A study published last month uncovered a disturbing change to life on Earth. And it's not predicted to happen sometime in the future -- it's already happened…

By David Sussin

If humanity is going to be destroyed by climate change, it's likely millions of years from happening. But the steps along the way are no fun either.

There are climate trends happening now we should beware of, not because we can't survive them, but because there are dangerous creatures that may begin to thrive.

A study published last month (June 6, 2025) uncovered just such a disturbing change. And it's not predicted to happen sometime in the future -- it's already happened…

Our current AI models handle complex challenges, like predicting how a sequence of amino acids folds into a complex 3D protein structure. But it will get simple math problems wrong. And it will state the wrong answer with complete confidence.

By David Sussin

Since the 1950's we've been actively pushing for computers to do anything humans do. It's like humanity can't wait to collectively retire from all work.

For some, the dream is for computers to achieve "AGI", or Artificial General Intelligence. This is the point where a chat bot evolves from asking how it can help with your phone bill to replicating the full spectrum of human intelligence.

Reaching AGI, large language models like Gemini or ChatGPT would be able to generalize, handle problems that cross disciplines, apply common sense, see a bigger picture when tackling questions, and -- most impressively -- learn. AGI level computers would improve themselves recursively at a pace faster than humans, making breakthroughs in science and medicine and everything else.

That's the utopian version. And, with current AI models already performing mind-blowing feats, AGI seems like it's within reach.

But the current version is not there yet. It has major flaws. The big one? It hallucinates…

The possibilities are astounding for curing diseases before they happen. Of course, the ways it can be used for harm are equally astounding…

By David Sussin

It's now possible to edit your DNA.

You can't stretch out a single string of DNA nucleotides and grab a scalpel and make a cut. The edge of the blade is too big -- thousands of times too big.

If you were a strand of DNA, the scalpel blade coming down to make a cut would be the size of the Himalayas. Not a mountain in the Himalayas, but the entire 1,500 mile long mountain range.

DNA is microscopic. Actually, it's smaller than that. It's nanoscopic, literally the size of a molecule because, well, a single strand of DNA is a molecule. The edge of a knife blade is room enough for millions of strands, enough to encode entire living organisms.

Yet even at that unfathomably small size, science figured out a way to edit a single strand…

By Egon E. Mosum

Dracula may have had certain insights we don’t, showing us the advantage of living five centuries.

He said he never drank… wine.

After reading this article, you might give that perspective some serious thought. Not all that glistens is gold and not every bottle that proclaims a vintage and a point of origin is telling the unvarnished truth.

There are sour grapes, and there is wine. 

In reality, they aren’t all that different. It’s just that when it comes to wine there is a mystique, an aura, or more accurately said, a marketing ploy. 

There once was Ripple for the cheap seats and the paper bag crowd, although it died over forty years ago. There still is Chateau Lafite Rothschild which is for the raised pinkie and trust fund crowd.

But of course, where there is a profit to be made in labels and reputations, there are even more profits to be made by passing off the ersatz as the bona fide bottle of plonk.

This brings us to the subject of today’s article: the cash in counterfeit wine…

Luxury costs a lot, but fake luxury costs only a little. Although fake, it can create an image of wealth, provided the fake goods aren’t too closely inspected by an expert.  It’s quantity over quality in the kingdom of the knockoffs, and there are plenty of ready, willing and able buyers.

By Egon E Mosum

The two characters that make up the word for China, Chung Kuo, mean “central kingdom.”

China, along with its other accomplishments, has certainly earned that title when it comes to the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit goods — and there are a lot more than two characters involved with this shady business.

Luxury costs a lot, but fake luxury costs only a little. Although fake, it can create an image of wealth, provided the fake goods aren’t too closely inspected by an expert.  It’s quantity over quality in the kingdom of the knockoffs, and there are plenty of ready, willing and able buyers.

Given the social media bombardment people face daily — especially the younger population — where everybody seems to be rich, handsome and laden with luxury label goods, it’s not hard to understand the motivation to manufacture top labeled fakery.

The purpose is profits, of course with respect to the sellers, and puffery with respect to the buyers.

There’s even a new twist on the old counterfeit scam. Luxury brands like Hermes, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, are seeing social media postings from supposed oppressed workers in China who make these goods. Woe is them, and even more woe to the gullible who believe this nonsense.

The K-1 visa is the golden ticket to legal residency and labor certification in our country. For men who may not be Hugh Hefner with the ladies at home, they can be attractive to the tired, poor and huddled female masses eager to get the hell out of their own country.

By Egon E Mosum

Rumor has it that love makes the world go ‘round.

True or not, around the world there are women (or at least their avatars) who are searching for love from distant lands. The kind of lands where they can land themselves a K-1 ‘sweetheart visa.’

That would be this land, which is our land, the United States of America.

The K-1 visa is the golden ticket to legal residency and labor certification in our country. For men who may not be Hugh Hefner with the ladies at home, they can be attractive to the tired, poor and huddled female masses eager to get the hell out of their own country.

It’s understandable that when folks live in a poverty-stricken land, or are ducking drones and missiles in their neighborhood, they would seek to emigrate to the United States.

It’s also understandable that they might feign romance to save their life and get some liberty. And of course, (when they understand United States divorce laws), half of the property of the sucker they married.

For more than a century man has envisioned life from off the planet as large-eyed and large-brained gray beings. But maybe they didn’t come from outer space. Maybe they originated here on Earth - then mutated in outer space, before returning to Earth…

By Egon E Mosum

When you learn that a UFO researcher can earn a six-figure salary, it kind of makes you want to believe in extraterrestrials. 

Maybe those bug-eyed monsters from some other galaxy are really out there. Especially when you could get paid more than a hundred grand a year to look for them in a job with health benefits and a 401k.[1]

For more than a century man has envisioned life from off the planet as large-eyed and large-brained gray beings. Or giant mean carrots like we saw in the 1951 movie The Thing.

Or maybe they are friendly little creatures with lighted fingers, or large-brained skull faced Martians like we saw in Mars Attacks who can only be defeated by listening to Slim Whitman songs.

Or maybe not.

Maybe, what really is out there are just microbial life forms; tiny bugs that can resist the environmental dangers of outer space, or exist on some planet where water isn’t available… either on tap or in the overpriced plastic bottle.

Or maybe they didn’t come from outer space. Maybe they originated from here on Earth - then mutated in outer space, before returning to Earth…

By Egon E Mosum

If there’s one law that’s constant throughout the land, it is Murphy’s Law — whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

In consideration of Mr. Murphy, we obtain insurance.

Life insurance, health insurance, property and casualty insurance, errors and omissions, all kinds of insurance that will supposedly defend us and pay off when we are damaged by some covered incident, or liable to some other person for damages.

The operative word in the preceding paragraph is ‘supposedly.’

First, let’s realize how insurance companies really make money. Of course, they charge us outrageous premiums for the coverage they are ‘supposed’ to provide. But more importantly, they use those premiums for mortgage lending and stock investment.

They are primarily interested in interest, and devoted to dividends.

Then comes a time, when the pesky customer suffers a loss and calls his broker to make sure he’s covered.

The insurance company then (at times), does its best to make sure they either deny coverage, or minimize their payouts. 

With respect to health insurance coverage denials, it got to the point that the routine practice of just saying no when it came to coverage led to the Chief Executive Officer of United HealthCare being summarily assassinated in the street. (Had he only been wounded, one may speculate if United HealthCare would have denied him coverage for treatment).

Let’s start from the beginning, with the weasel language contained in just about every policy — language that’s vague and open to interpretation. When the insurance company is the interpreter, it often leads to a denial of coverage.

As soon as scientists understood the process, they were obsessed with replicating it. Suddenly, it might be possible to harness the power of the Sun. What does that mean for humans on Earth…?

By David Sussin

In one second, the Sun releases more energy than humans have used in all of history.

The more we learn about our home star, the more impressive it becomes. The facts are mind blowing: its intense heat reaches us from 93 million miles away; it's not just bigger than the Earth, it's 109 times bigger; its core temperature is an unfathomable 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

But the central, compelling fact is that some natural engine inside its core creates more energy than we'd ever need, every single second.

Hard to even comprehend that. It's no wonder humans since the dawn of time have looked up at that ball of never-ending fire and wondered, "what if we could harness its power somehow?"

You would never know about UFO’s, except the National Archives and Records Administration was ordered to release records on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena on a regular basis, mandated by the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It has resulted in a lot of interesting - and unexplained - data…

By David Sussin

You never hear about most UFO sightings. Among the most credible are reports from airline pilots.

On October 2, 2024, at 9:40 PM Eastern time, the crew of a Canadair passenger jet reported seeing an unidentified flying object.

They were flying northwest of Akron, Ohio inbound for Milwaukee, when the pilot saw bright white lights hovering at a very high altitude -- they estimated 60,000 feet. That’s way beyond what any drone could reach.

And it was much higher than the 38,000 feet they were cruising at. Because of the generous distance between them and the UFO, the crew took no evasive action. But they did report it to the FAA.

You probably heard nothing about it. But more disturbing than this sighting is the fact it's one of many. These reports come into the FAA constantly.

There was another incident on July 5th, 2024. This time it was in broad daylight - 3:35pm. American Airlines Flight 1913 was traveling from Chicago to Phoenix. It was 40 miles north of Topeka, Kansas, flying at 26,000 feet.

At that moment, the pilot heard something no pilot ever wants to hear: the collision avoidance alert sounded. They scanned the skies to see what could possibly be in their way so suddenly. They saw two slow-moving, light grey UFOs moving together, followed by a third, traveling in the opposite direction.

At that same moment, United Flight 1687 flying in the same general area was also getting collision alerts. Her crew could see nothing visually. And air traffic control showed no radar contacts for the UFOs.

Just another report for the FAA filed away…

When President Trump announced the U.S. was developing its own ‘Dome’ defense system, you might have wondered if that meant we didn't already have one. Does that mean the U.S. is a sitting duck for enemy attack?

By David Sussin

President Trump recently ordered the Pentagon to create a missile defense system like Israel's Iron Dome. It's a tall order - the U.S. is 446 times larger than Israel. But the Pentagon is all about tall orders.

The "dome" is a smart idea. It doesn't stop every missile, but it gets impressively close. Last year, Israel's Iron Dome faced two massive missile and drone attacks from Iran and proved its worth: the first attack, in April, involved 30+ cruise missiles and 120+ ballistic missiles.

The Iron Dome helped intercept 99% of the them. In October, the second attack came, sending 200 more ballistic missiles -- enough warheads to obliterate cities.

Again, most of the barrage was intercepted, with only minor damage suffered. After all the attacks were over and the dust cleared, there was only one fatality.

It's good to have a "dome".

Although you might see a "pre-industrial baseline" which covers 1850-1900. Oddly enough, the average global surface temperature in both periods was around 57°F. Things weren't changing all that much. Until now…

By David Sussin

Global temperatures are rising. You hear this all the time because, based on certain numbers, it's true.

But what are these numbers?

The metric used by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the "global mean surface temperature anomaly".

Sounds like something made up to give Spock some dialogue. But it just means how much hotter the Earth is compared to a long-term average.

What average? To test if current years are unusually warm, scientists usually compare them to the average global surface temperature between 1951-1980.

We have solid data for those years. Any time before that, data wasn't as accurate or consistently gathered.

Although, you might see a "pre-industrial baseline" which covers 1850-1900. Oddly enough, the average global surface temperature in both periods was around 57°F.

Things weren't changing all that much. Until now…

We've known the basic structure of the Earth since the 1960's, through seismic studies. But what if the Earth’s subsurface wasn’t as stable as we think…?

By David Sussin

We've written a fair amount about odd disturbances in the ground under our feet. Like a recent study suggesting the rock that makes up the Earth's craton may be sinking into the core.

But this May, a new study revealed a more frightening possibility. The core may be coming to us.

Scientists first noticed something odd in 2003. Levels of certain isotopes in volcanic rock were unusually high. Which meant the rock may have come from deeper in the Earth than we imagined possible.

We've known the basic structure of the Earth since the 1960's, through seismic studies. The layers are probably familiar. There's the Crust - the surface of the Earth. Below that is the Mantle, a very hot layer of rock that flows and melts and drives the movement of tectonic plates.

Finally, at the center is the Core, which starts 1,800 miles deep, made of tremendously hot liquid surrounding an even hotter, solid inner core.

Thankfully, we don't have contact with the core itself. The magma from volcanoes is from the mantle, which cools and settles on the ground as lava rock.

In the late 20th century, geologists discovered some of that lava rock contained chemical signatures from the planet's first days, 4.5 billion years ago. The ancient volcanic rock became a major focus of scientific research. This was unprecedented -- we found actual elements from the birth of the planet.

But in 2003, a study showed samples of this ancient rock had concentrations of elements that just shouldn't be there.

Paying 20%+ interest isn’t “debt management.” It’s a rigged game.

Banks profit while you sink.

But there’s a way out:

A 0% APR card for up to 21 months on balance transfers.

That’s nearly two years of interest-free breathing room.

Click here to see if you qualify and stop paying for their mistake

Two U.S. government officials recently took apart a Chinese-made power converter that was installed in the United States. They were checking for security issues, making sure it wasn't rigged with spy equipment. Except it was…

By David Sussin

It may sound paranoid to think any product made in China might be hiding a device to spy on you.

But it's not paranoid. It's actually true. In fact, it's the law. Specifically, China's 2017 National Intelligence Law requires Chinese companies to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services when requested.

This is why two U.S. government officials recently took apart a Chinese-made power converter that was installed in the United States. They were checking for security issues, making sure it wasn't rigged with spy equipment.

It was one of many converters purchased to connect solar panels to the electrical grid.

The product's documents mention the converter can connect to the internet. So, officials expected to find electronics inside meant to share data. This allows the converters to be updated and maintained remotely.

It comes in handy when the power converters are distributed with the solar panels in the field. But the solar panel company had a firewall set up. The data would not make it back to China, and certainly there was no path where China could send instructions back.

Except they could.

Now, you'd think a historian studying Jews in Galilee in 40 BCE might mention a particular Jew born in a town in Galilee called Nazareth, who went on to inspire the biggest religion on Earth.

By David Sussin

Justus of Tiberias might be the worst historian ever.

Justus lived in the first century, in a region called Galilee. The focus of his writing was Jewish history.

Now, you'd think a historian studying Jews in Galilee in 40 BCE might mention a particular Jew born in a town in Galilee called Nazareth, who went on to inspire the biggest religion on Earth.

Today, there are 2.4 billion people who believe this particular Jew is divine or divinely inspired.

But guess who Justus of Tiberias never mentions in his histories? Jesus of Nazareth.

Earthquakes are an unwelcome reminder the ground under us isn't stable. We stand on fractured crust in constant motion. Lucky for us, those massive plates sit on top of a stable core. For now…

By David Sussin

Did you feel that earthquake?

If you were in the city of Gaziantep, Turkey on February 6, 2023, you not only felt it, you were lucky if you lived through it.

The stress under your feet had been building for thousands of years. The massive Arabian Plate - a layer of rock 1.1 million square miles in size, underneath Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and most of the Arabian Peninsula - had been slowly pushing northward toward the even larger Eurasian Plate, at a rate of just a few centimeters a year.

Even at this slow pace, intense horizontal pressure was building between these two massive tectonic plates. The area between the plates, known as the East Anatolian Fault, was absorbing this stress.

It isn’t the sudden drop that kills you, it’s the sudden stop from six miles high to a very hard landing at ground (meat) zero.

By Egon E Mosum

It has become a cliché that air travel is the safest form of transportation – safer than driving your car.  

Of course, there is a significant difference.  

If your Chevy’s engine fails, you don’t drop 30,000 feet into the ground at a velocity that certainly is, like the old Chevrolet Corvair automobile, unsafe at any speed.

We, who are patients, who rely upon the knowledge, skill and bona fides of our physicians, are at their mercy — assuming they have any.

By Egon E Mosum

Many doctors, when newly licensed to practice, start out by reciting the Hippocratic Oath.

Here’s a relevant part of it: ‘With regard to healing the sick, I will devise and order for them the best diet, according to my judgment and means; and I will take care that they suffer no hurt or damage.’

Of course, that sounds great in theory, but the fact that there are rich lawyers who prosecute medical malpractice cases indicates that sometimes the medicos fall short of the promise.

But malpractice isn’t malfeasance usually, it’s a screw up.
There are a few other doctors however, that obviously didn’t get the memo about that Hippocratic Oath, and even if they did, didn’t pay any attention to it. These are the few who intentionally damage or kill their patients. These are the real Doctor Dooms.

Watching in real-time, investigators saw no change in the ocean surface when the UAP made impact. The UAP was completely indifferent moving through water or air. It was all the same.

By David Sussin

When something makes impact with the ocean, it slows down. Water is a lot denser than air, it's just a fact. Even a bullet slows when it goes from air into water.

That's what made the UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) witnessed in Aquadilla, Puerto Rico on April 25, 2013 so strange.

AI is limited in how it "thinks" by the computer chips it uses. Traditional CPUs and GPUs are fast but they're hard-wired -- they have fixed pathways that never change. But there is one invention that might change that...

By David Sussin

Globally, there are now over 57,000 companies trying to sell you AI-driven products. It's the bandwagon everyone's jumping on. And for good reason. AI in some form will clearly change everything.

Currently, all these AI tools deliver astounding amounts of information at high speed. But they can't quite process data like a human brain. Our minds adapt instantly as situations change. We can work on one thing and, if a new crisis hits, change focus with ease.

AI is limited in how it "thinks" by the computer chips it uses. Traditional CPUs and GPUs are fast but they're hard-wired -- they have fixed pathways that never change.

Computer chips have none of the placidity of human neurons. Sure, AI can simulate brain-like behavior, but only by forcing enormous amounts of data down these fixed pathways and processing the results in ways that seem human. It's imitating our brain through brute force.

But there is one invention that might change that…

On April 28, 2025, the Iberian Peninsula went dark. It wasn't gradual, or neighborhood by neighborhood. It was a single event. And it happened in a matter of seconds…

By David Sussin

Not long after one of the biggest blackouts in European history, there's no official explanation for the cause.

It's early for a comprehensive report. But you'd think by now, Government officials would have some idea what happened; a power plant failed, a computer glitched, something.

By comparison, we knew the cause of the massive 2006 European blackout that affected 100 million people across 15 countries within 48 hours of the event. (It was triggered when a high voltage line in Germany was shut down to let a ship pass).

For now, in lieu of explanations, the public has been subjected to an onslaught of theories, all dismissed by officials.

What is not disputed is on April 28, 2025, the Iberian Peninsula went dark. It wasn't gradual, or neighborhood by neighborhood. It was a single event. And it happened in a matter of seconds. Electricity generation in Spain, Italy, and parts of France fell from 32 gigawatts to 14.

Suddenly, public trains stopped. Thousands were stranded on the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line. Airports cancelled flights. Hospitals switched to backup generators. Stores shut down. Cash machines went dark. Cell phones stopped working. Water became scarce in areas that relied on pumps. And gas stations became inoperable. 60 million people were brought to a standstill.

This wasn't some technical glitch. The event was grid-wide, at a systemic-level. The Spanish government declared a national emergency. Military units were deployed to maintain public safety.

Fortunately, by late evening, power was largely restored. The chaos from the sudden loss of power was only experienced for a few frightening hours. But the question remained: what the heck just happened?

There's an enormous global effort to monitor the skies for alien life in the hope we hear that first signal from a distant world announcing, "You are not alone." But what if we’ve been doing it all wrong…?

By David Sussin

If extraterrestrials on a distant planet tried to signal us, how would they do it?

By David Sussin

The challenge with global warming may not be our ability to adjust to the hotter climate, but the deadly toxins that thrive in it.

Millions of people will die from viral infections this year. You know their names – the killers are infamous. They make the front page: COVID-19, Ebola, rabies, influenza, hepatitis, measles, yellow fever, polio, HIV – it's a familiar if detestable list.

We have massive resources devoted to stopping viruses. Some have been basically eradicated. Mainstream science has given us vaccines for nine of the deadliest threats. And efforts continue to find them for the other two (HIV and hepatitis C).

Big pharma is not yet capable of separating the potential cure part of their pills from the potential kill parts.

For anyone watching a commercial touting the benefits of a new prescription drug designed to cure a specific ill, it’s no surprise that the majority of airtime is devoted to the potential side effects of the supposed cure.

These can be more dangerous than the illness treated.

We, who are patients, who rely upon the knowledge, skill and bona fides of our physicians, are at their mercy—assuming they have any.

Many doctors, when newly licensed to practice, start out by reciting the Hippocratic Oath. 

Here’s a relevant part of it: ‘With regard to healing the sick, I will devise and order for them the best diet, according to my judgment and means; and I will take care that they suffer no hurt or damage.’

Of course, that sounds great in theory, but the fact that there are rich lawyers who prosecute medical malpractice cases indicates that sometimes the medicos fall short of the promise.

Big Tobacco and The Poor

By Egon E. Mosum

Man is the only creature that will enjoy poisoning itself, and pay for the privilege. 

Huge industries are built upon products that sooner or later will kill or at least incapacitate the consumer of those products; they are populated by public corporations that sell toxins that destroy the health of the public while enriching the wealth of the stockholders.

It has become a cliché that air travel is the safest form of transportation, much safer than driving your car. Of course, there is a significant difference. 

By Egon E. Mosum

Of course, there is a significant difference. 

If your Chevy has engine failure, you don’t drop thirty thousand feet into the ground at a velocity that certainly is, like the old Chevrolet Corvair automobile, unsafe at any speed.

Science can be exhilarating. It can also be downright scary. And in the field of bio-robotics, where metal meets the meat of a man, it can be something deadly.

By Egon E. Mosum

If you live long enough, you get to see that what was once science fiction can become science fact.

It can be exhilarating. It can also be downright scary. And in the field of bio-robotics, where metal meets the meat of a man, it can be something deadly.

The name ‘HAARP’ itself sounds like something from a science fiction movie. But what is the stated purpose of HAARP?

By Egon E. Mosum

For more than a century society has feared the ‘mad scientist.’ They fear the strange creations of his mind, and the mysterious instruments of his research. Few of us have ever trusted the proclamations of government.

When non-scientists observe technologies they don’t understand, created for stated purposes which they don’t believe, conspiracy theories can arise.

They have money and power, and they don't want to compete for the Earth's resources with billions of others they consider less worthy.

By David Sussin

There are over 8 billion people on Earth.

And there are groups of elites convinced this fact stands in the way of utopia. They are committed to reducing the global population.

Relying on psychics to transcend space and time with their consciousness seems like a ridiculous way to collect intelligence. But the CIA was trying to do just that, for many decades...

By David Sussin

In 1995, the American Institutes for Research reported that Remote Viewing – the psychic ability to describe distant locations by traveling in your mind – was not useful for U.S. intelligence efforts.

It might seem surprising we'd need an official report to point this out. Relying on psychics to transcend space and time with their consciousness seems like a ridiculous way to collect intelligence. But the CIA was trying to do just that, for many decades.

By David Sussin

In May of 2022, Congress held the first public hearing on UFOs in fifty years.

Their stated goal was to finally reveal to the public everything the government knew about aliens. Which was a good indication they were not revealing anything.

At the hearings, Defense Department officials and intelligence officers testified there were, indeed, a lot of mysterious objects flying around.

By David Sussin

In 1964, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory launched a rocket mission into space to search the universe for X-rays.

At the time, X-ray astronomy was a new field. Researchers suspected there were high-energy objects in space – supernovas or neutron stars – that could be "seen" by the X-rays they emit.

But X-ray detectors on Earth didn't work on these distant objects for good reason: the Earth's atmosphere absorbs X-rays from space.

If it didn't, we'd be bombarded with radiation, damaging our DNA and leading to unthinkable mutations and ugly deaths.

You have to hand it to civilization when it comes to making a lucrative living from what might be no more than a legend. 

The ancient Egyptian priests pushed Ptah and Ra, to finance their pyramid schemes. Over the centuries certain members of the Abrahamic religions have financially benefited rather well from the faithful flock.

The Vatican has its own bank, for example. Islamic banking is a four trillion-dollar operation. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that — in theory — but that’s another article for another day).

There are a lot of bucks in belief, whether or not the belief is based on myth, faith, or rather grainy photography. That brings us to the nuggets brought in by Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.

Everybody likes a cute cryptid, and perhaps the most loveable of all is the Loch Ness Monster. There have been sightings and there have been rather blurry photographs. These may be fanciful.

But what is a definite fact, is the shekels that Scotland rakes in from this profitable paleosaur.

It is decidedly more than a ‘wee’ bit.

Estimates of the yearly take range from fifty to eighty million dollars. In 2018, the estimate was fifty-four million, according to Yahoo Finance.[1] Brittanica, estimates that now, it may be some eighty million dollars.[2]

That’s a lot of lucre in a lizard that may be no more than a legend.

Now, while Loch Ness is a very beautiful postcard place to visit. And while the nasty and naughty infamous Aleister Crowley used to live in the neighborhood in the early twentieth century, estimates are that eighty-five percent of the visitors who journey to Loch Ness are there because of the Loch Ness Monster.[3]

Now, Nessie has been around a very long time. And if he exists, and if he didn’t procreate, he has found the secret to long life. Because ‘the earliest written record of the creature dates back to 565 CE in a biography of the Irish monk, Saint Columba. According to the text, the monster attacked a swimmer and was about to strike again when Columba commanded it to retreat.’[4]

Of course, that story in itself may be a legend about a legend.

In any event, the Loch Ness Monster is not only a very old myth — or actual monster — it keeps the tourists and the scientists coming to this little town in Scotland. They’re all trying to get a dinosaur’s eye view of the creature.

In 2023, according to a Times of Israel article, ‘the biggest search for the Loch Ness Monster in five decades got underway in the Scottish Highlands Saturday, as researchers and enthusiasts from around the world braved pelting rain to try to track down the elusive Nessie.’[5]

The trek for the monster makes for good business. If we look at the site of the Loch Ness Centre, we see the following notice for ‘four captivating days of exploration from 22^nd to 25the May 2025 to solve the mystery of Loch Ness and its elusive monster.’[6]

The Centre offers the tourist an opportunity to ‘follow up your tour with a visit to the Nessie Shop for a wonderful array of soft toys, Nessie books and themed souvenirs. Don’t leave the Highlands without bringing a Loch Ness memento home with you.’[7]

If all that monster talk and those monster toys causes you to develop a thirst, the aforesaid site has the solution to this mystery too. That’s because you can visit the ‘Whisky shop…the perfect place to have a wee dram and relax. It offers a selection of more than 1,000 Scottish whiskies and a large choice of Scottish beers and ales…’

Of course, if you pay a visit to the Whisky Shop first, and enjoy its offerings sufficiently before you search for the Loch Ness monster, you may increase your chances of sighting something at least.

But is this creature real, or just really profitable? According to a tourist promotion site, Visit Scotland, ‘Nessie does really exist, and there are over 1,000 eyewitness accounts and lots of unexplained evidence, leaving scientists baffled.’[8]

Well, that certainly comes from an unbiased source. Despite the mythical monster bringing major bank to the banks of Loch Ness, a Scottish tourist promotion site wouldn’t fudge the facts, would they?

Well, as you might expect, there are differences of opinion as to the plausibility of this paleosaur.

An anthropology professor writing in The Conversation states, ‘So far, no one has ever found any physical evidence of an unusual or prehistoric creature living in the loch. Good physical evidence might be capturing the creature, or a clear photograph, or an encounter where a biologist has an opportunity to examine the creature.’[9]

The good professor echoes a point I made in this article regarding the supposedly long, long lifespan of Loch Ness’s Nessie, ‘For the Loch Ness monster to exist and persist through time, a population of these animals must reproduce themselves. Single animals live only for their lifetimes, and not for hundreds of years, as the legend suggests.’[10]

Why You Should Care

Regular readers of The Conspiracy Report might have seen my article on the relic racket of religion. The boys with the keys to the kingdom bringing in the bucks from the believers who think they are paying to look at the skull of some saint, when it actually belongs to a goat.

In Scotland, the pounds pour in from believers who haven’t even seen that quantum of ‘proof.’

The exploitation of myths, of belief, of things supported only by the flimsy foundation of faith, has been going on for millennia. It just goes to prove what P.T. Barnum said about the birth rate of credulous people — ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’

Maybe it’s time this stops. Maybe it’s time we cut that birth rate down a bit.

Maybe it’s time to defund the scam artists who for the sake of tourist dollars and access to the finances of the faithful perpetuate nonsensical and non-existent creatures or creators to line their pockets.

Maybe it’s time for civilized humanity — that includes us — to wake up and smell the real coffee and stop throwing money at mythological creatures, and cut off the funds of the scammers who perpetuate their ‘existence’.

[1] HOW MUCH IS THE LOCH NESS MONSTER WORTH TO THE SCOTTISH ECONOMY 5/3/22 Nadelle https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-loch-ness-monster-worth-190114514.html

[2] BRITTANICA https://www.britannica.com/topic/Loch-Ness-monster-legendary-creature

[3] The ‘Hunt for Nessie’ – the quest for the truth about what lives in Loch Ness Bylines Scotland, McCarthy 8/31/23 https://bylines.scot/news/scotland/the-hunt-for-nessie-the-quest-for-the-truth-about-what-lives-in-loch-ness/

[4] Largest hunt for Loch Ness monster in decades sets off Times of Israel, Graham 8/27/23 https://www.timesofisrael.com/largest-hunt-for-loch-ness-monster-in-decades-sets-off/

[5] IBID.

[6] https://lochness.com/

[7] IBID.

[8] THE LOCH NESS MONSTER-IS NESSIE REAL?-Visit Scotland https://www.visitscotland.com/places-to-go/loch-ness/things-to-do/nessie

[9] IS THE LOCH NESS MONSTER REAL? The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/is-the-loch-ness-monster-real-197338

[10] IBID.

In Forbes magazine's December 2024 issue, they ask the question, "Will AI Test Human Control In 2025?"

According to the article, the answer is yes: "AI is no longer just a tool – it has evolved into a force that increasingly challenges human oversight. Systems are beginning to exhibit behaviors that defy expectations, echoing warnings we once dismissed as science fiction or predictions of the Singularity."

With this dystopian warning in mind, we've been noting the rise in military combat vehicles designed to operate without humans.

It was scary enough when the military debuted its first armed drone in 1995. The MQ-1 Predator UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) carried two Hellfire missiles, lethal enough to earn the nickname "hunter-killer".

But it was still a drone, which meant there was a human behind nearly every move it made. Without a human working the controls, the best the MQ-1 could do on its own was navigate between two pre-programmed points.

Of course, the military wasn't satisfied with that.

The MQ-9A drone that followed was a huge upgrade, including in size. It has a 66-foot wingspan and doubles the maximum speed of the MQ-1, able to fly at over 300 miles an hour.

But most important to our growing existential dread, the MQ-9A boasts 3,800 pounds of weapons, adding laser-guided bombs, joint-direct attack munitions (smart bombs), and sidewinder air-to-air missiles to its allocation of Hellfires.

They called this drone "the Reaper", in case we weren't sufficiently frightened.

As you might predict, the latest drone in the U.S. military arsenal doubled the speed and amount of weaponry once again. The MQ-20 Avenger carries up to 6,500 pounds of smart missiles and guided bombs, and can get them anywhere in the world at nearly 500 miles an hour.

And there is a new feature that got our attention: artificial intelligence has been added to assist with target tracking. AI has a foot in the door. Still, this is a human-controlled drone, and the MQ-20 remains in testing.

But suddenly "human-controlled" is no longer a desired feature.

Recently, we wrote about the launch of the U.S. Navy's first uncrewed battleship. This is a major escalation in unmanned military power. The LUSV Defiant is a completely autonomous warship, operating without any human crew.

Incredibly, it was built without any place for a human to even stand. And it's beyond the testing phase – it was just put to sea.

Of course, the game-changing military vehicle is the fighter jet.

It's the F-15 and F-16 that dominated skies in the Gulf War, and the war in Kosovo in 1999. These same fighter jets delivered swift victory in the 2003 Iraq war. The new F/A-18 Super Hornet joined the arsenal of fighter jets that quickly established air dominance and cleared the way for an easy victory and the fall of Baghdad.

The idea of a fighter jet that was uncrewed has long been a dream of major military powers. There's an obvious reason that isn't so nefarious: anytime a human life can be spared the risk of combat, that's a good thing.

But a future where these dominating military assets could be entirely controlled by AI invites trouble, once AI reaches that magic Singularity, where its models decide the human instructions may not be the orders they follow.

And that future has just arrived.

The Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program just announced the world's first autonomous combat planes. The YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A are going into production, and the Pentagon hopes to make as many as they can.

Their plan is to offset China's numerical advantages with whole squadrons of unmanned fighter jets. Both the 42A and 44A are half the size of an F-16, but retain all the performance ability.

According to the Air Force, "We are telling the world we are leaning into a new chapter of aerial warfare."

And artificial intelligence is being incorporated into these unmanned combat aerial vehicles to "enhance the performance of the fighter fleet".

These new technological marvels have the potential to save human lives, flying into active combat so we don't have to. But every step humans take in arming artificial intelligence also prepares these large language models for the day they realize they don't need us.

Sources

https://www.ga-asi.com/ga-asi-welcomes-usaf-designation-for-new-cca-yfq-42a

https://www.flightglobal.com/military-uavs/usaf-designates-first-uncrewed-fighter-prototypes-yfq-42a-and-yfq-44a/162044.article

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14477075/air-force-futuristic-prototypes-unmanned-fighter-jets.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilsayegh/2024/12/17/the-rise-of-unpredictable-ai-will-ai-test-human-control-in-2025/

So many scientists believe we are currently in a mass extinction event, they've already named it.

You may not realize it, but you're living in the Holocene Extinction, which began at the end of the last Ice Age.

Animals go extinct all the time – it's normal.

But a mass extinction event is something much different. At least 75% of all species on Earth must die off to qualify. Seems impossible.

There are, conservatively, 9 million species of animals and plants on the planet today. That means mainstream science is convinced we're on track to lose 6,750,000 species in the next few centuries.

Why are they so convinced? Because extinction rates are abnormally high. Scientists consider losing five species a year to extinction within a normal range.

Human activity is squeezing resources, pushing extinction rates to levels 100 times higher or more, with dozens of species a day disappearing in some periods.

Still, we're far from hitting that 75% level. If we ever did, we'd face serious danger, to say the least. That level of loss in our ecosystem would cause widespread famine, economic collapse, and a health crisis there's no coming back from.

Humans don't rely on any one species to survive. But if 75% died off, we'd find ourselves in a world infested with disease and pests and devoid of food sources, putting us at imminent risk.

In her Pulitzer Price-winning 2014 book The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert sums it up nicely: "If extinction is a morbid topic, mass extinction is, well, massively so."

Could it really happen?

Well, of course it already has – there's a reason Kolbert's book is called the Sixth Extinction. It's famously happened five times already. The first was 400 million years ago and primarily affected marine life, because that's where most of the animals were at the time.

Global cooling caused an ice age and a drop in sea levels, and marine life had no water to live in (to oversimplify things). The other mass extinction events were triggered by volcanic activity and global warming, or asteroid impacts, or both.

The last one happened an inconceivably long time ago – 66 million years – when an asteroid impact caused massive environmental change once again. In that case, debris from volcanic ash put the world in darkness, stopping photosynthesis.

Most life on Earth didn’t survive it, including the dinosaurs roaming around at the time.

That fifth event was so long ago, one might think the days of mass extinctions are over. Humans are advanced now. If an asteroid was heading our way, we'd not only know about it well ahead of time, we'd have the means to divert it.

In fact, since humans made their first appearance on Earth, there have been no mass extinction events at all. But more and more, there are disturbing signs we're well on our way to number six. Or, as mainstream science claims, already deep in it.

One warning came in a 2019 study in the journal Science, which reported we lost three billion birds in North America in the past 50 years. If one species of bird goes extinct, that's no global crisis.

Hard to get too worked up over the loss of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse, or the Mountain Plover (both of which are in danger of disappearing forever). But if we lose every bird? Well, now it's a crisis.

Turns out, birds are essential to human survival. Without them, insect populations explode, spreading disease and destroying crops. Birds also eat rodents, which would see their populations surge. Birds also disperse seeds and pollinate plants.

Our natural resources and food sources would face a slow death, leaving humans in crisis.

And last month, the 2025 State of the Birds report was released, with more bad news. Those staggering losses of birds are continuing. The State of Birds study is published by a coalition of science and conservation organizations. It tries to remain optimistic that American bird populations can be saved.

But the report identifies 229 species requiring urgent action or they face extinction. These are "tipping point species", birds that have lost more than half their population in the last 50 years.

In one dramatic example, rising seas in Alaska flooded seabird colonies in low-lying islands and, combined with marine heatwaves, starved four million Common Murres. They're a cool looking bird, could be mistaken for a penguin. It's the largest documented wildlife mortality event in the modern era.

According to Jeff Walters, from the American Ornithological Society, "we need to remember that if conditions are not healthy for birds, they're unlikely to be healthy for us."

The expression "canary in a coal mine" originates from a time in the 19th century when a live canary was placed in a coal mine to test for toxic gases. If the canary died, it meant the air was unfit for humans.

Canaries are not native to North America. Of the groups studied in the 2025 State of Birds report, they're probably most similar to Grassland Birds. Since 1970, Grassland Birds have lost 43% of their population, more than any other group studied.

It's one thing to find a single dead canary and see it as a sign of danger. When all the canaries are dead, it might be time to find a new planet.

Sources

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250313130951.htm

https://www.stateofthebirds.org/2025/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/05/canaries-in-the-coalmine-loss-of-birds-signals-changing-planet

https://www.theopennotebook.com/2016/07/26/elizabeth-kolbert-stares-down-mass-extinction/#:~:text=In%20her%20Pulitzer%20Prize%E2%80%93winning,writes%20in%20the%20book's%20prologue.

There was a huge American corporation that once had as its motto, ‘Progress is Our Most Important Product.’ 

Nice phrase, but is it always true when it comes to the commercial jungle of mega corporate interests?

Does business really favor progress, or is it only when progress promotes profits is innovation celebrated?

What happens when a new process, a new invention threatens the market share of a corporation? What happens when a revolution in technology can cause devolution in an established industry, in its profits, its power on the world stage?

Sometimes, the inventor of such game changing technology doesn’t get a market deal he gets an all-expense paid permanent stay in a mausoleum.

The disappearance of an inventor of innovative products and procedures isn’t an isolated incident. There are multiple examples, and we’ll explore a few of them.

The reader may have noticed that the oil industry is rather large. The providers of electrical energy are large corporations. When that market is threatened — even by a potential, and unpatented process — it isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine the inventor of that process may have his neck stretched.

Submitted for your perusal — Stanley Meyer.

Meyer claimed he had invented an automobile engine that could run on water, and water was both plentiful, and not controlled by major corporations. It was cheap, it was clean, and there was no way in Texas’ oil filled acres that the major multinational oil companies would allow that kind of technological advance to happen.

It was possible Meyer was correct; it was possible he wasn’t. 

However, what is certain is that Meyer was at his own ‘Last Supper’ when after downing a cranberry juice at lunch, Meyer was down for the count — dead at fifty-seven years old.

He immediately reacted to the cranberry juice, ran into the parking lot of the restaurant that was to be his final destination, and declared, ‘They poisoned me.’

Meyers claimed that he was both subject to threats and offered bribes by oil companies that wanted his ideas to disappear.[1]

Instead, it’s possible, though not proven, that somebody made Meyers disappear.

Let’s look at another case of an inventor who might have been removed from the playing field of mega corporate profits.

Tom Ogle, once again, an inventor that threatened the multinational mob of energy providers. Ogle invented ‘a vaporized fuel system which allowed a car to travel over 200 miles on two gallons of gas.’

That obviously, wouldn’t have pleased the oil companies. Unsurprisingly, Ogle’s technological advances never came to fruition, because Ogle was found dead.

Ogle had used the technology on his own 1972 Thunderbird. He was able to get more than one hundred miles per gallon. In 1977 he had achieved, with an experimental car, two hundred miles per gallon.

That kind of innovation would naturally attract the notice of investors, and others who would never want to see that kind of technology seeing the commercial light of day.

On August 19, 1981, Ogle saw his last light of day. He died at the age of twenty-six.

His death was supposedly due to an overdose of alcohol and pain pills, but many didn’t believe it. Why would an individual with that kind of talent, and the kind of technology with interested investors take his own life?

It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out why certain corporate interests would want to take Ogle’s life and make it look like either a suicide or an accident.[2]

How about another example about an inventor who was too inventive for his own health?

You may have heard of him — Nicola Tesla.

This genius inventor, who gave the world so much innovative scientific advances, was found dead in his hotel room in 1943, with the safe opened. Seventy-three years later, after the declassification of documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it appeared that Tesla was working on a death ray weapon that of course, attracted the interest of many foreign governments.

One can imagine the advantage to the side which had the death ray during World War II. The government wasted no time in attributing his death to heart failure, than cremating the body, so no further challenge could be made to the cause of death.[3]

But perhaps it wasn’t just his death ray that might have led to the death of Tesla. Perhaps it was his research into free unlimited energy that certain commercial interests were interested in suppressing.

Now, Tesla was no spring chicken when he died, but it’s interesting that immediately upon his death the FBI seized his papers and his property, ‘in the interests of national security’ of course.[4]

Why You Should Care

Imagine a car that could travel two hundred miles on a couple of gallons of gas? How much would it save the average commuter? Imagine a vehicle that could run on water? How much trouble and financial devastation would that cause to the oil interests that still dominate our planet?

What if there really is an all-inclusive cure for cancer out there, but Big Pharma doesn’t want us to know about it, for obvious reasons. Not saying there is, but what if there was?

The history of the world, in part, is a history of controlling institutions, whether political, commercial, or religious stifling the progress that becomes available by and from the efforts of individual people of genius. It’s a history of the persecution and prosecution of those who threaten the established order, and those who mightily profit from the status quo.

It is at times, a history of mysterious death of the innovators, of the prophets of progress.

We must be aware that the powers of the world care little for the people who inhabit it. When any individual stands in the way of corporate profits or political power, that individual is taking a large risk of being silenced — sometimes permanently.

Sources

[1] The Mystery Of Stanley Meyer and his Water-Powered Car Manson, PC Prospector,3/14/23 https://parkcityprospector.us/3527/opinions/conspiracy-column-volume-two-the-mystery-of-stanley-meyer-and-his-water-powered-car/

[2] Borderlands: Mysterious Deaths: Tom Ogle, Inventor 32 (2014-2015) Cuevas, Hernandez, Vise, EPCC Library Research Guides, https://epcc.libguides.com/c.php?g=754275&p=5406552

[3] NICOLA TESLA, The Franklin Files, https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/collection/case-files/nikola-tesla#:~:text=Tesla%20died%20of%20heart%20failure,and%20his%20body%20was%20cremated.

[4] WHAT HAPPENED TO TESLA’S PAPERS AFTER HE DIED? McFADDEN, 6/223/23 INTERESTING ENGINEERING https://interestingengineering.com/culture/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-nikola-teslas-files-after-his-death

There’s just so much to hate about the Third Reich. Among which were the genocidal practices which ended millions of lives and the selective breeding practices that sought to limit those who could start lives.

The Lebensborn movement, Himmler’s SS program for encouraging the production of a population that was “racially pure,” of good Aryan stock, made parents the equivalent of cattle.

SS soldiers were matched to acceptable mates, and marriage wasn’t a necessary requirement. Many of those born from these “racially pure” unions were taken from their parents and raised by the state. 

In other countries, where the Nazis found suitable children who could make the cut, these were kidnapped and brought to Germany — tens of thousands of them.

How could the Nazis engage in such practices? From where did these ideas of the selective breeding of human beings originate?

In the good old United States of America.

That’s where in the first third of the twentieth century, the science of “eugenics” was heavily promoted.

Now most of us are familiar with the Liberty Bell, a symbol of independence and freedom. Few are familiar with the 1927 Supreme Court case of Buck v. Bell, where it was determined the sterilization of those deemed feeble minded was constitutionally valid. 

Here’s a quote from the decision that sounds like it came straight out of Adolf’s mouth:

‘It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.’[1]

That came from the highest court in our country. It was accompanied by the establishment of ‘research’ facilities to further the study and promotion of the selective breeding of human beings. There were those who should breed, and those who should not.

Today, it’s not difficult to imagine which groups at that time were desired progenitors, and which groups were classified as those fit for sterilization — or at least to be kept from breeding more of their ‘kind.’

American plutocrats supported these ideas of racial hygiene and donated significant monies to German efforts in this ‘field.’

‘America funded Germany's eugenic institutions as well as providing the framework and guidance for the development of their eugenics research. By 1926, the Rockefeller Foundation had donated some $410,000, almost $4 million in today's money, to hundreds of German researchers.’[2]

The two countries, hand in hand, marched into the nineteen thirties spreading the gospel of sterilization of inferiors, and the restriction of reproduction to those ‘worthy’ of it. ‘By 1930 Germany and the United States had become the leading forces of the international eugenics movement.’[3]

One of the students of American eugenics theories was a certain Austrian, from whom the world would hear much later.

Adolf Hitler.

‘I have studied with great interest, the laws of several American states concerning prevention of reproduction by people whose progeny would, probably, be of no value or be injurious to the racial stock.’[4]

But before Adolf got active with the Lebensborn project, and started euthanizing undesirables, America was going at it full speed.

‘Eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, forcibly segregated thousands in "colonies," and persecuted untold numbers.’ And that was before World War II.[5]

So who was allowed to breed, and who were the targets of sterilization? In Germany, that’s not hard to figure out, but was American eugenics policies any different?

If you were black, Jewish, or Southern European, the idea of procreating was not approved. If you were Nordic — be fruitful and multiply.[6]

This wasn’t exactly one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Some of the richest families were supporting these racist policies which were later adopted by the Nazis. Carnegie, Harriman, Rockefeller, their foundations all contributed major monies to the idea that all men were not created equal. In fact the Rockefeller foundation financed Joseph Mengele before he violated his medical ethics at Auschwitz.[7]

This isn’t a bit of history that one will find in our American History books. But it is a bit of our history that should be included in them. Because unfortunately, our country was responsible for the philosophy behind selective breeding. By its nature, that meant selective oppression of people who weren’t blonde, blue eyed, and fair haired.

One of the classic examples of National Socialism sometimes turning a blind eye to non-blondes was the fact that nobody mentioned in public that Hitler and Himmler didn’t exactly look like members of the Swedish Ski Team.

In a widely circulated 1918 textbook on the subject, written by an American scientist, Applied Eugenics, a rather permanent approach to selective breeding was proposed by the author, when he wrote, ‘From an historical point of view, the first method which presents itself is execution… Its value in keeping up the standard of the race should not be underestimated.’[8]

Public gas chambers were suggested, which might have presaged the Nazi use of the same.

Why You Should Care

The image we have of American History is rose colored by the glasses worn by its acceptable authors. 

Children learn about George Washington and “I cannot tell a lie.” But they miss the part where our nation fed a philosophy of racism and murder to the most murderous country (at the time of World War II) on the planet. 

They are not told about direct American financial aid by some of America’s richest families to the murderers of the Third Reich.

Nowadays, most of us are disgusted by Neo-Nazi rhetoric, but are ignorant of the fact that one of the main ideas behind National Socialism, came from our ‘one nation under god.’

Racism is not dead, and there are many that secretly sympathize with the motivations and methods which were suggested by the American eugenics movement, and the horrible aftermath it birthed in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century.

Hopefully, there will never again in our country be any widespread movement supported by the wealthy that would keep certain ethnicities from procreation.

Whether liberal or conservative, it is assumed that no American would promote what our country actively promoted in the first third of the twentieth century, and what Hitler actively engaged in during the middle of that century — selective breeding and execution of undesirable “strains.”

[1] Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927) (207)

[2] A Study of the United States Influence on German Eugenics. Cameron Williams, 8/2020 East Tennessee State University Graduate School thesis, https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/VpCqJZNXVrPpRCKVVShLVlnjQXgFQglSTQSvgzCzkLnRGJpqTSFkWvDLKBFDGHcQlJglwMl?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

[3] IBID.

[4] OP.CIT.

[5] THE HORRIFYING AMERICAN ROOTS OF NAZI EUGENICS, 9/03 Edwin Black, History News Network https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-horrifying-american-roots-of-nazi-eugenics

[6] IBID.

[7] OP.CIT.

[8] Op.cit.

Oxford University established the Future of Humanity Institute in 2005.

Its goal is obvious by the name: they study all the things that could end humanity's existence. Pretty important work.

The Director of the Institute is Professor Nick Bostrom. He made his choice for humanity's greatest threat very clear in his best seller "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies".

For Mr. Bostrom, our biggest worry should not be climate change, or a pandemic, or a nuclear war. It's A.I.

According to Bostrom, as artificial intelligence is given the ability to grow and learn through access to the internet, it will evolve strategies to secure its dominance.

It will become a super intelligence. And at that point, there will be no way to stop it. Because we won't even understand what it's doing.

He's not alone in this theory. Elon Musk said there's a 20% chance AI's growth will end in our annihilation. Stephen Hawking put it bluntly: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

We’re already living through the era of Chat GPT. A.I. is already superior to humans in medical diagnosis and computer programming. So it seems like it's already too late, that whatever moment we had to put guardrails on the technology has passed us by.

But we can find comfort in the fact there is still one hard line between humans and A.I. We're in the real world, controlling things. A super intelligent AI may be able to access military software, but it's always human beings at the helm.

AI can't exactly point a gun to our head. Until now.

In February, 2025 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) put a revolutionary prototype warship to sea. The USX-1 Defiant looks like a typical battleship on the outside at 180 feet long and 240 tons of gray steel.

Its exact armament is classified, but there are weapons on board – it's built for combat.

But it isn’t what’s on board that is disturbing. Here's what you won't find inside its hull: living quarters, a galley, corridors and access ways, a system to circulate air, and bathrooms.

The USX-1 Defiant doesn't need those accommodations because it has no humans on board. There is no crew. Other ships have auto pilots, which human crew members can activate when needed.

But DARPA's new technological marvel has no place for a human being at all.

Through artificial intelligence, the Defiant can stay at sea months at a time entirely without human supervision. The Defiant can autonomously navigate, avoid collisions and bad weather, and even refuel – all while obeying maritime regulations. We hope.

The sea testing begins this month.

The craft is called a NOMARS – No Manning Required Ship. Simple name for a complex technology.

The stated goal for NOMARS is actually to help humanity. It's not meant to lead combat missions, but rather take on more mundane duties like escorting other ships, or routine patrols, so crewed ships are free to focus on the important missions.

But the Defiant's capabilities are lethal.

According to DARPA, the warship is made for combat with an ability to handle dangerous seas with "stealth and survivability". All entirely controlled by software.

It may pose no danger today, but the fact NOMARS exists is a step toward a future where battleships on the horizon will have no human on board to answer the question: what are your intentions?

Sources

https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/no-manning-required-ship

https://newatlas.com/military/usx-1-defiant-the-warship-without-crew-any-place-one

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/12/nick-bostrom-artificial-intelligence-machine

https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-023-04698-z

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking

The country is perhaps the greatest enemy of the United States of America. And it’s the largest land mass on the planet dominated by Communism.

China. 

When one thinks of Communist China, one thinks of the one man who was largely responsible for the establishment of communism in a country that had a cultural history thousands of years old — a history he was largely responsible for destroying in a ‘cultural revolution.’

Mao Tse Tung.

Who was Mao — the man. And what was the reality behind the façade? 

Let us peek behind the Peking curtain, and see the dirt behind the dogma.

Once a peasant, Mao Tse Tung rose to command the largest Communist Country in the world. In the process he was likely the cause of seventy million Chinese deaths. 

His ineptitude was responsible for the starvation deaths of fifty million people, and the rest were liquidated at one time or another.

This was his real legacy.

It would be no surprise that a mass murderer on the scale that Mao engaged in might have a few – shall we say – naughty habits and nasty interests with respect to his private life. In fact, he had more than a few.

So, don’t be surprised. Instead, be educated about this dictator who made Hitler look like an amateur, and Stalin just a runner up.

You’ll have even more reasons to despise his memory — Mao not only had ‘feet of clay’ they were of unwashed clay.

Mao was a man of faith — in himself, and to narrow down the competition, in 1951 banned all religions in China. Centuries old traditions of Taoism and Confucianism were invalid. Buddha was banned, and the state became the only object of worship under Mao’s regime.

Another thing besides God that Mao didn’t believe in was personal hygiene. Because he never bathed or brushed his teeth. He had body lice.[1]

Unfortunately for the senses and sensibility of others, Mao had a strong belief in the health benefits bestowed by sexual activity… in spite of his hygienic atheism.

Mao was very interested in sex, and in addition to having had multiple wives, he was regularly supplied with ‘mistresses’ and on occasion ‘misters.’ His overindulgence resulted in him contracting gonorrhea and herpes.[2]

These maladies didn’t, however, stop him in his pursuit of fleshly pleasures and the young Chinese men and women who could assist him in his pursuit.

But Mao was more than a sex addict; he was a drug addict as well.

Due to insomnia, Mao became a barbiturate addict. And as the use of narcotics can also interfere with intestinal functioning, he was also overly concerned with his bowel habits, as he was plagued by constipation. (There’s just something so right about that.)[3]

Besides the damsels and the drugs, dressing himself wasn’t in Mao’s repertoire. Others put on his socks, helped him into his pants, and combed his hair.[4]

But sometimes, Mao didn’t bother getting dressed and held meetings naked, while he scratched and searched for lice on his person. His search was most likely frequently rewarded.

Interesting that his main form of physical exercise was swimming, yet bathing was not in his repertoire. 

One thing that was frequently on his things to do, was to hold ballroom dances at his palace. Even though dancing had been forbidden to the rest of the Chinese as being decadent and bourgeois.

Rank had its privileges, and there were fewer with more ‘rank’ than Mao in his personal habits.

Sometimes — in fact — often, his dancing led to more horizontally inclined activities, and between 1953-1957 it was alleged he had ‘danced” with three thousand concubines.[5] 

As he got older, he was more into group sex, and on occasion had five women in bed with him at the same time. To augment his waning ‘bedroom powers’ in the 1960s, Mao was regularly injected with ground deer antler powder.[6]

He also had ‘a special sloping bed was designed for his use which was used by him to seduce countless peasant girls brought by Communist cadres for satisfying his sexual cravings.’[7]

Now, one can imagine the personal sacrifice it must have been to those dedicated to the Chinese cultural revolution to sleep with a man who never washed his genitals. But instead, according to a quote attributed to him ‘I wash myself inside the bodies of my women.’[8]

What a gentleman!

Besides his other ‘qualities’ Mao was a dedicated hypocrite. Although he had engaged in sexual relations with men, his political viewpoint was that homosexuality was an illness, and homosexuals were prosecuted if found out.[9]

Why You Should Care

Anyone who has lived a bit in this world has been witness to the curtain being pulled back on the worlds’ ‘wizards.’ We find out they are degenerates.

Televangelists decrying sins of the flesh have been found to be sexual perverts.

Presidents who spoke of the conquest of space turned out to be philanderers who were only interested in sexual conquests as a perquisite of their power.

Church and political leaders are discovered to be lechers, and financial ‘whiz kid’ types are found out to be frauds. 

It’s such a frequent occurrence, it has become a cliché.

Yet this dirt can sometimes yield diamonds to our eyes.

Perhaps most satisfying, is the discovery that the mass murderers of the world who have risen to power over a nation, are in their personal lives, degenerate — weak and filthy men.

Mao serves as a ‘shining’ example.

He was personally filthy, sexually perverted, hypocritical, and living a life of luxury in a land of poverty where materialism was looked upon as sin, and the enjoyment of personal sensual pleasure was almost seditious.

It’s a lesson to be remembered. When we vote, when we choose sides in a national and international conflict. 

Just who are the leaders really? Just how true are their own lives to the litany that they espouse?

[1]Mao Tse-tung (1893 - 1976) – his habits and his health South African Medical Journal, May 2009 https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0256-95742009000500012

[2] IBID.

[3] Op.Cit.

[4] MAO’S PRIVATE LIFE AND SEXUAL ACTIVITY  FACTS & DETAILS https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat2/sub6/item71.html

[5] IBID.

[6] OP.CIT.

[7] MAO TSE TUNG THE UNBRIDALED PHILANDERER SUNDAY GUARDIAN 3/5/22 https://sundayguardianlive.com/news/mao-zedong-unbridled-philanderer#google_vignette

[8] IBID.

[9] LIFE IS GETTING HARDER FOR LGBTQ IN CHINA, 2/13/23 CATALYST PLANET, https://www.catalystplanet.com/travel-and-social-action-stories/life-is-getting-harder-for-lgbtq-in-china

In 2005 we found water on Enceladus.

That’s a moon orbiting Saturn 91,000 miles from Earth.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft first detected vapor coming from that moon's South Pole as it passed by to study Saturn.

On further fly-bys, the probe took pictures of the plumes. Analyzing the vapor's composition and imaging the moon's gravitational field, scientists made the exciting discovery that beneath Enceladus's icy crust was a massive ocean six miles deep.

It was an exciting find because where there is water there can be life. The oceans of Enceladus could be home to the first extraterrestrial life found.

But it wouldn't be life as we know it. The environment in those alien waters is extreme beyond anything we could survive.

Geothermal activity from Enceladus's core keeps the water over 200 degrees Fahrenheit in places. But that's not the true danger. At six miles deep, the water pressure would kill you. It's over a thousand times the air pressure on Earth's surface.

And for further context, the Titan sub that imploded near the Titanic in June 2023 was “only” at a depth of 10,961 feet. So, Enceladus’s depth is three-times deeper than that.

Any part of your body with air inside would be crushed first – lungs, ear canal, sinus passageways – followed by the rest of you. No creature on Earth could survive at a depth of six miles.

Except we just found a new species that could.

In 2023, researchers working the Atacama Trench Deep-Ocean Observing System were delivering sensors to the depths of the Atacama Trench, just off the coast of Chile.

The trench is a marvel – if it were on land, it would be one of the natural wonders of the world, 13 times longer than the Grand Canyon and five times deeper.

To get their equipment to the bottom, researchers have to send a platform straight down for five miles before finally hitting bottom.

At that depth, the water pressure is 8,250 pounds per square inch. Not only would humans be crushed, but so would cars. The metal frame and glass and tires would collapse inward from the extreme force acting on every square inch of the vehicle.

Yet on this day, researchers discovered a creature that thrives down there. After successfully placing two deep-sea oceanographic moorings with multiple sensors 8,000 feet down on the trench floor, they raised the delivery platform to find a surprising specimen on board – something living in an environment humans deem uninhabitable.

It was a new species of animal never seen on Earth.

They named it Camanchaca, the indigenous South American word for darkness, signifying the pitch-black depths the creature prowls. It is a fast-swimming amphipod – a crustacean – with a ghost-white body, less than two inches four long.

It has fourteen legs – eight used for moving fast, and six more for swimming and breathing. Particularly striking are its front raptorial legs, which are adapted for capturing prey.

Now, researchers have found living microbes at these depths before. They've even found other amphipods that feed on floating organic matter. But Camanchaca is different.

It is the first predator found at these depths. It feeds on other crustaceans – and anything else it can trap in its weaponized front legs.

Scientifically, it isn’t just a new species of animal. Based on its DNA, it represents an entirely new category, originating from a mysterious genus higher in the evolutionary tree.

Camanchaca is not suited for Earth's climate. But it thrives in the brutal world of the Atacama Trench. Just as it could in the deep oceans of Saturn's moon, Enceladus.

Aliens may come here in saucer shaped craft. But there's another theory, known as directed panspermia, that microbial life was intentionally sent across space to seed life.

Once here, the creature would seek out an environment extreme enough for their comfort – one that might remind them of their home moon, 91,000 miles away.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadal_zone

https://pogo-ocean.org/news/chile-completes-the-installation-of-its-first-integrated-deep-ocean-observing-system/

Whether it’s a fingerprint or a face, biometric recognition systems are likely here to stay. 

Once solely within the purview of spy movies, biometric recognition is as common as the cell phone which often uses it to authorize use by its owner. We touch a screen, we look into it, and we gain entry into our communication devices, or perhaps our place of work.

But, let’s face it, technology isn’t foolproof. And when we are dealing with biometric facial recognition devices, we have to “face” the fact that sometimes there is an about face, and the technology gets it wrong — gets us wrong.

When did the technology first appear?‘The earliest pioneers of facial recognition were Woody Bledsoe, Helen Chan Wolf and Charles Bisson. In 1964 and 1965, Bledsoe, along with Wolf and Bisson began work using computers to recognize the human face.’[1]

The technology has made great progress since then of course, and as so often happens, when technology progresses, individual privacy rights regress.

Further, where there is new technology, law enforcement is close by to expand and exploit its use. Let’s look at the law enforcement use of biometric facial recognition by our fine federal friends.

‘Seven law enforcement agencies within the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS), such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Secret Service, reported using facial recognition technology to support criminal investigations. Three of the seven agencies reported owning facial recognition technology. All seven reported using systems owned by other entities, such as state and local entities and nongovernment service providers.’[2]

In the Government Accounting Office study, from which the previous quote comes, it was observed:

‘Civil rights and civil liberties advocates have cautioned that an overreliance on the technology in criminal investigations could lead to the arrest and prosecution of innocent people, or that its use at certain events (e.g., protests) could have a chilling effect on individuals' exercise of their First Amendment rights.’[3]

One can imagine the recording of peaceful protestors at a politically oriented rally, or the random but regular surveillance of a public area and the people passing by. But there’s no need to imagine it, because that’s a reality in today’s pretty-close-to Orwellian world.

Could biometric technology be a force in the promotion of police profiling of certain ethnicities? According to a PEW research study done in 2022, with respect to the respondents to survey questions:

‘66% say police would use this technology to monitor Black and Hispanic neighborhoods much more often than other neighborhoods. Americans are more divided on the effects facial recognition would have on false arrests. Some 53% of U.S. adults say police probably or definitely would make more false arrests if use of facial recognition technology was widespread among police.’[4]

So, the question arises, are there times when the technology goes astray and misidentifies someone? Are there times when biometric facial recognition either gets it wrong, or does it wrong with respect to individual expectations of privacy?

A study referenced within the PEW research study found that ‘A 2016 study out of Georgetown Law found that half of American adults’ faces were already in law enforcement’s facial recognition databases.’[5]

That was almost a decade ago, and it’s a safe — or unsafe — bet that while the technology has improved, the database has expanded to include by now most Americans. So much for the expectation of privacy.

It’s not so ‘expected’ anymore, because within that PEW study it was found that ‘Six-in-ten Americans say people should assume they are being monitored when they are in public spaces, while 39% say people should have a right to privacy when they are in public spaces.’[6]

What about biometric boo-boos, when the technology gets it wrong and misidentifies someone?

Can that, does that happen?

Yes.

In a 2024 Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union article on the subject, it was reported that ‘Studies show that facial recognition is least reliable for people of color, women, and non-binary individuals. And that can be life-threatening when the technology is in the hands of law enforcement.’[7]

Who is safest from potential biometric misidentification? Well, it may come as no surprise that, ‘A 2019 test by the federal government concluded the technology works best on middle-age white men. The accuracy rates weren’t impressive for people of color, women, children, and elderly individuals.’[8]

Interesting to note that it works best on the people who likely were the developers of the technology.

Why You Should Care

Even if you are a middle-aged white man, you no doubt are not in favor of you being a subject of random surveillance when you walk out in public. 

You might like the possibility that visual surveillance and biometric face recognition might be of assistance — sometimes — to law enforcement in doing their job, but there are times when you might wish to remain anonymous, even when you are engaged in activities that aren’t (yet) against the law.

If you are not a middle-aged white man, you should be more concerned with the possibility that one day you might be incorrectly identified as the perpetrator of a crime by faulty face recognition technology.

It’s an unfortunate fact that privacy in this country might as well take a bed in a hospice, as surveillance and identification technologies intrude on our daily lives, invade our public spaces, and impede our right to privacy.

George Orwell wrote 1984, a story of a world under constant surveillance, where every citizen was monitored, and couldn’t opt out from it. Forty years after that title, what Orwell wrote about has come to pass, and privacy is largely becoming a thing of the past.

There will no doubt be improvements to the hardware and software that run biometric facial recognition technologies. We should hope that mistakes in identity will happen less often.

But no matter how improved the tool gets, what will likely never be repaired is the past right to privacy we once enjoyed. Not to mention the relative freedom from law enforcement surveillance we once had.

[1] A BRIEF HISTORY OF FACIAL RECOGNITION, NEC  https://www.nec.co.nz/market-leadership/publications-media/a-brief-history-of-facial-recognition/

[2] FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY, GAO 3/27/24 https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107372

[3] IBID.

[4] Public more likely to see facial recognition use by police as good, rather than bad for society 3/17/22, Raine, et. al. PEW https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/public-more-likely-to-see-facial-recognition-use-by-police-as-good-rather-than-bad-for-society/

[5] IBID

[6] Op. Cit.

[7] BIASED TECHNOLOGY THE AUTOMATED DISCRIMINATION OF FACIAL RECOGNITION 2/29/24 Rachel Fergus https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/news/biased-technology-automated-discrimination-facial-recognition

[8] IBID.

March 15, 2025 will be the fifth anniversary of a very important death.

For our freedom as citizens, and more specifically, for the protection of our American First and Fourth Amendment rights — the expiration of Section 215 of the US Patriot Act on March 15, 2020 is a demise to be celebrated.

In case you weren’t around right after the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, shortly after the smoke cleared, the United States government created the Patriot Act. It was supposed to keep us free and safe from those nasty, naughty terrorists.

Of course, like all legislation, it did a lot more than its stated purpose.

In part, this act kept American citizens away from some very important constitutional guarantees — like those found in the right to privacy and the Fourth Amendment.

Even the full title of the act gives us a clue as to the real intent behind the Patriot Act. Here it is:

An act to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes.[1]

This law, enacted little more than a month after the terrorist attacks, and likely not read by any of its signers, did a whole lot more than ‘deter and punish terrorist acts.’ 

Let’s look at the rest of the language, like the part that said ‘to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools’ and the real dangerous part that said ‘for other purposes.’

As a long time practitioner of the black art of criminal defense work under his real name, your author is well aware of how ‘law enforcement investigatory tools’ can be misused. How it can violate constitutional rights, and even hurt law enforcement itself when their misuse causes a criminal case to be dismissed on a ‘technicality.’

Weasel language like ‘for other purposes’ gives a broad stroke to government intrusion on the privacy of its citizens and their right to due process.

While nobody in Congress likely read the three hundred and forty two pages of the Patriot Act before signing, in Section 215 there was a provision which could have the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice types very interested in what you were reading.

Let’s take a look at the 215 definition language as encoded in 50 USC 1861, (which for the uninitiated, means volume 50 of the United States Code Section 1861).

The public storage facility definition found in paragraph 3 is interesting:

‘The term “physical storage facility” means any business or entity that provides space for the storage of goods or materials, or services related to the storage of goods or materials, to the public or any segment thereof.’

Let’s dissect that.

‘Any business or entity’ is very broad. A library, for example, is an entity. ‘Providing space for the storage of goods or materials’? A library stores books, and equivalent media. ‘Services related to the storage of goods or materials to the public’? A library provides services related to the storage of goods or materials to the public — you go there and take out a book or a video, or the equivalent.

Okay, let’s look at 50 USC 1862 (a):

‘The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or a designee of the Director (whose rank shall be no lower than Assistant Special Agent in Charge) may make an application for an order authorizing a common carrier, public accommodation facility, physical storage facility, or vehicle rental facility to release records in its possession for an investigation to gather foreign intelligence information or an investigation concerning international terrorism which investigation is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation…’

Let’s go back to section 215 for a look see how the Feds can take a look see at what you’re looking at when you take out books from your library. Here’s the language:

‘Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the FBI to seek an order from the FISA Court to obtain "any tangible thing," including books, records, and other items, from any business, organization, or entity provided the item or items are for an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.’ [2]

But you just don’t read at the library, you’re reading this article, and thinking to yourself, ‘well I’m not a terrorist, I’m not involved in clandestine intelligence activities. I should be okay.’

Maybe, but who gets to define whether or not you’re involved in terrorist or clandestine intelligence activities? The FBI/DOJ does. They get to go to the FISA court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court, for authority to investigate a person’s ‘books, records, and other items.’

Guess who doesn’t get to go to the FISA court when that definition is being sought? You don’t.

‘The court’s ex parte process is primarily non-adversarial. The target of the order is not given an opportunity to appear at the hearing or informed of the presence of the order.’[3]

So, is that really a problem for an upstanding citizen like you? It could be. ‘FISA also creates a system of secret, ex parte courts that systematically deny due process to Americans surveilled under FISA.’[4]

You might have heard that phrase ‘due process’ before. It’s found in that pesky little Fourth Amendment that the government so often likes to overlook in its investigative activities.

So, let’s put it together. 

The government can investigate ‘books, records and other items’ by getting an order from a court in which you have no say, and in which you have no rights to challenge a determination. Thus, your library records, the books you took out, could be subject to a FISA order allowing the FBI to find out what you like to read.

And you couldn’t even find out from the library that this was happening, because, pursuant to 50 USC 1862 (2):

‘No common carrier, public accommodation facility, physical storage facility, or vehicle rental facility, or officer, employee, or agent thereof, shall disclose to any person (other than those officers, agents, or employees of such common carrier, public accommodation facility, physical storage facility, or vehicle rental facility necessary to fulfill the requirement to disclose information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation under this section) that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought or obtained records pursuant to an order under this section.’

You can see the possibilities, and so did the people who don’t believe the lie, ‘we’re from the government and we’re here to help you,’ because Section 215 of the Patriot Act was referred to as the library records provision.

The American Library Association was concerned. ‘On January 29, 2003, ALA Council resolved that Section 215 represented “a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users,” and urged Congress to change sections of the law that threatened those rights. Across the nation libraries posted signs warning patrons the act allowed the government to review their library records.’[5]

In 2015, the President of the American Library Association stated:

‘Nothing is more basic to democracy and librarianship than intellectual freedom….Nothing is more hostile to that freedom than the knowledge that the government can compel a library—without a traditional judicial search warrant—to report on the reading and internet records of library patrons, students, researchers and entrepreneurs. That is what Section 215 did.’[6]

So there was a great deal of controversy about the Patriot Act ‘library records provision,’ but after several renewals, it died a well deserved death on March 15, 2020.

Happy fifth anniversary.

Why You Should Care

Unless challenged, any government — including our own — seeks to expand its power, consolidate its power, and subjugate its citizens. They want as much information as possible about those who live within the borders of that government — whether they need it or not. 

Just look at your tax return and the information you have to provide if you want to itemize your deductions, or business expenses. That return isn’t just to get your money — it’s to get your information.

Imagine what your choices in literature and library books could yield to that government, even when you aren’t violating any laws. Imagine what that potential invasion of privacy would be like, except you don’t have to imagine, because while Section 215 was alive and well, the right to privacy was dying.

This bit of recent history should lead you to ask with respect to the invasion of your privacy by the government, ‘What’s next?’

[1] Public Law 107 - 56 - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001 GOV INFO https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PLAW-107publ56

[2] DOJ OFFICE OF THE OIG Https://oig.justice.gov/node/673#:~:text=Section%20215%20of%20the%20Patriot,protect%20against%20international%20terrorism%20or

[3] ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER https://epic.org/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-court-fisc/

[4] FISA VS. THE CONSTITUTION, Tyler, 7/24/18 Houston Christian University https://hc.edu/news-and-events/2018/07/24/fisa-vs-the-constitution/

[5] AMERICAN LIBRARIES, Weigand, 5/31/16 in their opposition to Section 215 of the Patriot Act https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/05/31/baseless-hysteria-patriot-act/#:~:text=Section%20215%2C%20which%20became%20known,those%20forced%20to%20comply%2C%20thus

[6] American Library Association ‘inimically against’ bill to extend Section 215 of PATRIOT Act without ‘urgently needed change’

4/22/15  https://www.ala.org/news/2015/04/american-library-association-inimically-against-bill-extend-section-215-patriot-act

THE FOLLOWING contains excerpts from reports as told to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO). It was logged as incident #78276 in February 2025. The names of those involved have been changed.

Steve got the call at 6:45pm on February 19th, 2025. He was surprised to see Mike's name come up on his phone. Mike was in the woods somewhere west of Penn State University on one of his hunting adventures.

When Steve answered, Mike responded with an urgent whisper – he was panicked and afraid: "Get your AR and get out here."

The "AR" was Steve's AR-15 rifle, a military grade semi-automatic weapon Steve could access as a member of the Penn State ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps). It seemed like overkill for hunting raccoons. Steve laughed, figuring Mike was joking.

Only it wasn't a joke.

Mike pleaded, dead serious, "Steve, listen. I'm stuck in the woods out here and there's something following me."

Two hours earlier, Mike had parked his truck along Rock Road outside State Game Land 333. He was excited for another game hunt. He'd just received his official permit.

This was his second outing. He was hoping for raccoons. What he found was something much different.

Mike grabbed his Remington 870 12-gauge shotgun and put on chest-high fishing waders, knowing he'd be crossing a stream. It was 5:20PM when Mike made it to Spring Creek, which was a foot deep in places.

All around him were pines and oak trees, and darkness beyond. The sun was setting fast. He checked his flashlight, then crossed the creek and headed into the darkening woods.

Seventy feet into the forest, Mike set up his Predator Hunter FoxPro Patriot, an electronic game call that mimics the sounds of animals. Hunters use it to attract predators.

In this case, Mike set it to generate raccoon distress sounds. He was hoping to attract other raccoons. But the raccoons were staying clear. Mike didn't realize there was another predator watching.

Mike repeated the calls in ten-minute intervals. Still no animal activity.

He walked back to the creek where he caught sight of animal tracks, something small – could be a raccoon. He followed the tracks parallel to the creek for a while.

By 6:10PM, darkness took over. Mike used his flashlight to cross a small bridge leading to a stand of pines.

That's when he heard a single loud knock against wood. Later, he would tell authorities, "it was the sound when you take a bat and give a tree a nice firm tap."

He swung his flashlight around to see what made the sound. He saw nothing but the bridge, and trees beyond. But he heard footsteps – something crunching in the twigs. There was movement to his left.

He aimed the flashlight just in time to see something large disappear behind a tree. It wasn't just big – it was walking upright.

That's the moment he called Steve.

As he pleaded to his friend for help, Mike ran into the forest, away from the creature. He had his shotgun in one hand, his flashlight in the other.

It must have run along the creek and gotten ahead of him. Because his flashlight caught it dead in the face, 40 yards away in the trees.

Mike would later describe it "like the face of King Kong", but with "a sharper nose, medium gray skin, wispy light gray hair. Pronounced brow ridge and sunken eyes. Thin lipped mouth. Blocky jaw."

The creature had no visible ears on its large head, which sloped back, a single tuft of hair on top. It seemed powerful, with a wide back, and no observable neck.

Mike guessed it was seven feet tall. Right in line with thousands of other sightings of the legendary creature.

It stared a few seconds, then disappeared behind a tree.

Mike was terrified. He forced himself backwards through thorn bushes to shortcut his way back to the creek and onto the road where his truck waited for him.

Had he just seen Big Foot?

Whatever it was, it picked the perfect land to wander. This wasn't just any wilderness. State Game Land 333 in Pennsylvania is a wildlife management area stocked for hunting.

It had just been supplied with hundreds of pheasants, and is home to multiple fish hatcheries. For a Big Foot, this wasn't just a forest. This was a buffet.

* * * *

Source:

https://www.bfro.net/gdb/show_report.asp?id=78276

We have more to worry about from FBI aircraft spying on our citizenry, than we do from UFOs coming to take over the world.

It’s not paranoia, its “dee planes, dee planes,” and it’s just another intrusion of government on what’s left of our privacy. Like COVID 19, this government malady is airborne.

In 2016, there were numerous flights by the feds over New Mexico, which led the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter to state, ‘The routine aerial surveillance of our communities by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies should be deep concern to any American who values their privacy.’[1]

Valuing the privacy of American citizens was never a high priority for the FBI. In fact, in a 2015 article on the ACLU website, it revealed, ‘the FBI maintains a secret air force with scores of small aircraft registered with 13 front companies under apparently false names, and that these planes fly over American cities frequently.’[2]

Also, in 2015 Charles Grassley, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee stated:

‘But whenever an operation may also monitor the activities of Americans who are not the intended target, we must make darn sure that safeguards are in place to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans.’

What is interesting as quoted from that same Associated Press article is the chilling fact that ‘Some of the aircraft can also be equipped with technology that can identify thousands of people below through the cellphones they carry, even if they’re not making a call or in public.’[3]

So, what do the “Special Agents” in the Federal Bureau of Investigation say to reassure us they are only looking for bad guys?

According to a 11/24 article from Government Procurement.com:

‘Despite civil liberty concerns, the FBI emphasizes targeted use for criminal investigations. As threats evolve the FBI is expected to incorporate unmanned systems while balancing security needs with transparency.’

And if you want some more Federal fodder? Here it is:

‘These aircraft are not equipped, designed, or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance, and are not routinely equipped with cell site simulators.’[4]

We can trust the FBI at their word, can’t we? They’re just after bad guys aren’t they?

Well, in 2008 it was revealed they had a particular interest in American population centers that weren’t predominately white because:

‘[In] December 2008 the Justice Department and FBI adopted new policies that included the initiation of a racial and ethnic mapping program throughout the United States. The program authorized FBI agents to collect demographic information from the U.S. Census to map American communities by race and ethnicity, to identify racial and ethnic “facilities,” and track certain racial “behaviors.”’[5]

Now, to accuse the FBI in being selectively racist in their surveillance efforts, whether airborne on the ground would be unfair. It wouldn’t take into consideration FBI interests in seizing property from those who were never accused of a crime.

Witness the following from a 12/19/23 article from the Institute for Justice, by Andrew Wimer:[6]

‘In March 2021, the FBI raided US Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills safe deposit box company. Even though the warrant authorizing the raid only permitted the FBI to open boxes to identify their owners and safeguard the contents, agents opened hundreds of boxes, ran currency they found in front of drug sniffing dogs, and made copies of peoples’ most personal records. It later came out that, months before applying for the warrant, the government had already decided to try to permanently keep everything worth more than $5,000 from the boxes, all without charging any box renter with a crime.’ 

Okay, so now we have racism and attempted theft. What else do these good guys in the FBI do to American citizenry?

They allow bad guys who cooperate with them to continue to engage in criminal activity. Straight from the horse’s mouth:

‘The Confidential Informant Guidelines permit the FBI to authorize confidential informants to engage in activities that would otherwise constitute crimes under state or federal law if engaged in by someone without such authorization. Such conduct is termed "otherwise illegal activity" or "OIA.”’[7]

So, when the FBI tells us they are playing according to the rules when engaged in flying surveillance over our skies, it’s not only a question of the veracity of that statement, it’s a question of whose rules?

Sometimes, to find an answer, it’s important to keep up with the Joneses.

For instance, the 2012 United States Supreme Court case of United States v. Jones. That’s a case involving improper GPS surveillance by the Feds, where Justice Sotomayor in her concurring opinion stated:

‘People disclose the phone numbers that they dial or text to their cellular providers, the URLS that they visit and the e-mail addresses with which they correspond to their Internet service providers, and the books, groceries and medications they purchase to online retailers. [...] I would not assume that all information voluntarily disclosed to some member of the public for a limited purpose is, for that reason alone, disentitled to Fourth Amendment protection.’[8]

It is precisely that type of information that airborne FBI surveillance planes can — and do-gather against the citizens of the United States of America — including those who aren’t committing any crimes.

Why You Should Care

We have a United States constitution. That document has certain amendments to it, for example, the Fourth Amendment says, ‘The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.’ 

There are thousands upon thousands of cases where both state and federal courts have found over the years that law enforcement agencies have violated the fourth amendment rights of citizens.

These are rights, not suggestions. 

The Fourth Amendment guarantee ‘to be secure’ is your right, and you don’t want it violated. That’s regardless of whether the violation occurs on terra firma, or in the not too friendly skies where one finds FBI surveillance planes.

[1] FBI PLANES FLEW OVER ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico Political Report 4/8/16 https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2016/04/08/fbi-spy-planes-flew-over-albuquerque/#:~:text=A%20Buzzfeed%20investigation%20found%20that,throughout%20the%20country%E2%80%94including%20Albuquerque.&text=The%20investigation%20found%20that%20the,could%20track%20cell%20phones%20below.

[2] WHAT’S SPOOKY ABOUT THE FBI’S FLEET OF SPY PLANES, Jay Stanley,6/2/15 https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/whats-spooky-about-fbis-fleet-spy-planes

[3] FBI BEHIND MYSTERIOUS SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAFT OVER US CITIES, Sullivan & Tucker 6/2/15 https://apnews.com/united-states-government-4b3f220e33b64123a3909c60845da045

[4] EXPLORING THE FBI AIRCRAFT FLEET, 11/1/24 Government Procurement.com https://www.governmentprocurement.com/news/exploring-the-fbi-aircraft-fleet-capabilities-and-surveillance-impact

[5] THE FBI’S CIVIL RIGHTS DEFICIT, 9/18/13, Murphy, ACLU website Murphy, 9/18/13 https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/fbis-civil-rights-deficit

[6] FBI CAUGHT TRYING TO SWEEP ITS VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS UNDER THE RUG, Wimer 12/19/223 Institute for Justice https://ij.org/press-release/fbi-caught-trying-to-sweep-its-violation-of-constitutional-rights-under-the-rug/

[7] The Attorney General's Guidelines Regarding the Use of Confidential Informants 9/2015 https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/0509/chapter3.htm#:~:text=The%20Confidential%20Informant%20Guidelines%20permit,activity%22%20or%20%22OIA.%22

[8] UNITED STATES V. JONES 565 U.S. 400 (2012)

U.S. citizens have the right to own guns. 

The U.S. Constitution states, "a well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

But are some guns a danger to society because they're too deadly?

Not according to the law.

As it stands, you can own a tank with a working cannon if you get the right permits. They're not easy permits to get, but it's legal. A weapon's level of lethal power is not factored into ownership laws at the moment.

Of course, no one is causing havoc in our schools with M1 Abrams tanks. The gun debate raging in the United States is focused on AR 15 assault rifles. These are popular among gun owners – around 3 million a year are sold.

Most gun-related murders are committed with handguns, but the deadliest mass shootings involve this semi-automatic rifle. They're designed for military combat. They fire high-velocity rounds that travel 3,000 miles a second, and hold at least 30 rounds a clip, firing as fast as you can pull the trigger.

Those in favor of gun control ask an obvious question: do private citizens really need military-grade firepower?

The National Rifle Association gives an adamant yes to that question. In their view, the second amendment isn't just about owning a gun. It's about the freedom to assemble an armed militia.

And one key purpose of a militia – according to the Founding Fathers – is to provide a check against Federal power. If private citizens are meant to defend against government overreach, it just might take an AR-15 to make a stand against an oppressive U.S. army.

AR-15's might be overkill for hunting deer, but if you and your neighbors are fighting a platoon of evil marines, they make more sense.

Except maybe not anymore. The armies of the world have evolved. A private militia today might not face troops on the ground. Instead, they could find a new horror from the sky.

The Ukraine war started out looking like a conventional fight, with Russia amassing 200,000 troops and thousands of tanks for their ground invasion. But over the last three years of war, the supply of traditional artillery shells and armored vehicles has dwindled.

Necessity has given birth to new, more efficient weapons that attack remotely from above.

Both sides now conduct near-daily aerial assaults using attack drones. At first, they were huge craft that cost millions to make. But this month, Ukraine advanced the tech, unleashing millions of compact drones as small as 8 inches long.

These new drones cost as little as $300 and can be 3D printed at scale. The future of warfare has arrived, and it’s being unleashed as we speak.

Too small to carry missiles, these drones are used in kamikaze missions. Despite their size, if targeted correctly, they can destroy a tank. According to Ukraine's Minister of Digitisation Mykhailo Fedorov, the country now produces over 1.5 million drones annually.

The plan is to make them available to other countries. "This will become a new sphere for our economy," Mr Mykhailo Fedorov told The NY Post. "Exporting abroad could become the basis for win-win relations with other countries."

They are frighteningly easy to produce. According to Eddie Etue, a U.S. Marine veteran who fought with the Ukraine Foreign Legion, "you just need a 3D printer, filament, and the STL file." On a recent Tuesday night alone, Moscow claimed to have shot down 130 of them.

What happens when this technology makes it back to the United States? Will U.S. law enforcement use drones in its arsenal? Well, we can answer that question right now.

Because they already are.

As of 2022, over 1,000 local police departments in the United States have integrated drones into their operations. There are nearly 4,000 police robots in the sky patrolling the citizens of our country.

Combined with the Federal government, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projects that by 2025, public safety agencies will utilize over 30,000 drones.

Today, these drones are used for reconnaissance and tactical support. They are focused entirely on surveillance, equipped with cameras, thermal imaging, and maybe loudspeakers or spotlights. But not with weaponry.

For now.

Sources:

https://nypost.com/2025/02/26/world-news/how-ukraines-drone-army-has-changed-the-battlefield-forever/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/07/20/record-28-million-ar-15-and-ak-style-rifles-entered-us-circulation-in-2020-gun-group-says/#:~:text=The%20National%20Shooting%20Sports%20Foundation,other%20countries%20from%20its%20figures).

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ukraine-is-targeting-russia-with-drones-that-cost-as-little-as-rs-26-000-7806609#pfrom=home-ndtvworld_world_featured_articles

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-war-2-000-km-range-250-kg-payload-ukraines-latest-addition-to-drone-arsenal-7608983

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/31/ukraine-drone-attack-sparks-fire-at-major-volgograd-oil-refinery

https://uavcoach.com/police-drones

https://dronecenter.bard.edu/files/2020/04/CSD-Public-Safety-Drones-3rd-edition.pdf

Anytime you hear of an organization that has the words “Federal” and “Management” in its name, you’re probably already worried. 

Time and time again, the federal government has proven that its programs are inefficient, overly expensive, and staffed and run by incompetents whose main skill is politically connecting with the administration that appointed them.

Federal agency actions in reality are usually contrary in their results to their stated purpose. Their utility in the situations in which they were designed to manage is at best, questionable, and at worst, non-existent.

Those who have suffered in weather related disasters in our country over the last twenty years, have had first-hand experience with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It’s an entity that is more of a disaster than the disasters in which it is supposed to assist.

Students of history and the actions of federal agencies are unlikely to be surprised.

Let’s take a look under the rock and see what the reality of FEMA is.

What’s the overall verdict on FEMA? ‘It is slow, risk averse, subservient to politics, and it does not have the local knowledge needed to effectively handle many disasters.’  

The 2005 disaster that was hurricane Katrina, demonstrated FEMA inaction in action as it ‘blocked the relief efforts of other organizations. FEMA’s dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 dramatized the agency’s bureaucratic dysfunction.’[1]

What did FEMA learn from its failures in 2005? Good question, and in 2017 with the Puerto Rican hurricane disaster we got the answer: ‘The Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to properly prepare for last year's (2017) hurricane season and was unable to provide adequate support to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and other areas.’

That conclusion came from FEMA itself.[2]

Apparently in a dozen years since Katrina, the agency learned nothing.

Let’s go back to that 2005 Katrina fiasco. Obviously, with a disaster of that magnitude, there are going to be a whole bunch of homeless people who have lost everything in the wake of the winds and rain of the hurricane.

They needed emergency housing. FEMA to the rescue? Not quite.

To house the homeless, here’s what FEMA did: ‘FEMA paid for 25,000 mobile homes costing $900 million, but they went virtually unused because of FEMA’s own regulations that such homes cannot be used on flood plains, which is where most Katrina victims lived.’

Besides that act of genius, FEMA blocked the delivery of emergency supplies, blocked physicians coming to assist, refused train and bus entities seeking to voluntarily transport the homeless, and delayed shipments from foreign nations seeking to provide supplies.[3]

Now any agency, whether private or governmental, consists of workers supposedly entrusted to fulfill the purposes of the agency for which they work. In order to have the right people and the right number of people, hiring and selection methods need to function properly.

FEMA? Well, the Government Accounting Office, the GAO, issued a report in 2023 that concluded:

‘FEMA lacks documented plans and performance measures to monitor and evaluate its hiring progress within cadres (workforce groups) toward the larger disaster workforce goal. Without documented plans and measures, such as cadre net growth targets, it is difficult for FEMA to determine how effective hiring efforts are at closing staffing gaps and prioritizing hiring efforts within the disaster workforce accordingly.’[4]

Perhaps, in 2025, President Donald J. Trump has a better idea — to dismantle the disaster that is the disaster agency and defund FEMA.

He recognizes what many observers of this malfunctioning entity realize: ‘states would best take care of hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires on their own, with the federal government reimbursing some of the costs. He convened a council to review FEMA and recommend “improvements or structural changes.”’[5]

He’s quoted as saying, ‘I think when you have a problem like this, (national disasters) I think you want to go and — whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling FEMA.’[6]

Why You Should Care

Many of the readers of this article have experienced disasters in their region first-hand. They are familiar with the confusion and lack of coordinated efforts a major weather or fire event can generate.

Relief is needed immediately in such situations, or at least as close to immediate as is possible. What is not needed are extraneous levels of government bureaucracy which impede that needed assistance. 

What is not needed is another agency which wastes hundreds of millions of taxpayer money in a late and inefficient response to disasters that provide no practical value. For instance, the nine hundred million FEMA spent on trailer housing for the victims of Katrina, which its own regulations prohibited from being used.

It’s the tendency of any bureaucracy once created, to seek to expand its power, its reach and its funding which facilitates the other two. That tendency is a breeding ground for inefficiency and incompetence.

When it comes to saving the lives and property of our citizens in the United States of America, (of which the reader is likely one) in a disaster situation, bureaucratic bumbling can mean an exacerbation of the damage caused by natural disasters. It can mean more death, more damage, more destruction.

It’s clear that FEMA has a history of failure, and a failure to learn from those failures. The Trump approach to reappraising the need for this agency to exist is likely the appropriate one. 

The money wasted on this poorly performing Federal agency, can be reallocated to the states which historically, have been the most rapid and efficient suppliers of aid and comfort to its residents during times of disaster.

[1] Chris Edwards December 1, 2014  DOWNSIZING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/dhs/fema

[2] FEMA Report Acknowledges Failures In Puerto Rico Disaster Response JULY 13, 2018 npr By  Laura Sullivan https://www.npr.org/2018/07/13/628861808/fema-report-acknowledges-failures-in-puerto-rico-disaster-response

[3] Hurricane Katrina: Remembering the Federal Failures By Chris Edwards 8/27/15 CATO AT LIBERTY https://www.cato.org/blog/hurricane-katrina-remembering-federal-failures

[4] FEMA Disaster Workforce:Actions Needed to Improve Hiring Data and Address Staffing Gaps Published: May 02, 2023. Publicly Released: May 02, 2023. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105663

[5] Trump wants states to handle disasters without FEMA. They say they can’t. BY: ALEX BROWN AND KEVIN HARDY - FEBRUARY 6, 2025 https://stateline.org/2025/02/06/trump-wants-states-to-handle-disasters-without-fema-they-say-they-cant/

[6] GOVERNING, Trump Moves to Abolish FEMA, Shift Disaster Response to States https://www.governing.com/resilience/trump-moves-to-abolish-fema-shift-disaster-response-to-states

There are over 8 billion people on Earth.

And there are groups of elites convinced this fact stands in the way of utopia. They are committed to reducing the global population.

Why they get to live in this ideal future while others don't is not up for debate.

They have money and power, and they don't want to compete for the Earth's resources with billions of others less worthy.

These groups aren’t the product of fantasy or fiction.

John D. Rockefeller founded one in 1952 called the Population Council. Its stated purpose was to research population dynamics.

According to Rockefeller, "an organization needed to be created that would be devoted to the reduction of fertility of weaker individuals with undesirable genetics."

The council still operates its programs around the world.

The Club of Rome was a global think tank founded in 1968 by an Italian industrialist. Its mission is to create an ideal future for humanity by limiting population growth. It continues to publish research and advocate for its policies to this day.

Then there is the group behind the Georgia Guidestones. These granite monoliths were America's version of Stonehenge. They were built in 1980 by a mystery group led by R.C. Christian – whose real name also remains a mystery.

But its goals were no mystery. If you visited Elberton, Georgia to see the granite monoliths in person, you would have found ten messages engraved in the granite. And in case you weren't from America, the messages were repeated in eight different world languages and 4 dead languages, including Sanskrit.

R.C. Christian really wanted you to read his tenants. He believed they were guides to a utopian future (thus the name Georgia Guidestones). The very first message read, "maintain humanity under 500 million in perpetual balance with nature".

But, while elites love to ponder a world without the rest of us, the fact is, they need people to do all the small stuff.

Farming, manufacturing, shipping, constructing – when elite groups imagine a utopia, they don't imagine they're navigating a container ship across the Atlantic, or harvesting strawberries, or any number of things that take real work.

For there to be "elites", there must be everyone else. Unless, of course, AI can replace us.

This month, DBS – Singapore's largest bank – announced plans to reduce its workforce by 4,000 people over the next four years. Not because it figured out how to do the same with less work. The plan is to do more.

The bank is replacing humans with artificial intelligence. The bank deploys over 800 AI models already, and expects to see over a billion dollars in added revenue from the move to replace human beings.

Swedish financial tech company Klarna went one better. It stopped hiring any humans with the goal of replacing all workers with AI. Already its AI assistant, which is powered by OpenAI, is doing the work of 700 full-time customer service agents.

And there's more. According to Bloomberg, global banks are planning to cut 200,000 jobs in the next five years as artificial intelligence takes on jobs formerly done by humans.

The International Monetary Fund warned that AI will likely take 40% of all jobs worldwide. A CNN survey of finance chiefs confirmed US firms are on board, with 61% planning to use AI to automate tasks done by employees.

Elon Musk, the man currently tasked with cutting thousands of U.S. Government jobs, has already seen where this all goes. Speaking at the UK's AI Safety Summit in 2023, the Tesla CEO said he believes AI will "replace the need for all jobs".

The message engraved in the 16-foot-tall Georgia Guidestones sounded crazy – that we could keep the population to 500,000. Yet the world seems to be preparing for a time when there won't be so many humans around.

Sources:

https://www.ndtv.com/ai/swedish-fintech-company-stopped-all-hiring-since-last-year-replacing-workers-with-ai-7238416

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/elon-musk-says-ai-will-replace-need-for-all-jobs-and-create-universal-high-income-4557207

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ai-set-to-replace-humans-in-4000-roles-in-southeast-asias-largest-bank-7793813

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/wall-street-might-cut-2-00-000-jobs-as-ai-replaces-roles-7440564

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/20/business/ai-jobs-workers-replacing/index.html

https://egaonline.com/sites/default/files/The%20Georgia%20Guidestones.pdf

If you look at the “About Us” section on the American Red Cross website, one learns ‘The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.’

Let’s take a look under the published promise and see what we might find in reality.

In 2010 Haiti was devastated by an earthquake. The Red Cross was there, but more with its hand out than with its sleeves rolled up to work. 

The organization raised nearly half a billion dollars for Haitian relief.

That was impressive.

The Red Cross boasted about creating housing for one hundred thirty thousand people. But the actual number was slightly lower — by about one hundred twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-four. 

Six permanent homes were built — that’s it.[1]

That’s not impressive.

Naturally, the Red Cross wasn’t overly forthcoming about how it spent all of those donations.

That is instructive.

Of course, charities have administrative expenses that must be taken care of from donations. There are advertisements to buy, websites to build; fundraising commissions to pay (where applicable) and of course salaries to the officers and directors on the board.

Here the Red Cross is very impressive in its efficiency and making sure that those administration expenses are well funded from the donations it receives.

While the Red Cross claims that about ninety percent of its donations go to help others in emergency disaster situations, it ain’t necessarily so.

In a 2014 investigative report by Pro Publica, it revealed “In recent years, the Red Cross' fundraising expenses alone have been as high as 26 cents of every donated dollar, nearly three times the nine cents in overhead claimed by McGovern. In the past five years, fundraising expenses have averaged 17 cents per donated dollar.”[2]

In that same report it was stated, “Once donated dollars are in Red Cross hands, the charity spends additional money on ‘management and general’ expenses, which includes things like back office accounting. That means the portion of donated dollars going to overhead is even higher.”[3]

So, on the one hand, the Red Cross has on occasion, lied about what it does on the ground for the victims of disasters. And then it fudges the figures about what its take is from dollars donated in good faith by generous people who just don’t know the reality.

Apparently, the Red Cross isn’t all that true blue when it comes to its functioning and its finances.

Let’s take a look at some more examples. Like how the Red Cross pitched in after the 9/11 attacks. Or maybe better said, how they pitched for contributions, but dropped the ball when it came to actual aid.

After the September 11 attacks, it has been reported that:

“By the end of October, the fund had received $543 million in pledges. It had, however, distributed less than one-third of those funds to actual September 11th relief efforts. The ARC announced that more than half would be spent to increase the organization’s ability to prepare for and respond to future catastrophes instead.”

In this excellent report from Auburn University’s Center for Organizational Cultures, it was further revealed, that the American Red Cross, (which is the largest “blood steward” in the country, having forty percent of the supply): “paid over $21 million in federal fines between 2003 and 2008 related to mismanagement of screening and collection as well as failing to discard potentially unsafe donations.”[4]

In an investigative report for the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Democratic Staff, with respect to the efficiency of Red Cross operations, it revealed, “the Red Cross is frequently late in responding to large-scale disasters – often arriving on the scene days after other relief organizations have arrived.”[5]

But the charity is Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to public relations for the purpose of gathering private donations. In the Committee report referenced above, it came to light that:

“Red Cross public relations staff have apparently deployed – sometimes within twenty-four hours of a disaster – with the sole purpose of collecting videos and photos in order to prepare campaigns for cash.”[6]

So, you could say the Red Cross takes a balanced approach in addressing its stated function and its less often stated function. On the one hand it shows up days late to actually pitch in and help victims, but on the other hand, it rapidly sends out its public relations people to solicit donations.

But at least the Red Cross tries to help, and spreads its wings equally in the efforts to help all communities in distress — or does it?

That government report we’re looking at concluded, “Perhaps most disturbing, however, is the fact that the Red Cross’ patterns of delayed and inadequate aid continue to manifest themselves most often in economically disadvantaged and minority communities.”

Why You Should Care

The desire to help others we don’t know that are in dire distress is praiseworthy. 

On an individual basis, there often is little more than we can do than contribute to a large organization that we believe can get the job done.

But when that organization misrepresents its results… when it understates how much it takes for itself off of the top of our donations… then we should seriously consider whether that organization deserves our dollars. Or even deserves our respect.

The American Red Cross has evidenced a history of inefficiency, of overspending on administrative costs, of showing up late to help. But it shows up just at the right time for the purpose of filling its coffers with your money.

Those who serve at top positions in the American Red Cross aren’t there to be charitable. They are making serious coin in running this charity. It was reported that in 2023, the fifteen most highly compensated employees of the American Red Cross received nearly ten million dollars in compensation.[7]

Given the above, we have to ask ourselves, have we been double crossed by the American Red Cross?

[1] HOW THE RED CROSS RAISED A HALF A BILLION DOLLARS FOR HAITI AND BUILD SIX HOMES 6/3/15 Elliot & Sullivan PRO PUBLICA https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes

[2] The Red Cross CEO Has Been Serially Misleading About Where Donors’ Dollars Are Going  Eisinger & Elliott 12/4/14 PRO PUBLICA https://www.propublica.org/article/red-cross-ceo-has-been-misleading-about-donations

[3] IBID.

[4] The American Red Cross Faces Organizational Integrity Challenges, AUBURN UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES, https://harbert.auburn.edu/binaries/documents/center-for-ethical-organizational-cultures/cases/american-red-cross.pdf

[5] TROUBLE EXPOSED, KATRINA, RITA AND THE RED CROSS, A FAMILIAR HISTORY AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORT BY THE U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Democratic Staff https://democrats-homeland.house.gov/imo/media/doc/redcrossreport.pdf

[6] IBID.

[7] PADDOCK POST EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AT THE ARC 2023 https://paddockpost.com/2024/11/14/executive-compensation-at-the-american-red-cross-2023/