The ad for this deal is shown to the side.
So you look at the picture for a few minutes and then it kinda hits you....the hand with the torch? Wrong arm.....it's the left hand.
The actual statue....the torch is in the right hand.
All part of some Antifa effort? Yeah, but conservatives might be stupid enough to fall for this group.
Officially, from 1949 (first day of the Communist republic) to 1990 (last day of the Communist republic)....no censorship existed (it was widely repeated). Most bureaucrats of the country were proud of their free and open society (wink-wink).
Prior to 1949 (from 1945 on), the government that existed....had a listing of books which were fully banned (not to be sold, seen or read)....called 'Liste der auszusondernden Literatur' (basically meaning 'banned literature'. If you fell on the list....it meant you had dangerous ideas. Even if this were fictional in nature....it could be viewed as dangerous.
Sometimes, it was simply wording that got shifted. An example....Huck Finn by Mark Twain was allowed to be read....but it needed to be in German, and the translation had to be done in a particular way....so an English version of Huck Finn was practically impossible to find, but plenty of German translated copies were around. It should be noted that when translated over....it was meant to ONLY be a child's book and reflect nothing of value for an adult.
To this 'rewriting' effort....at some point, there were fifteen different translations existing on Huck Finn, and all were slightly different in meaning and description.
As they sat and actually wrote the 1949 Constitution for DDR....it was actually inserted into the text....censorship was forbidden (article 9).
There was simply no part of society left untouched by the censorship. If you did some kind of art to suggest you were anti-government....it got banned. If you wrote out some song and suggested anything subversive about the government, it got banned.
If you said anything about the crappy education system, or poorly-run university sytem....it got banned or censored.
If you talked about pollution (like your local stream was crapped-out)....that got banned.
If you suggested racism? That got banned.
If you suggested sexism? That got banned.
If you suggested extreme violence existed (over in the bad part of East Berlin)? That got censored.
Wanted to talk about gay topics? Banned. Weird sex stuff? Banned.
Wanna talk about alcoholism, drugs, mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia? Banned.
Got corruption issues? Forbidden and censored.
At least once a week, the national news people would release a updated 'don't talk about' listing....which would suggest the bad topics which could not be reported in news. To suggest that fake news was the standard? Most all East Germans accepted that as their landscape.
To make all of this work....print-media, radio-media, and TV-media were all part of a state apparatus. If DDR existed today....they'd have the internet existing under the state-umbrella. Facebook-like, Google-like and Twitter-like devices would exist and be geared to censorship.
How older East Germans view the media and news apparatus today? Even in a relatively free landscape....they are skeptical and often question precisely what they are told. Even if the Chancellor herself says something....it's not entirely regarded as factual.
The last people on Earth who have any appreciation of censorship? Well....yeah, I'd suggest that older East Germans are at the top of the list.
Around 2004 (during the build-up of the November election), I came to note around twenty-odd things which really didn't make a lot of sense.
Magazines suddenly took on political topics to the degree that you just wanted to 'mute' them (I actually cancelled three magazine subscriptions by the end of that year).
News networks like CNN became comical to watch, and you'd run out of willing nature after 10 minutes.
Speeches by politicians just seemed to lack any coherent view of reality.
Since that period, I've stood back and viewed the entire landscape. There were probably already brewing issues in the mid-to-late 1990s....but you just laughed at the nature and proceeded on.
It is a conflict society now.....one group intensely battling another group. Everyday....some folks go into woke-status, and question their status in life. They aren't sure about things anymore. They don't feel completely safe in a community group anymore. They aren't sure about the news they see on TV, and if it's accurate. They have to function around college-educated people who now seem to be lacking any common sense.
Patience is running out. Civil behavior is pretty random these days. Censorship is openly discussed now....like it was a button that you could push without much of a thought process.
As for dissolving this?
Look at the script ahead....Joe Biden likely is forced out because of cognitive problems within three years. Fake news continues on. Colleges are mostly about indoctrination and safe spaces...than actual learning experiences. Covid-19 vaccinations might clear out some grief, but the virus is here to stay. Taxes will go up, and the cost upon each American from that....will be reflected. Hostilities will remain. And there's little to feel hyped-up about or positive.
1. Not that it really matters....but I noticed that North Korea's Kim has publicly spoken and said he intends to bring the US (under Biden) 'to it's knees'.
Whether President Biden reacts or not....is the big unknown. I'm sure that CNN can stretch this into a full-hour of coverage (sarcastically spoken).
2. As they hauled various Congressmen and Senators out of the Capital building on the 6th.....they were in fairly tight quarters. So it came up late yesterday....at least a couple of them now have Covid-19. If you figure the 14-day cycle, none of them are going back to the office until late January. The inauguration? Skipped.
3. The British health care system is fairly overwhelmed now with Covid-19 patients. So they are about to make up a new rule.....when they reach 100-percent capacity....they will only take in patients who seem to have 'potential value to society'.
I sat and looked over the phrase. You could bring in 100 'graders' and then some folks to grade over their potential value to society. There would be a lot of differing views. Is this a doctor assigning your value to society, or a transmission mechanic? Does age play into this, or your drinking habits?
4. What is said in DC.....around 15k National Guardsmen will be brought in for the inauguration. There's apparently a Congressman or two, who are now asking the head of the National Guard to assess if any of his folks are 'problems' (domestic terrorists was the term used).
The issue I see here....you could have more than 70-percent of the Guard who now fit into this new identifier 'domestic terrorist'.....so are you going to kick them out? Will you order them to disarm....so you can feel safe around the 30-percent who are armed?
Just from this group of 15k being brought into the inauguration....you might assess each single guy and find out that more than 12k are 'bad-boys'.....then what?
The police and firemen from the region? Assessing them as domestic terrorists as well? This is turning into some kind of science fiction 'play'.
5. I'm now a ex-Facebook and ex-Twitter user. Deactivated, deleted. It was one of those odd feelings....like you won $40 at some poker game....walking out ahead.
You have to wonder....if half the US population is either purged out of Facebook/Twitter, or just deletes their account....can either company financially survive long-term? I don't think so.....so I'll just predict....they both get bought up by someone in the next year or so....for half-the-value they currently hold. Downsizing of staffs will come next.
There was a piece over the weekend written by Politico, which goes at the topic of Trump leaving office, and creating his own 'network'.
The jest of this? Well....the way this was written....Oprah Winfrey has attempted this and boldly failed....the system just doesn't work like you'd think. Then they added....conservatives all watch Fox-News, so he can't take them over.
I sat and pondered over this.
In this position, I wouldn't bother with a news network. I'd organize and package a Internet Radio network....calling it 'Radio Liberté' (yes, the French spelling for Liberty, with the funny é at the end).
I'd hire a French-speaking salty gal, to give a 60-second introduction of every hour....kind of relating this to 'occupied-France' and how the home-front needs to stay focused and alert. The intro would end with her saying that the 'allies' are coming. as of such-and-such day of the Iowa Caucus in 2024.
Then I'd hire twenty-five hosts to provide 1-to-2 hour pieces. I'd make sure Latinos got at least three hours a day of 'chatter'. I'd find a serious black conservative minister to talk over black community problems. I'd find a financial expert to take apart California crazy spending. I'd have weekend jazz fests and Mariachi band music. I'd bring in Derschowitz once a month and just him lecture Constitutional law. I'd bring in former baseball players of the 1970s and talk about the era where social gimmicks were not practiced.
(this sounding like the original NPR in 1974? Yeah....that was kinda how they started)
Cost? I'd make this a internet station and a subscription required (figure $6.99 a month). Without the subscription.....no package. Just my humble estimate, but I think you could easily round 500,000 subscribers in sixty days.
I do agree....Oprah Winfrey failed miserably on the network business. She didn't didn't have the quantity of an audience to keep a network thriving.
As for each evening ending around 10 PM? I'd have a 8-minute conversation/speech by Trump. Play it like spring of 1944....with the French patiently waiting for the landing at Normandy.
Of the one-thousand odd things from the November election....the one key thing that I look over and it continues to bother me in some way......there is the one-mark ballots.
By one-mark ballots, this is an entire page of candidates and amendments (not just the Presidential race), where ONLY one single line was marked.
As an example, the ballot I had from Alabama had roughly 20 lines of candidates and ballot measures.
I'll readily admit....every four years...at least four ballot measures appear, and I might be keenly aware of one single ballot measure, with the other three zero knowledge. I tend to always vote 'no', if I don't know anything about the measure.
I've discussed in the years past with other folks. Some from California would remark that they have a serious problem in understanding the list of political options and measures.
But here in this ballot discussion....there's this issue that 450k ballots, from five states...returned to be counted and ONLY the Presidential race was marked. NOTHING else on the page submitted was marked.
Around 98,000 ballots in Pennsylvania, around 80,000 to 90,000 in Georgia, roughly 42,000 in Arizona, around 110k in Michigan and roughly 62,000 in Wisconsin.
I'm told by journalists and experts....this is normal.
I'm a bit skeptical that this is normal.
You'd have to assume that Senator races are significant (like in Georgia) but that 80k to 90k didn't mark that? Same issue in Arizona and Michigan.
To say it's occurred in past races? Well....that would drag me back to those races and ask just how far back do you have one-line ballots filled out? Does this go back to the 1990s? The past four to six election periods? And no one really said anything or went out to ask people why they don't fill out the 20-odd other lines?
The comical thing here....you could in most states....pick up the ballot and just mark ALL-REPUBLICAN or ALL-DEMOCRAT at the top, and at least get most of the ballot filled out and leave the measures empty. But they didn't even choose to do that.
You end up with some guy or gal....who just saved a ton of ink....by marking one single X in a column, and leaving the rest blank.
Just something to think about.
1. How many times has Colin Powell announced that he's probably not a Republican?
Well....I'd suggest over a 20-year period....it's probably been at least sixty times. He probably carries a 3x5 inch index card in his pocket to recite the quote precisely.
2. If you flew into DC for the 'riot' and got on the bad-boy list....you can't fly home until the investigation is done. Amtrak or Greyhound? Probably the only route unless you call your cousin to come and pick you up.
3. "We came very near to half of the House dying on Wednesday." Quote by AOC.
Logic would dictate here that a Marine unit needs to be stationed inside of the capital building and ready to launch a counter-offensive if required. (note: it's fairly silly to imagine this, or AOC's scene).
