HALF-FULL REPORT 12/30/22
Three Megatrends to Watch in 2023
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A lot happened during 2022, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to political shenanigans, even worse economic shenanigans, and the nationwide breakdown of law and order.
Each is connected to a widespread loss of trust in governments, businesses, schools, and the neighbor down the street. We are rapidly changing from a high-trust society to something else.
Three megatrends are emerging. The first is the sudden step-like change in chatbot sophistication that threatens to replace the great libraries of free and open-source information with machine-curated global narratives. Drag shows in public libraries intended to withdraw public support and the destruction of monuments are features of the shift to the singular narrative.
Loss of trust in commercial institutions is everywhere. We long suspected and compiled evidence of the collaboration of big tech with big government. Now that Elon Musk is telling the world what has been happening behind the curtain, everything is suspect. Musk is a crack in the narrative; he is the point of failure exposing the massive effort devoted to information control.
The problem for the government is apparent: Propaganda ceases to work once it is known to be propaganda.
All over the world and within most corporations, technology has been used to centralize decision-making at the expense of decision quality. The current trend is to replace the mind with a computer algo. The consequence is a dramatic decline in innovation.
Without innovation, there is nothing to prevent entropy from expanding.
Breaking trust with the current systems creates a foundation for the future. Those that understand this will prosper. Others, including entire corporations and governments, will fail.
Come to the HFR, and most of all, Happy New Year!
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: THE SKY CAVES OF MUSTANG
Yes, that’s me, waving from one of the cave openings on the cliff face honeycombed with 2,000 year-old Sky Caves in a remote region of the Himalayas called Upper Mustang. The photo was taken by one of your fellow TTPers on our most recent Himalaya Helicopter Expedition last May.
Upper Mustang is ruled by the Tibetan Kingdom of Lo, created by Tibetan warrior-king Amne Pal in 1380, with its sovereignty protected today by Nepal from the Chicoms right across the border in Chinese-Occupied Tibet. Lo, with its capital the medieval walled city of Lo Manthang, is where you will find the most traditional Tibetan culture left on our planet.
You can experience it yourself on our Himalaya Helicopter Expedition this spring. If not now, when? Carpe diem.
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #250 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHO WOULD SLAUGHTER INNOCENT CIVILIANS ON CHRISTMAS DAY?
THE CASTLE PRISON OF RICHARD THE LIONHEART
This is Durnstein Castle, perched on a precipice high above the Danube River in Austria some 60 miles upriver from Vienna. Built in the early 1100s, here is where King of England Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned, having been captured by his enemy Leopold V of Austria on his return from the Third Crusade in the Holy Land.
The story is well known of how Richard’s brother John had usurped the throne and impeded paying Richard’s ransom – and the legend of Robin Hood raising the money pilfering it from thieving nobles. The ransom was finally paid in 1194, with Richard returning to be crowned King of England once again. The castle fell into disrepair, uninhabitable since the late 1600s. It is an eerie journey back into history to explore it today. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #197 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 12/29/22
Welcome to the final 2022 edition of Skye’s Links! After all the downers of this year, there’s plenty of good news to report at year’s end. We start with something written by a man known as The Sea Gypsy Philosopher, who strives to be The Three Ps – Powerful, Provocative and Poetic. I think you’ll agree he succeeds.
Here is a lovely Christmas message to Greta Thunberg. Her puppet masters will never allow her to see it, but you should do so. It is a message of hope. It is also a message that the oligopoly of censorship can no longer control. And that is very good news:
Good news! Honest liberal Tabbi, the man that Musk chose to release and explain the Twitter Files, is optimistic that we are finally moving in the right direction for information freedom. It isn't just Deep State/Twitter cooperation; there are far more quislings, and they will soon be exposed:
Matt Taibbi Reflects On "Repulsive, Horrifying, Dystopian" World Run By 'Anti-People'
Come on in! There’s lots more!
THE END OF FREE ELECTIONS
This week, Arizona leftists and RINOs admitted, under oath, that they changed the print settings, on election morning, so Republican votes would not be tabulated, on the one day most Republicans vote -- and the Maricopa County judge said “…it wasn’t intentional.”
A Republican governor candidate who easily won by multiple points was denied her rightful election. Several million Arizona voters were disenfranchised.
Not a word from Republican leaders!
Wake up, America.
Leftists and RINOs have spent the last 40 years transforming election machinery to end your right to vote -- and they are about to finish the job.
TEN REVELATIONS OF THE BIG GOVERNMENT-BIG TECH COLLUSION AGAINST AMERICA
Two hundred and thirty-one years ago this month, America's founders enshrined free speech as the first protection in the ratified Bill of Rights with a declaration that the government could not infringe expression.
A series of blockbuster revelations at the end of 2022 show just how imperiled those protections have become in the era of Big Tech.
From Elon Musk’s "Twitter files" to an FBI agent's candid testimony, Americans have gotten a glimpse into a once-hidden enterprise where federal agencies pressured social media platforms – directly and through proxies – to censor content under their terms of service.
The goal, it appears, was to preserve the ruling elite's favored narratives on everything from the pandemic to election integrity.
THE LION ROCK OF SIGIRIYA
Rising 600 feet above the jungles of central Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is a gigantic rock column revered for millennia as Sigiriya – Lion Rock from Sanskrit. It’s flat on top, used over centuries as a Buddhist monastery and a fortress by kings. In 480, King Kashyapa had the image of a lion carved into the rock as the entrance gate to his fortress-palace on top. All that’s left are the lion’s paws that you see.
It was a risky climb via stone stairs carved into the rock getting to the top. Today there’s a much safer wooden staircase. It’s a pilgrimage site for Sri Lankans where they get to celebrate their history and enjoy the gorgeous view on top. It’s a marvelous experience for you to participate in. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #158 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
YOUR GOVERNMENT HATES YOU
Did you know that in fiscal year 2022, federal tax receipts as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) hit a near record high of 19.6 percent?
According to the U.S. Treasury, in FY 2022, total federal tax receipts and additional federal government revenue topped $4.90 trillion. Yet, over this time, Congress spent $6.27 trillion. The difference, the 2022 deficit, was $1.37 trillion.
Presently, the U.S. national debt is over $31.4 trillion. In December 2000, the national debt was $5.6 trillion. Over the last 22 years the U.S. national debt has increased 460 percent. U.S. GDP over this same time, however, increased just 157 percent, from about $10 trillion to 25.7 trillion.
That’s how the U.S. government works in the 21st century, where near record tax receipts will never be enough. Why? Because your government hates you so much it thinks it has a moral right to steal as much as they want from you.
THE GOP’S MORONIC HOUSE SPEAKERSHIP FIGHT
After four years of legislative malfeasance by Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat myrmidons, the Republicans will soon have a 222–213 majority in the House of Representatives.“Who are these five boneheads? How can they be so stupid?”
Fox News host Mark Levin
It should be obvious to anyone with a 3-dight IQ that, to accomplish anything useful with such a narrow majority, the House Republican Conference has to close ranks and prepare for a war with a radicalized Democrat minority that will continue its ongoing effort to undermine the will of the voters.
The new Republican majority will get its first chance to present a unified front on Jan. 3, when the House meets to elect a new speaker to replace Pelosi. Yet a small cadre of GOP opportunists vows not to vote for the only realistic choice — current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Here’s why this is moronic.