Deep State Unraveling

[Peter]

108 migrants released by border patrol in Texas have tested positive for Coronavirus . . . WH: we will have enough Coronavirus vaccines by May. DOW at 31,481 at 12:56. Gov. Cuomo to make statement soon. TX, MISS, MT IA MA revoke mask mandates. Capitol Police say they have uncovered intelligence of a “possible plot” by a militia group to breach the U.S. Capitol . . . .

If you cruise the net like I do, mostly with MSN and Yahoo, you might notice how all those “the sky is falling, Trump bad, oh no” stories and headlines mostly disappeared when Joe and Kamala took office.  I am sure it is a coincidence, don’t you? Of course not. No one does.

I miss Rush’s compilation of democratic talking heads all parroting the same thing they heard on a conference call that morning. They have to know they are just left wing, ”yes men and women” and not real journalists. Their genre is propaganda. 

[Peter]

Just curious. On the right side of my screen on OL I see an actor, a dolphin, etc. but also a woman with a glass of wine and her shirt says being quiet. Who is she?   

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

22 minutes ago, Peter said:

Just curious. On the right side of my screen on OL I see an actor, a dolphin, etc. but also a woman with a glass of wine and her shirt says being quiet. Who is she?   

Peter,

The shirt says she is done being quiet, not that she is being quiet.

That's Lisa Page, paragon of FBI jackboot virtue...

As an aside, the actor's name is Michael Kelly. He never plays the hero...  

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

Of course there is. Theories like that, make me think of one of Rand's favorite words: irrational. 

Peter,

Maybe, but speculating is not irrational. It's speculating.

Notice, you did not address the substance of the speculation. You just issued a negative opinion about the epistemology of those who speculate.

I'm not a fan of shutting down speculation by intimidation...

Michael

[Peter]

14 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I'm not a fan of shutting down speculation by intimidation...

I watched Rush wither away. If he were still alive would he allow his estate to be given to others? I don't not plan on exhuming his body to see if it is him in the casket. ON to more news.

Oooh. It’s so sad. Cuomo says he always torches women appropriately, not inappropriately. He is a good catholic. He just gets horny. He’s not going to resign either.

Notes. Manhattan appeals court blocks Cuomo’s limits on religious gatherings, by Rebecca Rosenberg and Tamar Lapin December 28, 2020 | 8:37pm | Updated

From Metro: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s love life has been rocky, and sometimes cringe-worthy, for years — since well before a second former aide accused him of sexual harassment on the job on Feb. 27. Briefly the heartthrob of some swooning liberals — who called themselves “Cuomosexuals” at the height of the governor’s daily COVID-19 briefings last year — Cuomo, 63, has made no secret that he’s on the prowl after a very public breakup in 2019. One of those Cuomosexuals was comedian Chelsea Handler.

Clinton: 'I Did Not Have Sexual Relations With That Woman' May 6, 2014. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Clinton later confessed that he did indeed have an "improper physical relationship" with Monica Lewinksky, a 24-year-old White House intern.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

12 minutes ago, Peter said:

ON to more news.

Peter,

On to rational news?

   

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

If you cruise the net like I do, mostly with MSN and Yahoo...

Peter,

Now I understand...

   

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Editorial from Mike Pence:

Election Integrity Is a National Imperative

How's that for a slap in the face?

Politicians are all talk and no action. And here Pence comes talking again after wussing out...

But... but... but... some people say, the Capitol was under attack! Pence needed to uphold law and order.

Yeah, right.

I hope President Trump does not choose Pence again as running mate.

In my view, he wrote that editorial thinking he himself has a shot at being the GOP nominee.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The FBI doing its share as muscle for the Deep State.

EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: New Information — FBI Took Possession of Suspicious Ballots in Georgia in Early January and Ordered Them Destroyed With a Shredder

The headline says it all.

The FBI is now like the secret police in banana republics.

Soon will come the reports of suicides with 7 shots to the brain and one in the back.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

2 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

 

 

Just a little more on that.

Another Democrat-Media Narrative Goes Up in Flames: FBI Official Admits No Firearms Were Confiscated by Law Enforcement at Capitol Riot (VIDEO)

Quote

Senator Ron Johnson on Wednesday asked top FBI counterterrorism official Jill Sanborn if law enforcement confiscated any firearms on January 6 during a Senate committee hearing on the Capitol riot.

Ms. Sanborn said that no firearms were confiscated at the so-called “insurrection.”

“How many firearms were confiscated in the Capitol or on Capitol grounds that day?” Ron Johnson asked Sanborn.

“To my knowledge we have not recovered any on that day from any other arrests at the scene at this point,” Sanford said.

Ron Johnson pressed for more information regarding firearms: “Nobody has been charged with an actual firearm weapon in the Capitol or on Capitol grounds?”

Sanford replied, “Correct.”

“How many shots were fired?” Johnson asked.

“I believe the only shots fired were the ones that resulted in the death of the one lady [Ashli Babbitt],” Sanford said.

Let that sink in...

The only shot fired was by a cop. And the shot killed a protestor.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

All they need is one like this to fall, then others will fall and, suddenly, even SCOTUS will have a lot more to consider--stuff it will no longer be able to ignore.

Audit in Arizona of the 2020 Election Results Is Turning Out to be the Most Important Election Audit in US History

There is a ton-load of resistance to a fair audit, but there is a ton-load of insistence, too, starting with the Arizona Senate.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

If this audit happens fairly, the impact on the stolen 2020 election will be like the Hemingway quote in The Sun Also Rises when Mike Campbell (one of the characters) was asked how he went bankrupt.

Quote

Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.

Except the question will be, how did the stolen 2020 election fall apart?

Michael

[Peter]

21 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Except the question will be, how did the stolen 2020 election fall apart?

I don't envision a deposed President Biden but voting corruption would tarnish his re-electability. I think 2024 will be a more scrutinized election. The News tonight was saying there is another insurrection planned for tomorrow, and the troops in DC have been given lousy food and some have gotten sick. I think if any rioters show up and do their nefarious deeds, they will be warned once and then shot.     

[Peter]

11 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

That's Lisa Page, paragon of FBI jackboot virtue...

Sigh. I like the way she looks just like Biden's spokes lady who looks like a young Ayn Rand. But I dinna see any jackboots on Lisa, laddy.  

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

2 hours ago, Peter said:

But I dinna see any jackboots on Lisa, laddy.  

Peter,

Then again your name is not Trump. Nor were you close to him.

Being targeted by the FBI is no fun. Unless, of course, you are on the FBI and doing the targeting.

Lisa Page, attorney, loved her power over the unsuspecting. She loved the feeling of destroying a person's life, of watching her goons come at them out of nowhere and swoop them up.

And worse, she was in love with this:

She didn't open her legs to this creep because she had to in order to keep her job or anything like that. Hell, they were both married and not to each other.

She opened her legs to him because she wanted to. She liked it.

Evil.

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

I'm sure some of you have been updated by YouTube's algorithm on Maricopa county goings on over the last weeks/months, but in case not, I have found this channel informative:

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottsdalestudios/videos

 

Good premises!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

42 minutes ago, Strictlylogical said:

I'm sure some of you have been updated by YouTube's algorithm on Maricopa county goings on over the last weeks/months, but in case not, I have found this channel informative:

https://www.youtube.com/user/scottsdalestudios/videos

 

Good premises!

SL,

These two most recent videos below from that channel are worthy of embedding.

From Arizona, the possibility of a fair audit is chugging right along.

Bannon basically said what I did above. If this one falls, and it looks like it will now that there is a court order, others will fall in other states. The shit will hit the fan big-time. And that will delegitimize the election of the impostor Biden and his merry band of squatters.

 

The video below by Crowder re the Nevada election is painful to listen to. But instructive.

The election official doesn't understand what Crowder means by verifying and fixing an obvious illegal vote. (Crowder verified that an address given by the voting rolls for a voter was not correct, and neither was the new address when the county officials updated the rolls to fix the error.

Crowder asked him over and over what his process was and he acted like he didn't know what the issue was about. In the end, the official said he doesn't know of a law that covers this.

Like I said, painful. Straight out of The Trial by Franz Kafka.

Except this is the USA in 2020 to 2021.

 

I'm surprised YouTube is allowing this channel to exist. Great find...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

18 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

The FBI doing its share as muscle for the Deep State.

The FBI is garbage.

UPDATE: Judge Orders Release of Proud Boys Member Ethan Nordean After Feds Get Caught – Oversold His Case Like Worthless Trinkets from a 3 AM Infomercial

The FBI needs to be disbanded.

The USA does not need a secret police that arrests and tortures political prisoners simply because it can.

But that is what the FBI is now.

Michael

[Peter]

Remember all those people who stormed The Capitol? What’s happening on the legal front? Here is one story.

From Axios. The Arkansas man who was pictured with his feet on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk during the Jan. 6 insurrection had an outburst in court Thursday, yelling at the judge and his own lawyers that it isn't "fair" he is still in jail, KNWA reports. Background: Richard Barnett, 60, has been asking to be freed on bond since he was arrested days after the attack at the Capitol, per the New York Times. Barnett lost his patience after D.C. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper continued his trial until May 4.  “I’ve been here a long time … another month … It’s not fair,” Barnett said, per KNWA. “You’re letting everyone else out, I need help.” He has pled not guilty to charges of aiding and abetting, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, parading or demonstrating in a Capitol building, and theft of government property.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I found somebody I really like in terms of looking at the elites versus the rest of us. His name is Martin Gurri and I found him by way of Glenn Beck.

Why the Elites Have Lost Control

I will admit it. I have been worried about the power behind the globalists stealing a US Presidential election. But I've also maintained for a long time that the Internet is destroying the ability of dictators, including one-world government megalomaniacs, to hold onto power.

Martin thinks they are toast and he analyses this with a really broad communications brush, writing, the printing press, one-way electronic communication, and now the Internet. He talks about how each innovation helped trash the power structures, elites and hierarchies that existed and helped move mankind toward social organizations that were more freedom-oriented. Of course, this is a huge brush, not just a broad one, so it is obvious that this has not been a smooth ride. Power-mongers have also used these innovations to make gigantic messes while resisting.

In the interview, Glenn Beck does not want to share the optimism Gurri has, but I ignore that. Glenn's entire career was formed out of leading hard with doom and gloom. And I think he's still irritated that his attempt at being mankind's savior fizzed against the rock of President Trump. But I have to give him one thing. He digs up stuff like Gurri's ideas and gives it exposure. And he listens as he interviews. 

 

Gurri's Book

I got Gurri's book and am now reading it: The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium. (affiliate link) 

I was going to write it up, but a reviewer named Glynn Young did such a good job, I prefer to quote his 5 star review: A strange book to read right now in 2021 - but an important one

Quote

“The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium” by Martin Gurri was first published in 2014, and then the author added a rather extensive chapter entitled “Reconsiderations” in 2018. The addition didn’t revise or change anything from the 2014 book; it simply updated the information with the events of 2016 and after. And it is a very compelling, and disturbing, book to read in the first quarter of 2021.

A former CIA analyst specializing in global politics and global media, Gurri’s thesis is relatively simple: that the age of information has seriously undercut traditional elites and hierarchies, to the point where trust and credibility by the public are gone. He delves into example after example – the Arab Spring of 2011, the presidency of Barack Obama, whose election repudiated the traditional elites in the Democratic Party (as Barnie Sanders almost did in 2016); Brexit, there the British public turned a deaf ear to the elites in government, academia, business, culture, and the media; the election of Donald Trump, which repudiated both the Democratic Party and the traditional elites of the Republican Party.

Over and over again the public, armed with the staggering amount of information available on the internet, questions, rejects, repudiates, cancels, and ignores the traditional authorities created during the industrial age. Information networks and hubs have replaced hierarchal authority and experts. The problem is that networks can’t govern a nation state or even a region. But neither can the former authorities who longer have the consent of the governed.

What Gurri is arguing certainly helps explain the paralysis that has characterized government in Washington, D.C. Politics increasingly exemplifies paralysis. People in political parties no longer trust anyone in the other party; they often don’t trust people in their own. This idea of trust is critical. Resolution will only come when the public settles on new elites to govern, and that is a process that may take generations.

To be clear, Gurri is not talking about the public as the mob taking over parts of Seattle, rioting and burning in Minneapolis, or invading the U.S. Capitol. (In fact, he finds fault with a news media constantly amplifying tiny groups of people as representative of larger crowds.) No, the public is us, the people who read books, manage businesses, plow farms, drive trucks, work in hospitals, teach, sell cars, run factories, belong to and lead unions, and do a million other jobs. The age of information has taught us to mistrust authority, seek people of like minds in echo chambers, and increasingly think of opposing views as those of the enemy.

And, he says, we may be floundering for a while. It’s really strange to be reading Gurri as he talks about the worst thing that threatened elites can do – repression – and see exactly that happening on the internet, in the news media, and leading American progressives talking about the need for re-education camps.

Gurri makes it very clear that he is anything but a supporter of Donald Trump. But he understands what gave rise to Trump and his predecessor, what created Brexit, what’s tearing at the fabric of the European Union, and what continues to create strife in the Western democracies. "The Revolt of the Public" is not an easy read, but it’s an important one for understanding the times we’re living in.

Oh, this isn't a license to take it easy. I'm still devoted to throwing the bums out and I will keep working at it. There are no guarantees of anything, so we have to keep pounding. 

Hell, I don't even mind that Gurri is not a Trump fan. The authoritarian ruling class is the problem and the philosophy of nihilism is the weapon they use to drive the indoctrinated masses to action--that is, destroy all social structures and don't worry about what to build in its place. But this is a horrible strategy beyond the short term. As the young people say for their pet causes, this is not sustainable. 

Just by exposing that so clearly, Gurri has done a great service.

We The People can take care of the rest.

 

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

On 3/3/2021 at 11:43 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Peter,

Maybe, but speculating is not irrational. It's speculating.

Notice, you did not address the substance of the speculation. You just issued a negative opinion about the epistemology of those who speculate.

I'm not a fan of shutting down speculation by intimidation...

Michael

Isn't "speculation" panning for gold?

--Brant

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

13 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

Isn't "speculation" panning for gold?

--Brant

Brant,

Maybe...

But consider this. Every great achievement of human beings started as a speculation, even as a pre-speculation... a glimpse of something not clear before speculation can even bring to bear.

Speculation is glorious. It took us to the moon.

But it comes with a problem, not the one implied by your comment. There is nothing too bad about speculating for gold and not finding it. 

The real problem is speculating and finding shit. Not just any shit, either. Shit with severe unintended consequences. Pandora's box kind of consequences. 

But what are we gonna do? As humans, we want to hook the ropes of our childhood swing on both ends of a crescent moon in the night sky and put our smiling singing sweetheart on it so we can make movies. Accompanied, of course, by a full orchestra, chorus, dancers and anything else we can speculate up.

That's better than gold...

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

On 3/7/2021 at 2:09 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Oh, this isn't a license to take it easy. I'm still devoted to throwing the bums out and I will keep working at it. There are no guarantees of anything, so we have to keep pounding. 

Hell, I don't even mind that Gurri is not a Trump fan. The authoritarian ruling class is the problem and the philosophy of nihilism is the weapon they use to drive the indoctrinated masses to action--that is, destroy all social structures and don't worry about what to build in its place. But this is a horrible strategy beyond the short term. As the young people say for their pet causes, this is not sustainable. 

Just by exposing that so clearly, Gurri has done a great service.

We The People can take care of the rest.

 

Michael

Michael, I've noted you have a certain amount of optimism, here as which is repeatedly shown elsewhere and throughout your posts.

 

If I were to imagine we were in Germany, in the early days of Hitler's rise to power, rare proponents of individual rights and free will having a chat over coffee... would it be safe to say you would not have had the same optimism, and for specific reasons?  If we were having coffee now... what is to say we are not is a psycho-culturally analogous situation?  (I suppose this depends on how much of the true American spirit has atrophied)

 

I'm not sure if its my overly cynical view of the "others" out there in general, or whether I am being fed too much negative information about what appears to be some kind of tipping point... but I cannot see what you see.

Why?  Why the optimism here and now, when here and now feels and seems so bleak...

 

Hoping to see things more like you!

 

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

5 hours ago, Strictlylogical said:

Michael, I've noted you have a certain amount of optimism, here as which is repeatedly shown elsewhere and throughout your posts.

If I were to imagine we were in Germany, in the early days of Hitler's rise to power, rare proponents of individual rights and free will having a chat over coffee... would it be safe to say you would not have had the same optimism, and for specific reasons?  If we were having coffee now... what is to say we are not is a psycho-culturally analogous situation?  (I suppose this depends on how much of the true American spirit has atrophied)

I'm not sure if its my overly cynical view of the "others" out there in general, or whether I am being fed too much negative information about what appears to be some kind of tipping point... but I cannot see what you see.

Why?  Why the optimism here and now, when here and now feels and seems so bleak...

Hoping to see things more like you!

S,

Have you lived outside the US?

I lived in Brazil for 32 years.

The reason I mention this is because I don't think many people here in the US have a correct feeling of what life was like in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. The biggest problem was massive inflation. There was inflation so high, there were times people received their payments in shopping bags full of money. And they had to spend it by the end of the day before it devalued.

I felt something like this in Brazil when there was about 60-80% inflation per month in the last months of Presidente Sarney's term. Then Presidente Collor took office and froze the bank accounts of everyone, only allowing the withdrawal of $10,000. This was the same even for people who had to pay employees. It was a mess and people had literal heart attacks all over Brazil when that happened. The federal government did give the money back in 24 monthly payments, but I cannot explain what it felt like to live through that, both before and after.

But I can mention that people get disoriented and very angry when their money means nothing, but they still have to use it.

In Germany, they had the added situation of knowing that all their money was going toward reparations to other countries for WWI. The resentment was out of this world and Hitler guided it to scapegoating Jews for the short term. But when he started attacking the rest of the world, I can't imagine many average Germans felt that was so bad. They hated other countries for being the debtor that kept them so poor and in such daily misery for so long, with no end in sight.

I just don't see anything like that here in the US. Maybe something against China is starting to stir from the virus...

Also, I stopped watching mainstream news. Man, was that a relief.

You might get more optimistic if you start observing reality without the aid of an electronic screen. Your eyes work well for this.  

The first thing to notice is that the people around you, your neighbors and family, mostly do not reflect the issues in mainstream news and culture. They might argue at times about what they see on electronic screens, but they don't live it. (Except for those damn masks right now, which will soon be history.)

But on the electronic screen, there are good things, too. For example, there's OL.  

So be more selective. Avoid the mainstream culture. It is not mainstream America. It's a series of stories aimed keeping the elites justified. They own the main communications companies, so the stories they want told get told, loudly and often.

But there is so much more out there that reflects real mainstream America.

Also, look at that video with Glenn Beck and Martin Gurri in the post you quoted. It might surprise you because what Gurri talks about is so easily observable, even in history books.

I'm reading his book now, so I don't recall if the following thought is in the interview. Gurri highlights a huge difference between the public and the people. The public is actually the publics. These are groups who are interested in a main topic and are vocal about it. The people are the folks who live all around you. The public is about 10-20% of the people (my estimation) most of the time. So rather than look at who the mainstream communications vehicles say the public is, look around at the people. Most people are good.  

In the interview, notice that Glenn stays wedded to his pessimism. That's not due to what he has observed. Instead, it's due to him being part of the mainstream news and culture, meaning he has to deal with all the negativity as a substantial part of competing.

Life is good. And it will be even better when we throw the bums out.

Here in America, they pulled off a coup, but have no way of maintaining it because they did it wrong. They took out Trump (temporarily), but left behind all the people who reflect the same values as his. Their margins of control are razor thin and mostly in place through cheating. Since they are autocratic, asshole-laden and batshit crazy, now everybody is starting to hate them.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Then there's this.

I don't even care about those older cases anymore. They're just tidying up the pile of shit they made.

But a tidal wave is coming SCOTUS's way and it will clean the shit off.

Michael

 

EDIT: These ladies see what I see.

and 

 

[ThatGuy]

3 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

S,

Have you lived outside the US?

I lived in Brazil for 32 years.

The reason I mention this is because I don't think many people here in the US have a correct feeling of what life was like in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. The biggest problem was massive inflation. There was inflation so high, there were times people received their payments in shopping bags full of money. And they had to spend it by the end of the day before it devalued.

I felt something like this in Brazil when there was about 60-80% inflation per month in the last months of Presidente Sarney's term. Then President Collor took office and froze the bank accounts of everyone, only allowing the withdrawal of $10,000. This was the same even for people who had pay employees. It was a mess and people had literal heart attacks all over Brazil when that happened. The federal government did give the money back in 24 monthly payments, but I cannot explain what it felt like to live through that, both before and after.

But I can mention that people get disoriented and very angry when their money means nothing, but they still have to use it.

In Germany, they had the added situation of knowing that all their money was going toward reparations to other countries for WWI. The resentment was out of this world and Hitler guided it to scapegoating Jews for the short term. But when he started attacking the rest of the world, I can't imagine many average Germans felt that was so bad. They hated other countries for being the debtor that kept them so poor and in such daily misery for so long, with no end in sight.

I just don't see anything like that here in the US. Maybe something against China is starting to stir from the virus...

Also, I stopped watching mainstream news. Man, was that a relief.

You might get more optimistic if you start observing reality without the aid of an electronic screen. Your eyes work well for this.  

The first thing to notice is that the people around you, your neighbors and family, mostly do not reflect the issues in mainstream news and culture. They might argue at times about what they saw on electronic screens, but they don't live it. (Except for those damn masks right now, which will soon be history.)

But on the electronic screen, there are good things, too. For example, there's OL.  

So be more selective. Avoid the mainstream culture. It is not mainstream America. It's a series of stories aimed keeping the elites justified. They own the main communications companies, so the stories they want told get told, loudly and often.

But there is so much more out there that reflects real mainstream America.

Also, look at that video with Glenn Beck and Martin Gurri in the post you quoted. It might surprise you because what Gurri talks about is so easily observable, even in history books.

I'm reading his book now, so I don't recall if the following thought is in the interview. Gurri highlights a huge difference between the public and the people. The public is actually the publics. These are groups who are interested in a main topic and are vocal about it. The people are the folks who live all around you. The public is about 10-20% of the people (my estimation) most of the time. So rather than look at who the mainstream communications vehicles say the public is, look around at the people. Most people are good.  

In the interview, notice that Glenn stays wedded to his pessimism. That's not due to what he has observed. Instead, it's due to him being part of the mainstream news and culture, meaning he has to deal with all the negativity as a substantial part of competing.

Life is good. And it will be even better when we throw the bums out.

Here in America, they pulled off a coup, but have no way of maintaining it because they did it wrong. They took out Trump (temporarily), but left behind all the people who reflect the same values as his. Their margins of control are razor thin and mostly in place through cheating. Since they are autocratic, asshole-laden and batshit crazy, now everybody is starting to hate them.

Michael

The above remind me of Ayn Rand's answers to similar questions. The funny thing is that her first and near-last interviews both touch on the same question, from 1932 to 1979...I was just listening to her Tom Snyder interview, which sounded almost current.
 

First, her first interview, very reminiscent of Michael's comparison of the U.S. to his experience in Brazil...

From Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed

“Russian Girl Jeers at U.S. for Depression Complaint,” Oakland Tribute, 1932

Quote

 

“For three years Americans have been complaining of a depression. They don’t even know what it is.”

“In Russia there are no definite tax laws. You may pay taxes for 1932, and then in 1933 you may pay additional taxes for 1932 all over again, if the government is a little short. Small private business are taxed lightly when they ‘break even’, but when they show a profit, the taxes are readjusted so as to give nearly everything to the government.

“The ‘high-priced executive’ in Russia does not have the physical comforts of the laborer in America. [In Russia] several families live in one house, and, in industrial districts, from 5 to seven people live in one room. The government allots the space each inhabitant may occupy. Husband and wife may have a total stranger thrust into their room at any time.

“For food, there is gruel- heavy and filling, but not doing the digestive tract much good. At times I have eaten cakes made of ground carrot greens, coffee grounds and acorns. Once enough money is saved to buy a dress or pair of shoes, the government must give permission for the purchase. You stand in line for hours, waiting to get what is wanted at the stores…

“Only the very wealthy own motor cars, and these cars are second-hand. It is dangerous to ride in one anyway, because the poorer people throw things at you. American motion picture are cut, and propaganda against the rich is inserted before the picture is shown…”

 

Then, the Tom Snyder interview. Some of these sound so current to today, but not as far along as now (for example, thanks to the CCP virus, this past year we DID have people waiting in lines for food, and certain items were prohibited from sale as "non-essential". And the propaganda part is getting too close for comfort. Maybe still not as bad as her experience in Soviet Russia, but still, beyond the pale for America...)

(starting at 13:59)

Quote

 

Tom Snyder:

“How does Ayn Rand, philosopher. view the United States of America today people waiting in gasoline lines people fearing a possible recession, people wondering whether we will survive as a nation because of military posturing by other countries around the world? Tell me how you feel.”

Ayn Rand:

“That's a big statement right there, but first of all to sum it up, I feel that this country's being destroyed by its philosophy specifically by its university most dangerous thing in this country today are the universities because they're teaching the kind of ideas that would necessarily have to lead to the destruction of this country.

I think that the American people is too good for that kind of program you notice that the people are turning to the right. That's a very healthy sign, but there is no leadership on the right, there is no intellectual leadership. There are no ideas and it's very possible that the people will be defeated for lack of proper intellectual leadership. “

Tom Snyder:
“How are they are teaching sacrifice? How they are teaching altruism?”

Ayn Rand:

“Well, open daily paper and look at Mr. Cardinal. a peculiar creature who is telling us that we're going to overcome the oil shortage by driving this by giving up let us all make a sacrifice. “Let's lower our standard of living and we'll all be living better now.” Is that a proper philosophy to tell a country that has pride and self esteem? At one time was all the folks in American intellectual equipment and there were a lot of folks at least till people were taught pride in their own country, and in the good aspects the great achievements of this country today.” But you're supposed to apologize to every naked savage and you were on the globe…because you've earned your money, you have to feel guilty and apologize to it. “

 

 

Now, what would Rand of 1932 have to say to Rand of 1979? And what would they have to say about 2021? Rand's last words on the matter, in "Don't Let it Go", was that as long as we had free speech, there was still time, but that we were headed for civil war, even then. Now that even free speech has been near-destroyed, she might have reversed her previous position about "not being the kind of person to go out on the barricades; "it's much too soon for that..." Perhaps she'd be looking towards someone like her hero Enroljas from Les Miserables to spearhead a second American Revolution. (That's just speculation, of course. But not an unwarranted one, I think. But even if I'm wrong, I'll continue to speculate until it is illegal to do so...and even then...