort the people to return to God and to doing the righteous thing.  And this would have at least a temporary effect on behavior and a positive change on society.

Well, America 2025 is a very different place from America 1950.  And even 1950 was a way different world from 1875.  Religion barely exists in the minds and souls of the current population of this country.  So, by definition any preachers appearing on the horizon won’t look anything like the past.  If Billy Graham showed up today, he would only find a tiny audience for his “crusade.”

But that doesn’t mean we don’t need an equivalent to a religious revival.  Call it a spiritual revival if you want or a lifestyle intervention if that makes it sound more scientific.  But without a doubt people need direction.  Their lives have lost meaning not only in their own eyes but also to society at large.  It is not an exaggeration to say that the people who run this country and the world at large, value your life and happiness not at all.  In fact, all indications are that they want to get you off this planet as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost.

Like the Roman Empire at the time of Christ, this world is looking for spiritual leadership.  And whoever provides it will harness an enormous latent force that currently exists only as discontent and despair in the minds and souls of the people who currently have no purpose in life.  I think it will happen but what it will look like and when it will hit is the mystery.  For old timers it’s just a matter of embracing your Bible or your copy of Marcus Aurelius.

Give It Your Best Shot

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I heard that Trump wants to eliminate federal income tax for anyone earning less than $150,000.  Now isn’t that remarkable.  I can’t pretend that I know how that would impact the federal budget and debt but I’m pretty sure it will make him, at least in the short run, the most popular president in the last two hundred years.

I think this will raise several questions.  Will this force state income taxes to triple?  How will this impact the income taxes of people earning $150,000 to $300,000?  Will my social security and healthcare benefits be paid to me in monopoly money?

But all kidding aside, I know that Trump is considering many radical changes to the tax code.  A while ago I heard he was thinking about replacing income taxes with a federal sales tax increase.  Is this part of the same plan?  Between these ideas and the tariff stuff and the DOGE initiative to cut back the size and cost of the federal government we seem to be looking at a re-invention of government.  Or maybe it would be fair to call it a recalibration.  We all know the cost of government is out of whack and that we can’t possibly sustain the service on the debt indefinitely.  As it is now it’s something like $600 billion.  That’s insane.  What it means is that what Trump is doing isn’t revolutionary madness to the body politic.  He’s applying a tourniquet before the patient bleeds out.

But there’s no guarantee all of this will succeed.  The American voters are fickle and they have no patience.  Unless Trump gets most of his program in place in the next year, the mid-terms will be upon him and he will lose the ability to get legislation through Congress.  So, he’s threading a needle.

But these are exciting times.  People have awakened from a decades-long-dream to find their government is a malignant force that threatens their lives and livelihood.  And their only hope is a crazy man like Donald Trump.  Well, at least it’s not boring.  It’s more like a three-ring circus.  We’ve got wars and tariffs in the first ring.  We’ve got DOGE and the Swamp in the second ring.  And in the third ring we have crime and the illegal aliens.  And Trump is the circus master in the top hat, tails, boots and whip trying to keep the whole circus moving at top speed like an infernal calliope-carousel steam engine.  And hoping that the whole thing doesn’t fly apart in all directions.

I will say I am guardedly hopeful.  Just seeing how much can be done when an energetic and fearless approach is taken, provides encouragement that I can’t remember feeling since Ronald Reagan told us in 1981 that the Carter malaise was over and it was morning in America again.  So maybe it will fail and the whole thing will fall apart and the bad guys will be back in power afterward.

But what have I got to lose by rooting for Team Trump?  Can I be any more blacklisted than I already have been?  Will it matter if they tax me any higher if the money is already becoming worthless?  Can they possibly know any more of my words, deeds or thoughts than they already do?

No!  I have nothing to lose by betting on Trump.  Go for it, Donald.  Give it your best shot.