In this clip, Harris promises to take patents away from pharmaceutical companies that receive Federal funding for an R&D patent-protected drug and refuse to lower their US price to the global average for the drug. If they want to own a patent they can, but they shouldn’t steal them. Kamala’s comments here are not innocent. […] The post Harris: “I Will Snatch Their Patents, So That We Will Take Over” appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Missed the other parts? Find them here: Check out Part 1 Part 2 is here. Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Dear Diary, It’s me, Jessica. Rae and I were attacked by two men.   We were crossing the grass courtyard in between the K-8th grade building and the 9-12th grade building when they came at us from behind.  We just heard them running up and began to run in opposite directions, but they tackled us to the ground.  I rolled on my right side to get out from under the man and stood up, but he came at me again before I could shoulder my rifle.  I used my rifle to keep him from grabbing me, but he tried to take it from me.  We struggled and fought for it, him pushing me several feet back.  I then planted my feet and pushed back.  His eyes were wild.  His hair was long, unkempt, and greasy.  Same as his beard.  His teeth were yellowed, a few were missing, and his breath stank of rot.  His face was very thin.   He growled at me. So, I kicked him in the stomach as hard as I could.  I heard the wind rush out of him as he doubled over, letting go of my rifle.  I did not hesitate and swung the butt of the rifle into the side of his head, sending him sprawling onto the tall grass.  He did not move.  I looked up to see the other man straddling on top of Rae on the other side of the courtyard, trying to choke her.  She was fighting back as hard as she could, but he had the advantage.   I was just starting to bring the butt of my rifle around to my shoulder when I saw a black blur out of the left side of my eyesight.   It was Sampson.  Jack brought the big dog with us on the trip to the town in search of school books.   He was at a full-out run.  Every time the huge German Shepard’s feet touched the ground, he took another stride.  He covered an impossible distance with each stride, seemingly flying across the ground.  He then launched himself at the man’s back, jaws first.  A hundred pounds of black fur, slammed into the man, throwing both of them clear of Rae.  The man was able to get out the start of a scream when it was cut off by Sampson biting down on the back of the man’s neck.  Even from the distance between me and them, I could hear a sharp crack of neck bones being crushed between Sampson’s jaws.  The man was already dead, but Sampson gave several violent thrashes back and forth of his massive head, breaking and grinding even more bones.  Satisfied the man was dead, Sampson released the man’s neck, and the body fell in a heap.  Samson gave out a huff, then shook himself from his head right down the length of the big dog.  He then turned and walked up to Rae.  Rae propped herself up on one arm, massaging her throat with her other hand.   Sampson began kissing her face.   I ran up to them.  Rae’s eyes were full of amusement, but she could only cough as Sampson licked her face over and over again.  I offered to help her up, but she waved me off as she took a moment to recover.   Jack and Billy ran up from around the corner, both of their rifles at the ready. Jack gave a once over of the situation, checking on the dead man laying on the ground, his head twisted at an impossible angle.  Sampson had stopped kissing Rae and sat down, watching Jack with intense, intelligent eyes.  Jack walked up to Samson, petted his head and said, “Good boy.” Sampson responded with a single tail wag. Jack offered his hand to Rae, and she took it, and he pulled her up. She coughed and said hoarsely, “I’m okay.  How did you know to come?” “Sampson.  He heard or sensed something and took off at a run.  Billy and I followed as fast as we could.” The man I kicked and butt-stroked stirred. Samson was instantly on all four feet, ears back, let out a growl, his fur on his back standing on end.  I did not think it was possible but the huge dog looked even bigger. “Easy, Sampson,” Jack said.   Sampson stopped growling but remained at what I could only call “at the ready” for a dog. The man sat up to find Jack, Billy, and I aiming our rifles at his head at point-blank range and Sampson to one side. Eyes wide and fearful, he began to blather.  Something about they had not eaten in days, not seen a woman in months, been on the run from some government agency, looking for his sister and her son, a blue Honda Civic that had something in the trunk called “the device,” that caused the power to go out and the city was chaos.  He began rocking forward and backward as he muttered more about “the device” and the chaos in the city. The man was clearly crazy. Dad and Mr. Miller then came out of the K-8th grade building.  I filled them in on what had happened.   Jack unslung his backpack, got out some beef jerky, bacon, and green onion biscuits, and offered them to the man. He grabbed them and stuffed them into his mouth, making mewling sounds as he ate. Jack nodded to Billy to keep a watch on the man and pulled us all out of hearing distance.   “He is crazy and dangerous, but I cannot shoot him for being crazy.  Him and his friend are victims of circumstance.” “What should we do,” Dad asked. Rae cleared her throat, “We all have enough in our packs to give him at least a few days’ worth of food.  Give it to him and we leave him be.  What he does is on him.  I do not want to bring him back to our home.” Everyone agreed.   Jack and Sampson watched the man as Dad, Mr. Miller, Billy, Rae, and I searched the 9-12th grade building.  We found advanced math books, biology, history, and English books to add to the books we found in the K-8th building.  We also found sports equipment and gear.  Mr. Miller’s flatbed seemed big until it was loaded with books from both buildings and sports gear.  Then, it was a crowded trip back home.  Sampson laid down between me and Rae on the flat bed.  Rae scratched him behind his ears. Diary, I am thankful Sampson was with us.  I might have to slip him a few extra treats under the dinner table when Jack is not looking. Entry two Rae and I approached the East defensive wall to Four Corners on horseback. Mr. Miller let us use the horses to make the trip. It was faster, and we carried extra books in the saddle bags for the children of Four Corners to start their own school.   Tom and Collins had already pulled back the gate. Tom, with a set of binoculars around his neck, saw us coming. Once again, he gave me a theatrical sweeping bow, announcing me as The Hero of the Battle of Four Corners, and even added an up-turned-hand salute at the end.   I think he enjoys embarrassing me.  I could not help but laugh.  He gave me a wink and a smile.   When Rae mentioned the books, Collins was very interested.  He asked to see the history books, being something of a history buff himself.  He said he had his own library, ranging from ancient Egypt, China dynasties, Russian Czars, Middle Eastern wars of all kinds, Genghis Khan, the Vikings, English and French nobility, Native American tribes from East to West coast, World War I and II, the Warsaw Rising of 1944 against the Nazis, and even more I cannot remember.  He thanked us and said he would meet with Sean, the mayor, and talk about starting a school.  Sean was pretty much the de facto mayor running the market, so it only made sense to formalize it with a vote. Rae mentioned the sporting gear and basketball, and Tom gave her a grin.  He played basketball in college.  Rae sized him up, noting he did not look like someone who could be a forward as he was under six feet, more like five-ten.  Apparently, he had a heck of a jump shot from the three-point line.  As Rae passed him by on her horse, she said, “Look forward to seeing you on the court.” Tom gave her one of his theatrical bows. We rode up to Sean, leaning on his log, strumming his banjo. Rae told him about the books we brought. I asked where I could find Savannah, and he nodded toward the South side. I wanted her to have a few of the biology, anatomy, and physiology books we found.   Foot traffic was dense, so much so that I had to dismount from the horse and lead her by the reins.  Several people called out to me as the Hero of the Battle of Four Corners.  I made it a point to shake their hands and give them a smile and thanks.   Savannah was looking a young girl over when I found her. Savannah saw me but gave a slight head shake to tell me to stay back. By the look in her eyes, things were not good. Savannah spent a few more minutes with the girl and her mother.  She gave them a mix of herbs and said to take them three times a day for the next several days. After they were gone,  Savannah looked at me and said, “I think she has strep.  Before the power went out, it would be no big deal.  A prescription from the pharmacy, filled in two days or less.  Now?  It may kill her.” “Joanna!” “Who is Joanna?” I then explained to Savannah about Joeanne’s respiratory infection. Jack and the team made the trip to the city to get antibiotics.  Joeanne might have some left. I pulled out the biology, anatomy, and physiology books from the saddle bags and handed them to Savannah.  Her eyes lit up as she flipped through the contents of the books.  I told her I would be back as fast as I could, and pulled the horse through the crowd.  The look on my face must have been serious as people in the crowd took one look and got out of my way.  I told Sean the situation and for him to tell Rae when he saw her as I stepped up into the saddle and put the horse in a fast walk for the East gate.   I did not want to exhaust the horse, so I alternated between an easy gallop and a fast walk.  It seemed to take forever, but the road to home quickly appeared, and I was pulling up to Joanna and Sam’s house.  They were on their front porch talking with Mom.  Looking at me and the horse, Mom asked if something was wrong.  I told them about the little girl with strep, and before I finished, Joanna was already walking into their house.  She came back out a few minutes later with two orange pill containers and handed them to me.  I thanked her, but before I could make the trip back to Four Corners, I wanted to water the horse and give her a few minutes to rest.   The return trip seemed to go faster. Tom and Collins had already moved the gate back, and I passed through at a gallop, giving them a wave.  I told them on my way out, I was on a ‘mission’ to bring antibiotics for the little girl.  Even at a gallop, I could see the concern in their eyes.  Tom did not give one of his theatrical bows or a salute.  As I approached Sean sitting on his log, Rae was with him with her horse.  I slowed to a walk, but Rae said, “Go!” I nodded, put the horse back into a fast walk, and turned toward the South side. Word had gotten out about my ‘mission’ for the little girl, and at the sight of me, everyone stepped aside, leaving the road clear. There was much applause as I passed, and a few cheered or whistled, but I was too preoccupied looking for Savannah to respond.   Savannah stood in the middle of the road with Daniel, the little girl, and her mother off to one side.  I reined the horse in, immediately pulled the orange pill containers out of the saddle bag, and handed them to Savannah’s outstretched hand.  She turned them over to read the label, and Daniel looked over her shoulder.  He said, “That one,” and began to explain to her the ‘why’ and ‘hows’ of the drug that went over my head in about a dozen words.  Savannah seemed to understand without any problem.   Daniel watched as Savannah knelt down to the little girl and instructed her to take the pills once a day for the next seven days.  The mother looked on and nodded. She understood, too. The mother, Daniel and Savannah all thanked me.  Others around us who looked on also gave their thanks.   Then someone shouted out, “All hail The Hero of Four Corners!” Some folks began applauding, others cheered, and more than a few whistled.   Diary, Tom, and his theatricals are going to be impossible after this. About 1stMarineJarHead 1stMarineJarHead is not only a former Marine, but also a former EMT-B, Wilderness EMT (courtesy of NOLS), and volunteer firefighter. He currently resides in the great white (i.e. snowy) Northeast with his wife and dogs. He raises chickens, rabbits, goats, occasionally hogs, cows and sometimes ducks. He grows various veggies and has a weird fondness for rutabagas. He enjoys reading, writing, cooking from scratch, making charcuterie, target shooting, and is currently expanding his woodworking skills. The post Dear Diary, It’s Me, Jessica: Part 16 appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Harris: Yes, Things Still Cost Too Much

There is something magical about the flight of the swift. They are quick, almost too quick for us to see. Here one moment, the next they are gone, always chasing bugs. Unlike us land animals leaving footprints with every step, each wingbeat leaves no trace of its passage. That is until Xavi Bou started capturing and collecting them. Overlaying every second of their movement he showed us that their flight was far from erratic. It was a beautiful dance in the skies.After a career in advertising and fashion post-production, Xavi Bou started applying his keen aesthetic sense to something he valued and was truly passionate about: mesmerizing us with the beauty of nature in a new way. A way we can't quite capture with our own eyes. “My challenge is trying to find this hidden beauty behind these natural movements,” said Bou to IFLScience.We live in a changing landscape, people becoming “more conscious about equality, about environmental things.” Bou believes that the way we look at the world is shifting and that that same shift needs to happen in the arts. That there is not a single version of reality, and if you “only show the reality in one way you are missing many.” For example, we know that we can only see in the visible spectrum of light, yet we also know that the world is full of color in infrared and ultraviolet. Bou wants to remind us of this invisible complexity, encouraging us to be open-minded in our perception of reality.The alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba) soars over the Medes Islands in Catalonia, 2023.Image courtesy of Xavi BouA natural connectionStop. Hidden among the chatter of people in the streets and rumble of the traffic, do you hear the singing of the birds? Look up. Past the cornices of the buildings, among the leaves of the trees, do you see the flight of birds? We have lost our connection to the natural world, making us blind to the nature around us, to the birds. Bou’s goal is for people to leave an exhibition of his work with a renewed sense of wonder. “Many people came up after [...] and say, ‘Oh, since I have been in the exhibition I have been more paying attention with birds’. And for me it's a first step. Get reconnected,” he told IFLScience.In his eyes, our human ability to empathize with other humans, to feel their suffering even a world apart, and our ability to empathize and care for nature makes us amazing creatures: “It’s the first time in human history that people care about nature, because now it's not just food and danger.” This is offering an opportunity to rekindle our relationship with nature, which can add an “extra layer of happiness” to our experience of the world. Being in a forest (or even a park) is amazing and spectacular all on its own, but for Bou knowing there is a bird, maybe a great owl, in this forest gives the experience a layer of possibility, enhancing it with excitement.  A complex choreographyAfter a lifetime of birdwatching, it was natural for birds to be the muse of Bou’s art: “The goal of the project was never to make a collection of different types of species. It is more looking at this complex behavior.”For eight years, Bou studied birds by capturing the choreography of their flight and wingbeat patterns. He called them Ornithographies. Different species offered different opportunities. Sometimes many species share a similar behavior. For example, the passerines (think sparrows and tits) have a common aesthetic: “flapping the wings or flapping and closing, flapping and closing,” going from one point to another. Other species can offer a more diverse range of flight patterns, like “seagulls could do flapping or gliding, or sometimes they fly together low, doing [...] tornado shapes.” The swifts, residents of the sky, dash about when feeding and then fly in circles before sleep. All these behaviors are different and unpredictable and “will become a different type of drawing in the sky,” said Bou. “I love the unpredictable thing.” Each drawing dazzles us with its poetry, opening a window into the life of the bird.The red kite (Milvus milvus) flapping and gliding in Lleida (Catalonia), 2023.Image courtesy of Xavi BouBou himself is the curator, identifying the best moment and place to capture the most interesting image. It requires a deep knowledge of the bird world. “When you work with nature, it's important to have as much information as possible to succeed, because there are many chances that the birds are not there or are not doing what you want,” Bou told IFLScience. The success of this project hinged on a lifelong passion for birds. His life became about following the birds, synchronizing his calendar with theirs. The swifts have just left his hometown of Barcelona, but “in two weeks in Tarifa will be hundreds or thousands of kites, black kites flying towards the wind to Africa. [...] In two weeks more the storks, and in November will begin the starling.” The rhythm of nature.To improve his chances, he would get some intel from ornithologists, learn from them about where to find the birds, but then, in the field, he was always alone. Until now.Birds, bugs, and beyond“After some years I think [...] maybe I'm missing some interesting other natural movements like insects. So I decided, like three years ago, to expand this vision to other animal groups. I begin with the insect. [...] Now, I'm also researching [...] plankton fishes. And well, my goal is [to] mix these different scales. [...] to put a plankton next to a vulture, or next to beetle flight.”Oak treehopper (Platycotis vittata) and green treehopper (Archasia belfragei) hopping into flight, filmed at 4,000 frames per second.Image courtesy of Xavi BouHis expanding curiosity has put him out of his comfort zone, working with species he is not as familiar with and facing new technical difficulties. It’s an interesting time for Bou as he is now working with entomologists and marine biologists, bringing his art closer to science in these collaborations.“It's a new world for me. So without [the scientists] I could not even say the [name] of the plankton, but I'm beginning to study that also. I'm reading books about insects because it's good to know.” An artist of nature, like a scientist, requires knowledge. Knowledge about behaviors, and knowledge about how to capture them. The technical inspiration for Bou’s work came from chronophotography, the technique pioneered by Eadweard Muybridge that first showed us the sequence of strides of a galloping horse and that physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey used to study animal movement. The Ornithographies were made by filming birds at 60 frames per second and then in post-production superimposing the images to reveal their tracks. Bird wingbeat frequencies range from 2 to 100 Hz, so most bird flights can be captured at 60 Hz. Insects, on the other hand, can beat their wings hundreds of times per second, with some mosquitos reaching 800 Hz. The elegant intricacies of each wingbeat can’t be captured, unless you are using cameras recording at 1,000-5,000 frames per second. Dr Adrian Smith is an entomologist and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University. He is passionate about filming insect flight and shares his footage on his YouTube channel. Dr Smith had already solved a lot of the challenges Bou was facing: good cameras, good lighting, knowledge about how to handle insects and get them to fly. In fact, he has already made the footage that Bou wants. The Entomographies were born out of this collaboration. “His goal as an artist and my goal as a scientist are really the same in that we both want to give people a new way to see and appreciate the natural world,” said Dr Smith in a YouTube short. In the flurry of fanning wings, the insects disappear into their flight.           IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.Zebra longwing (Heliconius charithonia) in a flurry of wings, filmed at 1,500 frames per second.Image courtesy of Xavi BouBou is collaborating even more closely with scientists to capture the swirls of swimming plankton. Now, he’s actually in the lab, facing a whole new set of challenges. It’s a tricky balance to be able to get good magnification to see the plankton, but also a field of view that is wide enough to capture the range of motion. He has to come up with a new approach. “When you are doing something that could be new, the technology, it's not created for that purpose,” he told IFLScience. “So yeah, it's normal that you have some challenges.”Need for changeThrough the dance of swifts and butterflies and plankton, Bou wants to awaken our child-like wonder for nature. This is especially pressing in our current world with its changing climate. The hottest day, an extinct species, devastating hurricanes – catastrophic messages and images are disheartening. And sadness, according to Bou, doesn’t move us to action. Love, on the other hand, makes us feel like we need to change things, but “we cannot love enough, or get empathy with things that we don't know, or are too far. For example, with a rare frog of Costa Rica. Okay, I will feel pity if it gets extinct. But my limit of action will be really reduced. So why not start to act locally?” Nature surrounds us, it even pervades our urban environments. Bou’s beloved swift is the emblem of this. They fill the skies of Barcelona from April to July, but not enough people are looking up. One of his goals is to open our eyes again to the flight of the swift, to feel their presence – and their absence if they were not there. What if we discover we lost something we didn’t care about until it was too late?Because of increased awareness for the importance and beauty of the swift, “the city council of Barcelona is taking real attention”. When they are “renewing an old building, [they are] not doing it during the nesting time.”Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) swarming over Emporda (Catalonia), 2019.Image courtesy of Xavi BouRecent research showed that local conservation actions like habitat protection and restoration are among effective measures in combating the global loss of biodiversity. And it could all start with seeing birds in a new way.

When it comes to President John F. Kennedy, his interest in UFOs has been a subject of many conspiracy theories, especially given the timing of his inquiries into the matter just before his assassination. Kennedy’s Known Interest in UFOs John F. Kennedy’s interest in UFOs is documented through several sources, most notably through a series of letters he sent in November 1963. One of these letters, addressed to the CIA Director, requested access to UFO files. The previously classified documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act to teacher William Lester as part of a research for his book about JFK. Lester said that JFK’s interest in UFOs could have been fuelled by concerns about relations with the former Soviet Union. One of his concerns was that a lot of these UFOs were being seen over the Soviet Union and he was very concerned that the Soviets might misinterpret these UFOs as U.S. aggression, believing that it was some of our technology,” the Daily Mail quoted Lester as telling AOL News. “I think this is one of the reasons why he wanted to get his hands on this information and get it away from the jurisdiction of NASA so he could say to the Soviets, “Look, that’s not us, we’re not doing it, we’re not being provocative,” he added. However, alien researchers say the latest documents, released to Lester by the CIA, add weight to the suggestion that the president could have been shot to stop him discovering the truth about UFOs. Conspiracy theorists said the documents add interest to a disputed file, nicknamed the ‘burned memo’, which a UFO investigator claims he received in the 90s. The undated memo contains a reference to ‘Lancer’, which was JFK’s Secret Service code name. On the first page, the director of CIA wrote: “As you must know, Lancer has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow.”(ANI) Kennedy’s interest, therefore, was not only scientific but also strategic, aiming to clarify these phenomena to prevent international misunderstandings. In the never-before-seen, top secret memo supposedly written on Nov. 12, 1963, the president ordered the CIA director to organize the agency’s intelligence files relating to UFOs, and to debrief him on all “unknowns” by the following February. Ten days later, Kennedy was assassinated. This document, called the “burned memo,” was passed to the fringe media in 1999 by an anonymous source claiming to be a former CIA operative. The alleged leaker said he worked for the CIA between 1960 and 1974 and pulled the memo — which experts have never verified as authentic — from a fire when the agency was burning some of its most sensitive files. The memo to the CIA, suggests that Kennedy was probing deeper into what the CIA knew about UFOs, possibly aiming to bring this information into the public domain or at least to understand its implications for national security. The timing of this request, just ten days before his assassination, has led many to speculate on the motives behind his death, with some theorists suggesting that his inquiries into UFOs might have been a factor. Public and Official Perception Publicly, Kennedy’s administration, like those before and after, maintained a stance of skepticism towards UFOs. However, internally, there was an acknowledgment of the phenomenon, if only to manage public perception and national security concerns. Kennedy’s interest might have been influenced by his broader vision for space exploration, where understanding unidentified phenomena could play a role in space policy. Despite his inquiries, there’s no conclusive evidence that Kennedy was privy to any definitive proof of extraterrestrial life or advanced technology beyond what was publicly known or speculated at the time. The government’s handling of UFO information has always been opaque, with layers of secrecy that might not have been fully accessible even to the President. Government projects like Project Blue Book, which officially concluded that UFOs were not a threat to national security, might have been just the tip of the iceberg. Kennedy, despite his position, might have encountered the same bureaucratic hurdles and compartmentalization that often keep even high officials out of the loop on certain matters. Kennedy’s knowledge might have been limited to what was considered significant for national security or diplomatic relations. The full scope of UFO sightings, investigations, and potential cover-ups could have been beyond his reach or interest, especially if these were deemed unrelated to his immediate concerns or if they were deeply classified. Conspiracy theorists argue that his death was orchestrated to prevent him from revealing the truth about UFOs. What he knew about UFOs might have been limited to strategic concerns rather than the full spectrum of what might be occurring in the skies. Kennedy’s inquiries, while significant, were likely just one part of his administration’s broader approach to understanding and managing the unknown, both in space and on Earth. The post What John F. Kennedy Really Knew About UFOs appeared first on Anomalien.com.

This week, Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, took advantage of a new meme to make an old point that is gaining new importance: “You can’t make us China if we China ourselves first.” The idea, which goes back at least to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s infamous 2010 China-for-a-day daydream, is simple enough: The Chinese seem to have figured out how to harmonize technology with unity, resulting in massive growth for the people and massive privilege for elites; can’t we take a cue from Beijing and do that too? The solution there is to overthrow America with a new, digital-age America, one that borgs up the country and its people just as much as China and the Chinese, but in our own unique way. The joke is that, of course, Friedman didn’t really want to become China; he wanted to have his American cake and eat it too, and so does just about everyone else who looks over the sea with envy at China’s apparent mastery of political reorganization on digital-age terms. Because the quickest way to become China is to let China remake us in its image, and well ... The wishcast takes on a different tenor: If only our elites could “pull a China” here, all on their own! But here, the obstacles morph too. It’s sinking in that we’re not very good at becoming China, and for this, our elites are happy to blame the American people, who are proving harder to pacify than expected, and time is running out. There’s another obstacle: China is trying to unseat the U.S. as the dominant, definitive global power. This suggests the things our elites envy about China can only be achieved by overthrowing America’s global dominance, which, in turn, threatens American elites. For us in the West, there’s really only one path to that kind of collectivist unity. Many insist that’s communism, but communism — at least as we’ve known it — is just a halfway step. Communism, as we’ve known it, gained power and adherents by positioning itself against not just Christianity but all religions. That proved to be reasonably effective for a time — for about as long as radio and television dominated our technologically mediated environment. That environment made human imagination the most powerful force in the world — a world where, of course, the soft atheist communist song “Imagine” became the most popular, echoing John Lennon’s earlier contention that “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first — rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary." America’s imagineering elite built digital technology to consummate post-religious America’s capitalist-powered communism around the world. Yet alarmingly, that project failed, and China’s post-religious capitalist-powered communist project started to really take off. This is because digital collectivism vibes very well with the religious frameworks established at the origin of the Chinese civilization-state. After the end of the Cold War, Chinese elites began putting effort into demonstrating to themselves and their people that, basically, Western communism suffered from certain internal problems that China didn’t have to deal with because of its deep civilizational anthropology and cosmology. America certainly does not share this deep origin, to say the least. The spiritual origins of American civilization are Protestant, and since the beginning, the anarchistic tendencies of the Southern colonists and the theocratic tendencies of the Northern colonists have created a complex and conflicted identity that only leaves one absolute path toward authentic “native” collectivism at the national scale: that of the established church. Of course, that’s squarely at odds with our Constitution. So the real challenge faced by American elites trying to beat China at its own game of usurping American global dominance in the digital age is to answer the riddle, “When is a church not a church?” It is deeply sensed, if rarely ever articulated, that the answer to this question will unlock the ultimate cheat code — imposing a theocracy on Americans that will allow the elite to digitally collectivize quickly and powerfully enough to replace the old America’s global dominance with that of the new, boxing out China before it can win the world. And for the elite, this approach had better work, because no other alternative seems to exist. It’s an all-or-nothing gamble. And so, in the struggle among different elite factions for control over deciding which theocracy is established through the church that is not a church, two candidates for institutionalized worship, drawn from the deep religious substrate of the West, have swiftly risen to the top of the pack. The first is Justice, the god of the woke, a queered version of Zeus who’s all about bringing infinitely prideful yet interoperable identities under one perfect arbiter to rule them all. The second is Enlightenment, the god of tech, which increasingly worships the convergence of all interoperable things into a single, infinitely illuminating intellect. You can see that interoperability and infinity dominate both these creeds, and as we all see, most techies are willing to worship the god of Justice so long as the god of Enlightenment (and its priests) has pride of place, and most wokies are willing to worship the god of Enlightenment so long as the god of Justice (and its priests) has pride of place. After all, true absolute justice on Earth requires a superhuman intelligence capable of constantly computing, adjudicating, and ruling on all micro-injustices. Only the merger of the human and the machine into a cyborg collective allows this. The outlines of a church unlike any other begin to emerge. Woke and tech harmoniously combine into one big cyborg theocracy ... one big enough even to ingest China itself. That’s the plan! And that’s why, without being able to turn to a church that is a church yet does not establish a theocracy, Americans trying to rescue their country and their humanity will find themselves falling back darkly on only what weapons they manage to cling to.

'NOTHING Is Free': Greg Gutfeld Takes a Hammer (and Sickle) to Kamala Harris' Economic Insanity

Macy’s CEO Tony Spring announced the imminent closure of a third of their stores by 2027 to invest in the remainder and set up new Bluemercury and Bloomingdale stores across the United States. According to Tony, the shutdown is not much of a loss as the affected locations account for less than 10% of sales. Like Sears, Lord & Taylor, and JCPenney, Macy’s has also left several malls in the last decade, as new projects like restaurants, amusement parks, and entertainment facilities take over the spaces left behind. Naveen Jaggi, the president of retail advisory services at JLL, noted that most retailers are not keen on large spaces, hence why they would hardly replace mall Macy’s. What to expect after this impending Macy’s mass closure Wikimedia Commons According to senior director Chris Wimmer of Fitch Ratings, Macy’s foreclosure will lead other low-quality malls to follow suit and give healthier ones a chance to be established in neighborhoods. He added that demographically beneficial real estate such as medical buildings and retirement communities will replace needless retail stores. RELATED: Macy’s Is Closing 150 Stores By 2026, Already Fired 2,000 Employees Anand Kumar, who is an associate director of research for Coresight, agrees with Chris as he expects more retailers to take a cue from Macy’s. He explained that the US does not need more physical stores because customers shop more online. He urged malls to take in more co-working spaces, nail salons, and restaurants instead to maintain their visit rates. Wikimedia Commons Diverse activities for mallgoers Rather than the same old kind of stores filling malls, visitors can expect a better range of offerings in the coming years, such as rock climbing areas, dining spaces, offices, skating rinks, warehouses, and other more unique spaces. This is already happening, as Stonestown Galleria’s Macy’s is now a Whole Foods, sporting goods store, and healthcare facility. Wikimedia Commons The one at Tysons Galleria in Washington, D.C. now contains a bowling alley, a movie theater, a showroom for Lucid Motors’ electric vehicles, and home furnishing stores like Crate & Barrel. Adam Tritt of Brookfield Properties agrees that mall visits will become more frequent as residents have new entertainment to look forward to. Click for next Article The post All These Macy’s Closures Will Introduce Big Changes To Shopping Malls appeared first on DoYouRemember? - The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Peace A