I remember it like it was yesterday. Living in Melbourne Florida. Just having recently quit a dead end restaurant job with a very angry and oppressive boss. Feeling borderline suicidal, and thinking that I was going to go all out for the music. Do or die style. Literally.
It had already been six years that the entity known as Vanguard Sound had been in existence. But now it was time to “level up” and truly make a mark on and in the international dance music scene/culture (as it were). Those who really know, know thatVanguard Sound started as a websitethat chronicled the historical aspects of DJ culture beginning with Francis Grasso. The man who invented “slip cueing” and beat-matching. Moving on to David Mancusso and what he did at “The Loft” NYC.
Both foundational giants of what has become a multi-billion Dollar/Euro/Pound Sterling industry that is now a worldwide phenomenon that is as mainstream as it is underground. Perhaps more, as Electronic Music and DJ/Club sounds are now the prevalent sound(s) of all popular music, but I digress….
The chronology moved on from Francis and David ontoLarry Levan. resident DJ of the infamous Paradise Garage. Going westward with DJ Frankie Knuckles who took the burgeoning sound with him to Chicago as the resident DJ of The Warehouse. “House” as it became to be known as legend has it. And of course to mention the birth of Chicago House Music proper, is to mention Robert Smith. The owner of the legendary Warehouse and The Muzic Box. The club where the mighty Ron Hardy really came to prominence.
I chronicled the fact that the sound continued to migrate westward. And how it was adopted quickly by the pioneering DJs and Producers of the Detroit scene. The city that gave us Techno. *(interestingly enough, to this very day, over 40 years later, Wikipedia still mis-credits Europe in general and Germany in specific as the region where techno came to be. Which to me is quite astounding. They have a sub-categorical listing for “Detroit Techno”. Which is nothing short of a crime against facts, historical accuracy, and the legacies of the Founders of this transcendent genre, scene and culture).
So this is what Vanguard Sound was originally. A place to archive the history of the culture along with mixes from these legends. And also a humble platform for my own mixes as I worked my way up the ranks of the ultra competitive Chicago DJ scene. (“The City of Haters” as it was made known to me when I first arrived there by a fellow Chi DJ/producer who was born there). But once again, I digress…..
Going out several nights a week, playing every party I could, paying hella dues, and eventually hitting the “glass ceiling” after gaining a “DJ Watch” feature in Chicago’s legendary 5 Magazine alongside DJ G. Marcell back in the days of actual printed on glossy paper, real magazines eventually led me to focus on “going international” by getting serious with my production in order to circumvent the Chicago DJ Politics rat race. Interestingly enough, it was G. Marcell who “put me on”. As this was still a thing back then before the internet became what it now is. Old school paying of dues and putting in werk.
After seeing G. Marcell’s DJ watch feature, I was very curious to know who the artist I shared the DJ Watch feature page with was. That very same week I saw his timeless classic “Dance With Me” record on the wall at Chicago’s legendary Gramaphone Record Store on Clark Street. Needless to say, I was blown away by what I heard.
Out of print and in high demand. G. please make this available digitally Jack?
Very soon after, on Thanksgiving day 2005 or 2006, I met G. in person at the legendary “The Note” Club. The place the “Dancers” went on Wednesday nights in the “City of Wind”. We became fast friends and would talk on the phone daily. I was hungry to get my music out, but I never sent demos to my label owning friends. As I felt that when the time was right, they would request some music from me. And sure enough, a couple years later, G. did just that. he hit me up for some tracks. As he was looking to expand the roster of producers on his label Bearatone Recordings.
G. would often visit me at my job where I worked as an automotive technician (mechanic) in Chicago’s busiest “Firestone” Auto Care (the busiest in the Midwest as well as the 5th busiest in the entire US but I digress…). One day he came on my lunch break to play me a couple new tracks. “Breathe” was the name. Two versions. I loved them of course. And told him that I had just finished a track the night before and that I would link him when I got home from work. That track was called “Necessary Sanctuary”.
Apparently G. was as blown away by my track as I was by his tracks, so he proposed the idea of us doing a split EP together. This EP would become my first ever vinyl release. The Experience EP. A split with G. on the A-side and yours truly on the flipside (I had done a few digital EPs that are no longer available because the perfectionist in me was unhappy with the mastering and mixdowns), and the rest is kinda history.
We put the record out and never heard anything about it for over a year. Then suddenly, I discovered that the record had been played and charted by several DJs in Germany. DJ Sammy Dee and the Perlon Boys had discovered what was then being called a “Sleeper Classic”. Funny how these things work, huh? This record “put me on the map” as it were. And ALL thanks and respect goes to G. Marcell for recognizing my potential as an artist, and giving me a chance to get my sound out there.
So this is what it was like in those days when Vanguard Sound! was a baby. Pre-label, but post website. Way before the Chinese bootlegging and copyright infringement of my label’s name. Since I am and have always been “small budget”, I never had the funds to pursue an international copyright infringement lawsuit. Which I think the thieves knew before they decided to steal my idea. YET, the internet records the fact that I originated the name and had been using it for a few years before they came along. But enough about that.
13 January, 2012. The label Vanguard Sound was born….
By this time, I had a few releases out and I was beginning to make a few waves internationally. The “Vanguard Crew” had been formed. Which was a DJ/Producer collective whereby I sought to emulate The Wu Tang Clan and San Francisco’s The Wicked Sound System/Crew. My idea was to assemble a crew of standout, All Star artists who could be a Michael Jordan type of premier artist in their own right. The Techno X-Men, if you will. Through cross promotion, collaborations, and releasing projects on each other’s labels, we harnessed our collective influence and power to all break out internationally. I am eternally grateful for the knowledge, wisdom, and experiences I gained and shared with these amazing artists. And despite us all eventually exploring our own individual paths as powerful solo entities we all were and are, I have nothing but love and respect for each of them. The crew membership roster included Chris Mitchell, G. Marcell, Hakim Murphy, DJ Spider (NYC), Dakini9 (aka Lola), Traxx, and even Lady Blaktronica at one point or another. But it was the six “core” members who really made the impact we collectively did during the “Deep House Revival” years of 2010-1014-ish. (Chris, G. Marcell Hakim, Lola, Spider, and myself Amir Alexander).
We collectively released two more “Vanguard Sound Vol. EPs Vanguard Sound Vol. 4 on Anunnaki Cartel, the “Sister” label of V.S. Chris and I formed to expand the sound and roster of the O.G. And last, but by no means least, “Vanguard Sound Vol. 5 on DJ Spider’s Sublevel Sounds. Ten years later, the label Vanguard Sound! is still going strong and releasing “left of center”, forward thinking electronic music forms. Always staying true to the original ethos, while expanding the depth and range of the types of beats, and overall message. What a wild ride this past decade has been.
Click the image to link to the playlist on YouTube.
Sonic Subversion is frowned on by the establishment. So they age restricted “Violence” because the truth MUST be suppressed.
Much love and respect from me to All of you….
All the artists who ever released on V.S. or any of it’s sister labels, the record distributors, the mastering engineers, the record stores and online retailers, the DJs and vinyl buying fans of our work, anyone who ever purchased or wore and of the shirts, hoodies, beanies, and other merchandise, the promoters who booked us, and of course the dancers who rocked out to our vibes and beat patterns. Vanguard Sound! would be nothing without you. x
A great problem to have…
So apparently the Podcast/Mix I uploaded in order to commemorate the ten year anniversary of Vanguard Sound! has reached it’s 100 free download max. Many of us have encountered snaffus and such dealing with that particular platform. And thus most users let their “Pro unlimited” accounts lapse back to free ones. Me included. Therefore, I am once again circumventing the limits imposed upon me by the industry apparatus by creating and offering a free download link here on My platform so that the people who wish to download the mix without headaches can.
I am quite grateful that the mix has been received as well as it has. I was also quite impressed by the download to listens ratio before it capped off. Pretty high. Which is very humbling. I felt like this mix in particular was befitting of what the label has achieved, become, and represents. So of course I wish it to be heard, shared, and saved in hard drives around the world. This is to give honor and thanks to the people who heled make this ten year landmark possible. You can find the download link below. Vanguard Sound! Ten Year anniversary Mix/Podcast. “Live From The Main Floor in Stockholm December 31 2019.
A brief historical account of what Vanguard Sound! is, was, how it came to be, and a few noteworthy mentionables that took it from it’s VERY humble beginnings through ten years of evolution as it gained it’s place in the history books of “the culture”. And how it has left it’s indelible mark upon the hearts, minds, and souls of the true underground fans of DJ/Dance music Culture world wide. Perhaps i will do another one of these when Anunnaki Cartel reaches its ten anniversary. Who knows?
True Story….
Dreams do sometimes come true. So be careful for what you wish for. Because you just might get it. Never in my wildest dreams as a rave kid coming up in the early 90s and then onto being a nascent producer cutting his teeth in the trenches of Chicago would I ever have dreamed I would have accomplished even ten percent of the things I have been so fortunately blessed to have achieved. I always just lived the music, and tried to stay true to my vision as a dancer, a clubber, a DJ, label owner, and a producer. Hoping to “give back” and contribute to the lexicon of the international culture. Always and underdog and “outsider” looking in. Yet somehow tapped into the nucleus of what the modern scene is and has become. I thank The Most High God for using me as the vessel and conduit by which the message could be delivered.
The Saga Continues….
As always. From The Beginning, until eternity. With love and respect. From me to you x.
“It’s hard out here for a pimp” – Three Six Mafia….
Everybody’s catching hell in some form or fashion these days. But I suspect that full time artists, venue owners, hospitality staff, hotels and airlines are fairing a bit worse. As our respective industries have been all but decapitated with no end in sight to the hobbling we’ve endured since late winter this past year.
Almost a full year into the “new normal” winter is at our doorstep. And all major media outlets continue to tell us to prepare for a “dark winter”. CREEPY! Now to add onto what is already the most weird and chaotic year of most of our lives, there’s some kind on “monolith” situation I cannot seem to avoid knowing about. I guess we’ll have to keep our eyes on that one. How bizarre!
These days I am as busy as ever….
However with that said, I am like many in the entertainment industry, unemployed. Living “on a wing and a prayer”. That said, I’ve been a true-blue “hustler” since I quit a horrible job as a cook in a breakfast and lunch café on the beach in Melbourne Florida at the end of 2011.
Before I did, I said to myself that if I could even earn a lower middle class wage on my art and music, I would consider myself rich and wealthy. LOL! The irony. Because for the past few years I’ve lived way below the poverty level of western civilization. Even spending two years up until very recently in a tiny stone shack that had no indoor plumbing, running water, a toilet, or heat.
Yet, somehow I’ve managed to survive. And in many ways, thrive. Now that we live in bizarro world, I can now see that the way I was forced to live in order to remain here in Sweden to be an active father to my six year old child was actually a blessing in disguise. I got a proverbial “dress rehearsal” for the type of life that the entire world has now been thrust into.
I see the posts my peers make about the current situation and my heart goes out to them. As I truly feel their pain. It was mine. And it took several years for me to learn to adapt and cope with it. And unfortunately for my fam-nem, I at least had the “hope” of rebuilding an making a “comeback” because the clubs were bumping and gig opportunities were plenteous. Unlike now.
“Time marches on. Nothing stays the same”…. – Jungle Wonz
I live by this and am not at all one to live in the past. To the point of not even sharing fake-book “memories”. Been there. Done that. Moved on is my way. So with that said, I embody this fully in many ways. Contrary to most, I am relishing each day right now as is. Versus wasting precious moments living mentally in past glory days. Or worse yet, in an ideal tomorrow which may never come.
Last year in late October, I proclaimed on social media that in less than six months, we would consider all the woes, fuckery, and hassles of life in the year 2019 as “the good old days”. Little did I know how true this would ring by March of 2020. Yet, I am here again as the resident “watchmen” of my scene, peer group(s), and family to say it again loud and clear… “we will look back on 2020 as the good old days next year”. So get to living and enjoying life. Please focus on what you have? Versus what you do not, and or what you lost because it can always get worse. And history shows us that it typically does.
So with the adapting to the times or being left a relic of a bygone era artistically, I am onto new horizons as an artist. At this point, my love and dedication to the House, and Techno culture/Art-forms should be undeniable. YET, these days I cannot even bring myself to listen to it. This is for a few reasons. First off, as an artist I require two things in order to create. “Context, and a feeling”. Before Covid, the context was rocking a party in a club, and or sweating it out dancing on the floor with my people-nem. This gave me a feeling with which to draw upon.
With my music, it starts with a feeling. I then set about creating a sound/vibe that recreates that feeling within me, and induces it in the listener. By appearances, I am pretty successful with this approach, but alas…. The “context” has been snatched away from us all. Thus for me, there is no feeling. I simply ain’t feelin’ it these days.
YET, I am a creative creator. I make music. This is my passion. This is my profession. Therefore, I continue to create. The context changed. The times have changed. And truth be told, sound has changed. Vanguard Sound! is not just a catchy slogan. It is a philosophy, an ethos, a mission statement, and a way of life.
House and Techno as respective genres are well into their fourth decade. My thing in these realms is “innovation”.
I came into this on that type of time and am “that dude”. In this regard, ain’t nothing changed but the calendar. That said, there is nothing new under the sun, and one can only flip and refresh something that is in reality a niche relic only so much. I as an artist need a challenge. And I need to feel that I am breaking new ground to stay motivated. Thus my new project.
I come from Chicago. I was not born there, but I lived there longer than I lived anywhere else by far. I was drawn to the music. And when I first discovered Chicago House, it was a very new and fresh sound. Living there for so many years as I struggled to “come up”, I absorbed and embodied everything to do with being a musician living that life there. All the crap jobs, hate, hopelessness, a few good people, and the undeniable love of the party, dancing, DJing, and digging in the city of wind.
While I was there I was fortunate to see how Chi really gets down with regard to how street kids from the ghetto innovate and create new forms of music that then take the entire world by storm. In fact, I witnessed two forms. The first was the whole Juke/Footwork movement. Which as a dancer I was instantly drawn to. Shout out my Big Bro in the game “Traxman” by the way. He too has continued to re-invent himself and stay at the forefront of the fresh and new.
The other form, and one I am completely ensconced in is Chicago Drill. Which has now influenced every form of popular music worldwide. The Drill/Trap sound is the FUTURE!!!! It is the most complex and advanced form of beat-making and rapping bar none. This is my context and thus feeling generator these days.
Old Heads….
A somewhat derogatory and dismissive term for people in my generation which is code word for “out of touch” and not current in their styles and attitudes. Basically NOT HIP. By age, I am squarely in the “old head” category. But in practice, I am more hip and clued into the streets than I have ever been. Aging and getting old are two different things is what I always say. And I live these words. Mind, body and (creative) soul.
I feel for folks-nem in my generation who decide to “stand still and let time pass them by”. Of course , I respect their choice to do so if they so choose. But it does appear that many do not realize they’ve made this choice by default.
If you ever loved Hip Hop, you should love it now, as it is. NOW!!!!
Because it’s WILD lit! Hip Hop grew up and is more advanced than ever. I have a good mate from London whom we’ve often discussed this. He refuses to accept the modern sound. His choice. And I respect this. But bruv, you’re missing out. As is anyone who simply refuses to dig for modern artists they can relate to. Because there are millions of them. Perhaps I am one.
And what gets me is that for anyone who loves House, Techno, Drum and bass, Jungle, and Electronic/Drum Machine Beats, Synth music, and Bass, the “Modern Sound” encapsulates all of these elements and distills them in the most perfect fusion one could ever imagine.
Even playing field with regard to self expression…
With the internet and modern technology, any and all crews, artists, sets, and cliques can truly express and get their message out. Crystal clear. This is done by “spitting over dope beats”. Now of course we all love the fact that so much expression can be conveyed by mere instrumental “tracks”. The culture and scene was built in a great part due to this undeniable fact.
However, NOTHING beats the spoken word when it comes to communication. And in the modern world of today, if you (or someone in your crew) ain’t “spittin” raps” to represent where you’re from and what you’re about, you’re not saying much. The entire game has changed. Every artist should be rapping. And or using the spoken word to directly communicate with their audience. Rap is whatever the rapper feels. Whether conventional rhyming flows, Ursula Rucker style spoken word, or simply waxing poetic over a beat. Just freaking talk. Don’t be scared, Your people want to know you.
So as always, I walk my talk….
Doing my part to “give back”….
Words from a post I made earlier this week on the “book”…
DANG!!!!The Chicago Rap scene been takin’ HELLA Ls this past year. So glad I was wise enough to move around off that. The entire world tries to emulate their swag, and the most popular form of modern music originates from there. But they so “lab-ratted” up that they took a dump on they whole movement. Duck, Von, Dex, G. Herbo, Lil’ Reese, Tray Savage, Boss Smooth 800, KTS Rio, Lud Thumpa, SLG Spazz, Oski Baby, and Bando Hothead just to name a few. Some of them shot up and gimped for life. On the run from the feds doin “The Race”. Some indicted on R.I.C.O. charges, and the rest of ’em dead!
Chi Rap is so Lit! But the videos are like pied piper brainwash commercials selling a “death style” to children who’s brains aren’t fully developed. Vanguard Sound! has always been about combatting the “bad frequencies” in the music forms I love. My O.G. (original) alias “Guerrilla Soul” utilizes “Sonic Weaponry” to do battle. This Ricky Spitzz album is me doing my part to actually make a difference to and for the youth. I know them. I was them.
I am hip to all the slangs, gangs, music, sets, who got how many bodies, and ALL that. My first and unreleased Chi-Drill album “Chicago Gun Times”, along with my 2018 “Separate Myself” mix-tape was me demonstrating that despite being an “old head”, I can relate to them on THIER level. It appears that to a degree, I accomplished this. So if you support my rap project, you in some way are doing your part to stem the tide of the urban genocide gong on in my former home city. Our beloved fallen comrade Mike Huckaby “gave back” with his amazing Youthville project. THIS is how I do the same. Walking my talk and really going hard for the children. I wonder how many of them grew up with fathers in the home? What a waste. Clouted up. Paid. Bussin’ hella thotties and look at ’em! Stankin’ Rotten worm food. SMDH Fr Fr
This was the post that came after….
This is my favorite track from my un-released Chicago Drill Music album “Chicago Gun Times”. In it, I detail to people living outside of Chicago how and why there’s so much murder and how it’s so easy to get away with it and never get caught. Revenge and retaliation going back decades. You kill one of ours, we kill two of yours. And on and on. I follow a young child who is killed for simply living in a neighborhood. He’s not in a gang but that doesn’t matter. This hood is “at war” with the adjacent block. His best friend becomes traumatized. Losing loved one after loved one for years. Then grows up to pick up a gun and become a gang leader himself by default. This culminates in his own death in his early 20s. I never released it for two reasons. 1. because it was all one take recordings done late at night when I lived in an apartment in Sweden’s infamous “No-Go” Zone Rosengård. I could never get as loud as I needed to in order to really “perform” the raps. And after I finished the first run through, I had already moved on to the next project. 2. And because at the time, I did not want kids to confuse me for glorifying the “death style” they lead. But this one…..I loved it as is. It finally gets a proper video. Versus sound-tracking one of my BMX over 40 vlogs. I think I’ll release it as is on Spot-a-lie eventually. Enjoy! Spitzz!
So with that said…..
I rap (and make beats). WELL! I stay hip and study the craft. I seek out the best and work to create output on the level of theirs. So to any real fans I might have with regard to my work as a creative entity, as well las fans of Hip Hop, join the movement! I’m doing BIG things over here. (Much to the chagrin of my numerous and transparent haters. You know who you are x) I only know on one, perhaps two other artists in the whole entire scene who can rap. So it’s a bit weird that me doing so isn’t at least recognized. Much less celebrated.
But then again, I am all too familiar with the human tendency to view the artistic world as a “zero sum game”. For those not familiar with the term, please check my post about being a “Modern Philosopher and Iconoclast”?
At any rate… Never one to sit still, the Vanguard leads the pack. Sometimes so far ahead, it seems that I am behind. This is something I am both loved and reviled for. A sad fact that is and has been since my first Berlin gig. A seven and a half hour set at Club Der Visionaere in September 2012 when one of the best friends of the promoter who brought me there walked up off his face on party chemicals said to me “I LOVE you! BUT, I HATE you!” Since then, I’ve heard this at different clubs around the world about a hundred times. it is what it is.
In closing…
I just dropped a new project on Bandcamp as a lead up to the release of my upcoming album. Which will be 50% classic Boom Bap Hip Hop, and 50% Modern Rap. i.e. Trap and Drill Music style beats and flows. As I’ve been rapping since 1992/93.
I first released this as a way to see if I was as good at rapping as I felt I was, as well as to test the waters and establish myself to the youth as an “old head” who gets them. It is the antithesis, to all the killing, drug abuse (nothing wrong with partying, but come on…), and negativity ubiquitous to the music the young heads vibe out to. But now more than ever, especially in the “new normal”, I am taking my rap super seriously. To the point of prioritizing it over all over forms of my musical creativity. I now officially release it, re-mastered. New mix-down, and the vocals properly tracked.
For all the reasons stated above. And because this is the ONLY form of music that’s still raking in the cash by the barrel. And I AM a professional musician who’s sole way of earning a living is my music. So I’ve “diversified my artistic portfolio” as it were.
Time marches on. Nothing stays the same. Adapt, or live in an echo-chamber bubble and cease be relevant. The choice is yours. With all due love and respect.
Name your own price as always….. if you’re broke like me, simply like, share and or subscribe somewhere on the socials.
The previous series of three essays seem to have turned out to be wastes of time if I have reception, tangible support, and positive feedback to go on. However, I was “attacked” pretty hard by actual Marxists on social media. Catching hella flak from four of them. One in my inbox privately. And three in public. One went “full retard” to use the phase and attempted to use “straw man” arguments to actually character assassinate me. Heavy stuff.
So by that measure, I must be on to something. As the saying goes, “you never catch flak unless you’re flying over the target.” This time I write for me. I had planned to touch on this subject before I was moved spiritually to create the essay prior this one. If anyone is actually reading and comprehending my essays, enjoy. I would hope that my fellow Black Americans would read my work, but I am fairly sure that this does not happen. Despite these essays being such a useful tool of personal upliftment for them. Oh well…. C’est la vie
Origins The Democratic Party…
There is a saying, “See a jackass. Ride it.” This is how my people are (mis)treated. Over and over
In the mid 1820s the Democratic Party sprung up in support of the Presidential Candidacy of Andrew Jackson. Jackson, a former General, was an outsider challenging the political establishment, and the elites of his day. His critics disparaged him as a Jackass. But Jackson embraced the animal as a symbol of determination. And donkeys started appearing in newspapers to represent him and his followers. This is why the jackass, and or donkey are symbols of the party to this very day.
Andrew Jackson
In the 1828 presidential election, which saw record breaking participation, Jackson won in a landslide over John Quincy Adams. In the presidential election, Jackson won a plurality of the electoral vote, taking states in the South, West, and Mid-Atlantic. He was the only candidate to win states outside of his regional base. Thus he became the seventh president of The United States. His supporters argued that they, and not the old guard elites truly represented the popular will of country. Therefore they started calling themselves the “Democratic Party.”
Jackson’s party immediately began dispelling Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River. An issue that defined the new administration. After he signed the Indian Removal Act into law on May 28, 1830, five large tribes known as The Five Civilized Tribes (Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek), were rounded up and forcibly marched into camps further west in a strange land in the Indian Territory. The act has been referred to as a unitary act of systematic genocide, because it discriminated against an ethnic group in so far as to make certain the death of vast numbers of its population. The Act was signed by Andrew Jackson and it was strongly enforced under his administration and that of Martin Van Buren, which extended until 1841. The exodus of over 60,000 Native Americans of the United States was termed The Trail of Tears.
The Infamous Trail of Tears
The Democrats ambitions then led them in the 1840s to adopt the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. A widely held cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that its white settlers were destined to expand across North America. Democratic President James K. Polk put this plan into action. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny:
The special virtues of the American people and their institutions
The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of agrarian America
An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty
The Democratic Party’s “Manifest Destiny”
In doing so, this plan massively expanded U.S. Holdings by annexing Texas. Acquiring Oregon. And winning much of what is now the South Western United States in a war with Mexico. But soon after, bitter controversy erupted over whether of not new states entering the Union should be allowed to permit slavery. The Democrats said that they should since their support base was strongest in slave owning states. Yet now another party, The Republicans sprang up in opposition of expanding slavery any further. The year was 1854. When Abraham Lincoln won the presidency On November 6, 1860. He was the first Republican president and his victory was entirely due to his support in the North and West; no ballots were cast for him in 10 of the 15 Southern slave states, and he won only two of 996 counties in all the Southern states. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, or 39.8% of the total in a four-way race, carrying the free Northern states, as well as California and Oregon. His victory in the electoral college was decisive: Lincoln had 180 votes to 123 for his opponents.
Secession and Civil War…
In response to Lincoln’s election, The Democratic Party secessionists implemented plans to leave the Union before he took office in March 1861.On December 20, 1860, South Carolina took the lead by adopting an ordinance of secession; by February 1, 1861, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed. Six of these states declared themselves to be a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America, and adopted a constitution.The upper South and border states (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas) initially rejected the secessionist appeal. President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln refused to recognize the Confederacy, declaring secession illegal.The Confederacy selected Jefferson Davisas its provisional President on February 9, 1861.This lead to the (first) U.S. Civil War. Which lasted from 1861 – 1865.
Once the Civil war was over, the Republican Party was bitterly unpopular among the wealthy white Southerners who wanted to maintain their right to own slaves. Interesting fact; only the most wealthy 25% of white Americans actually owned slaves. Contrary to popular myth. Another myth is the 400 years fallacy. Stating that Africans and their decedents were slaves in the U.S. For 400 years. This is not true. The actual number was eighty-nine years if we count from the beginning of the U.S. as a nation in 1776 until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. However this did not take effect until January 1, 1863. Although some slaves did not find out that they were actually free until after the war ended in 1865. 1865 – 1776 = 89.
Major General Gordon Granger
This gave birth to the (until just this past year) little known and obscure holiday known as Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth) also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Liberation Day. A holiday celebrating the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. Originating in Texas, it is now celebrated annually on the 19th of June throughout the United States, with varying official recognition. Specifically, it commemorates UnionArmy General Gordon Granger announcing federal orders in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, proclaiming that all slaves in Texas were free but I digress….
Historian Eric Foner observed: “In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party“
Historically, the first Klan used terrorism – both physical assault and murder – against politically active blacks and their allies in the South in the late 1860s, until it was suppressed around 1872. All three movements have called for the “purification” of American society and all are considered “far right-wing, radical extremist” organizations. Although in actuality, they are are a “far left-wing, radical extremist” organization that utilizes the far right as “Controlled Opposition, Useful Idiots.
A new order of the ages
Anyone who has been following and reading my blog essays as of late will be fully aware of the Hegelian Dialectic at play here. As both the far left and far fight are controlled and funded by the same International Banking Cartels. Functioning as thesis and antithesis in order to bring about the synthesis “Novus ordo seclorum”A new order of the ages. Translated by Charles Thomson, a Latin expert who was involved in the design of the Great Seal and proposed it, as the motto thereof. It is also found on the back of the U.S. One Dollar Bill.
Overview: The Three Klans…
In each era, membership was secret and estimates of the total were highly exaggerated by both friends and enemies.
The First Klan was an movement of white Southerners who opposed Reconstruction. It was founded in 1866 by members of the Democrat Party to inflict violence against black leaders and white Republicans. Its purpose was to take control and return Democrats to power. One of the founders, and the first “Grand Wizard,” was former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Attempts were made to break up the Klan by President Ulysses S. Grant and the U.S. Army using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).
Republicans stripped whitemales who engaged in rebellion against the United States of the vote, and gave it to Blacks. Newly freed Blacks held local, state and federal elected and non-elected positions as Republicans. The white males who were deprived of the vote were also barred from holding any civil service position and were universally Democrats. This disenfranchisement created enormous resentment among Democrats, so they formed the Ku Klux Klan to engage in voter intimidation and suppression.
The Ku Klux Klan started attacking Black Republican conventions. At the Republican convention in Louisiana, the Klan joined with New Orleans police and New Orleans’ Democrat mayor. The New Orleans Republican convention was attacked. 40 Blacks and 20 whites were killed. Another 150 were wounded. In 1868 the Democrats put out push cards in South Carolina listing what they called the “radical members of the South Carolina legislature.” A push card is about the size of a baseball card. The cards had the pictures of 63 legislators they wanted to kill. 50 of the legislators were Black and 13 were white. All 63 were Republicans. On the back of the were the names of the legislators.
Marked for death by far left radical Democrats.
In 1872 Congress held hearings on the Klan. Democrat leaders from Democrat States admitted under oath unequivocally that the Klan belonged to the Democrat party and their propose was to restore control in Southern states to the Democratic party. The Congressional Hearings make up 13 volumes. Black congressmen John Roy Lynch and Richard Cain went to Congress armed for fear of Klan attacks. Blacks testified that they were instructed by the Klan and Democrats that, if they would stop voting the Republican ticket and would agree to vote the straight Democrat ticket, all the violence against Blacks would stop.
By 1876, the situation had become ungovernable for Republicans. The Republicans had been able to pass the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments which guaranteed Blacks basic equality and civil rights, but eventually had to declare an amnesty for whites who engaged in rebellion. Reconstruction ended, and Republicans withdrew from social engineering which had divided the country so deeply and stirred up such bitterness and hatred among Democrats toward both Blacks and Republicans. Reconstruction earned Republicans the undying hatred of Democrats.
African Americans in the South were left to the mercy of increasingly hostile state governments dominated by white Democratic legislatures; neither the legislatures, law enforcement or the courts worked to protect freedmen. As Democrats regained power in the late 1870s, they struggled to suppress black voting through intimidation and fraud at the polls. Paramilitary groups such as the Red Shirts acted on behalf of the Democrats to suppress black voting. From 1890 to 1908, 10 of the 11 former Confederate states passed disfranchising constitutions or amendments, with provisions for poll taxes, residency requirements, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses that effectively disfranchised most black voters and many poor white people. The disfranchisement also meant that black people could not serve on juries or hold any political office, which were restricted to voters; those who could not vote were excluded from the political system.
The Second Klan Started small in 1915. And founded atop Stone MountainGeorgia by William Joseph Simmons. While Simmons relied on documents from the original Klan and memories of some surviving elders, the revived Klan was based significantly on the wildly popular film The Birth of a Nation. The earlier Klan had not worn the white costumes or burned crosses; these were aspects introduced in the book on which the film was based. When the film was shown in Atlanta in December of that year, Simmons and his new klansmen paraded to the theater in robes and pointed hoods—many on robed horses—just like in the movie.
These mass parades would become another hallmark of the new Klan that had not existed in the original Reconstruction-era organization. It was primarily a nonviolent membership organization in the 1920s that flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s. Including urban areas of the Midwest and West reaching hundreds of thousands—possibly millions—of men, in every state. It was mostly a Ponzi scheme, whereby the organizers took all the money (for initiation fees and costumes). The chapters did not have dues. And used K-words which were similar to those used by the first Klan, while adding cross burnings and mass parades to intimidate others.
All theater. Literally taken from a movie to intimidate and emotionally terrorize. The original KKK did not do this.
When they had organized an area they moved on, leaving local chapters without money or leadership. No prominent American admitted he was a member at the time, but state organizers claimed vast powers. There is a possibility that some local Klans in the deep South engaged in violence against blacks, but historians are unsure; allegations of systematic violence were common but have not been verified. In recent years historians have found enough records to show that local chapters were primarily discussion groups, often with speakers who denounced Catholics, Jews, crime and violation of the prohibition laws.
A series of scandals rocked the KKK’s reputation and the group somewhat faded after the 1924 Democratic National Convention. In 1937 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Alabama Senator Hugo Black to the Supreme Court. Black was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and built his career campaigning at Klan meetings. In Korematsu v. the United States, Black voted to uphold President Roosevelt‘s mass arrests and incarceration of Japanese men, women, and children based on race.
The Third and Current Manifestation of The KKK The third Klan currently exists and comprises a few thousand members in local chapters. There is no real organization, and the group sponsors vehement hate talk as well as occasional violent threats and actions. It is racist and aims at the suppression of African-American, Jewish, homosexual, and Catholic interests. The current Klan presents itself as a “Christian” organization, but all denominations have rejected it as inherently non-Christian. The wolves in sheep’s clothing tactic of subverting organizations and using them as front groups is alive and well.
Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd joined the Klan in the 1940s and was unanimously elected to the rank of Exalted Cyclops for his inborn leadership skills. He repeatedly expressed his desire for the Klan to expand to its previous size and power, once remarking in a letter that “The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia” and “in every state in the nation.”
Byrd commented on the 1945 controversy raging over the idea of racially integrating the military. In his book When Jim Crow Met John Bull, Graham Smith referred to a letter written that year by Byrd, when he was 28 years old, to fellow Klansman Sen. Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, in which Byrd vowed never to fight: “Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
Bilbo told Meet the Press in a 1949 interview:
“No man can leave the Klan. He takes an oath not to do that. Once a Ku Klux, always a Ku Klux”
Democrats tried to block passage of the bi-partisan1964 Civil Rights Act by filibustering for 75 hours, led by a 14-hour and 13-minute speech by the Exalted Cyclops Sen. Byrd. The law was intended to block Republican gains in the South followed by buying off Blacks with Great Societywelfare and affirmative action programs. By the 1960s the Klan was so thoroughly infiltrated by FBI informers, the joke existed that a Klan cell of 6 members often consisted of 5 FBI informants and one klansman. In 1981 when the Republicans took control of the Senate for the first time in 28 years, the Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd was again elected Democrat Senate Leader to oppose Ronald Reagan.
David Duke was a Democrat at the time of his official membership with the Klan and founded the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP). Duke quit the Klan and the Democrat party and was elected to the Louisiana state legislature. When Duke registered to run for higher office in a Republican primary, the Republican National Committee disavowed Duke and repudiated his racist views.
Emerged after 1950, in the form of localized and isolated groups that use the KKK name. They focused on opposition to the civil rights movement and desegregation, often using violence and murder to suppress activists. It is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. As of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League puts total KKK membership nationwide at around 3,000, while the Southern Poverty Law Center puts it at 6,000 members total.
The second and third incarnations of the Ku Klux Klan made frequent references to America’s “Anglo-Saxon” blood, hearkening back to 19th-century nativism. Although members of the KKK swear to uphold Christian morality, the group is widely denounced by Christian denominations.
Historian Eric Foner observed: “In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic party, the planter class, and all those who desired restoration of white supremacy. Its purposes were political, but political in the broadest sense, for it sought to affect power relations, both public and private, throughout Southern society. It aimed to reverse the interlocking changes sweeping over the South during Reconstruction: to destroy the Republican party’s infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life. To that end they worked to curb the education, economic advancement, voting rights, and right to keep and bear arms of blacks. The Klan soon spread into nearly every Southern state, launching a reign of terror against Republican leaders both black and white. Those political leaders assassinated during the campaign included Arkansas Congressman James M. Hinds, three members of the South Carolina legislature, and several men who served in constitutional conventions”
Why Black People Vote for the Democratic Party that hates them….
The violent leftists, who founded the Klan and have been loyal Democrats since its original inception, are now appealing to groups they had previously persecuted. Oh the bitter irony. As they own and control all major forms of media, and thus are able to manipulate the narrative with lies, obfuscation, and subterfuge. Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson said regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for two hundred years.” Allegedly said to two governors (whose names were not given) according to then-Air Force One steward Robert MacMillan. As quoted in Inside the White House (1996), by Ronald Kessler, New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 33
Lyndon Baines Johnson He is why Black people vote Democrat
Looks like he was correct in his assertions. As most black Americans vote Democratic by default. Never questioning why. Nor knowing the origins of the party that continues to use them as pawns and useful idiots to further their hidden Marx-Communist agenda. Go figure! And once again it can never be stated enough; I do not support either U.S. Political Party. Nor do I vote at all. As they are two elements of the same dialectic. Bought and paid for by corporate interests. The International Bankers. On top of that, they’re all pedophiles!!!
Right now in the United States a Civil (Cold) War is underway. As with all cold wars, Psychological Warfare is the modus operandi. The results of which are everywhere for all to see. Facebook and social media in general have become completely toxic places. Life-long friendships have fractured. Families are rupturing. And even love relationships are bearing the brunt. The exact types of fallout as a result of the Communist subversion spoken of by Yuri Bezmenov in his series of lectures and books have literally transformed the nation.
Every U.S. Citizen has a duty to themselves and the people they love to watch and listen to Yuri’s lectures. he was killed for giving us this information that explains exactly what is going on today.
Demoralize, divide, and conquer. The Frankfurt School’s Cultural Marxist tactics first demoralize in order to create a victim class. Their version of the proletariat. In this case, Black America. They use well meaning White Americans as their bludgeoning hammer. This is done by creating and repeating the false narrative of white privilege and white superiority. But as I stated in my previous essay, one cannot believe in white superiority without first believing in minority inferiority. In the essay prior to that, I asserted that white guilt is a form of passive racism. I shall now demonstrate how this occurs….
How the Communist Media is using white guilt as a passive racist psychological weapon against black people. Wake up!
It is the far-left Communists in the Democratic Party who assume that Black People are victims who cannot fend for themselves and so they, the white man (sic) must help them. Because clearly they cannot take care of themselves. This, is passive racism. Black people are bludgeoned constantly by the media telling them that they are victims. Hearing this over and over every day for years will begin to take it’s toll on a person’s psyche. This, is passive racism. Having the media repeat over and over how oppressed and defenseless they are as people are does real psychological damage and degrades a person’s feelings of self worth. This, is passive racism.
And now we have BLM. An avowed Marxist Political group playing the same old far-left game. Using the shield of “protecting” black people to further consolidate power and advance their own, entirely different political agenda. And just like with the Democratic Party, black people fall for the same old okey doke lie. While the Communists laugh at them for being self destructive useful idiots who will vote for and back them anyway.
Their own words. But Black People Worship them. Just like they do the Democratic party
None of this is a popular thing to say, but as a person who really does care for allblack lives, I say it anyway. Because it needs to be said. And it needs to be heard and read.
As previously stated, the Cold Civil War is well underway. Threatening to go hot at any moment. Nothing short of a Marxist revolution. And as I also previously stated in my last thesis. “The Revolution does not care about you.” Wake up Black People. Or continue to live in a nightmare
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”– George Orwell
Once again, I cannot begin to discuss the today’s topic without first thanking the loyal readership of this, my humble blog. To you, my beloved, I am truly grateful. The people who follow and support my work do so because they are in search of a truly independent voice. I use my international platform to affect positive change, education, well-being, wisdom, and good health. Both physically and mentally. As well as emotionally. Now before we begin, check your emotions a the door, prepare to employ critical thinking, and read on with an open mind. Lastly, please do not believe me out of out hand? Do your own research. There are over a hundred hyperlinks and sources cited for you to confirm these things for yourselves.
In this grand thesis, we shall examine what amounts to an attempted Marxist Power Grab occurring in the United States (and thus rest of the Westernized World), likely masterminded by the Russian and Chinese Communists in concert with the Elitist International Banking Cartels who fund and control them all. Since the early nineteenth century, despotic regimes have attempted to apply the eloquent, yet impractical theories of one man to gain power over large populations and control them mercilessly. This man is Karl Heinrich Marx.
To overstand Marx, one must first familiarize themselves with Hegel. A philosopher who had a profound influence upon a young Karl Marx. As well as every philosopher who has come after him. Hegel is notorious for being “obscure” and difficult to read. Often regarded as the most obscure and difficult to read. Herein I will do my best to inform the reader without “weighing them down” with all the “abstract minutiae” Hegel is famous for.
Hegel’s principal achievement was his development of a distinctive articulation of idealism, sometimes termed absolute idealism, in which the dualisms of, for instance, mind and nature and subject and object are overcome. His account of the master–slave dialectic has been influential, especially in 20th-century France. Of special importance is his concept of spirit (Geist, sometimes also translated as “mind”) as the historical manifestation of the logical concept – and the “sublation” (Aufhebung, integration without elimination or reduction) – of seemingly contradictory or opposing factors. Hegel has been seen in the twentieth century as the originator of the thesis, antithesis, synthesis triad, but as an explicit phrase it originated with Johann Gottlieb Fichte.
Usually presented in a threefold manner, was stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus as comprising three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis. In more simplistic terms, one can consider it thus: problem → reaction → solution. Although this model is often named after Hegel, he himself never used that specific formulation. Hegel ascribed that terminology to Kant. Carrying on Kant’s work, Fichte greatly elaborated on the synthesis model and popularized it.
On the other hand, Hegel did use a three-valued logical model that is very similar to the antithesis model, but Hegel’s most usual terms were: Abstract-Negative-Concrete. Hegel used this writing model as a backbone to accompany his points in many of his works.
The formula, thesis-antithesis-synthesis, does not explain why the thesis requires an antithesis. However, the formula, abstract-negative-concrete, suggests a flaw, or perhaps an incompleteness, in any initial thesis—it is too abstract and lacks the negative of trial, error, and experience. For Hegel, the concrete, the synthesis, the absolute, must always pass through the phase of the negative, in the journey to completion, that is, mediation. This is the essence of what is popularly called Hegelian dialectics. According to the German philosopher Walter Kaufmann
Karl Marx….
Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary. Marx studied law and philosophy at university. Born in Trier, Germany, on 5 May 1818 to Heinrich Marx (1777–1838) and Henriette Pressburg (1788–1863). Marx was ethnically but not religiously Jewish. His maternal grandfather was a Dutch rabbi, while his paternal line had supplied Trier’s rabbis since 1723, a role taken by his grandfather Meier Halevi Marx. His father, as a child known as Herschel, was the first in the line to receive a secular education. He became a lawyer with a comfortably Upper middle class income; in addition to his income as an attorney, the family owned a number of Moselle vineyards. Prior to his son’s birth, Herschel converted from Judaism to join the state Evangelical Church of Prussia, taking on the German forename Heinrich over the Yiddish Herschel.
Due to his political publications, Marx became stateless and lived in exile with his wife and children in London for decades, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with German thinker Friedrich Engels and publish his writings, researching in the reading room of the British Museum. His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto, and the three-volume Das Kapital (1867–1883). His political and philosophical thought had enormous influence on subsequent intellectual, economic and political history, and his name has been used as an adjective, a noun and a school of social theory.
Marx’s critical theories about society, economics and politics – collectively understood as Marxism – hold that human societies develop through class conflict. In capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict between the ruling classes (known as the bourgeoisie) that control the means of production and the working classes (known as the proletariat) that enable these means by selling their labour power in return for wages. Employing a critical approach known as historical materialism, Marx predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions that would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system known as socialism.
Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and his work has been both lauded and criticised. His work in economics laid the basis for much of the current understanding of labor and its relation to capital, and subsequent economic thought. Many intellectuals, labor unions, artists and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx’s work, with many modifying or adapting his ideas. Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science.
The Communist Manifesto…
The Communist Manifesto reflects an attempt to explain the goals of Communism, as well as the theory underlying this movement. It argues that class struggles, or the exploitation of one class by another, are the motivating force behind all historical developments. Class relationships are defined by an era’s means of production. However, eventually these relationships cease to be compatible with the developing forces of production. At this point, a revolution occurs and a new class emerges as the ruling one. This process represents the “march of history” as driven by larger economic forces.
“Modern Industrial society in specific is characterized by class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat…. Thus, the proletariat will lead a revolution. However, this revolution will be of a different character than all previous ones: previous revolutions simply reallocated property in favor of the new ruling class. However, by the nature of their class, the members of the proletariat have no way of appropriating property. Therefore, when they obtain control they will have to destroy all ownership of private property, and classes themselves will disappear.
The Manifesto argues that this development is inevitable, and that capitalism is inherently unstable. The Communists intend to promote this revolution, and will promote the parties and associations that are moving history towards its natural conclusion. They argue that the elimination of social classes cannot come about through reforms or changes in government. Rather, a revolution will be required.
The Communist Manifesto has four sections. In the first section, it discusses the Communists’ theory of history and the relationship between proletarians and bourgeoisie. The second section explains the relationship between the Communists and the proletarians. The third section addresses the flaws in other, previous socialist literature. The final section discusses the relationship between the Communists and other parties.” Summary excerpt taken from Sparknotes dot com
Engels developed what is now known as Marxist theory together with Karl Marx and in 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research in English cities. In 1848, Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with Marx) many other works. Later, Engels supported Marx financially, allowing him to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx’s death, Engels edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital. Additionally, Engels organized Marx’s notes on the Theories of Surplus Value, which were later published as the “fourth volume” of Das Kapital. In 1884, he published The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State on the basis of Marx’s ethnographic research.
I’ve left several links for the intellectually curious among my readership to do further research about Marx’s “right hand man.” As time constraints simply do not allow me to go as in depth on all these facts and figures as I had to do in researching for this essay.
Despot Number One. The first man to attempt to put Marx’s theories into practice. And the first to fail miserably.
Widely considered one of the most significant and influential figures of the 20th century. He became an ideological figurehead behind Marxism–Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. A controversial and highly divisive historical figure, Lenin is viewed by supporters as a champion of socialism and the working class, while critics on both the left and right emphasize his role as founder and leader of an authoritarian regime responsible for political repression and mass killings.
Leninist Communism is a direct descendant of Marxism. He did not believe that Capitalism alone would spark revolution. Lenin felt the need for “professional revolutionaries”
The goal of Marxism–Leninism is the revolutionary transformation of a capitalist state into a socialist state by way of two-stage revolution led by a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries drawn from the proletariat. To realize the two-stage transformation of the state, the vanguard party establishes the dictatorship of the proletariat (as opposed to that of the bourgeoisie) and determines policy through democratic centralism. The Marxist–Leninist communist party is the vanguard for the political, economic and social transformation of a capitalist society into a socialist society which is the lower stage of socio-economic development and progress towards the upper-stage communist society which is stateless and classless. It features public ownership of the means of production, accelerated industrialization, pro-active development of society’s productive forces (research and development) and nationalized natural resources.
The Fabian Society…
After the unsuccessful European revolutions of mid-nineteenth Century, socialist reformers realized that a different approach was required. While some hard core revolutionaries still persisted in their violent methods, a more clever approach was devised in England by a group of socialist intellectuals. In 1883 an American citizen born in Scotland, Thomas Davidson, joined with a group of socialists in the London apartment of Edward R. Pease and discussed the establishment of a society for the promotion of Socialism among intellectuals. An English couple, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, and George Bernard Shaw (an outspoken eugenicist), were among the early organizers. The name given to the new society was based on their planned intellectual guerrilla-type tactics. They called their group the British Fabian Socialist Society. The name Fabian was derived from that of the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus (Cunctator), whose delaying guerrilla tactics were so effective in Opposing Hannibal across Italy during the second Punic war. The Fabian techniques consisted in attracting highly respectable intellectuals to influence the unsuspecting masses of the population. The scheme has worked to influence the unsuspecting masses of the population….
George Bernard Shaw Praises Hitler and Germany 1935
In 1907 the British Fabian society sponsored a meeting of a group of Russian Marxist revolutionaries in London. At that meeting the Russian Bolshevik Party was formed under the leadership of Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin). The close ideological ties between the Fabians and the Bolsheviks have remained through the years. The main difference between them lies in their methodology of takeover. The Fabians believe in imposing their brand of Marxism through their intellectual influence over universities, politicians, and the mass communications media. They disdain violence as a means of takeover; although not as eventual means of maintaining power. On the other hand, the Bolsheviks believe in the imposition of Marxism through violent revolution (Marxism-Leninism). Fabian Socialism, long having preceded Marxism-Leninism, achieved some influence in American intellectual circles before the Russian revolution of 1917. By 1929 a prominent Fabian became Prime Minister of Britain… Since that time both forms of Marxist subversion have been influential in the United States…. Around the turn of this Century the Fabian Socialist Society founded the London School of Economics to insure proper Fabian economic education. By that instrument they have expanded their influence enormously throughout British society and government. (except from “Extent of Subversion in Campus Disorders, Testimony of Ernesto E. Blanco. Hearings, Ninety-first Congress, First Session. June 19, 1969”
“Given that Communism regards human being in this way, it follows that its major efforts have been towards “bestializing” them—beating them like wild animals, “training” them by instilling fear and inflicting pain and, when necessary, cutting their throats. Very clearly, Lenin accepted this materialist-Darwinist philosophy that regards human beings as animals. After speaking privately with Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, the Russian scientist famous for his experiments on the conditioned reflexes of animals, Lenin tried applying Pavlov’s methods to Russian society. In his book, A People’s Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution, Orlando Figes writes about Lenin’s desire to “educate” the Russian people as an animal trainer would, and how the roots of this ambition lie in Darwinism:
This is what the people have allowed the media (matrix) to do to them
In October 1919, according to legend, Lenin paid a secret visit to the laboratory of the great physiologist I. P. Pavlov to find out if his work on the conditional reflexes of the brain might help the Bolsheviks control human behavior. ‘I want the masses of Russia to follow a Communistic pattern of thinking and reacting,’ Lenin explained… Pavlov was astounded. It seemed that Lenin wanted him to do for humans what he had already done for dogs. ‘Do you mean that you would like to standardize the population of Russia? Make them all behave in the same way?’ he asked. ‘Exactly’ replied Lenin. ‘Man can be corrected. Man can be made what we want him to be.’… [T]he ultimate aim of the Communist system was the transformation of human nature. It was an aim shared by the other so-called totalitarian regimes of the inter-war period…As one of the pioneers of the eugenics movement in Nazi Germany put in 1920, ‘it could almost seem as if we have witnessed a change in the concept of humanity…We were forced by the terrible exigencies of war to ascribe a different value to the life of the individual than was the case before.” (excerpt from the book “Communism In Ambush” by Harun Yahya page 37)
*(Interestingly enough Pavlov was actually opposed to communism and spoke out against it. To his own great peril, and danger of becoming one of the hundreds of millions killed for doing so). And despite Pavlov refusing Lenin’s requests to enact this vile practice on an unsuspecting populace, less moralistic “scientists” after him indeed did so. It is these very tactics that are employed to condition the world populace through the corporately owned mainstream media (matrix) of the westernized world. People claim to be “woke” (the opposite of awake ironically), while at the same time constantly sharing the memes, videos, and articles of the very people pulling their “puppet strings.” While at the same time wondering why there is so much stress and drama in the social media-sphere? (pro tip – this!)
“Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.” ― George Orwell, 1984
Trotsky…
The “Leninist-Communists cannot be mentioned without including Leon Trotsky. A Menshevik and a very important piece of the Leninist puzzle, and as the War Commissar of the Red Army. I could easily write an entire essay on this incredibly interesting man but alas, I must stay on topic. Therefore I leave you with a summary along with a link or few to aid the research minded among you in your deeper exploration of this particular rabbit hole. Leon Trotsky, was born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, to David Leontyevich Bronstein (1847-1922) and Anna Lvovna (née Zhivotovskaya, 1850-1910) on 7 November 1879 [October 26, Old Style], 1879, the fifth child of a Ukrainian-Jewish family of wealthy farmers in Yanovka or Yanivka, in the Kherson governorate of the Russian Empire (now Bereslavka, in Ukraine).
Leon Trotsky
Trotsky’s father, David Bronshtein, was a farmer of Russified Jewish background who had settled as a colonist in the steppe region, and his mother, Anna, was of the educated middle class. He had an older brother and sister; two other siblings died in infancy. At the age of eight, he was sent to school in Odessa, where he spent eight years with the family of his mother’s nephew, a liberal intellectual. When he moved to Nikolayev in 1896 to complete his schooling, he was drawn into an underground socialist circle and introduced to Marxism. After briefly attending the University of Odessa, he returned to Nikolayev to help organize the underground South Russian Workers’ Union.
Arrested in January 1898 for revolutionary activity, Bronshtein spent four and a half years in prison and in exile in Siberia, during which time he married his co-conspirator Aleksandra Sokolovskaya and fathered two daughters. He escaped in 1902 with a forged passport bearing the name Trotsky, which he adopted as his revolutionary pseudonym. His wife remained behind, and the separation became permanent. Trotsky made his way to London, where he joined the group of Russian Social-Democrats working with Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) on the revolutionary newspaper Iskra “The Spark.” At the Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, held in Brussels and London in July 1903, Trotsky sided with the Menshevik faction—advocating a democratic approach to socialism—against Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Shortly before this, in Paris, Trotsky had met and married Natalya Sedova, by whom he subsequently had two sons, Lev and Sergey.
Stalin Lenin and Trotsky at the beginning of their rise to power
Born to a poor family in Gori in the Russian Empire (now Georgia), Stalin joined the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party as a youth. He edited the party’s newspaper, Pravda, and raised funds for Vladimir Lenin‘s Bolshevik faction via robberies, kidnappings, and protection rackets. Repeatedly arrested, he underwent several internal exiles. Stalin formed a Bolshevik Battle Squad which he used to try to keep Baku’s warring ethnic factions apart. Stalin’s Squads disarmed local police and troops, raided government arsenals, and raised funds through protection rackets on large local businesses and mines. They launched attacks on the government’s Cossack troops and pro-Tsarist Black Hundreds, coordinating some of their operations with the Menshevik militia.
Joseph Stalin. The man of Steel
In November 1905, Stalin met Lenin for the first time. Although Stalin held Lenin in deep respect, he was vocal in his disagreement with Lenin’s view that the Bolsheviks should field candidates for the forthcoming election to the State Duma; Stalin saw the parliamentary process as a waste of time. Stalin married Kato Svanidze in a church ceremony at Senaki in July 1906. In March 1907 she bore a son, Yakov. By that year—according to the historian Robert Service—Stalin had established himself as “Georgia’s leading Bolshevik”. In November 1907, his wife died of typhus, and he left his son with her family in Tiflis. Deeply affected by the death of his wife, Stalin swore to himself to never allow anyone else into his heart. It was at this point that he became completely numb to the suffering of others.
This is but a mere fraction of what there is to be known about “The Man of Steel”. Stalin, just like all the other men in this thesis could easily engulf the entire essay. Once again, links for further independent research are provided.
Hitler and the socialist dream…
“He declared that ‘national socialism was based on Marx. Socialists have always disowned him. But a new book insists that he was, at heart, a left-winger”
In April 1945, when Adolf Hitler died by his own hand in the rubble of Berlin, nobody was much interested in what he had once believed. That was to be expected. War is no time for reflection, and what Hitler had done was so shattering, and so widely known through images of naked bodies piled high in mass graves, that little or no attention could readily be paid to National Socialism as an idea. It was hard to think of it as an idea at all. Hitler, who had once looked a crank or a clown, was exposed as the leader of a gang of thugs, and the world was content to know no more than that. Half a century on, there is much to be said. Even thuggery can have its reasons, and the materials that have newly appeared, though they may not transform judgement, undoubtedly enrich and deepen it. Confidants of Hitler, such as the late Albert Speer, have published their reminiscences; his wartime table-talk is a book; early revelations like Hermann Rauschning’s Hitler Speaks of 1939 have been validated by painstaking research, and the notes of dead Nazis like Otto Wagener have been edited, along with a full text of Goebbels’s diary.
Adolph Hitler
It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that Hitler and his associates believed they were socialists, and that others, including democratic socialists, thought so too. The title of National Socialism was not hypocritical. The evidence before 1945 was more private than public, which is perhaps significant in itself. In public Hitler was always anti-Marxist, and in an age in which the Soviet Union was the only socialist state on earth, and with anti-Bolshevism a large part of his popular appeal, he may have been understandably reluctant to speak openly of his sources. His megalomania, in any case, would have prevented him from calling himself anyone’s disciple. That led to an odd and paradoxical alliance between modern historians and the mind of a dead dictator. Many recent analysts have fastidiously refused to study the mind of Hitler; and they accept, as unquestioningly as many Nazis did in the 1930s, the slogan “Crusade against Marxism” as a summary of his views. An age in which fascism has become a term of abuse is unlikely to analyse it profoundly.
National “Socialists” Left Wing/Right Wing. Same Dialectic Bird. Nazi’s spoke rhetoric to appeal to the far right, but at their core, they were far left. Thesis + Antithesis =Synthesis fully realized and embodied within one political ideology/regime.
His private conversations, however, though they do not overturn his reputation as an anti-Communist, qualify it heavily. Hermann Rauschning, for example, a Danzig Nazi who knew Hitler before and after his accession to power in 1933, tells how in private Hitler acknowledged his profound debt to the Marxian tradition. “I have learned a great deal from Marxism” he once remarked, “as I do not hesitate to admit”. He was proud of a knowledge of Marxist texts acquired in his student days before the First World War and later in a Bavarian prison, in 1924, after the failure of the Munich putsch. The trouble with Weimar Republic politicians, he told Otto Wagener at much the same time, was that “they had never even read Marx”, implying that no one who had failed to read so important an author could even begin to understand the modern world; in consequence, he went on, they imagined that the October revolution in 1917 had been “a private Russian affair”, whereas in fact it had changed the whole course of human history!
His differences with the communists, he explained, were less ideological than tactical. German communists he had known before he took power, he told Rauschning, thought politics meant talking and writing. They were mere pamphleteers, whereas “I have put into practice what these peddlers and pen pushers have timidly begun”, adding revealingly that “the whole of National Socialism” was based on Marx. – George Watson excerpt from “Hitler and the socialist dream” (Article published in The Independent – Sunday 22 November 1998 01:02)
After a three year hiatus Vanguard Sound! returns to the act of releasing records with Amir Alexander’s “The Masquerade EP”. A four track EP with a cut for every dance-floor scenario. Soulful, bluesy House. The deepest of Deep House. Epic late late night Micro-House (Berlin Minimal). And Classic “Vanguard Sound!” Modern “Jacking” Chicago House.
“The Masquerade!”(Feat. Tim Collins)
My first official attempt at the “Soulful House” sub-genre. This track is based on the chord changes of George Benson’s “This Masquerade”. Tim and I had discussed a possible collaboration for years. Then one day suddenly (much like all the inspiration for my creative pursuits come), inspiration struck. “Why not do a remake of a classic by a guitar virtuoso?” And like that, I set about making a track based on the changes of Big Brother George’s OG.
Upon the completion of a basic rough mix, I linked it to Tim. When he found the time, he traveled to a very nice pro studio to have them engineer and record an improv session. Tim did a single take of improvised riffs . Jamming to the track I sent him. Then sent me back the results. After which I set about editing down his seven minute jam; taking the sections I felt best fit my overall vision. The results of which are what can now be heard on the final cut, and official release.
In keeping with the original; a Jazz improvised number, I decided to “take a solo” myself. In order to compliment the “organic” sound of Tim’s steel string acoustic guitar, I chose the legendary Hammond B-3 organ to perform my solo with. And with the magic of midi, alongside my production skills. I was able to get the sounds inside my head out of it. As midi allows one to record a performance a bit slower then bring it up to speed. It also allows for the correction of missed notes, and rhythmic hiccups. Thus giving the impression that I am a much better keyboardist that I currently am (full disclosure). Although, I do indeed plan to build upon my rudimentary piano playing skills by taking lessons online from Tim (who is a professional piano and guitar teacher) as soon as my meager survival budget allows me the funds to do so.
Never am I content to just cruise and plateau with regard to my artistry in any of it’s manifestations; this particular track sees me “setting the bar higher” and stepping outside of my comfort zone to advance my skill-set as a musician, producer, writer, and arranger, etc. I also seek to become a better keyboardist and better performer as well.
“Freaks of The Deep!”
A track that single-handedly got me booked to open Circo Loco’s ADE party in October 2017. Antonio loved it so much he asked me to send him an mp3 to listen to, and then booked me for their ADE party after I premiered it that summer in the main room to stunning effect.
I sat on this track and kept it as an exclusive secret weapon for years until I could find the perfect label to release it on. Since I am a “slept on” (grossly underrated in the opinions of the many die hard supporters who’ve told methis) artist already, it made sense to me at the time to seek to release this track on a label with a profile as large a possible. Try as I might, this did not happen. Despite every label I submitted it to absolutely loving it.
After the third ‘thanks but no thanks” from some highly esteemed label heads, the idea began to brew in the back of my mind that I would re-launch Vanguard Sound! with it. And this is exactly what I’ve done.
Based upon the initial sales of what amounts to a “free” EP, this track will also be slept on. But at least it’s existence, is known and the track is undeniably “thorough” regardless as to whether it is ignored by the scene at large or not. To quote David Byrne of The Talking Heads….. “Same as it ever was”. I am quite pleased with my un-celebrated “cult hero” status within the deepest and truest trenches of the international underground dance music culture, and or scene.
Freaks of The Deep World Premier at Circo Loco Monday 5 Jun 2017
“Blessed Are The Meek!” (Amir’s Zero Dark Thirty Epic)
The track that is now a certified modern classic and Panorama Bar anthem is now reiterated in epic fashion. Written during the same sessions at the end of 2019 that spawned the two tracks that will be on my next vinyl release on Chiwax. (A “Blessed Are The Meek” remix EP. More on that in a later post). When I made this last, and definitive end all be all version; I was inspired by my track Catacombs 2 from my “Wisdom” EP. Which is my most recent vinyl release. (Out and for sale now on Thomas Melchior’s My king is light label).
Deep, dark, heady, late-night, minimalist Micro-House is the aesthetic. Much in the spirit of the Berlin school of all things Micro and Minimal. Once again wishing to grow as an artist and step outside of (and or expand) my comfort zone; I set about creating a hypnotic seventeen minute “epic” mental, emotional, and physical workout aimed squarely at the late, late night/early morning after hours dance-floor.
“Blessed Are The Meek!” has such an interesting, and seemingly unending story. And this track (at least for now) is the final chapter in what is now it’s fourth summer of dance-floor relevance. I feel truly “blessed” to have been chosen to be the “vessel” by which this certified modern classic was brought into the world.
“Dick Pilates!”
Built around an insanely funny vocal by a woman who prefers a small penis she can dominate, versus being “subdued” by a large one; the final track of the EP is already a “cult classic” among the truest of true fans of Vanguard Sound! Completed five years ago, and only appearing on a single podcast of some of my unreleased and exclusive tracks; Dick Pilates was requested several times during my “Love and Fear” album tour that took me all over Australia, on to Ibiza, and then to New York and Washington DC back in the summer of 2015.
Seemingly lost to the “memory hole” until now. This track was also a super exclusive “secret weapon” for years. Now with a full re-engineering and mix-down (while keeping the OG “original” Vanguard Sound! aesthetic the heads have come to know and love), D.P. is now available for all who would like to posses it. For the first time ever. Exclusively on my Band-Camp page. As are the other three tracks on the EP. In fact, they shall remain exclusively available only on the Vanguard Sound! Band-Camp page.
To be completely shunned and ignored because one’s work destroys “the bell curve” and challenges the “status quo” by definition is the very essence of what true underground is. Those who know, know well. Those who do not know, know not due to the lack of “press coverage”. And NOT due to a lack of creativity, and or quality.
100% pure independent true “Underground” House and Techno. With zero support and or exposure from the “mainstream” dance music media outlets. As being called underground, and functioning as the underground are two entirely different things.
A few words about being content with being ignored and my truly underground underground status within the international scene…… “Unobtanium Arts!”
Yes…. I too am human, and bleed red blood like everyone else. I actually do have feelings. I simply work diligently to control them. Versus them controlling me. My “hard as nails” stoic persona is no act. Ask anyone who really knows me. No! It is a basic survival necessity. Being a true “artist”, versus being a “talented performer” in this “slippery”, shark tank music industry is a loveless, thankless life. Especially when you are an artist who is both loved AND (truly) hated for the exact same things.
“Embodying Excellence”
Truth be told, I have in the past completed various projects and felt quite “proud” of my accomplishments. (Though a few years ago, I “canceled” (LOL!) pride in my life. Now I only seek to be “satisfied” with my work.)
Being a “true student” of this art-form, I am quite fortunate to be able to “gauge” my work with ice cold objectivity. Meaning, it doesn’t matter if I made it. I look at the best who ever did it, and then seek to equal, or hopefully supersede the level/quality of their work in order to truly “advance” the art-form(s), and “enrich” the culture (as should be done if a form is to truly advance), but I think that this mentality is likely rare. Who knows???
In the past, I felt quite slighted. In that I knew for a fact that my work was “good work” yet my earnings were meager at best. I have been, and still am literally “shunned” by the press. If not completely ignored. Before I “mastered” my emotions, this hurt me greatly.
These days it makes me laugh. Knowing what a joke the whole “name game” popularity contest that is the nucleus of who gets “shine”, and who gets “shade” from the press. I now overstand that I simply DO NOT fit the narrative. Not in my musical home-town of Chicago. Nor within the international “community”. There simply is not box shaped like me. Thus I cannot be easily put into one. THIS is the life of a “truly gifted artist”; versus the life of a “talented performer”.
Your life will not be easy. You will be hungry. Poverty will be the rule and NOT the exception………. YET! You will have a very tiny core of beloved people (some say fans of your work) who actually recognize your contributions to the art-form that they love so much. As there is something that you did/will do that truly touches/touched their very hearts and souls. The exact same way some of my most cherished artists touched mine.
And THIS is why you must do it. THIS and this alone. Sacrificing your life and the potential to have a a very lucrative “normal job”. Wasting your talents and intellectual gifts for a “pipe dream”, as it were. So back to the press and being objective about one’s work…..
If one IS of the proclivity to be their worst critic; along with being gifted skills and abilities of the highest order. They must then work as though their very lives depended upon doing so. For free. And with no recognition. Fully aware that the closer they come to fulfilling their potential, the wider the gulf of perception, and the more “irregular” the box to put one in must be. The gift (once again), is the curse. These days I am quite content at setting an unbelievably high bar for myself, “leveling up” and then raising it. Just like “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”.
The book tells the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a seagull who is bored with daily squabbles over food. Seized by a passion for flight, he pushes himself and learns everything he can about flying. His increasing unwillingness to conform finally results in his expulsion from the flock. Now an outcast, he continues to learn, becoming increasingly pleased with his abilities while leading a peaceful and happy life.
One day Jonathan meets two gulls who take him to a “higher plane of existence” in which there is no heaven, but a better world found through perfection of knowledge. There he meets another seagull who loves to fly. He discovers that his sheer tenacity and desire to learn make him “pretty well a one-in-a-million bird.” In this new place, Jonathan befriends the wisest gull, Chiang, who takes him beyond his previous self-education, and teaches him how to move instantaneously to anywhere else in the Universe. The secret, Chiang says, is to “begin by knowing that you have already arrived.” So what’s the point Amir?
The point is to enjoy being an artist. In the lineage of many greats who have gone before me. Unsung heroes who managed to move people. From the inside. Heart to heart. Mind to mind. And Soul to soul. When I would get a bit down (past tense), I would often think of Fishbone. By ALL measures, the MOST under-rated band in the world. Insanely gifted. And completely un-classifiable. Wealth, recognition from the press, and even good fortune NEVER came to them. No! Quite the opposite.
No longer am I “waiting for the One Day”
So when I would look at my life and career, I could see clear parallels. And THIS gave me a bit of comfort. Especially when I was not as strong in my faith.
Over a two decade period, this “once in a lifetime” band slowly fell apart. Until only two founding members were left. As being “crapped on by the industry” surely took it’s toll. However, in the years since that lowest of low points, many of the founding members have returned (and left again more than once). Through it all Norwood Fisher and Angelo Moore have stayed true and stayed the course. For better and often for worse. THIS is the life of a truly gifted “black artist”. Nothing more. Nothing less.
And so in closing…..
As a “truly gifted artist”, versus a very “talented performer” I embrace the poverty life I’ve lived for the past five years. One that some of my peers fear may be their future. But let’s hope not. As I would not wish this type of life on anyone.
It made me much stronger (along with the teachings of Christ Jesus and The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius). But for a person who is controlled by their emotions and not the other way around, this life would surely kill them. No longer am I “waiting for the one day” Nor must I think to myself “what would Norwood and Angelo do (or think)?”
For, I realized quite some time ago that I’ve already arrived. And so every time I create a bit of work that has matched and or superseded the level of the artists who inspired me to do this work, I just know it, and keep it moving humbly. A bit of praise from a true admirer means more than the wealth I shall never receive. And the rare as “unobtainium” (LOL!) peer recognition, though greatly appreciated (never expected) is also cool. But I take it all with a grain of salt.
Either way, I seek to fly high. Then fly higher. Then higher. For me. Because I feel that I can. And for my son to prove that it can be done. If you have been blessed with the basic foundation of “God given gifts” and a work ethic to “toil like a slave” ; all of your own volition, with no point to prove to anyone but oneself, then know…….
“The blessing is truly the curse” THIS is MY life as an artist.
Talent hits a target most cannot hit. Genius hits a target most cannot see.
I must humbly admit that the response to my last blog post and Facebook mini-essays has been quite surprising in the best possible way. It is my aim with this series of essays to strip back the “veil of deception” that shrouds so much of the true history we are not taught in order to assist my beloved in breaking free from the true “Matrix” of lies that keep us shackled to the walls of Plato’s Cave, and or the term employed by the “bad guy elites” the ‘Artificial Womb”.
For the sake of scientific accuracy, and proper journalistic research practices, you must all pardon me for the technical nature of the first half of this essay. There will be a lot of facts, dates, and historical factiods…., etc.
I cite references through hyperlinking, attributing quotes, and all that science-y stuff in order to establish credibility with the reader(s). And also out of respect to the gravity of such a “touchy” subject.
A Social Iconoclast…..
Not amused
I, a philosophical, rational, logical thinker with a probing mind, may function at times as a bit of a social iconoclast.
“Iconoclasts see things differently than other people. Literally. They see things differently because their brains do not fall into efficiency traps as much as the average person’s brain. Iconoclasts, because they were either born that way or they learned to be that way, have found ways to work around the perceptual shortcuts that plague most people….. Iconoclasts, at least successful ones, have a preternatural affinity for new experiences. Where most people shy away from new experiences, the iconoclast embraces novelty. The problem with novelty for most people, however, is that it triggers some sort of fear system of the brain. Fear is the second major impediment to thinking like an iconoclast and stops the average person dead in their tracks…. There are many types of fear, but the two types of fear that inhibit iconoclastic thinking are fear of uncertainty and fear of public ridicule….. The true iconoclast, although they may also experience these types of fears, does not let them inhibit his actions”. – excerpt from the book “Iconoclast: A Neuroscientist Reveals how to Think Differently”
Today we peel back the web of lies and obfuscation with regard to the true origins of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It could be argued, quite (successfully mind you) that the Atlantic Slave Trade may never have existed were it not for Africans originating it by selling other Africans. Of course, this is a highly controversial thesis. Therefore we must comb through the evidence very carefully.
That said, let’s dive in!
The origin…..
A philosopher once said that behind every civilization, there’s barbarism
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of those who were enslaved and transported in the transatlantic slave trade were people from Central and West Africa, who had been sold by other West Africans, or by half European ‘merchant princes’ to Western European slave traders (with a small number being captured directly by the slave traders in coastal raids), who brought them to the Americas. Except for the Portuguese, European slave traders generally did not participate in the raids because life expectancy for Europeans in sub-Saharan Africa was less than one year during the period of the slave trade (which was prior to the development of quinine as a treatment for malaria). The South Atlantic and Caribbean economies were particularly dependent on labour for the production of sugarcane and other commodities. This was viewed as crucial by those Western European states which, in the late 17th and 18th centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires. – Wikipedia
In the 16th century (1500s) The Portuguese traveled to the Continent of Africa seeking gold. Instead, the rich kings they encountered offered them slaves. “Until the late medieval era, southern Europe constituted an important market for North African merchants who brought gold and other commodities—and small numbers of slaves—in caravans across the Sahara Desert. But during the early fifteenth century, advances in nautical technology (especially the invention of the caravel, with its aerodynamic hull and triangular lateen sails) enabled Portuguese mariners to travel south along Africa’s Atlantic coast in search of a direct maritime route to gold-producing regions in sub-Saharan West Africa. Founded in 1482 near the town of Elmina in present-day Ghana, the feitoria São Jorge da Mina was of special importance in that it gave the Portuguese far better access to sources of West African gold.”
Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 as Castelo de São Jorge da Mina (St. George of the Mine Castle), also known as Castelo da Mina or simply Mina (or Feitoriada Mina) in present-day Elmina, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, and the oldest European building in existence south of the Sahara. First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, after an unsuccessful attempt to the same extent in 1596, and took over all of the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1814. In 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast, including the fort, became a possession of Great Britain.
I wonder if this piece of history will be canceled?
The Gold Coast, which is now Ghana, gained its independence in 1957 from Britain, and had control of the castle. Elmina Castle is a historical site, and was a major filming location for Werner Herzog‘s 1987 drama film Cobra Verde. The castle is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Slavery in Africa…..
Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa, and still continues today in some African countries.
Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the Arab slave trade (which started in the 7th century) and Atlantic slave trade (which started in the 16th century) began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa.
Slavery in historical Africa was practiced in many different forms: Debt slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, slavery for prostitution, and criminal slavery were all practiced in various parts of Africa. Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa. Plantation slavery also occurred, primarily on the eastern coast of Africa and in parts of West Africa. The importance of domestic plantation slavery increased during the 19th century, due to the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Many African states dependent on the international slave trade reoriented their economies towards legitimate commerce worked by slave labor.
Slavery was prevalent in many parts of Africa for many centuries before the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade. There is evidence that enslaved people from some parts of Africa were exported to states in Africa, Europe, and Asia prior to the European colonization of the Americas.
It has been said that Africa has suffered so much because of it’s self inflicted curse, by selling so many of it’s own people away
The Atlantic slave trade was not the only slave trade from Africa, although it was the largest in volume and intensity. As Elikia M’bokolo wrote in Le Monde diplomatique:The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth) … Four million enslaved people exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean.
By 1494, the Portuguese king had entered agreements with the rulers of several West African states that would allow trade between their respective peoples, enabling the Portuguese to “tap into” the “well-developed commercial economy in Africa … without engaging in hostilities”. “Peaceful trade became the rule all along the African coast”, although there were some rare exceptions when acts of aggression led to violence. For instance, Portuguese traders attempted to conquer the Bissagos Islandsin 1535. In 1571 Portugal, supported by the Kingdom of Kongo, took control of the south-western region of Angolain order to secure its threatened economic interest in the area. Although Kongo later joined a coalition in 1591 to force the Portuguese out, Portugal had secured a foothold on the continent that it continued to occupy until the 20th century. Despite these incidences of occasional violence between African and European forces, many African states ensured that any trade went on in their own terms, for instance, imposing custom duties on foreign ships. In 1525, the Kongolese king Afonso I seized a French vessel and its crew for illegally trading on his coast.
Ghana and the Ashanti…….
Africans played a direct role in the slave trade, selling their captives or prisoners of war to European buyers. The prisoners and captives who were sold were usually from neighbouring or enemy ethnic groups. These captive slaves were considered “other”, not part of the people of the ethnic group or “tribe”; African kings held no particular loyalty to them. Sometimes criminals would be sold so that they could no longer commit crimes in that area. Most other slaves were obtained from kidnappings, or through raids that occurred at gunpoint through joint ventures with the Europeans. But some African kings refused to sell any of their captives or criminals. King Jaja of Opobo, a former slave, refused to do any business with the slavers.
According to Pernille Ipsen (in the book Daughters of the Trade: Atlantic Slavers and Interracial Marriage on the Gold Coast), Africans, namely Ghana, also participated in the slave trade through intermarriage, or cassare, meaning “to set up house”. It is derived from the Portuguese word “casar”, meaning “to marry”. Cassare created political and economic bonds between European and African slave traders. Cassare was a pre-European practice used to integrate the “other” from a differing African tribe. Powerful West African groups used these marriages as an alliance used to strengthen their trade networks with European men by marrying off African women from families with ties to the slave trade. Early on in the Atlantic Slave trade, these marriages were common. The marriages were even performed using African customs, which Europeans did not object to, seeing how important the connections were.
Subgroups of the Bia-speaking Akan groups include the Anyin, Baoulé, Chakosi (Anufo), Sefwi (Sehwi), Nzema, Ahanta, and Jwira-Pepesa. The Akan subgroups all have cultural attributes in common; most notably the tracing of matrilineal descent, inheritance of property, and succession to high political office.
Akan culture can also be found in the Americas, where a number of Akans were taken as captives. Roughly ten percent of all slave ships that embarked from the Gold Coast contained Akan people. The primary source of wealth in the Akan economy was gold. However, the capture and sale of Akan people peaked during the Fante and Ashanti conflicts (as both sold many of their captives as prisoners of war). Akan conflicts led to a high number of military captives, known as “Coromantee“, being sold into slavery. The Coromantee soldiers and other Akan captives were notorious for various slave revolts and plantation resistance tactics. These captives were feared throughout America. Their legacy is evident within groups such as the Maroons of the Caribbean and South America.
*The name Asante means “because of war”. The word derives from the Twi words ɔsa meaning “war” and nti meaning “because of”. This name comes from the Asante’s origin as a kingdom created to fight the Denkyira kingdom.
Slavery was historically a tradition in the Ashanti Empire, with slaves typically taken as captives from enemies in warfare. The welfare of their slaves varied from being able to acquire wealth and intermarry with the master’s family to being sacrificedin funeral ceremonies. The Ashanti believed that slaves would follow their masters into the afterlife. Slaves could sometimes own other slaves, and could also request a new master if the slave believed he or she was being severely mistreated.
In my research for this essay I could not help but notice that almost every website I saw regarding Kente cloths had a date of 5 June 2020. And they all conform to one another. Knowing what I know about how the corporately funded mainstream (matrix) operates, this appears to be a massive “damage control” ploy. As the fallout post Nanci Peloci and her “get along gang’s” highly insulting “pandering ploy” a few weeks ago backfired on them massively.
It is also not lost on me that several “fact checking” websites (many who’s funding can be traced back to the eugenicist and population reduction proponent Bill Gates and his foundation) ran disinformation stories in an attempt to downplay the “slave trading” history of the Ashanti (warrior) people. With almost two decades of this type of research under my belt, I can sniff this type of thing out from a mile away, but I digress…
Now….. These people are highly intelligent and highly educated. They are all students of the “Hidden Schools of Mystery Babylon”, well versed in the art of speaking only through ”symbols” in public. Those with eyes to see into a thing can see some pretty nasty mockery underlying other overlying pandering.
Despite appearances, these people are NOT stupid Props to Traxman for the flick (photo)
Dahomey…..
The Kingdom of Dahomey(/dəˈhoʊmi/) was an African kingdom (located within the area of the present-day country of Benin) that existed from about 1600 until 1904, when the last king, Béhanzin, was defeated by the French, and the country was annexed into the French colonial empire. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a regional power in the 18th century by conquering key cities on the Atlantic coast.
For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey was a key regional state, eventually ending tributary status to the Oyo Empire. The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade with Europeans, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized military. Notable in the kingdom were significant artwork, an all-female military unit called the Dahomey Amazons by European observers, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun with the large festival of the Annual Customs of Dahomey which involved large scale human sacrifice. They traded prisoners, which they captured during wars and raids, and exchanged them with Europeans for goods such as knives, bayonets, firearms, fabrics, and spirits.
Human sacrifice of captured and enslaved people was a regular practice in Dahomey
“My people are a military people, male and female; my revenue is the proceeds of the sale of prisoners of war….. I cannot send the women to cultivate the soil, it would kill them…All my nation, all are soldiers. And the slave trade feeds them.” – Ghezo (King of Dahomey) excerpt from the book “African Military History”
Dahomey’s female “Amazon Warriors” are a very interesting aspect of their culture, but for the sake of time and brevity I must leave you with a link to further research this highly interesting topic.
The mighty Dahomeyans had a hand in the horrible capture, dehumanization, and sale of their fellow African continent brethren. The African slave trade shines a light on just how complex the continent’s individual as well as collective identities really are.
We U.S. Born “black people” are seen and see ourselves as a mostly homogeneous group. With the possible exception of first and second generation of African and Caribbean immigrants. However, in Africa, even differing tribes within a single nation can and do view those outside of their immediate group as “the other”. As an “American black dude” I find this phenomena immensely fascinating. And yet another part of our historical and or cultural identity that is swept under the proverbial rug.
The crabs in a barrel effect……..
It is quite interesting to note that we U.S. “black folk” have an innate distrust for one another that functions in much the same way as our African “tribal” ancestors. We have been taught either anecdotally, as well as from experience that some of us are simply not to be trusted. (Just like every other race, creed color, and or phenotype of human on the entire face of the earth).
learned helplessness does UGLY things to a people But not identifying as a victim EVER, fixes it xx
One interesting experience I will share with you here now. A few months back I was approached by a/some fellow African American (sic) “colleagues” about joining an “empowerment and solidarity” support and networking group on Facebook. I, having already “broken out” internationally really stood nothing to gain except for the joy of seeing some of my people “come up”. Seeking to assist my peers with a less visible profile, I invited several of my high profile “Black American” (North American out of respect for my South and Central American Beloved) peers.
Most, having “been there and done that” never accepted, but one in particular came with a bit of “painful truth”. He joined the group conversation to “feel it out”, but expressed his skepticism with regard to the viability of the group. Saying “black people kill each other”. To which I had to publicly concur. Instantly, this artist was called a “goofy” insulted, bullied, and shame bashed for simply stating an obvious, but painful truth. Said artist is from Jersey City. Growing up in Hoboken. A bridge ride away from Manhattan. This artist is the inimitable wunderkind, Mr. Joey Anderson. (whom I contacted personally to ask permission to quote him for this essay).
Obviously disappointed at what had just occurred, I once again reiterated my support for the truth bomb Joey had just dropped. I also wrote to the group that lack of organization and in-fighting was a major reason our people are “unwelcome guests” in the “House we built” and that for this group to work, we would have to be very mindful of this historical “hobble”.
A day later, I was ejected from the group. Which disbanded and then reformed without me.
Now to be fair, the founder of the group sent me a new add request after un-friending me. Which I sat on for a few weeks thinking it over. As “once bitten twice shy”. I eventually acquiesced in the spirit of peace, love, and tolerance I “preach” in my writings on Facebook. As to be 100% “congruent” in my words and deeds. This artist humbly apologized and I accepted gracefully in the true spirit of “black unity”. “Water under the bridge” I told him. And since this time, this artist has been very supportive online with regard to my recent maneuvers and posts. Walk the talk.
Side note…. (it must be mentioned that there are many U.S. People of color who believe that they/we are decedents of one or more of the Biblical “lost 12 tribes” of the original Hebrews. That particular rabbit hole goes quite deep, and is a bit off topic. Therefore I will refrain from exploring it here at this time)
So with this indisputable, historically accurate evidence; we can see that the Transatlantic Slave Trade is in many ways, a European extension of an already centuries old African Slave Trade. The horrendously inhumane rabbit hole of humans being sold into slavery goes so deep, that I at some point must leave it be to be addressed in some of it’s other iterations at a later time.
I feel confident at this point that the backdrop is set. And a mental picture has been taken, processed, and developed in the minds of the reader(s). And since my exposure of this hidden aspect of “Black American” history is but a fraction of the entire equation, we shall now move on to iconoclastically examine another under scrutinized aspect of modern-day “U.S. Blackness”
Do black lives really matter?????
Some of what I am seeing being done under the umbrella of “Black Lives Mattering” is quite an embarrassment. And I honestly cannot be associated with such foolishness.
Let’s talk about this….. I pose the question to you all, “what is the biggest killer of black people in the United States?” And before I state the indisputable answer, I pose one more question; If Black lives really matter to the group that flies this particular banner, and or chants this neuro-linguistic slogan, then surely they are protesting the single most destructive and effective destroyer of black lives in the nation of the USA, aren’t they?
Neuro–linguistic programming(NLP) is a psychological approach that involves analyzing strategies used by successful individuals and applying them to reach a personal goal. It relates thoughts, language, and patterns of behavior learned through experience to specific outcomes.
Neuro-Linguistic Programing (NLP), in short, is the method of performing mild hypnosis through conversation for the purpose of persuasion. By using certain verbal and non-verbal language patterns, an NLP master can trigger specific responses in their subject’s subconscious mind. – Learning To Pull The Strings Of A Stranger’s Subconscious: NLP “NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming is one of the world’s most prevalent methods of mind control, used by everyone from sales callers to politicians to media pundits, and it’s nasty to the core. Here’s ten ways to make sure nobody uses it on you… ever.” – 10 Ways to Protect Yourself From NLP Mind Control
Back to the first question…. The answer is abortion. This is the largest killer of “Black Lives” by an incredibly wide margin. In fact, for every 1000 black children born, 479 are killed before they ever take a breath. This is astounding mathematics. Practically a 50% ratio. This beloved, is no less than genocide. Yet, BLM does no protesting of abortion clinics. No! Quite the opposite, they (on their own website) promote it.
Let us now examine a bit of “double speak” from their OWN website….. “We make our spaces family-friendly and enable parents to fully participate with their children.” These words are found in the paragraph DIRECTLY under the above statement “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure….”
So now, which is it? There is a blatantly obvious contradiction. One that anyone employing rational logic and seeking true overstanding can plainly see immediately. So why, I now ask the reader, does no one else seem to notice this? At least not among the legions of “followers” now marching and disrupting peace and order claiming “Black Lives Matter”. Empirical science has proven that children raised in a two parent household have a much better chance at having a happy and successful life.
Children raised in intact married families are more likely to attend college, are physically and emotionally healthier, are less likely to be physically or sexually abused, less likely to use drugs or alcohol and to commit delinquent behaviors, have a decreased risk of divorcing when they get married, are less likely to become pregnant/impregnate someone as a teenager, and are less likely to be raised in poverty. (“Why Marriage Matters: 26 Conclusions from the Social Sciences,” Bradford Wilcox, Institute for American Values, www.americanvalues.org/html/r-wmm.html)
Why don’t THESE Black Lives Matter? Incongruent!
Now, back to the “black genocide” that is completely ignored in the US…..
“Abortion impacts African Americans at a higher rate than any other population group. In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an Abortion Surveillance Report. According to that report, black women make up 14 percent of the childbearing population. Yet, 36 percent of all abortions were obtained by black women. At a ratio of 474 abortions per 1,000 live births, black women have the highest ratio of any group in the country.” – Abortion: The overlooked tragedy for black Americans – Walt Blackman
So once again, why no mention of this from BLM? It stands to reason that such a highly organized and well funded organization would know this if I, a mere “gym rat and DJ/Beatmaker” would, don’t you think?
Let us dive further into the things BLM’s website wishes us to know (in their own words)…… “In 2013, three radical Black organizers — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi — created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called #BlackLivesMatter.” “Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention……”
Having been at this “rabbit hole research game” for almost 2 decades, I have come across my fair share of “shills” “controlled opposition” front movements, “straw man” decoys, and “useful idiots”
In political jargon, a useful idiot is a derogatory term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause’s goals, and who is cynically used by the cause’s leaders.
With all the blatant contradictory incongruence, double speak, radical subversive ideologies, stated purpose of “disrupting” the nuclear family, and dubious funding, this group does not at all function as they should based upon what and who they say they are. Therefore, this group should be viewed with a dose of healthy skepticism at the very least.
Congruence and Controlled Opposition……..
congruence
If it happened to the Black Panthers, it can happen in BLM Don’t you think?
/ˈkɒŋɡrʊəns/
noun
noun: congruence; plural noun: congruences
agreement or harmony; compatibility.
“the results show quite good congruence with recent studies”
I vote for neither side. They’re ALL puppets.
A controlled opposition is a protest movement that is actually being led by government agents. Nearly all governments in history have employed this technique to trick and subdue their adversarie. Notably Vladimir Leninwho said ””The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.”
So if we take into account BLM’s “footprint” and the fact that oftentimes, well meaning grass roots organizations are often infiltrated by either or: 1. Government agents and agencies such as Co-Intel Pro. In the case of the “Black Panther Party”. 2. Radical (often Bolshevik Marxist) subversives such as the Frankfurt School infiltrating universities both in the U.S. And around the world.
At this point, we must continue to scrutinize BLM and watch them carefully as this organization is the prefect “petri-dish” for such infiltration to fester and take over. Using the cover of a grass-roots movement to either neutralize, and or subvert is for their own nefarious causes. Ask some who makes a living of studying, combating, and or chronicling these types of groups and subversive movements, and they will tell you that BLM displays all the hallmarks of either controlled opposition, or a radical subversive movement. If not both.
I myself choose to continue to watch and reserve judgement for now. Healthy skepticism shall be my modus operandi moving forward with regard to how I view this odd, disruptive possible wolf in sheep’s clothing. Innocent until proven guilty shall be the way until further evidence proves definitively either way. In the meantime, I will avoid taking sides and remain an independent, non-partisan, apolitical free thinker.
Question everything!
In their OWN words!!!!
The enemy IS among us!
The “Digital Punch In The Face”
The CHAMP!
When Mike Tyson was asked by a reporter whether he was worried about Evander Holyfield and his fight plan he answered; “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth (face).” What Tyson said is similar to the old saying “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”.
I explored this idea in a recent Facebook mini-essay you can find here…..
The way that the term “digital punch in the face” I recently created relates to the BLM movement is the way this “organization” seems to always lurk around and feed the flames of emotional trauma the corporate media promoted and highly polarizing narrative of black people being under constant attack by police. Yet, the numbers do not support this. Something does not add up. And “if something does not add up, then it must be subtracted.”
Something about the name “Black Lives Matter” instantly rubbed me the wrong way back when I first heard it a few years ago. Like many, I thought to myself “wait, when did anyone EVER say that they did not matter?” It struck me as pandering, and even mocking. SUPER CRINGE, but I digress….
Perhaps it is my ability to recognize neuro-linguistinc programming being used on me. I don’t know. But for whatever reason, I felt like I should keep and eye on this group’s “foot print”.
So now in light of current events, especially those in the state of my birth, Washington State. In a city adjacent to the one I was born in Tacoma. On Fort Lewis Army base. The city in question is Seattle. Where we now have a whole ceccession on our hands. WTF is that nonsense? (the philosopher in me asks). These people do not represent me in any way. What are they really doing there? What do they want? And why are they not being stopped?
Unfortunately, I am quite sure I know the answer to all three of those questions. 1. Please go back to the previous blog post and check the link Yuri Bezmenov’s lecture? 2. Please see the above? 3. They are not being stopped so that the presidential candidate colloquially known as “Orange Man Bad” LOL; can give his opposing party (different wings, same bird) the proverbial rope to hang themselves.
Logic dictates that he will point out to the fact that a major portion of BLM’s donations are funneled directly to the opposing party. And link them in his stump speeches. As well as pointing out that Seattle itself has an ineffective Democratic mayor. And that Washington State has a Democratic Governor who has lost control of the affairs of the “Evergreen State”. It’s as if the opposing party of the man they call “Dump” are losing on purpose. Especially when you factor in “Creepy Uncle Joe”. Nuts! You cannot write better fiction. Crazy times.
So with people already wound up as much as they are, and looking back at the reaction to the last election; I foresee hella mental meltdowns. And perhaps if it has not already happened by then, full on blood in the streets. Thus, the reason for these posts here and on the “book”.
Simmer down beloved. This is how “social engineering” works. So I need my people (regardless of skin color) to now cut the invisible puppet strings. Some very evil people have stated many times in their writings that they wish to utilize the Hegelian Dialectic {Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis aka Ordo Ab Chao (Order out of Chaos)} to bring about their oft written about New World Order.
Don’t be this broad. …. If you’re not her already, beloved x
To do this, they state in their own words that extreme chaos is needed to manifest this into reality. The following was spoken by David Rockefeller at the Bilderberger Meeting, Baden Germany, June 1991. Rockefeller has devoted his life to one world government, i.e. the New World Order (NWO). He founded the Trilateral Commission and is integral to the Council on Foreign Relations.
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. … It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
Later, he notes: “Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure, one world if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” “We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.”- David Rockefeller 23 September 1994 (His own words. Not mine)
The New World Order is a whole thing. Despite the Wikipedia disinformation See for yourself
The primary obstacle blocking the “sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers” is a strong, democratic, sovereign America. Both cannot exist simultaneously. Therefore, our mortal enemy has been decimating America for decades, the battlefield littered with the middle class, dazed soldiers wandering in despair, jobs lost, pockets empty, homes foreclosed, dreams crushed and forced to bow to their oppressors if they travel by air. America is on the verge of losing our battle for freedom and has not yet even identified who the real enemy is.
The age-old dream of world domination is alive and well. Our real enemy are the globalists, scientific-technological elites who, as Eisenhower warned, are attempting to establish the NWO. Their primary weapons are perpetual war and central banks, i.e. the Fed which is a cartel of international bankers, including Rockefeller, who control our economy and, astoundingly, have not been audited during the 98 years they have systematically destroyed the dollar while becoming inconceivably powerful. Jefferson, Lincoln, Andrew Jackson – the list is long and distinguished – all scream as to the lethal danger of a central bank. – The Aspen Times “Beware New World Order” 15 August 2011
Ordo Ab Chao…….
As above. So Below.
A Latin expression, meaning Order out of Chaos. A motto of the Thirty-third Degree, and having the same allusion as lug e tenebris, which see in this work. The invention of this motto is to be attributed to the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite“
Many bands and other sources outside of freemasonryhave used the term in various works. The term was recently manifested in book title with the release of Order Out Of Chaos The Landmarks of Freemasonry authored by Sean R Bailey.
Although many books have been written on the theory of the masonic landmarks, few are available that provide a complete overview of the centuries of attempts at making any one set of landmarks universally apart of the Masonic Code. This book provides the unique perspective of the many attempts by Authors and Unique men in Masonry. Beginning with the basic concepts of what constitutes a Landmark, each chapter then traces the steps taken in applying what has been written into what we as modern masons use today in our daily life’s.
The book assumes the reader has a basic knowledge of the” basic” concepts of Freemasonry. It is especially well suited for identification of the dynamics of masons around the world. As no one jurisdiction is the same. So is the case for the landmarks they have instated as code
We now live in the rabbit hole…..
Welcome to The Brave New World!
With these highly charged, and often controversial topics, it is easy to get “lost in the sauce” of conjecture, feels over reals, tin-foil hat-ery, and eyes wide shut fear. Therefore, I feel that since we’ve now crossed the bough of actually naming the New World Order in this essay; it is a great time to “hit the brakes” and cool off with a bit of a mental/emotional time out.
Everyone can sense now that the “identity politics” being practiced these days is a broken system. One that seems to be doing much more harm than good. We also have more and more people beginning to question the true intentions of the corporately controlled mainstream media (matrix); that is obviously “socially engineering” the people who depend on it for (dis)information, and and UNDER-standing (versus overstanding) of the world we now live in. And what the whole fuq is up with CHAZ?
(laughs out loud!)
Live Free or die! Freedom is not being bound by the opinions of others.
One last thing……
You know you’re not a racist. So DON’T virtue signal. It hurts more than it helps xx
White guilt is a form a passive racism. STOP IT!
Next essay we MUST explore the origins of the US democratic party.
With all the most humble love and gracious respect I can muster. Because my Beloved deserve no less.
/fɪˈlɒsəfi/noun 1. the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. 2. a theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behaviour.
Classic philosophical questions include: “is it possible to know anything and to prove it?” and ‘what is most real?’ Philosophers also pose more practical and concrete questions such as: ‘is there a best way to live?’, ‘is it better to be just or unjust (if one can get away with it)?”, “do humans have free will?” Looking back, it appears that I was a born philosopher. One of my first memories was looking at both my parents and wondering why I ONLY saw out of my own eyes and did NOT see out of theirs. I was quite struck by an overwhelming sense of self. And or, self awareness. This would be no older than age two. In fact, I do not think I had really learned to speak yet. But there I was. Pondering the idea of…..
I am me…….
I can remember this far back.
“I am me”. This was my first great philosophical pondering. Dad is Dad, Mom is Mom, and I am me. I also knew at that age already that I/me, had had something to do. I felt a strong sense of “personal greatness”. That I was here to affect the “world of man” (woman, and or other) in a way that would be “world reaching” on an international scale/level. Everyday for many months this went on, and throughout my entire youth it was an idea I revisited from time to time for the rest of my childhood years.
too smart for my own good…..
I was told many times growing up that I “was too smart for my own good”. It appears that this was indeed true. As my Pisces Moon sign allows me to at times embody both thesis and anti-thesis at the same time. Always “very mature for my age”, but up until a very painful and demoralizing “loss of innocence” that occurred about five to six years ago; I was also “painfully naive” When I was coming of age in the United States of America, the median IQ Intelligence quotient was 100……. (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. The abbreviation “IQ” was coined by the psychologist William Stern for the German term “Intelligenzquotient”, his term for a scoring method for intelligence tests at University of Breslau he advocated in a 1912 book. Historically, IQ was a score obtained by dividing a person’s mental age score, obtained by administering an intelligence test, by the person’s chronological age, both expressed in terms of years and months. The resulting fraction (quotient) is multiplied by 100 to obtain the IQ score. For modern IQ tests, the median raw score of the norming sample is defined as IQ 100 and scores each standard deviation (SD) up or down are defined as 15 IQ points greater or less. By this definition, approximately two-thirds of the population scores are between IQ 85 and IQ 115. About 2.5 percent of the population scores above 130, and 2.5 percent below 70)
*Psychologists revise the test every few years in order to maintain 100 as the average. Most people (about 68 percent) have an IQ between 85 and 115. Only a small fraction of people have a very low IQ (below 70) or a very high IQ (above 130). The average IQ in the United States is 98. So the median IQ in the country I grew up in (one that seems to be, or seemed to be one that the entire world marveled at, if not in some way admired as a “great nation” {though many now will tell you that it was never great}. Despite many people around the world still excited at the prospect of taking holiday, or even migrating there until only very recently) is decreasing but I digress…
Intellectual Isolation
I tested every other year throughout my entire school career in the 99th percentile on our C.T.B.S. (Comprehensive test of basic skills) Tests. This is an IQ/placement test given to ensure that children of equal IQ are placed in the same homeroom, math, science, English/grammar/composition classes. The 99th percentile means that I was in the top 1% IQ range of all the children of my age group in the entire United States. No boasting, only painting a mental picture to help the reader overstand some of the things I will expound upon later in this essay.
That’s my soul up there – The Police
There is a thing called “intellectual isolation” it goes as follows…..100 is median and or average. 70 and below is considered a “retarded” and or stunted/slowed development IQ. Anything over 130 is considered very high. (For the sake of humility I will not state my exact number, but suffice it to say, it is firmly over 130). The basis of “Intellectual Isolation” theory is that people with very high IQ are just as “far out of the normal” as a “retarded” person. And without the proper skills to function in the world of most people, they will often be perceived, and thus treated like a person with a “cognitive deficiency”. (talk about the irony). This hurt me greatly. To be considered and treated like I was “dumb” by people who were vastly less gifted at times. But that was then and this is now. It made me stronger. And for this is am most humbly grateful.
THIS was my life. Even up until a few years ago. When I was in “free-fall” career wise, relationship wise, friendship wise, and emotionally. I remember clearly thinking and even saying aloud “I need to learn to make my IQ work for me and not against me” Ever the researcher, I was trying to self diagnose. As I am a Man, and thus a “problem solver” Heterosexual Women can likely relate to telling their man their feelings about a situation that brought them down, and then the man trying to “do something” when all she wanted was for him to listen. Men can relate as well I am sure. This is because he was trying to “solve the problem. So to continue…
I even thought at one time I might be high functioning Asperger’s Syndrome for while. That is until I FINALLY discovered I.I. (Intellectual Isolation). Talk about “killing me softly” The peer reviewed white papers and various literature were describing my entire life. OK, I know my enemy. I can now attempt to defeat it. “In battle, “You can’t hit what you can’t see”. Now that I had a proper overstanding of why I was so different, I could now address my particular needs.
My school peers would all go to “gifted studies” from time to time, and despite being in the exact same classes with them, I did not get to leave and go to “gifted” with them. The reason being was that when I would bring home my test scores, and the gifted studies applications to my mother, who was deep in her cocaine addiction at the time. And she would not even read them. Thus I never received the proper “coping skills” that gifted studies gives these children who are “so far out of the norm”. To top it off, I also suffered from dyslexia. Talk about a tough break. So for the last five years, I have worked very hard to overcome myself, and I am no longer “too smart for my own good”. “So why does this matter?”, you may ask. To which I say, please read on? It will all become clear soon. Talent hits a target most cannot hit. Genius hits a target most cannot see. Remember this. We will revisit it in a bit.
The Empty Cup…..
one who knows everything cannot learn anything
The Empty Cup….”Empty your cup” is an old Chinese Chan (Zen) saying that occasionally pops up in western popular entertainment. “Empty your cup” often is attributed to a famous conversation between the scholar Tokusan (also called Te-shan Hsuan-chien, 782-865) and Zen Master Ryutan (Lung-t’an Ch’ung-hsin or Longtan Chongxin, 760-840).The “Empty Your Cup” ConversationScholar Tokusan–who was full of knowledge and opinions about the dharma–came to Ryutan and asked about Zen. At one point Ryutan re-filled his guest’s teacup but did not stop pouring when the cup was full. Tea spilled out and ran over the table. “Stop! The cup is full!” said Tokusan.”Exactly,” said Master Ryutan. “You are like this cup; you are full of ideas. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can’t put anything in. Before I can teach you, you’ll have to empty your cup.”This is harder than you might realize. By the time we reach adulthood we are so full of information that we don’t even notice it’s there. We might consider ourselves to be open-minded, but in fact, everything we learn is filtered through many assumptions and then classified to fit into the knowledge we already possess.
One who knows……
Confucius
Confucius said: … Recognizing that you know what you know, and recognizing that you do not know what you do not know—this is knowledge. Yu said:…. shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it;—this is knowledge.
Identity Politics and self Righteous indignation….. In the past decade, as it appears on the surface that we are more open-minded, tolerant, sophisticated, and educated. Yet, we “function” as the “inverse” of these things. ‘Dumbed Down”. Why is this? The philosopher asks. What is the root causation? One likely culprit is “Identity Politics” which appears to be the “weaponized version” of the “agree to disagree and find the middle ground of politics” we used to engage in. Successfully, I might add. The philosopher asks probing questions. Stoically. As the “Meditations of Marcus Aurelius” instructed us to do. Where ever identity politics goes. Calm, rational discourse cannot. It destroy’s people’s ability to engage in it successfully. But why???
Emotions < Logic
Logic = Meltdown
To engage in rational discourse, the parties involved must be rational. But the emotions led “own group preference” steeped identity politics ideology causes “Cognitive Dissonance”. Which CANNOT hold up to scrutiny or logic. It crumbles under the pressure of reason, logic, and facts that support a dissenting opinion. The world before “Triggering was a thing”…. For any truly open minded individual, different points of view should be welcome. This is an opportunity to learn new things. But if we already know everything, we can never learn anything. This refers back to the empty cup I spoke on before. Without open, rational, dissension and or discourse, we humans begin to seek what is known as “confirmation bias”
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms or support one’s prior personal beliefs or values. It is an important type of cognitive bias that has a significant effect on the proper functioning of society by distorting evidence-based decision-making. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. For example, a person may cherry-pick empirical data that supports one’s belief, ignoring the remainder of the data that is not supportive. People also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias is a broad construct covering a number of explanations. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence), belief perseverance (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false), the irrational primacy effect (a greater reliance on information encountered early in a series) and illusory correlation (when people falsely perceive an association between two events or situations).
Cancel Culture……
Self righteous keyboard assassin
THIS is what happens when we enter the dark dark climate of “cancel culture”. No definition needed I’m sure. As the book (Facebook) is rife with it. Express a differing point of view…. Get canceled. Engage in “normal” old-fashion politics… Get canceled. Be a dick….. for SURE get canceled. Make an honest mistake, or miss-speak amongst the wrong crowd? CANCELED! This is a very base, destructive, callous, and EVIL ideology. One that seeks to ruin a person’s WHOLE life, strip them of the ability to provide for themselves, their significant other, and or their very children. Why not take the time to inform and educate a person who makes a gaffe and truly does not know what they are now being punished for miss-expressing. Would not we want this done for us? The “philosopher asks…. Do these people really ever take the time to think about how evil and destructive an ideological phenomena that would seek to thrust women and children into “abject poverty” not to mention any Men who might find themselves victims of the practice. As Men, and true masculinity, versus “media machismo” is CLEARLY under attack. (but we will leave that particular “social land mine” for now). I will just say that sexuality, and or gender characteristics is NOT a “zero sum game”
Zero Sum Game
In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant’s gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the utility of the other participants. If the total gains of the participants are added up and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero. Thus, cutting a cake, where taking a larger piece reduces the amount of cake available for others as much as it increases the amount available for that taker, is a zero-sum game if all participants value each unit of cake equally (see marginal utility).
Meaning if one party is successful and or wins, all others must fail, and or lose.
In contrast, non-zero-sum describes a situation in which the interacting parties’ aggregate gains and losses can be less than or more than zero. A zero-sum game is also called a strictly competitive game while non-zero-sum games can be either competitive or non-competitive. Zero-sum games are most often solved with the minimax theorem which is closely related to linear programming duality, or with Nash Equilibrium. Humans have a cognitive bias towards seeing situations as zero-sum, known as zero-sum bias. But once again, I digress… The point is, we are existing in an very toxic environment that no longer allows differing points of view. The philosopher asks… Why is this? And what is the difference between the current, and former generations? It appears that “Safe Spaces” and “Trigger Word” culture has left people emotionally unable to cope with the real world devoid of “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”. So do these things help? Or do they do more harm than good? The philosopher asks these questions.
“The Hubris of Icarus”
Proverbs 16:18 King James Version (KJV) 18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Never before in modern history have we had the real time embodiment/fulfillment of so many literary classics playing out at the same time right before out very eyes. From the “oppressed cum oppressor” scenario found in Eric Blair, aka George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, to the…..
“The Flight of Icarus” In Greek mythology, Icarus (/ˈɪkərəs/; Ancient Greek: Ἴκαρος [ǐːkaros]) is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus’ father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea’s dampness would not clog his wings nor the sun’s heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned, sparking the idiom “don’t fly too close to the sun”. This tragic theme of failure at the hands of hubris contains similarities to that of Phaethon. Today’s ubiquitous “Self Righteous Indignation” mirrors Icarus’s flight exactly. Drunk on fakebook likes and hearts, keyboard assassins soar high fueled my their own self righteous blindness to anything but their unchecked and undisciplined emotional diarrhea. Quite troubling and sad to watch as, what goes up must definitely come back down, And what goes around will most surely come around. Classic “Monkey Trap” folly.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” – George Orwell
The Monkey Trap….
Seeking confirmation bias is a classic monkey trap
“The Monkey Trap”The trap “consists of a hollowed-out coconut, chained to a stake. The coconut has some rice inside which can be grabbed through a small hole”. The monkey’s hand fits through the hole, but his clenched fist can’t fit back out. “The monkey is suddenly trapped.” But not by anything physical. He’s trapped by an idea, unable to see that a principle that served him well – “when you see rice, hold on tight!” – has become lethal. One striking example is what psychologists call the Einstellung effect, describing the way preconceptions can blind us, in almost a literal way, to better ways of doing things. In clever experiments by Merim Bilalic and his colleagues, chess masters were presented with a board arranged to offer them two paths to victory: a well-known five-move option, and a more obscure one, requiring three moves. Even these superb players often couldn’t see the best way to win, because the one they knew better colonized their minds. Later, those who’d missed the three-move solution were shown a similar board on which it was the only way to win. Now none had any problem seeing it. Self righteous indignation can blind the person full of it, and thus be the agent of their own undoing. Avoid this at ALL cost if you have wisdom.
Normalcy Bias…..
In this Brave New World, expect the unexpected. It’s already happened twice since March
“It WILL never happen because HAS never happened”
Our normalcy bias was shattered last month when what appears to be a WHOLE MURDER was filmed and broadcast around the world for all who were unfortunate enough to CHOOSE to watch it. Normalcy biases will continue to be shattered in this “Brave New World” we now live in. I, the philosopher holds NO normalcy bias. As I also study history and Cultural Anthropology. Fully aware that the ONLY constant in life is change, and or “novelty” Most novelty with regard to true progression has slowed to a crawl. The form of novelty we encounter is now “computer” and “screen based” Examples; everything to do with A.I. (computer) Any and EVERY type of pornography (including the girl next door tricking her precious body part time for strangers to make a few extra bucks on a webcam or this new “friendly friends” thingy I keep hearing about. (screen)These are but two very common examples. There truly are too many to name here.
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars….
An actual leaked document you should read
Why is it that no prior generation held the same hate for those who hold differing points of view? Could it be that they have been weaponized by “Corporate Media”? The truly curious among you seeking true overstanding would do well to research the work of Yuri Bezmenov. Therein you will learn the true nature of the subversive tactics being employed by the corporate media. I have enclosed a link to a free pdf. copy of the leaked military document “ Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars” here, and also on my profile page. Necessary reading for anyone who wishes to overstand the true nature of the threat we all face with regard to the ever increasing chaos and despair that is ubiquitously conspicuous.
*Yuri Bezmenovhas some information that may be difficult for the easily offended to hear, but anyone with a strong, open mind should at least listen. The views contained herein are not necessarily those of the author. (Trigger warning)
In closing….
There is so much more ground to cover. This essay, though long by some people’s standards, has barely scratched the surface. These are a few not so random thoughts and “ideas” I ponder quite often as I seek true overstanding of the world we now see. As a modern philosopher, and “Elder Spokesman” of our beloved culture, it is my duty to utilize the seemingly extraordinary gifts I have been given to help those who were not “gifted” in this way. Why would I do this? Because my faith teaches scholarship, discernment, wisdom and compassion. I am also motivated by this question as I survey the land of the “online” and real physical/tangible worlds…… “Where are the Philosophers????” Fin Amir Alexander – Father, Musician, Scholar, Social Anthropologist, Child of God, Philosopher, Man
Discipline is the bridge between goals and success.
Every year at this time, many people make a resolution to finally get their health and fitness in check. Every year the majority of them fail. This is usually not due to laziness, nor lack of will. It is due to lack of information, and or proper education of how to do so. This final post of the decade is my humble attempt to help any and everyone who has this desire to finally break the cycle.
If you find yourself, or someone you care about in this category, please read on?
Gyms make a huge amount of their profits from a couple things. First of which is selling memberships to people they know will never utilize them. Especially in the U.S. where places like Planet Fitness and the like offer rock bottom prices. They can do this because they lock you into paying for a year knowing that 90% of the people who do this will give up and quit after a month.
Un-flexed, relaxed position. You can tell because my abs are not all bunched up, but long and loose.
How and why can they be so sure of this you might ask… It is because most people have no clue of what they’re doing in the gym, or why they do it. There is a saying that goes “abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym.” This is absolutely correct
I see many people in the gym in the gym doing things that will NEVER help them achieve their fitness goals. They use horrible form doing useless movements that don’t target any particular muscle or muscle group. They simply try to move the most weight, versus actually working the muscle.
Useless exercises……
Take a simple dumbbell hammer curl for example. You see people with weights that are too heavy. They start the movement with their hips and lower back to get the weight moving, rocking their entire bodies as they lean to the side to bring the dumbbell up to their chin. However proper form would be to stand completely still and flex the bicep. Slowly bringing the weight up to the nipple then slowly back down. Controlling the weight the entire time. THIS is how you train your bicep. The other way is more of a lower back and oblique exercise than anything. And a very poor one at that. The goal is to work the muscle. NOT to simply move weight.
Speaking of oblique training, anyone who is doing side bends with weights or a machine is likely trying to slim their “love handle” region. However, the only thing training the obliques does is make your waist, and love handle region thicker. It is completely counterintuitive. A total waste of time. Especially since the obliques are a diagonal muscle. To train them properly one would do the “wood chopper” movement .Which is bending downwards diagonally.
Abs are made in the kitchen. Not the gym.
Since we are on the topic of a slimmer and more defined waist area, I have to address the fact that anyone who is not a Boxer, MMA fighter, or a Martial Artist in general is totally wasting their time training abs directly. There is zero need to do so. We train our abs indirectly with every exercise we do in the gym. Once again, abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. We all have well developed abs. They are just covered by a layer of adipose tissue. Facts!
You can’t out train a bad diet……
This is as true as any truth ever spoken. No matter how good your training program is, if you eat a bunch of empty, non-nutritious calories, you will never achieve your fitness goals. We are what we eat, so when one feeds their body calories that it does not even recognize as food, the body is forced to do the only thing it can. That is to convert these extra calories to fat so that they can at least be utilized in some way.
Doing Cardio To Lose Weight Is A Total Waste Of Time….
On any given day, in any given gym, one will notice that the majority of the people therein are utilizing the useless cardio machines. There are several reasons for this. They go as follows….. Most people are trying to change their physique and improve their health. Simple to understand. And a very noble goal. However I feel so bad for them because they are totally wasting their time.
Why? You ask. Because doing cardio is the worst and most inefficient way to shed extra fat and get more lean. Here’s a bit of math. engaging in elliptical training for an entire hour would burn only 360 calories. One could simply NOT ingest three of the following to get the very same result. A can of soda, a small bag of potato chips/crisps, a large banana, two medium cookies/biscuits, or a glass of orange juice. Each of these is approximately 120-160 calories.
Better yet, one less Mac Donald’s Cheeseburger 300 calories, and a small french fry/chips/pomme frites 230 calories. Add a small drink 140 calories, and we are now up to 740 calories. But who eats just a small anything? At 740 calories we are now at half the daily caloric allowance to maintain and not gain weight for the average woman. This is a third of the caloric allowance for the average man. What’s worse is that eating these so called “foods” that are so low on nutrition will have a person hungry again in a couple hours or less.
So why do gyms even have this cardio equipment????? Business. They are not in the business of helping people get more fit, lean, and or healthy. They are in the business of selling. Selling what? Dreams, memberships, and useless supplements. That’s what. If people quit training after a month or two (like these gyms know they will), they still have you locked in for 10 more months of membership dues.
No one is there to teach people how to train, or how to eat more importantly; to benefit from proper training. Add to this the billion dollar (needless) supplement industry hoax, and you have a lucrative industry based on lies, shadows, and mis/dis-information. They get rich off the ignorance of well meaning people who are trying to do the right thing.
Just Because We Can Eat It, That Doesn’t Mean That We Should….
Most of what is sold as food today is not at all food. It is “edible foodstuffs”. Heavily processed, chemically engineered, and highly addictive poisons that are low on actual nutrients, and easily available at very low prices. If it does not look like what it did when it came out of the ground, off the tree, out of the water, or when it was (humanely) butchered, it is NOT food. And is slowly killing you.
These items are engineered to be highly addictive by teams of scientists who work tirelessly to refine the ultimate “pleasure factor” in these products. This is done by the perfect ratios if fats for mouth-feel, savory salts, and addictive pleasure causing sugars.
It was a difficult question for obesity researchers: do some people overeat because they find eating more pleasurable or gratifying than others? Logically, that makes a lot of sense–it’s a time-tested principle of psychology: if a behavior feels good, we’ll keep doing it. But a new study published today in the journal Science adds to a growing body of research suggesting the opposite: that women who derive less pleasure from eating may eat more to compensate, putting them at higher risk for weight gain and obesity. The research also discovered a particular genetic trait that, when present, is associated with an even stronger relationship between low sense of reward and overeating.
“If you ask overweight individuals if they crave food, I really think they are legitimately thinking it’s more rewarding,” says study author Eric Stice, a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. “They’ll say they’re really sensitive to the rewards. But when you look at the brain scans you get a different picture.”
Previous brain imaging studies have looked at what happens when we look at pictures of food. In those cases, obese individuals tend to anticipate a higher level of satisfaction of eating the pictured food than lean individuals do, supporting the idea that the people who overeat are the ones who find it more rewarding. But the Science study was the first to do those same fMRI scans while participants were actually eating–or, in this case, drinking a chocolate milkshake. “Nobody had ever administered food to people in a brain scanner and looked at what happens in the brain while you’re eating,” says Stice. “Now we have evidence that, when you give an obese individual a chocolate milkshake, there’s less of a response going on.”
* “The Pleasure Factor: Why Food Is So Addicting?” By Newsweek, Newsweek11/17/2008 05:12am EST | Updated November 17, 2011
Sugar……
The nation of my birth is the U.S.A. Commonly known as the most obese country on earth. Coming up second on this list is the UK. Per captita, they are poised to surpass the U.S. in just a few years. There is also Ireland, Qatar, and so on. What these countries all have in common is the amount of sugar consumed.
Sugar is a highly addictive drug. One that fires up the brain’s pleasure centers just as much as any narcotic. If not more. Like heroin, it re-wires the brain and causes the person who ingests it regularly to need it. Or they suffer very un-pleasurable withdrawal symptoms. And even depression.
There are two forms of sugar. Glucose, and fructose. The body converts all carbohydrates into glucose to feed our calorie hogging brains, and for glycogen that our muscles need to do their work. Fructose is not even recognized as food by the brain. When eaten, it goes directly to the liver, which induces an insulin spike that tells the body to store the empty calories as fat so the body can actually utilize them.
This over time can cause type 2 diabetes as the body becomes more and more insulin resistant due to spiking it so much so often. 100 years ago, type 2 diabetes and cancer were unheard of. These are modern, man-made diseases brought on solely by poor dietary practices. We are literally eating ourselves to death.
Liquid calories…..
This horrible chain of circumstances is compounded by the fact that many in westernized society consume 25-30% of their daily caloric intake by drinking them. The body/brain does not register these liquid calories as food. Therefore, one could easily drink half of their entire daily caloric requirement in one sitting and still be hungry enough to eat the other half at the same sitting by having a basic fast food meal.
In fact, the basic fast food meal is easily 50-200% of our calorie requirements.
So with upwards of 100 grams of sugar, starchy white flour, way too much sodium (which leaves us bloated and holding excess water), and unhealthy man-made fats, we get an epidemic of overweight, yet malnourished individuals and families.
Fat is good…
In fact, natural fats are vital and healthy. Olive oil, sunflower oil, nuts, butter, eggs, and even animal fats are vital to good health, brain function, and the endocrine system. Our brains are comprised mostly of cholesterol, i.e. fat. The real culprit is sugars, and starches. These things are what raise bad cholesterol. Not fat.
Fat does not make people fat. Eating more calories than you burn makes a person fat. And when we eat things that constantly raise our insulin, it sends a signal from our liver to the brain to store these calories as fat. I will not get into why these things are allowed to happen in this blog post, as it is already too long, and there is so much to cover with this regard. If I see a good response, and or high interest in this type of information, I will elaborate in detail in future posts.
Overweight and Dopamine….
There is no denying that some people are born with a natural, genetic predisposition to struggle with weight. Yet they are a rare exception and NOT the rule. For most, the problem is self induced. Mostly by lack of education. Followed by the ubiquitous availability of cheap, convenient, non-nutritious, highly subsidized, and highly addictive products that are sold as food. So once a person becomes overweight they become trapped in a vicious cycle triggered by becoming overweight which goes as follows. A person who is over weight has diminished their capacity for dopamine released when eating food between 20-50%. This means that they must eat more to derive the same amount of pleasure from a tasty treat. Since many who find themselves in this unfortunate category are “pleasure eaters” due to having fallen prey to the scientifically manufactured addictive properties of these “foods”, they seek pleasure in eating. This is a very vicious cycle indeed.
On top of that, if a person is actually able to become more lean and take the excess fat off, they can only eat 80% of what a person of the same weight who was never heavy can. Unfair? Yes, but it is a sad reality.
Fitness is a lifestyle….
Any dietary practices that cannot be sustained for life will inevitably fail. Just ask anyone who is overweight and has been a victim of “yo yo dieting”. These drastic fad diets, pills, and magazine articles do not address the root cause. Lifestyle got you there, and it is ONLY lifestyle that can get out out and keep you from ever going back. Facts!
Consistency Over Time…..
Getting the desired results from any fitness program, and or diet/nutritional plan requires a daily commitment. Consistency over a long period of time is the only way. Many go into the new year highly motivated, and usually committed to improve their health and physiques. But after spending so much time, effort, and sometimes money with no results, they become disillusioned and give up.
The entire fitness industry makes it’s money on this fact. They function like the “medical industrial complex”. Which is to treat symptoms, but NEVER offer a true cure. As a personal fitness trainer, it is bad business for me to tell you that no one really needs regular training for more than 16 weeks. That it unless they are a bodybuilder prepping for a show, or some other extreme case. Money is made in this industry long term by never telling people what they need to know to succeed. Or by never telling them what they really need to know in order to set realistic goals and stick to them.
But I actually want to help people. I do this by telling you the truth. If I can help anyone improve their health, looks, and self esteem by taking control of their fitness, I am more than happy to do so. Of course I seek clients for personal fitness coaching, and or nutritional planning. BUT my goal is to help you to not need me as soon as possible by helping people develop a new, and sustainable lifestyle. THIS is what any personal fitness trainer worth the money will seek to do.
Cook your own Food….
Preparing inexpensive, nutritionally sound, healthy meals at home is very easy when you have the will and proper education with which to do so. Anyone claiming otherwise is either lying, misinformed, and or have never tried. I am living proof. I live way out in the countryside with only a bike and a backpack to transport my groceries. I have lived on a starving artist’s budget for a few years now, but never have I had to resort to eating fast food as my primary source of sustenance. If I can do it, anyone can, as I have literally been living in third world conditions for some time now. Facts!
Track Your Macros…
A key component of a sustainable fitness lifestyle is learning how to, and getting into the habit of tracking your macronutrient intake. Macros are Protein, Fats, and Carbohydrates. Proteins and fats are necessary for sustaining life, but carbs are not. When getting lean, it is carbs one should cut. NEVER fats, in fact, some people employ a ketogenic diet to help lean out. This diet is up to 80% fat. More on this diet in a future installment….
I track every single thing I eat, every singe day down to the gram. I typically know exactly what I will eat for the entire day before I even have breakfast. This is “nutritional planning”, and whether we are trying to become more lean, or to simply maintain a healthy and ideal weight, it behooves us all to make this practice a habit. There are many apps and websites that make doing so extremely easy. So there is simply no excuse for not doing so. With the exception of not knowing how to read. But if you couldn’t read, you would not be reading this right now LOL! Myfitnesspal.com is my go to website/app for this purpose. Consider it a facebook for fitness. In that you can interact socially, but it also has free tools to help you calculate and track for proper macros. Along with calculators to help you lose, gain, or maintain your weight. Please check it out? You can even add me if you want. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/
True Story….
Happy New Year! May 2020 be the beginning of an amazing new chapter in your lives. With the utmost love and respect. Yours Truly, Amir Alexander xx
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
This quote pretty much sums it up. In 2012 I celebrated my 40th birthday in Paris for the first time, on my first international tour. In many ways the past seven years have been a dream come true. Yet, in a few particular ways it has been a living nightmare. Whether good or bad, I can truly say that I am grateful for every minute, and ultimately wouldn’t change a thing. The highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. These things have forged me into the man I am today. I am finally the person I have always wanted to be. The man I presented myself as to the entire world.
Much of the good I have done, put out, and or achieved is why you all are reading this now. Thank you for rocking with me. All of the bad are things I can never live down and must wear for the rest of my life. This I accept and have learned from. I have been impatient, offensive, and seemingly arrogant. I have also been a fool for women who did not value the love they undeservedly got from me. Love they could never value because it was given too easy. Undying devotion must be earned. Now I know.
As I write this, I see that this pattern played itself out in many of the friendships I tried to foster. None of which I seem to have now. Live and learn, as the saying goes. Some will, some never do. It takes hella courage and humility for an entertainer to admit this publicly. I do not seek a pat on the back for doing so. I do it under the spirit of making amends to those I made feel bad along the way. I also do it as a cautionary tale for young artists coming after me. Hopefully they can learn from my mistakes.
Truth
Truth is like fiat currency. It only holds value when the the parties concerned agree to give it value. Thus, truth is actually relative. Not absolute. What is true for one man, woman, trans, or other, may not hold the same value for someone else. It is best to not force your truth on another person.
“Mistakes are the best teacher, I’ve learned a lot.” – Andy Bassich Life below Zero. The understated profundity of the way he said this hit me like a Mack truck. I don’t watch television, but I became aware of this show when going over to my child’s mother’s place to get him ready for pre-school on my custody days that started at 7:00 am.
I am he. Icarus is an Ancient Greek mythological character. One whom, through hubris brought upon needless personal tragedy. In short, his father the craftsman Daedalus the creator of the Labyrinth, sought to escape the island of Crete with his son. The means by which were wings he made from feathers and wax.
Icarus’ father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea’s dampness would not clog his wings nor the sun’s heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned, sparking the idiom “don’t fly too close to the sun”. In wearing my proverbial “heart on my sleeve”, and trying to force my truth at the time, I flew too high to the sun and crashed.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 King James Version (KJV). That which does not kill us makes us stronger. I firmly believe this. This is one of my personal truths. Some of you may agree. Others may not. We are both correct. As truth is relative. I am a man of faith. However, I do not force my beliefs upon anyone. True faith does not work this way. I learned this too from making mistakes. My beliefs are my personal truth. Some believe, many do not. Christ teaches love and tolerance.
He ministered to the sinners and publicans. People whom the religious leaders of the time considered unclean and unworthy of sharing space with. Many believers could benefit from His example. It is not for us to judge one another. We are taught to love. This too, is my truth. As an entertainer who makes his living in the popularity contest (make no mistake it most certainly is) known as the music industry, we are subject to the whims of popular opinion.
It is what it is, and I accept this whole heatedly. Music is a deeply personal, as well as emotional medium. Thus, our job is to uplift and provide positive emotions. Not to bring people down. To be a source of bad vibes is to miss the point, and is quite irresponsible. For, if we have made it to the international public sphere people are open to us. Cause unpleasantness and people will react by closing off to you. This is a basic survival reflex. Lesson learned. x
Referring once again to Ancient Greek mythology, I identify with the myth of the Phoenix. More specifically, Icarus Phoenix-ing out of the ashes of his former self. Purified by fire. Associated with the Sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. According to some sources, the phoenix dies in a show of flames and combustion.
This entire journey from the me I was, to the me I am now has occurred under the scrutiny of the public eye. Super harsh, and brutally painful, I am extremely grateful for it. From 2012’s Freshman of the Year to Persona non-grata and back, these past seven years have been a wild ride.
Fatherhood
It is often said that when one is suffering malaise (physical, emotional, or otherwise), they should seek out others worse off to help. Who on this earth is more helpless than a newborn child? My son is the best thing I have ever done with my life, by far. He has provided the impetus for me to both grow, and man up. I show him my gratitude daily by being the father I wish I would have had. Being a great father comes quite naturally. Parenthood is another of my truths. I wish that everyone could experience the infinite joy therein. Yet, I respect people’s decision to partake.
Moving forward
I am currently building a music career from the stage one beginning, as though I never had one. This too, is a blessing. As I get to live out the saying “if I could go back in time knowing what I know now”. Can you imagine? This opportunity is amazing. I have all the “clout” afforded an artist who has achieved all I have, yet everything is fresh and new. For this, I am infinitely grateful.
The past seven years have set me on the path to fulfilling my potential as an artist, a man, and a loving human being. I am well on my way to becoming a truly righteous dude. It just took me learning how to get out of my own way. Upwards and onward, as the saying goes.
That said…..
The medium is the message, and the message is LOVE. True story. Amir Alexander xx
top ramen, robbing crackheads, bad checks, and karma
a closer look
Last week we began to look at the con-man Afa, who went by at least three different last names. For the sake pf privacy, I won’t list them here. After publishing last week’s post, I googled all three of them just to see if he was alive. Last I heard, another of my former besties (also a druggie con-man), had beat him down and run him out of the city. More on that later.
As previously stated, he was the exact same height, weight, and build as I was at the time. 185 cm (six feet, and one and a half inches) tall, a hundred-fifty lbs, and lanky as hell. As we entered the rave scene proper, everyone assumed that we were brothers. He wore braces on his teeth when I first met him, but one day decided to pull them off himself. Being that he no longer lived with his parents, no one was paying to maintain them. Therefore, many of the brackets had broken so they no longer served their purpose. This left chunks of dental epoxy stuck to his teeth which he was always picking at.
He also had one A-cup boob. A tit. I now know this is called gynecomastia. If you’ve never heard of it, I’ll let you look it up yourself. I found out about it because I lift weights. Anything I am into, I research everything there is to be learned about it. Basically, males get it one of two ways. Naturally during puberty, or self induced by using anabolic steroids. No sure which was the case for him. With Afa, one can never tell.
He said that a spider bit him, but I never bought that story. At any rate, this dude seemed to know everybody. As we began to become closer as friends, I learned that he was a “spoiled rich kid” who had gone wild early and got kicked out of his parents house. The circles he ran in during his early teens were all trust fund, wealthy brats. As such, he was no different. When well meaning parents try to buy their children’s love things always go pear-shaped in the end.
and then there were two/thick as thieves
Anyone looking in from the outside could see that he was a horrible influence on me, and that we were heading in the wrong direction. The end point would either be prison, or the grave yard. Yet, the rebel in me felt that I could handle anything bad that came our way. The result was that I descended deeper and deeper into this strange world he had come from. By this point, Mike was hanging tough with a mutual friend named Will who was a percussionist. We had met him while marching in the Magic of Orlando. A Drum and Bugle Corp, the previous summer. (Wow! OK, now I’ll eventually have to touch on that experience in a later installment).
The link is from the actual year I marched. Mike being a trumpeter played “soprano” bugle. I, being a tubist, played the “contra” or “contra bass” bugle. At any rate, Mike was one of the top nominees for Drum major the following season. He would go on to become the Drum major, and lead the corps to it’s first top twelve championship finish at world finals. By then he had a long distance girlfriend named Danielle who is his wife to this very day. They have two amazing sons, both of them now the age we were back then.
Adam being a a high school senior about to graduate near the top of his class was much more focused on school. As he should be. Therefore he was hanging out less by now. This left Afa and I as the last men standing in our little criminal enterprise.
instant ramen, peanut butter balls, and “wobbing”
For my birthday in 1991, my senior year of high school, several of my friends had put their money together to buy me a giant garbage bag full of “oodles of noodles” Top Ramen. I counted like 250 packages. These would come in handy the following year at uni when we had to buy our own food. That bag had already lasted over twelve months (my birthday being in September at the very beginning of the school year). I brought it with about 75 packages still left to Jacksonville.
By March of 1993 they were long gone, and we were often hungry. Afa, being the master of getting money without going to work a job had the bright idea to go “wobbing”. The cupboard was empty, with the exception of a box of generic cornflakes Adam’s mom had given us, a half jar of crunchy peanut butter, and some white sugar. With this I made us some “peanut butter balls”. A recipe first introduced to me in kindergarten. We ate that for a couple of days, but I digress…
Wobbing is making fake crack rocks out of aspirin. You cut it into chunks and coat it with toothache medicine so that it numbs the mouth if a potential buyer (victim) tastes to see if it’s real. We made up a convincing batch and hit the streets to hit a lick so we could eat. The struggle was indeed real. I am not condoning or glorying this though. To be clear, it is NOT cool. Cheating people is never cool. Crackhead or not. No one who does any drug should be discriminating against another person because of their chosen libation.
Besides, it can get you shot, and or killed. As almost happened to us. Things happened so quickly therefore, everything is foggy now. I only remember a very skeptical buyer asking where we were from and who did we know (because they had never seen us in that particular hood), things going south,shots fired, and us barely making it out of there alive. Kids, do not try this at home, as the saying goes. It’s a very bad idea.
starter checks
By this point we are well known at all the department stores and running out of return opportunities. As part of the “loss prevention policies”, the stores had you sign each time you retuned an item for cash. After twelve, they wouldn’t let you return anymore. As, it was common knowledge in Jacksonville at the time that kids were stealing and returning for cash. This was their way of curtailing our illegal actives. This is what led to my eventual downfall. More on that in a future post.
Somehow Afa had found a book of blank starter checks. The ones given when you first open a bank account, but do not yet have ones with your name printed on them. On this particular day I was introduced to the “bad check” game. To cut to the chase, we first hit a local grocery store and bought an entire shopping cart full of food. Being spurred on by the success of the mission, we then decided to treat ourselves to a lavish meal at a very nice seafood restaurant on the beach.
We ordered all the most tasty and expensive items. We even gave our lovely waitress a huge tip. All with a bunk check. I felt guilty the whole time. Scandalously shameful, this. I am not at all proud of it, but at the time, we were literally starving. Extreme poverty, and no opportunities breeds crime and criminals. Especially when you are a stupid kid.
crabbing ass weed hoes
Turn about is fair play, as the saying goes. A week later we met these fine, but trashy chicks on the beach. Super low class. Loud, rude, and ruthless. They gamed us good. We had met them at this one dude’s place whom Afa knew. An older Caucasian gentlemen who was actually a good man. He had fallen on hard times and lived in a pay by the hour hotel in Jax beach. He was sort of a mentor to Afa. Anyhoo, these broads were over there smoking, as he sold a few dime bags here and there to get by. We had gone over to get a quarter bag on a front. He would front Afa because Afa respected him and always paid him back. One thing I can say about Afa is that he was loyal to his friends. Everyone else he would fuq over, but if you were his people, you were golden.
all for now…
This feels like a good place to stop for now. We will pick up from here next week. Starting with how the game runners got gamed by these gully, weed crabbing chicks. So until next time
true story
AA xx
*disclaimer, I do not condone any of this behavior. Nor am I on this type of vibe anymore. I was a poor, stupid kid at the time. These days I am a law abiding “square”, who teaches his son that the police are there to help, and that we should respect them.
“Night Sweats!” – Amir Alexander – From my upcoming ambient/noise album “Womb!”