• OH MY!  THE U.S. DEP’T OF HOMELAND SECURITY HAS JUST ISSUED A ‘NATIONAL TERRORISM ADVISORY,’ through first week of June, for “heightened threat environment, attributable to false or misleading online narratives and conspiracy theories… amplified by foreign & domestic threat actors seeking to exacerbate societal friction, to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions, to encourage unrest which could potentially inspire acts of violence…  DHS has also renewed its commitment to ensure that all efforts to combat domestic violent extremism are conducted in ways consistent with privacy protections, civil rights,   liberties, and all applicable laws.” Good to know.
  • THE BIG DEAL WITH UKRAINE AND TAIWAN is that Russia and China consider them “politically part of their spheres of influence, in defiance of U.S. contention for ‘basic principles’ of the current world order – in particular, the right of an independent country to define its own foreign policy and strategic choices… While America has demonstrated its past willingness & ability to forcefully transform the world, the defeat in Afghanistan, symbolized by character of withdrawal, has given Russians & Chinese hope that the U.S.-led world order is fading away, and in its place will come a multipolar order… History suggests that new governing systems for the world generally emerge after some kind of seismic political event, such as a major war. The question now is whether eithers’ ambitions for a ‘new world order’ will also need a war to come to fruition.” [FINANCIAL TIMES – 1/22/22]
  • SOME OF THE LARGEST AMERICAN COMPANIES, endeavoring to capture Chinese sales markets and capital, are “supercharging the CCP, supporting fully (even if hypocritically) Beijing’s military modernization, surveillance state, domestic securitization and attendant repressive human rights violations including forced labor.  At least eight major tech companies – Amazon, Apple, Dell, Facebook, GE, Google, Intel, Microsoft – cooperate with the Chinese state entity (MIIT) which channels technological innovations developed or however acquired in the private sector toward the Chinese Military/Civil Fusion strategy… Problematic relationships include chip design, high-performance processors, artificial intelligence, turbine technology, manufacturing supply chain leverage, and information security especially when it comes to digital privacy.” [EPOCH TIMES – 2/5/22]
  • MEANWHILE, AS MILLIONS OF AMERICANS STAY HOME, content to be paid by the state not to work, and mega-millions immerse themselves in watching melodramas/ sports/ gaming, we’re witnessing ‘Systems Collapse’ – “sudden inability of once prosperous populations to continue what had ensured the good life as they knew it. In the last decade, both Greece & Venezuela epitomize another  self-created catastrophe: food & necessities scarce; crime ubiquitous and soaring urban violence replete with looting/ carjacking/ random murder; corruption; jailing opponents & destruction of constitutional norms; soaring inflation. Add to that: hard left ‘woke’ ideology obliterating the idea of a border, with millions of impoverished foreigners entering illegally (without either tests or vaccinations during a pandemic); youth education disintegrating; health bureaucracies abandoning credibility; radical socialism exerting censorship, libeling meritocracy, and governing more by ideology & tribe; …these maladies are all stupidly self-inflicted, the direct result of woke ideologies both cruel and antithetical to traditional American pragmatism,” by leadership addicted to maintaining power.  Just bizarre.  [TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY – 1/22/22]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

Princeton University has provided any student/faculty/staff with “expired latex condoms, in increments of 50, for submission & prizes at its LATEXIBITION art contest, next week on National Condom Day, also Valentine’s Day.”  [UHS.PRINCETON.COM]

The Canadian Truckers GoFundMe fiasco is latest example of “21st century union busting, carried out by California-based elites who oversee the World Wide Web, unaccountable millionaires & billionaires who have made patently clear their willingness to interfere in peaceful democratic protests, punishing and expelling anyone who deviates from the ‘correct’ line – i.e., the moral diktats of the new ruling class.” [SPIKED – 2/6/22]

      Quick example of how inattentive we are to constant changes in whatever our surrounding:  https://biggeekdad.com/2022/01/the-changing-room-illusion/  And a sad but true parody about inevitable short-term memory loss:  https://biggeekdad.com/2012/02/aging-memory-song/