from 1963 onward. Any situation, any decision between politics,business and the wealthy on one side and on the other, the people, us, always went against us. Every crisis, real or manufactured was used to expand surveillance and bureaucracy on us 99%, with that data increasingly porous between government and business. AI will be their near perfect machine to accomplish close to total control over us.

Notice that there is no moral code, no 3 laws of robotics built in to AI. If there is a famine, should we grow more food, or get rid of excess mouths to feed? For the wealthy there's always an upside. Raise prices on all food, get into the mass burial biz, scarf up vacant land cheap for bigger estates. For us, not so much. And who's pushing for more AI?

I'm sure it's only a coincidence about the date 911, the emergency phone number. Also the anniversary of the Pinochet coup against Salvador Allende. I didn't recognize that until I read Shock Doctrine.

My experience and reaction were similar to yours JtC. Because of some earlier experience in life, I was quite suspicious as the building collapses had the appearance of demolitions rather than multiple structural failures from aircraft collisions. My family is from the greater NYC region. I think it was my brother who had the worst experience because he worked right across the river in or or near Jersey City. I vaguely recall visiting the office there once, although I can't remember the exact location. You could see the lower Manhattan skyline easily. On 911, at some point he became aware of the disturbing events in progress and could see them outside. The pall of smoke was frightening, the rumblings of the building collapses were all quite audible to him.

He told me there was no transportation allowed across the Hudson. Thinking perhaps a war had started he wanted to get home with his family asap. I'm guessing he took some kind of boat across the Hudson, then walked a great distance, and then walked across the Manhattan bridge, he did say that, I recall. He somehow got to Jamaica station and took the LIRR home. He was quite shaken, and he was never the same again, mentally. Although out on Long Island, I know my mother was also shaken because she had grown up in Brooklyn and was very much an NYC person. When I expressed my "theories" on what had happened, she became very upset, so I never said anything again about it.

I met two other people who were lower Manhattan survivors. One was a skeptic, he was right there when it happened. Exposure to the smoke and debris permanently disabled him. The other reacted like my mom.

Was it after this "conspiracy theory" became the go to dismissive term?

that TPTB want us to feel off balance, overwhelmed, helpless and divided. Hence, Trump and all his antics, lies and outrageousness. But we have so much power to defy them through critical thinking and understanding the quantum realities of our connection to each other and to the universe as a whole. They can put in place all kinds of technology to try to control outcomes, including possibily destroying life as we know it, but we are part of something greater. I don't think it takes much to destroy evil. It's weak link is that love and connection is so much stronger. If it weren't, disinformation, lies, manipulation and propaganda wouldn't need to be in frenzied high drive, 24/7. C99% plays an important role in countering their lies and exposing their absurdity and vacuity. Thank you.

a hotel near JFK International Airport. Holiday Inn, maybe? At any rate, I struck up a conversation with this guy at the bar. Henry. He was a retired firefighter. Out of the blue, he described his day at work on 9/11. He said he was ordered to go set up firetrucks and ambulances in a street that had been closed to traffic. Nobody knew why they were there, or why the street had been closed to traffic. A couple of hours later, they discovered the reason. They had a short and direct route to the Towers. Under his breath, he told me not to believe the official story of the attack, and never trust the government.

I had started a comment, a long one, just like that, when all the power went out. It was either the end of the world or PG&E. Just my luck it was the latter, but we had some time critical early morning stuff to do, so we went and did that and came back and the power was on, but my 'puter was off and my nearly finished comment was nowhere to be found when I got it back up and running again.

It was west coast time out here and I don't know when ot what I found outm how, or whEre I was, but at some point I found out and either found a TV or a computer news feed and watched for a while. My first thoughts and reactions were pretty much as follows:

"Well, looks like our turn; we're finally gonna find out what the rest of the world has been going through for all these years. Hey, WAIT! Reichstag Fire??" In time I came to conclude that it probably wasn't Reichstag fire unless very deep, complex, multi-conspirator with proxies and patsies aplenty; but that they would, were, and did use it as if it were the Reichstag fire, the same playbook, war on civil liberties, fear and hate mongering, an arguably unprovoked, unnecessary and, in the end, pointless war against Afghanistan and a clearly unprovoked, illegal war of aggression against Iraq. Wheels within wheels, war crimes by the dozem, the war lovers going crazy in public and the whole uniparty holding a lovefest involving the more flawed logic and reasoning I'd seen in a long time.

Things managed to go downhill from there, What happened after happened after and here we are, as a nation and polity, seemingly not really any wiser.

be well and have a good one