Occasional Reader 4/18/2023 5:30:54 AM

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Good morning.  Straight out of a movie plot; Russia has a sophisticated network of deep cover “moles” in various countries, using fake Latin American identities, carefully constructed and including spouses and kids:

https://elpais.com/argentina/2023-04-18/argentina-uruguay-brasil-peru-o-ecuador-los-topos-rusos-proliferan-en-america-latina.html

(Article is in Spanish, you can of course translate it.)

vxbush 4/18/2023 5:48:29 AM

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Twitter Files Part 5: Employees From Commie Countries Thought Censoring Trump Was a Bad Idea

You would think folks might listen to a fellow employee from CHINA who are pointing out some seriously stupid crap. You would be wrong, of course. 

“Maybe because I am from China I deeply understand how censorship can destroy the public conversation,” wrote one employee with concern. The flippant response to the employee’s concern should be noted. “I understand this fear, but I also understand that censorship by the government is very different than censorship of the government,” wrote another employee, basically shrugging off the concern.
What’s particularly grating about this response is that Yoel Roth was meeting with the FBI (the government), who encouraged the censorship of conservative voices on Twitter. This was the government censoring the citizenry. 

vxbush 4/18/2023 5:57:09 AM

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Psychotherapist: I Warned About Sam Brinton, but No One Listened

Brinton attacked conversion therapy based on his own bitter personal experience, but Nicolosi points out that the sly dog contradicted himself on numerous points. Nicolosi explains, “Brinton claims he was in torture therapy as a young child for years and can’t remember the therapist’s name. He later claimed the therapy took place in his twenties. But even as he was attacking therapies that don’t exist, he was engaging in sadomachism (sic) and simulated bestiality with young men and women. Of course, no one cared about his credibility until he got caught stealing luggage.”

vxbush 4/18/2023 6:06:20 AM

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People of the Lie

This touches on the question of the amount of mistruths spoken in most circles today and especially the MSM, which then are assumed to be truth or taken to be truth by those in power. What does that do to society? 

The issue regarding the third category of official liars, I suspect, is that they would experience a debilitating sense of anomie or emptiness should they find themselves living outside the Lie, which is the very air they breathe. The truth shall not set them free but, quite the contrary, render them captive in a psychological bubble of fear, self-alienation, and utter confusion.

Deprived of the Lie in which they work and prosper, they would be wholly lost. Lying is an absolute necessity for such people. What begins as expedience or opportunism morphs into essence, into the very structure of the self. It is their “truth,” their comfort zone, and the root of their identity. That is why they are immune to argument and reason. That is why they will go to any length, however counterintuitive or frankly ridiculous, to maintain their seat within the symposium of the Lie. 

The number of people we see in the news that fall into this category are almost innumerable. 

vxbush 4/18/2023 6:11:15 AM

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Two arrested over Chinese "secret police" station in NYC. Finally. Now--what about all the other ones that exist? 

vxbush 4/18/2023 6:13:09 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 5:

Interesting detail on this: 

[T]he group was housed in the offices of The American Changle Association. Their Facebook page describes them as a nonprofit engaged in immigration assistance, but they’ve obviously been up to much more than that. The group was blacklisted by the IRS a little over a year ago.

And they’ve had some significant reach in New York City. Last October, they hosted NYC Mayor Eric Adams onstage during their annual gala. (Adams and his staff conveniently forgot to put that on the Mayor’s public schedule and it was only discovered because pictures of him at the party showed up on social media.) The group’s last president, James Lu, donated $4,000 to Adams’ campaign over a two-year period. Other municipal and even congressional Democrats were the recipients of Lu’s generosity as well.

vxbush 4/18/2023 6:27:12 AM

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The New York Times reverses cause and effect in propaganda effort

A decent article demonstrating the "Conservatives pounce!" aspect of news reporting today. 

vxbush 4/18/2023 6:28:40 AM

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The war on those with good credit

Equity for housing. Complete with insane rules. 

vxbush 4/18/2023 6:30:41 AM

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University confiscates research for violating The Narrative™

This story is so infuriating to me. There used to be a thing called academic freedom, and then the left got in power. Now academic freedom is gone.

What happens if you are an academic whose research contradicts The Narrative™?

These days the answer is simple: you are canceled and your research is stolen and buried by the university.

That happened to Dr. Laura Favaro, whose research on the suppression of academic speech demonstrated that feminist scholars who dissent from gender ideology had been threatened and scared into silence due to their belief that biological sex is real. She is now suing the City University of London to get access to her research and for being fired for her beliefs.

vxbush 4/18/2023 6:32:49 AM

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vxbush 4/18/2023 6:36:52 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 8:

Occasional Reader 4/18/2023 7:09:51 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 9:

1984, or Brave New World ?  YOU make the call!

Occasional Reader 4/18/2023 7:22:35 AM

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Disney's newest ride: Help Princess Tiana find a missing ingredient for her food co-op.

You can't make this sh*t up.

/hat tip: Insty

vxbush 4/18/2023 7:28:12 AM

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In #13 Occasional Reader said: You can't make this sh*t up.

I don't WANT to make this sh*t up. I want things to go back the way they were. Sigh. 

JCM 4/18/2023 7:29:55 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 13:

As patrons of the ride enter the attraction, they will be told that the princess is missing a key ingredient for her Carnival celebration and they will be sent on a quest to find it during the ride.

Next the Princess will dance in the parade in a G-string....

JCM 4/18/2023 7:31:49 AM

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vxbush

Spies, secret police and censors, oh my.

Occasional Reader 4/18/2023 7:39:41 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 14: Reply to JCM in 15:

Could have been worse, could have been the new "It's a Trans World After All" ride.  But I'm sure they're working on that. 

JCM 4/18/2023 8:47:14 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 17:

Sheesh, don't give them ideas!

vxbush 4/18/2023 8:52:15 AM

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In #18 JCM said: Sheesh, don't give them ideas!

Oh, I'm pretty sure they've already had that idea. 

JCM 4/18/2023 9:15:53 AM

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Speaking of things we didn't see coming.... NOT!

UN-Backed Report Suggests Normalizing Pedophilia, Decriminalizing All Sexual Activity

Occasional Reader 4/18/2023 9:22:56 AM

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vxbush 4/18/2023 9:56:34 AM

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In #21 Occasional Reader said: The ride would be improved with a realistic-surprise ending. You pick up the ingredients to resupply the food co-op, but when you get there it's been looted and burned down in the name of #SocialJustice.

Heh. If only.

vxbush 4/18/2023 10:00:39 AM

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In #20 JCM said: UN-Backed Report Suggests Normalizing Pedophilia, Decriminalizing All Sexual Activity

What can you say to this level of insanity? 

JCM 4/18/2023 10:43:29 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 23:

The individual only has worth in their utility to the state in the leftist world view. Children have utility in they can be molded and used to inform upon the adults who may hold dissenting views. We see this in the trans movement, and pedophilia both designed to separate children from the parents at a fundamental level.

It is evil.

vxbush 4/18/2023 11:47:00 AM

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In #24 JCM said: It is evil.

Absolutely no disagreement. 

buzzsawmonkey 4/18/2023 12:30:01 PM

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Reply to JCM in 20:

"Human rights" are the counterfeit of liberty.

lucius septimius 4/19/2023 8:53:08 AM

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Reply to JCM in 24:

"It is evil" captures it in full.  Frankly, I'm convinced the trans/pedo thing is just another form of Antifa, a terrorist organization intended to sow disorder and destroy the enemies of the totalitarians.