From John Prine's song Angel from Montgomery
We're all caught in the ebb and flow of time as the years come and go. The month of January is named for the Roman God Janus who looks forward toward the future and back at the past. His image often appeared on doorways, arches, and gates. This time of year is a good opportunity to look at what has happened, and think about what will come.

The history of mankind is basically a timeline of war, from the first empires to the present. Many great civilizations, cultures, histories and knowledge down through the centuries have been lost to war. There are many examples of the victors erasing a peoples existence and replacing it with their concept of national identity. For example, The Old Testament is full of war, genocide and slaughter. History books are chronicles of war with intermittent smatterings of peace and prosperity. How much knowledge has been lost to the scourge of war? We will never know what the world has missed or how different it may have been because of the antiquities that were conquered and lost forever.

If the victor rewrites history in its favor, how can we trust anything that has been handed down to us, considering the possibility that the other side of the story may have been lost or altered for all of posterity? How much knowledge has been lost due to war, and the rewriting of history. The Library of Alexandria is just one example of ancient histories and knowledge lost to conflict. What knowledge and wisdom was lost forever in that fire of conflict? We'll never know.

Empires are parasites.

Impirium Parasitus (U.S. Empire) lives upon two hosts, the internal host and the external host. The citizens as the internal hosts and the victim as the external host country or state. Sometimes the relationship is symbiotic, but most times it's only beneficial for the parasite. In end stages when the host/s are no longer to be found or have been depleted, the Impirium Parasitus may turn exclusively on its citizens.

Impirium Parasitus has learned and adapted from past hosts. The Vietnam War or The War in Southeast Asian taught the parasite many valuable lessons that are presently applied to contemporary conflicts.

• The hoi polloi (common people, the masses) must not discern caskets draped in American flags.
• The hoi polloi must not hear anti-empirical words that emanate from the popular music of the day.
• Protest must be hidden from the citizens as much as possible.
• The use of censorship and propaganda to obfuscate the motivation for parasitical exploitation.
• The use of political intimidation to keep the hoi polloi in line.
• The use of a proxy army.

Is we learning yet?

Occasionally while surfing the internet I'll run across this hair on fire exclamation: "I'll see you in the re-education camp". Re-education? I thought that's what schools were for? Take that as you may, or not. I believe there is an effort afoot to thoughtscape your mind for you, as though you aren't intelligent enough to think for yourself.

To my mind, there's no need for a re-education camp, the camp has already been built, it's all around us. Like an ubiquitous schoolmarm, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Like an insidious rehabilitation program, not of the physical world, but of the mental realm. Fences built around the mind are as effective as a barrier of razor edged concertina wire, maybe more so, because once the fences are accepted then there's no need for escape.

My wife seized control of the TV remote control and tuned into the Oscars. Then the friendly folks at MSN put an article about the emcee's jokes about last year's violence between The Fresh Prince and Chris Rock, which included this poll:

NEWS POLL

Do you think there should or should not be jokes made about the 2022 incident where Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars?

• There should be
• There should not be
• I'm not sure
• Other / No opinion

Why does almost no one on the YouTube "Left" (Joe Rogan, Jimmy Dore, etc.)talk about this stuff?

The Fringe with Unacceptable Views

These are interesting times. Voicing unacceptable views is simply not tolerated and you will be disappeared. Revealing US war crimes will land you in prison, but manufacturing Russian crimes will elevate your platform and position. It is manufactured consent on steroids, no dissent allowed. So no wonder the US citizenry is ill informed, cheering on Nazis.

Is it collective amnesia? Have people forgotten the lie of WMD's? How about the democracy we brought to Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan? Do people think those countries are better off now than before we destroyed them? Are we so propagandized we've become blind? Sure seems so. The acceptance of absurdity seems systemic to me... down to and including today's time change. As usual, it may be that we're a dollar short and a day late ...but today we're also an hour early
(to give you an extra hour to shop after work)

At various times last week Dish, Sling, and Roku all removed Russia Today America from their options.
With practically no one broadcasting them anymore, RT America has thrown in the towel.