@QMS
nothing seems to be worth anything. Oh well, tomorrow is another day, hopefully.

A fine spring-like day here. Will be able to get a coat of sealer on the deck job.
Hope your day goes well.

@ovals49

Boy he nailed it to the bone didn’t he? Yeah I can see why they would want to shut him up for exposing the rot that America has become. Not one of our glorified and well paid journalists would dare to say what he did. I’ve seen a few people on alternative media sites come close, but no cigar. But how is it that most people here can’t see it and continue to play the voting game that has been rigged against us for decades or still say that America is the greatest country on earth? Every day more people become homeless after losing their homes because the PTB are rigging the economy against us and hedge funds buy up more of our medical systems which gives us poorer services and raises costs. I’m going to stop here because I’d be writing for days about the rottenness of this country brought to us by the people we voted for to stop it. Life in America has gone downhill since the current crop of politicians got into office and yet we kept voting for them to fix it anyway…. Doh!

This Chilean-American passport holder had ensconced himself in Kharkov as a thorn in the side to the collective West and their Ukrainian proxy war against Russia. His wife and child (both born in Ukraine) had left Ukraine for safer climes with the onset of hostilities.

Several months ago he was arrested/detained by the SBU (Ukrainian intelligence) after he was added to an online ”hit list” of traitors, hosted in “Langley, VA”. Many expected he would be tortured and killed. Eventually he turned up, and resumed his interviews, discussions and criticisms. But he never explained how it happened that he had been released. He was not allowed to speak about this, as a condition of his release.

My hunch is as follows; His first detention was ordered by SBU, who likely envisioned a permanent solution to his pesky criticisms. Because of his relatively high profile the US was not comfortable with having a US dual citizen ‘disappeared’ and ordered Gonzalo to be released, unharmed to a virtual house arrest, with restrictions and preconditions.

So, what happened recently in Gonzalo’s online activity that might have caused cancellation of whatever had rescued him from the maw of the SBU? Perhaps a scathing broadside critique of the Collective West such as the one that appeared on his Twitter page in 20 installments on April 30:

These are the reasons you should leave the West, be it the US or Europe, and never look back.

1. THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY: The political system does NOT represent the will of the people. Legitimate grievances and problems that affect the entire population are left unaddressed.

Policies are implemented that a majority do not want or support, such as illegal immigration, censorship, allowing monopolies to control all industries, extreme wealth disparities (the greatest in recorded history), etc.

Those who have been pre-approved are allowed to enter the political system, which is dominated by moneyed- and ideological-interests. The political parties play games to distract voters, not solve problems.

If a politician actually tries to address serious issues, he is marginalized by his party and declared a “right-wing extremist”.

2. THERE IS NO FREE AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA: All legacy media are controlled propaganda arms of the government.

This happened as the government started surreptitiously supporting the legacy media, as their ad revenue disappeared because of social media. Now, all legacy mainstream media can only survive with government largess—so they only publish what's government approved.

Lies.

3. THERE IS NO FREE SPEECH: Anyone who says anything that even a microscopic minority doesn’t like is labeled as “hate speech” (never defined, just BAD), and so people are silenced by way of deplatforming. Now, the Biden administration is openly prosecuting meme makers!

“Free speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences!” decry those advocating for censoring “hate speech”.

But that’s EXACTLY what freedom of speech means.

Without free speech, the truth can never be said out loud. So you can never identify the problems—and solve them.

People become too afraid, and decide to shrug, not say anything, and pretend the problems aren’t real.

Which is what is happening: The serious problems are not being addressed, just ignored. We are amusing ourselves to death.

4. TERRIBLE EDUCATION: The education bestowed in schools and universities in the US and Europe are atrocious. Children finishing high-school without knowing how to read or do simple math. University students who can't tell you what centuries Shakespeare lived—or who he was!

Education has become a way to enslave the minds of children, teaching them ideological lies and preventing them from thinking critically. And university education is a way to get an empty accreditation and (not incidentally) turn every student into a student loan debt slave.

And let's not even talk about the rampant, insane ideologies being spread to children—even in pre-school!—that are corrosive to children's psyche, and grotesque to anyone sane.

They can only take root among children and youths who have not been taught to think critically.

5. RACIAL/ETHNIC STRIFE: The degree of racial/ethnic strife is off-the-charts—and it is ENCOURAGED by the leadership classes! They WANT the racial/ethnic strife so as to take advantage of it so as to retain power, playing one race/ethnicity off another.

The encouragement of the belief that “everything is racist” prevents solutions to racial/ethnic inequities being put forward.

It also fosters resentment among racial/ethnic minorities—leading to random violence all the time, not to mention looting and thievery.

No society with such ethnic/racial strife can long endure before tearing itself apart. Look at Zimbabwe, look at what’s happening now in South Africa.

6. ECONOMIC COLLAPSE: The US and Europe are about to experience a massive economic collapse—this is well-known.

The West has incurred such enormous debt that there is no way to pay it except by printing. Both the dollar and the euro are about to crater in hyperinflation. You are already seeing it, with astronomical prices for basic necessities.

Economically, the West is a house of cards, and it will take just one good shove—a bank collapsing, a company being caught lying about its financials—to send the whole thing to the bottom.

This Great Depression 2.0 will last at least a decade, likely longer.

Why so long? Because the industrial base has vanished in the West, hollowed out by neoliberal off-shoring. It shifted into a service, value-added economy that produces nothing. We see it in the Ukraine ammo situation.

But the most important reason to leave the West is:

7.FEAR FOR CHILDREN'S FUTURE: Parents no longer believe their children will grow up in a sane, rational, fair society, and have a bright future ahead of them. Parents realize—correctly—that their children will suffer horribly in the US/Europe, and never achieve their goals.

They will be less educated than themselves, poorer than themselves, and have less opportunities for themselves.

They also realize that the level of State repression and disinformation will be horrible.

Who would want to raise children in such a nightmare?

There are many other reasons to leave the West—the US and Europe.

But above all, it's the future: No adult truly, sincerely believes that the future of the West will be as bright as its past. Most know the future will be dark, hostile, uncertain, poor.

So why stay?

Gonzalo Lira
@GonzaloLira1968. Apr 30