Reader-submitted content. Original article by Harold Goodwin, published with permission from Travel Tomorrow.

In 1994, at the British Airways (BA) Travel for Tomorrow Awards launch, Sir Colin Marshall, then chair of BA, let the cat out of the bag when he said that “travel and tourism is the renting out for short term lets of other people’s environments.” Back then, of course, it mainly was the public sphere, but with the growth of the ‘Airbnb phenomenon’ it now includes the local housing stock. Having bought their flight and hotel, many tourists behave as though they own the place, forgetting that the airline and the accommodation provider do not contribute to maintaining the public space the tourist enjoys for free. Taxpaying locals pay to clean up after them. 

The public realm is for free, subject to the tragedy of the commons as each tourist maximizes their own use of the space and the views, likely complaining about the crowding and congestion, forgetting that they too are part of the crowd, part of the problem. In Firenze, known to tourists and the travel and tourism industries as Florence – recognizing that to name a place is in an important sense to own it, some, many (?), seek to correct their visitors. 

The traditional Tuscan restaurant L’Osteria di Giovanni’s website explains that others know Firenze as “Florentia, Florence, Florenz, Florencia” (Latin, English, German, Spanish, respectively). “So remember, Firenze is not a tower that you can climb or a sight you can see. It’s our city, and that’s its name. And you might just notice that we like to use it when talking about our city, even when we are talking in English.”

Valene Smith explores the relationship between tourists and locals in her seminal text Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism. Smith postulates and examines five types of tourism—historical, cultural, ethnic, environmental, and recreational—and their impact on diverse societies. The idea that tourists might behave like guests is seductive. I, for one, would wish that it was so, and I aspire to behave as a guest engaging with my host. Too often, I fail, partly because of personal frailty, most often because my host has invited too many guests, and because of the monetary transactions that characterize tourism. We don’t charge guests invited to dinner or to stay for the weekend, as a guest in a hotel, we expect to pay. In the streets and piazzas, we forget that we have not paid for and do not own the space and that we are a part of the problem of over-tourism.

The Vasari Corridor, built in 1565, overlooking the Arno River in Florence, was recently defaced with seven large letters and numbers believed to be about the German football team, Munich 1860. Graffiti asserts ownership. Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries director, pointed out that similar crimes in the US can bring a jail term of five years. He said, “Clearly this is not a drunken whim, but a premeditated act. Enough with symbolic punishments and imaginative extenuating circumstances. We need the hard fist of the law.”

Fortunately, graffiti on this scale is relatively rare. But graffiti has been defacing buildings and caves for centuries. 

The selfie is now an epidemic. In Florence, I saw very few cameras, but nearly every tourist was snapping away with their mobile phones.  

The following Op-Ed is written and submitted by Paul Plante.

As the “Silly Season,” an apt euphemism for the presidential primary season, begins in earnest, we can expect to be barraged, as is already beginning, with a load of political propaganda from TEAM BIDEN concerning this subject of BIDE-O-NOMICS, which Joe himself, a man with a well-earned reputation as a serial liar who more and more is looked at as a CLOWN PRINCE on the world stage, because, well, let’s face it and be honest with ourselves, he is, describes as follows, this at a gathering of union workers at Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia on 20 July 2023, to wit:

“I’m not here to declare victory; we got a long way to go on the economy,”

“But I’m here to say we have more work to do.”

“We have a plan that’s turning things around pretty quickly.”

“’Bidenomics’ is just another way of saying ‘Restore the American Dream.'”

“That’s the American Dream.”

“That’s Bidenomics.”

end quotes

And doesn’t that sound positively grand and glorious, people?

Joe Biden, our president, as well as being the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD, and CONQUEROR OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, is going to restore the American Dream by building back better to make America great again, all while fighting Donald Trump, the Republicans, the Russians, Putin, and the Chinese for the soul of America!

According to the news, Joe is taking his BIDE-O-NOMICS Show out on the road, much like a rock or hip-hop or country-western star takes a new hit single out on the road (cue Bob Seger On The Road Again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hoEc2Mi-7g ) going west this week to tout his economic gains to residents of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

With respect to the BIDE-O-NOMICS Show Tour featuring Joe Biden live and in person, Natalie Quillian, the White House deputy chief of staff who would know these things, given how important she is in the Biden autocracy, told The Washington Post while previewing Biden’s stops this week in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah that “You can expect us to highlight more groundbreakings of projects, more ribbon-cuttings, and opportunities to show the American people how these investments and jobs are reaching their communities and their neighborhoods,” and “This is a critical element of our strategy.”

But are those “investments” in Joe Biden’s INSANE GREEN DREAM really reaching our communities and neighborhoods?

That is a question that needs some exploring, and the place to do that, given the focus on protecting and promoting intellectual liberty here in the GRAND PALLADIUM of liberty known as the Cape Charles Mirror, is in the Cape Charles Mirror, this in the light of Democratic strategist Jennifer Holdsworth telling Reuters that this week’s BIDE-O-NOMICS road show could serve to counter a message spread by the nation’s right-wing media that have distorted the economy and Biden’s legislative agenda, to wit:

“As President Biden gets out there on the campaign trail, I think you’ll see that trend start to change,” she said.

But given that Fitch Ratings has just downgraded the main U.S. credit rating, drawing squeals and howls of protest from the likes of Biden Treasury Secretary Janet “TOODLES” Yellen, who is calling it “entirely unwarranted,” which is an absurd statement given that “TOODLES” just announced on 31 July 2023 that she expects to borrow $1.007 trillion in the third quarter to pay for BIDE-O-NOMICS, which sum is higher than the May estimate by $274 billion, due to a lower cash balance at the beginning of the quarter, and expectations of lower receipts and higher outlays for the period, that while Richard Francis, a senior director at Fitch, told Reuters that the deterioration was reflected in this year’s debt ceiling fight, and the increasing polarization of both major political parties, making compromise harder to achieve, all of which is so true, and in its decision to cut the U.S. rating by one notch to AA+ from AAA, Fitch also cited a fiscal deterioration over the next three years that will increase deficits and repeated down-to-the wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the U.S. government’s ability to pay its bills, thanks to the hefty bill for BIDE-O-NOMICS, otherwise known as classic Democrat BORROW-AND-SPEND and the consequences to the nation and future generations be damned, so long as the Democrats get to line their pockets with government money (graft it is called) in the here and now.

And in a Reuters article titled “Biden officials protest ‘bizarre’ Fitch downgrade, cite Trump-era woes” by David Lawder on August 2, 2023, we had Biden regime officials complaining about Fitch’s downgrade of the top U.S. government credit rating, saying the group used flawed methodology and ignored a resilient economy, which is total hogwash, given that Fitch’s report cited “a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years” and said “repeated debt-limit political standoffs and last-minute resolutions have eroded confidence in fiscal management,” which of course is understatement, which statement of reality drew this retort from an unnamed senior Biden administration, to wit:

“This is a bizarre and baseless decision for Fitch to make now.”

“It simply defies common sense to take this downgrade as a result of what was really a mess caused by the last administration and reckless actions by congressional Republicans.”

Except it is not congressional Republicans who are borrowing all this money – it is congressional Democrats, which brings us to Biden’s re-election campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz telling us as follows, to wit: “This Trump downgrade is a direct result of an extreme MAGA Republican agenda defined by chaos, callousness, and recklessness that Americans continue to reject.”

And thus, people, the stage has been set, raising the question of whether as a nation and as a people, we are really stupid enough to believe a word Joe Biden and all of his lackeys and flunkeys and lickspittles are telling us about the economy and our future as a nation, so stay tuned and in a future episode of the Cape Charles Mirror, we will be right back with more on this same subject.

Reader submitted content. Story by Pat Hickey, published with permission by John Kass News.

The Irish national epic is Tain Bo Cualigne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). It’s a long poem about the greed and vanity of elites and the courage and honor of those who are bound to fight for them. The king and queen of Connaught own a white horned bull and want to match it with the legendary Brown Bull of Ulster. At first, they attempt to finagle the brown bull of Cualigne (Cooley) and then outright steal it.

The prose/poem is a litany of lies, deceptions, curses, blood and misery. Note again that this work is the national Irish epic.

Heroes die by the hundreds and deeds of valor abound, bolstered by mighty oaths.

The bulls are brought together, and they slaughter one another. Very much ado and all for nothing.

I grew up with Irish literature and history. My grandparents escaped the misery of late 19^th century County Kerry and settled for the glories of Chicago’s stockyards. From there they built solidly middle-class lives in the land of the free and home of the brave. Their children and grandchildren inherited the privileges of American citizenship, while enjoying a connection to our romantic Celtic past. Ireland was the land of saints, scholars, poets, rebels and martyrs.

I visited Ireland a few times and came away with a much greater love for America. I look at Ireland today and am sad.

Ireland, or rather the Irish, have seemed to disappear. The Woke would say that the Irish have evolved. Me? I say they’ve evolved into voiceless, timid and complacent beneficiaries of a soulless culture.

Sure, there is Guinness and Father Ted and GAA hurling and football and Craic, but the faith of our fathers has vanished.

Pope John Paul II, now a Saint, visited Ireland in 1979 and praised the nation for its faithfulness. At that time 90% of the population identified as Roman Catholic and 87% of that demographic attended services. In 2022, 69% identified as Catholic and only 40% of those attended services. The next largest group after Catholic is “no religion” at 14%.

Ireland is now secular, globally Woke, passive and controlled by the European Union (EU) and Silicon Valley.

This past spring, Ireland ordered that 200,000 head of cattle be killed in order to curb bovine flatulence that is allegedly causing the planet’s destruction.  Dairy products are Ireland’s principle exports – think Kerry Gold.

Ireland has been constitutionally neutral since the birth of the Republic, under the arch-Catholic Eamon De Valera. Today, the EU wants to put an end to Irish neutrality and is pushing to add Ireland to NATO.

Ireland is enthralled to Silicon Valley and the global elites of the EU. Angela Nagel, a brilliant public scholar and an American-born Irish writer, has become a target of the Woke. Her book Kill All the Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumbler to Trump and the Alt-Right caused a Leftist Woke backlash that continues today. There was no MAGA or right-wing rage against Ms. Nagle.

In 2020, the brilliant Ms. Nagle wrote this assessment of Irish Wokeism:

     Having uncritically adopted the fashions of American academia, Ireland’s new young, educated elite have started parroting the imported language of “white privilege” versus “people of colour,” and the dangers of nationalism versus the superior multinational capitalism-friendly values of openness.

    There is little reason to think the cultural revolution sweeping across Europe from America will stop and listen to the “but we’re on your side!” pleas offered by Irish Republicans about how they supported the anti-apartheid movement in the Eighties or how our nationalist heroes were anti-imperialists or that our Republicans today are economically left-leaning and pro-immigration.

   Anyone who thinks these details will matter, and that any remnant of Irish cultural nationhood will be immune, is simply not paying attention to the unstoppable internal logic of the current cultural revolution underway. This new generation of elite aspirants are already showing that they make no such distinction and simply recast the native Irish as “white people” whose privilege needs to be checked and ultimately dismantled.

What has happened to Ireland? It has been bought off. The people of Ireland serve cruel masters. No, not Perfidious Albion, the British Crown, but the global elites of the EU and Silicon Valley. Why? Tax breaks. Miss Nagel notes,

As a result of the low-tax policies introduced in the late Nineties, Ireland today is effectively a tax haven, hosting the European headquarters of Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and many others. Some of these companies have been found to be paying as little as 0.005% tax. While this project gave Ireland the Celtic Tiger economy, it also produced a deeply unequal society totally subservient to the sovereignty and ultimately the values and culture of the corporations who today are its guiding force. For our obedience, we received surely the lowest of honours just last year when anti-yellow vests French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy congratulated us for being a people who resist the winds of populism (emphases my own).

Populism is Woke dog-whistle for fascist, or MAGA, or right-wing extremist. Any sobriquet to tamp down free speech. If you are a devout Catholic, oppose abortion, demand secure borders due to Ireland’s unrestricted immigration policies, and want to end identity politics whereby any identification but that of Irish has a free hand, then you are deemed a far-right national populist. One group has drawn the collective ire of EU elites: Niall McConnell’s Irish Patriot organization.

Angela Nagel warned that Ireland is as much subjugated by the Woke overlords of the EU and Silicon Valley as it was under British Rule. She writes,

The revolutionary generation that gave us the Irish nation understood that you cannot be culturally, intellectually or economically self-directed if you’re ruled from a foreign power. These recent events have started to reveal the irreconcilable and contradictory nature of the official ideology of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, which tried to dress our colonial relationship to international capitalism as a national triumph. The Irish will soon learn that if your economy is ruled from California, your society will start to look like California, a nowhere of the very rich and very poor, but without the sunshine.

Remember this: It was an Irish Chieftain who invited the Normans under Henry II to help him retain some power. Dermot McMurrough became a willing vassal of the Earl of Pembroke and the Plantagenet kings. It was Irish bishops that backed the play of Pope Adrian (an Englishman named Nicholas Breakspeare) and handed the Irish Church over to the British kings.

Likewise, the two major Irish political parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, struck the deal with Mammon and brought about the Celtic Tiger of the 1990s. Ireland is now a sad European Union petty state. While it has a mighty history of martyrdom, rebellion and faith, it also holds a miserable record of self-deception and outright betrayal.

The Irish people have a long and honored tradition of speaking truth to power. Jonathan Swift, Theobald Wolf Tone, Robert Emmet, Edmund Burke, Daniel O’Connell, James Connolly, James Larkin, Constance Georgine Markievicz, Protestants and Catholics alike, loudly shouted at oppressive policies and attitudes. Precious few voices are heard calling for change these days. The Irish media is as co-opted as the American corporate media. People like Angela Nagle are “cancelled.”

The Irish have sewn their mouths shut. The two bulls of Ireland are gored and dying, yet again.

The following Op-Ed was written and submitted by Paul Plante

In what has to be a rare bit of candor and introspection from a noted political hack in American politics, during a Monday conversation at 92nd in New York with David Rubenstein, former congresswoman and Pelosi-ite Witch Hunter Lizzie Cheney said politics in America, at all levels, but especially the federal level, are so broken that we’re electing idiots, which explains how both she and Joe Biden got into office here in America in the first place, and it is rare indeed that a political hack like Lizzie Cheney would come clean as she did about how she ended up in the people’s congress of the United States of America.

In that interview, Lizzie told the interviewer that she thinks that US politics are fundamentally broken at a time when the nation faces critical challenges, and she would know, because as a Pelosi-ite Witch Hunter, she was instrumental in that process.

Then she went on as follows: “What we’ve done in our politics is create a situation where we’re electing idiots,” Cheney told David Rubenstein during a Monday conversation at 92nd in New York.

And right on cue, enter Joe Biden from stage right to fulfill that role today, and if we go back in time to the Congressional Register for 6 January 2021, we see that Lizzie herself was also instrumental in that process of putting the idiot Joe Biden in office, so that when she says “What we’ve done in our politics is create a situation where we’re electing idiots,” she really is talking about herself when she says the word “we,” because she sure as hell is not talking about me!

Going back to the interview, Rubenstein pressed Cheney on if she would run for president as an independent if it meant that she could hurt former President Donald Trump’s chances of retaking the White House, and Lizzie, who has been unsparing in her criticisms of Trump, did not directly address that tantalizing possibility, to wit:

“I don’t look at it through the lens of this is what I should or shouldn’t do, I look through it through the lens of, how do we elect serious people?” she responded.

“Electing serious people can’t be partisan.”

end quotes

And why, pray tell don’t we elect serious people to office?

And that answer is quite simple – because neither political party gives us serious people to vote for, and Joe Biden and Karmela Harris are proof positive of that.

What the parties want are people who exhibit party loyalty, especially the Democrats, and they want people who can raise scads of money, and that pretty much excludes the serious people who are independent thinkers, as opposed to political whores.

Going back to the interview, Lizzie went on as follows:

“Because of the situation we’re in where we have a major party candidate that is trying to undermine our democracy, and I don’t say that lightly, we have to think about the kinds of alliances necessary to defeat him.”

end quotes

And there she is talking about Joe Biden, who is not only trying, but is doing a bang-up job of undermining our democracy with his destructive policies which are intended to divide us as a people, and thereby make us weaker.

Going back to the interview, Lizzie then proclaims her own ignorance of our nation’s fractured political history, to wit:

“We’re at a moment in our country where there is a tectonic shift going on in our politics,” Liz Cheney said.

end quote

A tectonic shift?

Not hardly, people – how about politics as usual, instead, and here, by way of illustration, let’s go to the “History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925” where we have as follows concerning our political history and supposed “tectonic” shifts, to wit:

The defeat of United States Senator Roscoe Conkling of Utica, for the Republican nomination for president in 1876, started influences which affected national politics and American history, during the ensuing fifteen years.

The presidential campaign of 1880 brought on a crisis in National Republican politics, which had previously been largely dominated by Conkling.

His political opponent, James G. Blaine, was the chief aspirant for the nomination.

Senator Conkling probably realized that he could not secure the nomination and so he backed the candidacy of General and ex-President U. S. Grant.

Conkling controlled the New York delegation to the convention and brought about their instruction to “use their most earnest and united efforts to secure the nomination of U. S. Grant.”

Both Grant and Blaine failed of the nomination after a hot fight in which the third term issue was most bitterly fought over — perhaps for all time.

James A. Garfield, of Ohio, was nominated and elected president while Chester A. Arthur of New York became vice-president.

Garfield’s leanings were toward the Blaine element, while Arthur’s affiliations were with the Conkling branch.

One of the most violent partisan struggles, in this history of the United States, now began with Conkling and Blaine as the opposing leaders.

Conkling’s partisans became known as the “Stalwarts” while Blaine’s were called the “Halfbreeds.”

The crisis came when President Garfield nominated State Senator W. H. Robertson, Collector of the Port of New York.

He was opposed by the Conkling party machine of New York.

Vice-President Arthur of New York, the two United States Senators from New York, Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Platt, and Postmaster-General Thomas L. James of New York State, joined in a request for the withdrawal of Robertson’s name.

President Garfield refused to bow to this party machine dictation, whereupon Conkling and Platt resigned on May 14, 1881, and left Washington.

President Garfield’s attitude was almost epochal in our politics, marking a change from the machine rule and dictation which had marked Republican presidential policies since Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.

The political situation caused great interest and considerable excitement throughout the country.

Since the Civil War, machine party rule by both political parties, had been accepted as a matter of course by the American people and the new turn of affairs became decidedly interesting.

Conkling and Platt became candidates for re-election in the New York State Legislative session.

Between May 31 and July 17, forty-eight ballots were taken, Warner Miller of Herkimer and Elbridge G. Lapham, being elected United States Senators from New York on that date.

Instead of quieting this bitter controversy this second defeat of Conkling’s machine, made the battle rage even more violently.

On July 2nd, a lunatic named Giteau, made violent by this fury of public opinion, shot and mortally wounded President Garfield, who died on September 19th.

Vice-President Arthur succeeded him, giving Conkling once more national power.

Garfield’s tragic death had no effect in stilling the Republican battle, which was solely caused by the vain ambitions of two individuals, Blaine and Conkling, whose animosities were at a point where they seemingly would have wrecked the country to secure a triumph or revenge.

The Republican machine was triumphant in nominating Judge C. J. Folger for governor of New York in 1882.

Charges of fraud in the convention were made and Grover Cleveland, the Democratic nominee (formerly of Clinton) was elected by the then unprecedented plurality of 193,000 votes.

Cleveland’s triumph of 1882 made him the nominee of his party for president in 1884 and he was elected over James G. Blaine in a very close contest.

The election depended upon New York State and Cleveland carried it by a little over one thousand votes.

Oneida County, home of Roscoe Conkling and a normally Republican county, gave Cleveland over a thousand plurality.

The Republicans called for a recount and the bitterness of partisan feeling is shown by the fact that Conkling became attorney for the Democratic party in the contest.

The recount gave the election to Cleveland.

Grover Cleveland’s election has been called one of the greatest American triumphs for popular government, by a leading Republican statesman (in 1924).

United States Senator Warner Miller of Herkimer was defeated for re-election in 1887, in another bitter fight.

Roscoe Conkling died in 1888.

The partisan battle, in the Republican ranks did not die out until the re-election of President McKinley in 1896.

The bolt of the Progressives from the Republican party in 1912 has been the only partisan struggle comparable with the Stalwart-Half-breed of the years between 1880 and 1888, and the Progressive defection lasted but one or two years and the breach was soon healed.

Senator Conkling’s handsome stone mansion stands in Rutger Park, Utica, while another stone mansion, built by Senator Warner Miller stands on the western edge of the village of Herkimer.

It is difficult to realize, at this time, that these two valley homes were the residences of men who fought in one of the most bitter and senseless partisan affrays which have ever endangered our existence as a nation.

There were no great principles back of this struggle on either side — merely the vain human endeavor to shine, lead and control other men.

It is significant of our advance in politics that present-day political leaders are compelled to advance some reasons of public policy for their election and success, rather than openly appealing to the prejudices and passions of their partisans.

end quotes

Why isn’t Lizzie Cheney aware of any of this?

That answer is quite simple – because she is an idiot.

The Titanic-bound submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” killing all five people on board, the US Coast Guard said Thursday. A remotely operated vehicle found parts of the sub about 1,600 feet from the bow of the shipwreck, officials said.

“The U.S. Coast Guard has declared the loss of the Titan submersible to be a major marine casualty and will lead the investigation,” the NTSB tweeted. “The NTSB has joined the investigation and will contribute to their efforts. The USCG is handling all media inquiries related to this investigation.”

Monday, my kids were over for dinner, and they were stressed about the fate of the Oceangate crew. I had to tell them that more than likely, there was some form of failure and the small vessel was probably crushed. The Titanic is 12,000 ft below the surface, the weight and pressure would crush the submarine like an empty beer can.

Apparently, that is what happened.

The loss of life is always sad, but in reality, there are almost 8 billion people in the world–on an average day, 150,000 die–should we be sad for the crew of the submarine?

Some of my best friends are world-class rock climbers and mountaineers. One thing I learned from them is that when you engage in dangerous activities, you have to assume the risk–when things go south, you could die. Climbing K2 may be an adrenaline rush, but the Karakoram range is littered with the bodies of those that have succumbed to the rock and ice and storm and abyss.

The debate is still happening within the climber community–how much money and effort should be expended on rescue missions when climbers get in over their heads and are stranded on remote rock faces?

Taking a private sub 12,000 feet below the surface may sound great, but assessing and assuming the risk associated with an endeavor like this is a personal decision that individuals must make based on their own abilities, experience, and understanding of the potential hazards involved.

Apparently, the CEO of the sub did not want old white men over fifty to be part of the crew because they were not ‘inspiring’. Maybe an old grizzled submariner with military experience could have explained and accurately assessed the risk involved in taking a relatively untested commercial vehicle to those depths–he may have been able to explain to those that were paying for the adventure just what they were really getting into.

Assuming the risk associated with dangerous sports like mountain climbing requires careful consideration, informed decision-making, adequate training, and an understanding of personal limitations, and in this case, the limitations of the submersible craft. While these dangerous activities offer unique challenges and rewards, individuals must prioritize safety, risk management, and responsible decision-making to minimize the potential hazards– and get their affairs in order before they depart.

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere. The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. – WB Yeats, The Second Coming

It is a sad joke, all of this stupidity we have to endure. When you really think about it, the ones that make the rules do not care anything about you–not your sexual orientation, how you identify, or what your pronouns are. They do not care if you own an AR-15 or a Daisey Red Rider BB gun. A woman’s right to choose is not even acknowledged. Whether you are racist, sexist, ageist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic or fatphobic, they don’t care. Here’s the rub: the key is to keep you thinking, speaking, working, consuming and voting in ways which keep them rich and powerful; while keeping us poor and powerless. They love the visceral public debates, they want us hating and fighting each other as intensely as possible about the things they do not care about. That way, we don’t notice the things they do care about.

The news media, films, books, magazines continually lobotomize the ordinary people. We are all brainwashed by propaganda without even knowing it, where everyone thinks, acts, votes and shops exactly as their rulers want them to, all while thinking they are free. People worry about technocratic escalations like digital IDs and CBDCs while foolishly thinking that this bleak, technocratic dystopia would look a lot different from the dystopia they are in right now.

People imagine an Orwellian dystopia as some Christopher Nolan dark future, but we are already there. They exist in a bubble of imagined freedom because we can choose what to buy at Target and watch football games on Sunday. There is no Illuminati that can subtly force us all to do as they wish. We are doing exactly as they wish. It really can’t be improved upon. There’s no meaningful political opposition, no antiwar movement, no anti-capitalist movement, very little critical thought — the control mechanism is already in place.

Margaret Atwood, whom literary critics call the “prophet of dystopia,” recently defined dystopia as when “[W]arlords and demagogues take over, some people forget that all people are people, enemies are created, vilified and dehumanized, minorities are persecuted, and human rights as such are shoved to the wall.”

Atwood’s dystopia is brilliant fiction, but dystopia, the one we are living in now is much more benign. We drink our beer and engage in a design that cloaks the sinister into the every day and madness into the mundane. This design is meant to funnel profit into the coffers of the oligarchs and power into the hands of the imperialists and War Dogs, and all efforts to resist and change these funneling systems have been successfully quashed by a social tech media machine that accomplishes psychological manipulation on a mass scale.

This totalitarian dystopia resembles a slightly abnormal euphoria. It will look a lot like freedom because they let us more or less do what we want. At the same time, we are controlled in what we want to do, a control fueled by easy access to our addictions. They further bolster this by creating systems where what we do has little or no meaningful effect. We all move in concert with the will of our rulers, without questioning whether we are not free.

The tools won’t be the things of Phillip K. Dick nightmares…not surveillance, police robots, digital IDs or digital currencies — the primary weapon is propaganda. The system of mass-scale psychological conditioning is a technological education and media-based tapestry.

No need to worry about a revolt. The herd has been psychologically conditioned to not even think about it. This is an insidious level of power and control. Propaganda is the base algorithm of this control.

Sadly, even if you show them, most will be happy with the status quo. The conditioned behavior and its propaganda laced euphoria is too comforting to release.

The following opinion was written and submitted by Paul Plante.

In a now world-famous TWEET on TWITTER by TWEETER-in-chief Joseph Robinette Biden, Junior, the first of his name, or any name for that matter, since Scipio Africanus, and Julius Caesar, and Pompey and even Alexander the Great never got there, to achieve the status of LEADER OF THE WORLD MAGNUS, we common folks, not only here in America, one of Joe’s many provinces that he governs, wisely it is said, but all over the world, as well, because there are a lot of common people out there like us, and like us, Joe has to show them some love, too, were informed as follows by Joe, to wit:

Joe Biden @JoeBiden
United States government official

For decades, climate deniers blocked any meaningful progress in dealing with the climate crisis, but not this year.

Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, we’re taking the most aggressive action to confront the climate crisis ever.

11:20 AM · Sep 1, 2022

end quotes

And people, ALL of us, not only here in America, or on earth for that matter, since this is at least an inter-galactic matter, given that what we do or don’t do here on earth affects the entire universe, inextricably linked as it all is, owe Joe a debt of gratitude for clearing that up for us, because silly us, spank ourselves on our bottoms for being so silly, we actually thought the INFLATION REDUCTION ACT was about, er, well, hey, c’mon man, you know, reducing inflation.

And where would we get such a cock-a-mamie idea as that?

How about the Cape Charles Mirror thread http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/r … ns-desk-2/ titled “Rep. Luria Votes to Lower Costs, Combat Climate Change and Tackle Inflation, Sends Inflation Reduction Act to President Biden’s Desk” on August 21, 2022, wherein we were informed as follows, to wit:

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Last Friday, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) voted to send the Inflation Reduction Act to the President’s desk and lower health care and prescription drug costs, combat climate change, tackle the root causes of inflation, and reduce the deficit.

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Yessirree Bob, people, look right there and you shall see it writ large – Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was going to tackle the root causes of inflation, and reduce the deficit to combat climate change!

EXCEPT THAT IS ALL PRE-ELECTION POLITICAL BULL****, because the IRA doesn’t tackle the root causes of inflation, it is itself a root cause of inflation, it does nothing to reduce the deficit, it adds to the deficit, and it does nothing to combat climate change, because the massive environmental disruptions that are going to result from the implementation of Joe’s IRA are going to be drivers of climate change and weather disruptions!

Going back to that political propaganda concerning the Biden IRA from August 21, 2022, it continued as follows, to wit:

“Rising prices have impacted working families across the country, and the Inflation Reduction Act will put money back into the pockets of Coastal Virginians by lowering health care costs, reducing energy prices, creating jobs, and fighting inflation.”

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And the jobs being created by the BORROWED MONEY (don’t get sucked into that Biden-esque horse**** that it is paid for) of Joe’s IRA are in some large part the cause of the inflation that the Federal Reserve is now trying desperately to contain with interest rate hikes, while Joe’s IRA creates more and more of it to the detriment of our NATIONAL SECURITY and ECONOMY!

So as Joe’s IRA continues to pump more and more money into the economy to grow it, the Federal Reserve is working as hard as it can to bring that same economy into a recession, and if that isn’t a definition of INSANITY in action, there never will be one!

Going back to the political propaganda from August 21, 2022, it continues, as follows:

“The Inflation Reduction Act will also combat climate change and invest in American energy to end our dependence on foreign energy sources like Russia and China,” Rep. Luria said.

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End our dependence on foreign energy sources like China?

We don’t depend on China as an energy source.

To the contrary, we are exporting energy to China, which is not reducing, but increasing our energy costs, which increases inflation – not reduces it, as we see in this Rigzone article titled “Increasing US Oil Exports Push Prices Higher” by Bloomberg/Immanual John Milton and Julia Fanzeres on March 01, 2023, to wit:

Oil finished a tumultuous session higher with record US exports slowing inventory builds, igniting crude market bulls even as persistent fears of higher interest rates dragged Wall Street lower.

West Texas Intermediate settled at its highest in nine sessions, with the Energy Information Administration reporting that exports jumped 23%, slowing recent inventory builds.

Encouraging data out of China further supported the bulls’ thesis that global demand was on the mend and could support oil markets even amid concerns the US was headed for economic contraction.

“[EIA data] could be an indication that Asian demand, Chinese demand for oil could be returning,” said Rob Thummel, a portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors.

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Going back to the propaganda, because that propaganda sets the stage for where we have to go to next to further demonstrate the SHEER INSANITY of this so-called Inflation Reduction Act, it concludes as follows, and here, with that in the record, I will pause for the moment, to wit:

“The Inflation Reduction Act delivers for Coastal Virginians in the short-term while making long-term investments to reduce the deficit and build a better future for generations of Americans.”

According to 126 leading economists—including seven Nobel Prize winners, three former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, two former Treasury Secretaries— the Inflation Reduction Act “will fight inflation and lower costs for American families while setting the stage for strong, stable, and broadly-shared long-term economic growth.”

* * * *

The legislation also represents the largest single federal investment to combat climate change and promote energy security through growing our domestic energy production and ending our reliance on foreign sources.

The Inflation Reduction Act is fully paid for and will not add to the national debt or raise taxes on working families, and will reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next decade.

The following opinion was written by Scott Cottrell. Mr. Cottrell worked with the Little Farm in Machipongo shoeing (Farrier) the horses housed there.

My name is Scott Cottrell and I had the honor and pleasure of being the Farrier that worked with Katie and crew in caring for their animals. I visited TLF at least twice a month (spending hours at each visit) and was always impressed at the quality and quantity of work done on behalf of the very lucky animals in their care- those animals won the lottery when they came under Katies charge. Katie and Les worked tirelessly on behalf of their animals …the life of an animal rescue manager is one of totally selfless service and commitment to their cause. These wonderful souls must deal with rising costs and uncertain budgets – all things completely out of their control. My hat is off to all of them.

To all who wonder if their contributions were well spent – your support to TLF made a world of difference in the lives of every animal Katie and Les touched. You should feel very good about your contributions….as I do. While I cannot answer questions re dotted “I’s”and crossed “t’s” re their charity I can speak as to what I saw over the time TLF was on the Eastern Shore – what I saw was selfless service and love for every animal in their charge. I am very proud to have worked with Katie and Les and am on lucky to have known them.

The following opinion is written and submitted by Don Green.

Since the Mirror’s publication of “What Happened to the Little Farm Rescue” on January 8, many questions have surfaced, such as:

“ If Katie and Lester Cook were the recipients of hundreds of thousands of dollars while in California and in Virginia, what happened to those funds?  

Were they really used exclusively to support the animals at the California and Virginia sanctuaries? Were any part of these funds used to purchase the improved real estate in Northampton County, VA, now apparently titled and for sale in the Cooks’ names, rather than that of The Little Farm?  

Were any part used to pay for the Cooks’ move from Northampton County to Franklin, Tennessee or for other private purposes? 

    Neither the Cooks nor their attorney has begun to answer these questions.

Despite the Cooks’ attorney’s statements of full disclosure regarding their plans to move, I never, whether in a Facebook post or a private communication, came across any statement indicating their intention to move to Tennessee.

What about The Little Farm’s 501(c)(3) status?  To date, nobody who has commented on the original article has unearthed any evidence that The Little Farm is currently registered in Virginia as a charitable organization or was registered as such in 2022.  It this is the case, the Cooks were soliciting charitable contributions on behalf of a non-existent charity.   

Regarding the farm animals, the Cooks’ attorney has not accounted for quite all of them; I remember reading about a large pig,  “One-Eyed Willie”, who made the trip from California to Machipongo, VA.   I saw no mention of Willie in Ms. Elkin’s summary of the animals retained and relocated.  Did he die in Virginia?  Was he euthanized?   Additionally, several rescuers deposited dozens of spayed and neutered feral cats at The Little Farm during its short period of operation in Virginia.  Again, there is no mention of them or of how or whether they were transferred.   If any or all of them are still at the Cooks’ property in Virginia, is anyone feeding them?

Finally, as several people have noted, the Cooks’ failure to answer any of these inquiries has raised further questions about their motivations:  even though they seemed to care for their animals, were they using them to solicit funds for private, noncharitable use?   The Cooks’ lawyer’s statement was really one long non-answer.

Here’s my own assessment of what may have happened after the Cooks moved to Virginia:  Though their property provided a wonderful sanctuary for farm animals, there was one important deficiency:  Northampton County lacks some aspects of the infrastructure that a couple moving from California would expect:  it has no quickly accessible specialized hospitals, large grocery stores, or large animal veterinarians.   It lacks a lot of the social structure important to young children that would be available in a more developed area.  Long drives to deal with sick children and animals are, unfortunately, a fact of life in Northampton.    

Additionally, Northampton’s good-old-boy system might not be the most welcoming to a “come-here” real estate agent (Mr. Cook’s profession) who hoped to sell luxury properties.  I believe these realities hit home sometime in early Summer 2022, a bit more than a year after their move to Northampton County.  Of course, by Autumn, they were gone.  It is possible that they hoped to avoid the questions of contributors and well-wishers by just slipping away, and had The Mirror’s January 8 article not appeared, perhaps they would have been able to do so.