1. Do not go too far underground or there is the nether or the deep 1.1 Do not exceed personal ability limit for the wargame 1.1.1 Do not allow X-Rays or too much high frequency into the signal 1.1.2 Do not allow Mutagens or too much Bass in the signal 1.1.3 Do not allow fire unless specifically working with fire 1.1.4 Do not exceed cost limit 5000 actual barrel cost for barrel to item limit 1.1.5 Do not exceed 2 knots at a time in a blueprint or mutagen will form 1.1.6 Do not exceed 1 pass a time in a blueprint or mutagen will form 1.1.7 (Our Foundry Specific) Do not Exceed 100 points of cost detail 1.1.8 Do not exceed 1 point of cost offset overflow 1.1.9 To not underflow 1 point of cost offset overflow 1.2.1 Do not combine source besides with metal 1.2.2 Do not combine motion except with a hydrogen range 1.2.3 Do not combine weed except with motion 1.2.4 Do not use small lettering or large lettering any letters besides standard -33 MID set 1.2.5 Do not create aurora and create quality assurance to avoid aurora 1.2.6 Do not output liquid or gas products except liquid product for a medicine or food 1.2.7 Do not exceed 0 nominal (infinity) at sample or a gas explosion will form, even if secret but you may exceed this outside a sample if the total sample global output does not exceed 0 nominal 1.2.8 Take only exact reference measurement at known measurement point 1.2.9 Do not exceed 3 or 4 acts of alkenation 1.3.0 Do not exceed 1 minor act of hydrogenation in a hydrogen synthesis 1.3.1 Do not exceed 2 points of hydrogenation in a core synthesis 1.3.2 Do not exceed 5 points of diolation ever 1.3.3 Do not use tropane or higher frequency 1.3.4 Make sure the signal is pure of heavy metal 1.3.5 Make sure the signal is pure of vaseline 1.3.6 Make sure the signal is pure of methanol and isopropanol and ethanol 1.3.7 Make sure the signal exhibits known food attribute source minisulfur starch sugar hydrogen alkene (edibles, 1/2 diol) for a sugar and does not variate between starch and sugar molecularly or it will be oxiracetam 1.3.8 Make sure in another method that the signal exhibits minisource and minisulfur nutraloaf and starch and hydrogen and alkene (vinegar oil, diol) for a lipid synthesis 1.3.9 Make sure that the synthesis exhibits reference pure source hydrogen alkene in the EDTA/Tianeptine Synthesis 1.4.0 Make sure that the synthesis exhibits hydrogen in an acid synthesis 1.4.1 Make sure that the hydrogenation is not excessive for a hydrochloride synthesis 1.4.2 Make sure that the substance exhibits minisource and sulfur and starch and pepsi-cola and alkene for a chlorophyll synthesis 1.4.3 A computer synthesis does not use the hydrogen romanaj set starch=LED1 sugar=LED2 sweet=LED3 Hydrogen=Hydrogen but hydrogen is not used 1.4.4 A computer synthesis exhibits chassis metal with aerated LEDX,LEDY,(LEDZ) offset chassis paired with at least detectable gold at every LED and two of these LED assembly at least at phase octavver and maybe 3 or 4 assembly total, with a battery in the chassis and a rear chassis without the battery of the same structure of the initial chassis all made from a cohesive resource 1.4.5 A computer sells for reasonable around 1000 dollars or some crypto 1.4.6 A computer comes with an associated online parts kit or actual parts kit which can be used to modify the process function of the CPU (Finder) 1.4.7 A computer can be overclocked by amplifying its LED microoffset fidelity for its core clock phase 1.4.8 A computer accesses a real item by the blueprint and these are certified at least fully functional 1.4.9 A computer references a particular item from the blueprint or has its direct function encoded directly in the token (blueprint either yields unlock item or the blueprint yields the item from what is in the blueprint) 1.5.0 A computer is the portable computer if it is the tablet token and the RGB computer if it is the full represented.

(I am not a creationist, but I am a bored contrarian and I need to argue with somebody right now. Also, I'm trying to get a better grasp of the rules of phylogeny, so maybe y'all can teach me something.).
Reasons that I think the LUCA was an animal:
1: Unicellularity is hard. We have this idealized conception of a unicellular microbe, where you stick a single cell on a petri dish and then overnight it becomes a million cells, but the vast majority of life can't do anything like this--certainly the LUCA couldn't, right? I think there would be an advantage to early life being multicellular, in that early life could "borrow" RNA/DNA/proteins with neighboring cells. Also they wouldn't need a full complement of molecular machinery if their neighbor can help out, even if their neighbor is a different species. Just like I can borrow my neighbor's stove if I'm making a special meal, early life probably borrowed very basic molecular machinery from the neighboring cell. And if any of their genes broke, they could maybe get a replacement from their neighbor? I think that it's hard to live all by your lonesome self if you're a primitive life form, so being multicellular is easier since you can rely on neighbor cells for various things and don't have to do everything yourself. I also think there's a very blurry line between a single multicellular organism and an interdependent community of unicellular organisms where none of the organisms could survive without the others. Many scientists agree that early life was like this—an interdependent community—and much life still is like this. But why should this type of community be considered to be closer to unicellularity than multicellularity?
2: The nucleus seems like a leftover relic from the RNA world. The primary function seems to be to separate transcription and translation, but why would you want to do this in a DNA organism? Why are you separating transcription from translation if you already have this elegant system in prokaryotes of just having the ribosome and the RNA polymerase right next to each other doing their things almost simultaneously, much, much faster and more efficiently than eukaryotes. Why make everything ten times slower by evolving a nucleus when you could just not evolve a nucleus? Evolution doesn’t plan ahead, and I fail to see how the nucleus is a favorable adaptation in the short term. On the other hand, a nucleus makes a ton of sense for an organism with an RNA genome because you'd need a way to separate your genomic RNA from your RNA transcripts so they could be regulated separately -- You wouldn't want to splice up or run a ribosome over your RNA genome, that would be a disaster.
3: Having a nucleus would make it easier to evolve DNA. Whatever enzyme is deoxygenating the RNA backbone wouldn't run into the problem of accidentally deoxygenating the RNA transcripts. Since the transcripts are outside the nucleus.
4: The nucleus could be an early form of cell specialization for a multicellular life form. If we think of the nucleus as a separate cell from the cytoplasmic space, I think the picture of early RNA life becomes clearer. Some cells/compartments evolve to specialize in replication and transcription -- these become the nucleus -- wheras other cells/compartments become specialized for translation of proteins --these became the cytoplasmic space, which ultimately engulfed the nucleus. In this primitive RNA organism, there would have been little distinction between replication and transcription. The cells of various sizes would have shared proteins, allowing the smaller cells specialized for replication/transcription to still benefit from the gene products being produced in the larger cells specialized for translation. The smaller cells would do a more faithful job of replicating the genome and not have to risk damaging their genes in the messy process of gene expression.
5: Based on the multiple chromosomes in the nucleus, the first Eukaryote was a likely a synthesis of multiple organisms. Multiple organisms implies multicellular. If we look inside the nucleus, we see multiple, weird, x-shaped chromosomes, with a bunch of dumb hacks (centrosomes, telomerase, etc) to keep them from falling apart as they replicate. The bacterial system makes so much more sense for modern organisms -- just having a single circular chromosome: simple, elegant, effective. Again, the eukaryotic system seems like a molecular fossil from an earlier era where these features were actually necessary. I'd argue that the eukaryotic system supports multiple chromosomes because the original chromosomes were the RNA genomes of different interdependent organisms that lived in a multicellular community. Their RNA migrated into a single nucleus for better regulated and better synchronized replication of the community genes.
6: The homologies between Porifera and Amoebozoa make no sense if Animals came from Choanoflagellates. It is widely assumed that multicellular eukaryotes evolved from single-celled eukaryotes, and this seems to be the case in land plants, at least, since they're so similar to algae which obviously came before land plants--but are we sure that it isn't the other way around for animals? Conventional wisdom is that animals evolved from choanoflagellates, and we see very similar cells to choanoflagellates in Porifera called choanocytes. BUT: Porifera (sponges) also have amoebocytes, which look and function a lot like amoebas. Amoebas are believed to be relatively closely related to animals, although not as closely related as choanoflagellates. Yet animals cannot have evolved from both amoebas and choanoflagellates, and choanoflagellates look nothing like amoebas. Isn't it an odd coincidence that amoebocyte cells in sponges are so much like amoebas? If animals came from choanoflagellates, then the similarity of amoebas and amoebocytes would have to be a coincidence. An alternative direction of evolution makes a lot more sense to me: Animals came first, and amoebas and choanoflagellates are separate lineages of reduced animals that have evolved down to only being a single cell. Other eukaryotes (such as fungi, algae and plants) could be evolved from these single-celled descendants of animals.
7: Gene homologies between microsporidia and prokaryotes. Since microsporidia are very obviously reduced fungi, this makes no sense in the current prokaryote-first paradigm, so these gene homologies are handwaved away as being the result of horizontal gene transfer. But what if it isn't horizontal gene transfer? Microsporidia is a parasitic clade of fungi which has lost most of its genes, seemingly lost its mitochondria (are we absolutely sure they ever had mitochondria?) and shrunk to about the size of a bacterium. Its shrunk so much and lost so many genes that it actually is able to withstand mutations to very basic molecular machinery such as its ribosomes, which are very different from the ribosomes of other eukaryotes and seem more similar to the smaller ribosomes of prokaryotes. Perhaps prokaryotes are just even-further-reduced microsporidia that have lost their nucleus, circularized their DNA (which can also happen in cancer cells, google "eccDNA") and further streamlined their molecular machinery.
8: We can learn a lot about the order of the clades from the type of ecological niches they currently occupy. For example: there do exist extremophile bacteria, so there's nothing inherent in bacterial microbiology that prevents them from evolving into extremophiles. So why do we see mostly extremophile archaea, but bacteria occupy almost all of the generalist, high productivity microbial niches? I'd argue: Probably, archaea had a head start in evolving specialized adaptations for extremophile environments. Probably, archaea came first. Imagine an archaeon existing before there were any bacteria, and it evolved to occupy all microbe ecological niches. Then bacteria came along in a new adaptive radiation with superior molecular biology. They were able to supplant archaea from most generalist niches but haven't been able to challenge archaea for extremophile niches for which archaea have specialized genes and specialized adaptations. And neither bacteria nor archaea seriously challenge eukaryotes for the larger ecological niches which require even more specialized adaptations. This to me implies that Eukaryotes came first, archaea came second, and bacteria are the most recent domain.
9: Animals almost exclusively occupy the large, complex, predator niche. I'd argue that the large predator niche, of all ecological niches, is the one where the greatest advantage is given to the organism who evolves to fill the niche first. Because selection pressure changes a lot once the predator appears: Things that can't run away from the predator are forced to make themselves as unappetizing as possible. So they can't have complex proteins, since complex proteins = tastier. So how can any clade evolve into a predator if there already exists a predator clade that could eat it? The fossil record seems to think: It can’t. Throughout the entire fossil record for which we have good records (since the Cambrian), the predator is always an animal. Never does a slime mold or a fungus something evolve muscles and teeth and start competing with animals for the predator niche. But this isn’t 100% true -- you have Venus fly traps, I suppose? So that’s one exception, the only one I can think of. Animal predators today have billions of years of evolutionary head start evolving such things as muscles, a nervous system, circulatory system, etc. If anything else other than an animal starts evolving complex structures or energy storage, it's only going to make itself tastier to an animal. The predator is also the niche that cares the least about the efficiency of basic molecular processes -- it doesn't need to be efficient when the world is its buffet. For this reason, I'd argue that the predator clade must have established itself very early. Probably the kingdom that occupies the apex predator niche at any given time is the absolute oldest lineage of multicellular life. Because long, long after all the original autotrophs have gone extinct, replaced with things that don't waste so much energy and have more efficient and streamlined molecular biology, the apex predator clade would remain on its throne, since nothing, I'd argue, would be able to compete with its evolutionary head start evolving so many complex adaptations for multicellularity. Are we to believe there was ever a time when the apex predator niche was something other than an animal? It's difficult to imagine. If that apex predator was a prokaryote, what is it about animal molecular biology that allowed it to overcome such extreme odds and supplant that prokaryote as the apex predator?
10: The fossil record of animals before the Cambrian is probably very incomplete. The first complex animals in the fossil record (the cambrian explosion) seem very, very advanced already -- I think this is a representation that our fossil record is incomplete and animals are a much older clade than they seem. Since predators are rarer in an ecosystem, and may have been even rarer when energy was scarcer due to less oxygen in the atmosphere (early heterotrophic life likely breathed sulfur compounds), we may simply not have any good fossils of animals from before the cambrian.
11: It's also possible that early animals simply weren't made out of the right material to fossilize. Maybe Archean-eon animals had no bones or anything like that and so they didn't fossilize, so we don't have examples of them. We can't assume that just because you don't find fossilized animals from ~3 billion years ago doesn't mean they weren't around then. And even if we did find fossilized animals from that long ago, they were probably so radically different from modern animals that we might misidentify them. For example, we have many fossils of strange creatures from billions of years ago, nobody knows what they are. Maybe they are animals? Example: Google “Grypania”. Currently there is a debate on whether these are algae or bacteria. But they are quite large, and they look sortof wormlike, so, in my view, there’s no reason they couldn’t be primitive animals.
12: Animals are slow reproducing but have the most sophisticated adaptations for multicellularity. The slower something reproduces, the slower it evolves, since there’s less opportunities for mutations. So how did animals have time to acquire so many complex adaptations for multicellularity? They must be an especially ancient lineage, something that has been multicellular much longer than anything else – otherwise they wouldn’t have had time to acquire so many complex adaptations for multicellularity.
13: Phylogenetic trees based on bioinformatics suffer from "long branch attraction" artefacts -- where fast reproducing, simple, and numerous organisms group together at the base of the tree. This is a well-known problem for making phylogenetic trees. Since prokaryotes are so much more numerous and reproduce so much faster than eukaryotes, it’s natural that they would have the most genetic diversity, even if they evolved later. The appearance of prokaryotes at the base of the tree of life derived from bioinformatics algorithms may be a product of long branch attraction.
14: Counterpoints on mitochondrias. I’ll admit that mitochondrias do look a lot like bacterial symbiotes, but that doesn't necessarily mean the original eukaryotes had mitochondrias. Once alphaproteobacteria evolved, it might have infected many lineages of eukaryotes simultaneously, since nothing had resistance to its infections yet. Maybe it impersonated the mitosome and supplanted its function, and did such a good job as a mitosome that the only surviving eukaryotic lineages are ones with alphaproteobacterial infections. Also, if we assume that bacteria are reduced eukaryotes, then many of the gene homologies for mitochondria associated genes could have been present in the eukaryotic LUCA, and perhaps they were used for regulating the mitosome which preceded mitochondrias. I think that the mitochondria is an interesting piece of the puzzle, but it doesn't conclusively demonstrate that prokaryotes came first.
….
I make ASCII phylogenetic tree for fun:

 _______________________________________________Placazoa 1____LUCA_____________________________________________5_____Ctenophora _______Cnidaria ___Bilateria ______________________________________________Porifera _____________Choanoflagellatea _________Dinoflagellata _______Algae ____Viridiplantae __2___________________________________Amoebozoa _________________________________Fungi _3_______Microsporidia __4____Archaea ^ ______Bacteria (endosymbiosis into various eukaryotic clades) _____Mitochondria ^ (horizontal gene transfer from now-extinct RNA life forms to bacteria and archaea) ______________________primitive RNA life forms (extinct) 1: A community of highly interdependent organisms evolves into multicellular eukaryotic progenator with a DNA genome inside a nucleus. This hypothetical LUCA is a relatively large and complex heterotroph which fed on primitive RNA life forms. 2: First truely unicellular (non-colonial) organisms (independent living isn't easy!) 3: Extreme miniaturization 4: Loss of eukaryotic nucleus 5: Complex adaptations for apex predator niches (neurons, etc) 

Here is the thing, i already have a map with a huge city block with trains. The ratio for the modules/items are not really all calculated, i just went with how much i needed or as many as i can produce in a city block. And i made a block for everything. Literally everything. I made a model for glass. And the UPS/FPS has been down before i sent a rocket, i had like 30 blocks at that point. And i started a new map with the intent to make all the small items (motors, glass, sulfur…) in a main bus to reduce train traffic a maybe save me some fps, and manage the items better. But i don’t really know how much i should make. I started the main bus with essentials like copper, iron, coal, stone and wood. They all come via train for the main bus and the idea was to make everything from that. But i made green ciurcites(about 2k per min) and realize that all my iron is going to that module and will bottleneck everything else. Same for other items like Coke or sulfur. I am thinking of just abandoning this idea of a main bus in a city block and figure out what the problem was and fix it( although i think it’s just that i had many things working together at once). So my questions are:
What ratio do u use for the main bus in SE/K2 and what items are you making for the later on (bit factory like base)
How do u make small items in a city block train designe
How do u design your city block based so that u have everything ready (maybe your LTN NETWORK would be helpful)
And what could slow my game?( i had about 150 trains with double train stations and each station had a ciurcite design with about 4 arithmetic combinator and maybe 3 logical combinator, custom LTN, about 5k robots were active (i was not transporting items they just constructed something if i made a ghost structure, so none were used if not set), i had about 16x6 blocks of city block modules made (maybe more) and each is smelting or making something and the ratio was not perfect(so not a full belt)

ABREX 500 steel plate is specially designed to withstand abrasive conditions, which means it can handle surfaces that cause friction and wear. Using ABREX 500 instead of regular steel plates reduces the weight of structural parts exposed to these harsh conditions. This reduction in weight not only makes structures lighter but also brings economic benefits. Opting for high-performance abrasion-resistant ABREX 500 can extend the lifespan of machinery and components, saving money on maintenance and replacement costs.
ABREX 500 is a type of steel that has been hardened throughout, making it highly resistant to abrasion. It typically has a hardness of around 515 BHN. These plates are widely used in industries where equipment faces tough conditions, such as mining, construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. In mining, for instance, ABREX 500 plates are crucial for equipment like crushers and bulldozers that encounter abrasive materials regularly.
The chemical composition of ABREX 500 includes elements like carbon, manganese, silicon, sulfur, and phosphorus, among others. These elements work together to give ABREX 500 its unique properties, such as high resistance to impact, good workability, weldability, and, most importantly, resistance to abrasion. This means that ABREX 500 plates can withstand wear and tear much better than standard steel plates, making them ideal for applications where durability is paramount.
We are exporting Abrex 500 which include major industrial nations like China, the United States, Japan, and Germany. These countries have significant industrial sectors that rely on high-quality materials like ABREX 500 to improve the performance and longevity of their machinery and equipment. By importing ABREX 500, they can ensure that their infrastructure remains durable and efficient, ultimately leading to cost savings and increased productivity.
ABREX 500 steel plates are a vital component in industries where equipment faces abrasive conditions. With its superior abrasion resistance and other beneficial properties, ABREX 500 helps extend the service life of machinery and components, reducing maintenance costs and downtime. Its widespread use and importation by major industrial nations underscore its importance and effectiveness in various applications.
For more details or inquiries
email us:- info@vandansteel.com
Contact us:- +91-8828813630/022-23893665
Visit our website:- https://www.wearplates.co.in
Our support team will be happy to assist you promptly.

I've spent several hours throughout the past week researching Gachas and nowhere did I find a single post or comment anywhere that accurately explains everything in the same place, so I'm going to do my best to explain things as best as I can so nobody else will have to research it much either. However, I don't think I know absolutely EVERYTHING about Gachas and might be incorrect on a few points but I'll edit this if anyone can point out where I'm wrong.
Taming: Gachas are tamed passively by dropping items down in front of them, I've heard that you can feed it anything but I haven't tested that myself. When you drop the items, the Gacha will walk towards it (unless it's sitting and it's close enough for it to pick it up) and pick it up, then eat it slowly. According to Dododex it tames better with structures/tools than normal materials. I may have done something wrong but i tried using greenhouse windows in stacks of 10 each (as recommended) to tame them with full effectiveness, but to no avail it always lost effectiveness and still took an incredibly long time to tame. Meanwhile, my brother tamed 4 or 5 just using stone in stacks of 20 with the same effectiveness (like 4%). So in other words, don't use this as a taming guide.
The level of the Gacha doesn't matter as much as it does for most creatures, the most important stat on them is crafting skill, which boosts the production of their crystals (drop rate and the quality of the crystals (normal, primitive, ramshackle, apprentice)). The only reason you might want a high level Gacha is to get a head start on crafting skill or high weight, so you can focus all it's levels into crafting skill and it's still able to hold a significant amount of items at once. From what I've heard, a good base stat of crafting skill on a newly tamed high level Gacha is around 130-135%, but anything beyond that is considered rare.
Crafting Skill: As I already said, it increases the frequency at which crystals drop from the Gacha, I don't know if this means that crystals grow more from eating, or if it means it'll eat the same amount, just more often than normal. All of my Gachas get 1.5% crafting skill per level up, so I'd assume that all tamed Gachas get that amount per level up.
I have seen many people recommend 160% crafting skill for Gachas that you want only the standard crystals that drop materials, and 260% for the leveled crystals (primitive, ramshackle, apprentice). I haven't seen anyone explain why so I can only speculate that beyond 160%, the chances of getting a higher level crystal than the standard ones is just too high to make an efficient material farm, as you would get leveled crystals too often. I have several at 160% and they work very well for materials.
Possible Drops: It would probably be easier to check the wiki for this, but I'll list them anyway. All Gachas get 6 different possible materials they can produce, and of those 6 are 3 common materials, 2 uncommon materials, and 1 rare/very rare materials. When wild they will drop a random one of those 6 resources, but when tamed you can choose whichever one of the 6 resources you want by choosing "Production" in the creature's radial menu (you can also set the production to random, newly tamed Gacha's are set to random by default).
Common Materials:

• Fiber
• Flint
• Fragmented Green Gem (equivalent of Green Gem)
• Corrupted Wood (equivalent of Fungal Wood, essentially equivalent to normal Wood with a few extra uses)
• Raw Salt
• Sand
• Stone
• Thatch

Uncommon Materials:

• Blue Crystalized Sap (equivalent of Blue Gem)
• Clay
• Congealed Gas Ball
• Crystal
• Oil
• Silica Pearls
• Silk

Rare Materials:

• Black Pearls
• Metal
• Obsidian
• Organic Polymer
• Red Crystalized Sap (equivalent of Red Gem)
• Sap
• Sulfur

Very Rare Materials:

• Element Dust

If you're looking to tame a Gacha and want to find one with the materials you want, I'd recommend getting very close to the crystal before you pick it up, and check it's level. If there are several Gachas in an area then it can be hard to find one with the right materials you want just by mindlessly picking up every crystal you find. If you check the level and then open the crystal one at a time, and then see the Gacha of that level nearby, it should be easier to find the one you're looking for. It's also important to pay attention to what materials a single Gacha can drop. The first time I tried to tame a Gacha, I thought I found one that dropped both Organic Polymer and Black Pearls. However, if you look at this list above, you can see that both of those are "Rare Materials" and a single Gacha can only have 1 Rare Material as a possible drop. Depending on the material, Gachas drop a different amount, but I'll get into that in another section.
Gachas can drop leveled crystals that can give a variety of different tools/armor as well as some structures. Leveled crystals only have 3 different rarities; Primitive, Ramshackle, Apprentice. So if you came here wondering how to get Ascendant Gacha Crystals, I'm sorry to inform you that as they may have existed years ago, they don't now. Leveled crystals are easily identified by white/green/blue particles floating upward from them. I am not typing out every item that can be dropped by leveled crystals so here is a link where you can check it yourself on the wiki: https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Gacha_Crystal_(Extinction)?so=searchThe?so=searchThe)
Gacha crystals can drop almost all stone/metal/fabricated tools and weapons, including torches and canteens but not including harpoon launchers. They also drop chitin/flak/riot armor as well as heavy miner's helmets, and for structures they only drop a few different thing such as dinosaur gates/gateways of wood/stone/metal as well as wooden tree platforms (I do not believe behemoth gates are possible).As far as I have observed, Primitive crystals drop Primitive/Ramshackle equipment. Ramshackle crystals drop Ramshackle/Apprentice/Journeyman equipment. Apprentice crystals drop Journeyman/Mastercraft equipment, and I don't believe Ascendant is possible but maybe it is. There is a good chance that I'm somewhat incorrect about the information above, I tested it several times myself but accidentally deleted the note so I'm mostly relying on memory now.
Snow Owl Pellets: Gachas pick up items near them when wild and tamed, including feces and snow owl pellets. They eat feces as more of a last resort option but they eat snow owl pellets almost immediately after obtaining them, granting them a buff. The buff can be identified by yellow, green, blue and red particles swirling over the Gacha's back. Based on my own observation, the buff lasts until the Gacha produces a crystal, even if the Gacha has nothing to eat in it's inventory, meaning the buff will be "on hold" until it can eat. It's important to note that eating snow owl pellets does produce a crystal at all, like it would it if it ate a material like stone. This means if a Snow Owl is directly in front of a Gacha with the buff and nothing in it's inventory, every time the Snow Owl regurgitates a pellet, the Gacha will pick it up and hold it in it's inventory without eating it, allowing you to farm snow owl pellets while afk for later use. Now I will finally get into what the buff actually does.
The buff from the snow owl pellet forces the Gacha to eat until it produces a crystal (again, as long as it has something consumable in it's inventory), the crystal is also forced to produce the maximum amount of the material it can make, assuming the Gacha is in a good mood (I'll explain mood in the next section). I believe the snow owl pellet buff also makes the Gacha more likely to drop leveled crystals, but it didn't seem to impact my pursuit of materials so I wouldn't worry about it if you just want to farm something like metal for example.
Mood: Gachas have good and bad mood which affect their crystal production. The mood is mainly affected by the gender of other Gachas in the vicinity, but mood can also be lowered by taking damage. The mood is dependent on if there is another Gacha of the same gender withing a certain distance.
For example: If you have a male Gacha and female Gacha next to each other, they'll both be in a good mood. If you have 2 male Gachas next to each other, they'll both be in a bad mood. If you have 8 Gachas in a small area, 7 are female and 1 is male, the females will be in a bad mood and the male will be in a good mood. The mood is dependent on if there is another Gacha of the same gender withing a certain distance.
About the distance, I've seen people give several different numbers but it seems that the actual distance that same-gendered Gachas need to be apart is 14 foundations. Now I'll get into what mood actually does.
Bad mood is caused by being too close to another Gacha of the same gender, or taking damage. It causes the Gacha to not only produce crystals slower, but the yield of each crystal will be significantly less. I'm not sure how it affects leveled crystals but as bad mood as basically the counterpart of a snow owl pellet buff, I'd assume it lowers the drop rate of leveled crystals. They also refuse to pick up items, rending the snow owl pellet farming method I mentioned irrelevant. I don't believe they eat snow owl pellets while in a bad mood, and I'm also pretty sure that the bad mood cancels the buff until they're back in a good mood. I'm not sure how long bad mood lasts from taking damage, but after a Gacha is separated (at least 14 foundations) from all other Gachas of the same gender, it remains in a bad mood for a time unless an opposite-gendered Gacha is close to it. Bad mood is easily identified by purple/black particles on its back, similar to the snow owl pellet buff. It will also refuse to look at you if "Ally Looking" is enabled.
Good mood enables the Gacha to produce crystals normally without issues (as long as it has enough to eat) and utilize the snow owl pellet buff. It also will pick up any item near them. It is identified by no lights on its back, and if "Ally Looking" is enabled, it'll look at you.
Gacha Crystal Material Quantity: A Gacha Crystal will drop a different quantity of materials based on its mood and the snow owl pellet buff. This seems to pertain to the rarity of the material (common, uncommon, rare, very rare). I play on single player settings as I'm always playing alone or with my brother, so I don't know if the quantity is different than default for me.
I recently was out of Red Gems and Crystal, and although Crystal was easy enough to find, I couldn't find Red Gems anywhere except one location. So instead of searching around everywhere I decided to check what materials all my Gachas can produce and found that I have one for both Red Crystalized Sap and Crystal, as well as some other materials I was lacking such as Organic Polymer and Metal. So i threw down a male that produced Red Crystalized Sap and a female that produced Crystal and loaded them up with stuff to eat and all my saved snow owl pellets. I kept getting 30 Red Crystalized Sap with the buff and 60 Crystal, also with the buff. But once the buff ran out i was getting around 14-27 Red Crystalized Sap and double that of Crystal. If you refer to the list in the "Possible Drops" section, you can see that Red Crystalized Sap is Rare, whereas Crystal is Uncommon. I also farmed Organic Polymer and Metal with the Gachas and got 30 from each crystal with the snow owl pellet buff.
Upon further testing I have determined the maximum quantity of materials from a Gacha Crystal based on their rarity: (Keep in mind this is with single player settings, I don't know if Gacha Crystal yield is affected by this or other settings. Also keep in mind I don't actually have a Gacha that drops element dust, which is the only Very Rare Material.)
Common: x120 Uncommon: x60 Rare: x30 Very Rare (Element Dust): x15
I can't confirm this but it appears that a Gacha in a good mood without the snow owl pellet buff would produce between 35-100% of its maximum yield per crystal, and a Gacha in a bad mood would produce below 35%.
Breeding: Gachas do not drop eggs after mating and instead have a gestation timer like mammals do. Once the baby has been born, it will pick up items on the ground, allowing you to give it more food than it can hold which can prevent starvation much easier than you can for most creatures, however a Maewing would render this technique useless. I haven't tested this myself, nor was I able to find any information on it but I don't think they can eat everything an adult can, for food at least. They can eat meat and berries (this I can confirm), and I've seen people use rare mushrooms as they provide more food for the baby than meat or berries, but make sure rare mushrooms are the only item in their inventory, or else they might eat other items first.
You can check what a Gacha can produce ("Production" in the radial menu) even in the baby stage, allowing you to easily determine if raising it to an adult is even worthwhile. If not then you can just.... you know. The possible materials are unaffected by the parents and are entirely random.
Someone in the comments pointed out to me that baby Gachas smash feeding troughs so you should keep them away from them... I haven't seen this myself but better safe than sorry. They also said if you just set babies to wander then they never need food, hence the reason to fear for your trough as they might walk into it and smash it.
When imprinting the Gacha, it will not gain more Crafting Skill. The only way to increase this is through level ups or breeding Gachas with high Crafting Skill, I am unaware if Crafting Skill can be increased through mutations but I personally don't think it would be worth the effort even if it is possible.
What to Feed Gachas: This is undoubtedly my favorite thing about Gachas, as I'm the type of player who does not throw out ANYTHING no matter what game I'm playing, so having a good way to transmute junk that I'm unhealthily attached to into resources I need is amazing.
I have thrown everything from Rockwell Recipes to Slingshots in Gachas and they have not turned down a single thing. Sick of dropping stone tools and cloth armor every time you kill something? A Gacha will eat it. Tired of throwing out all your spoiled meat from feeding troughs? A Gacha will eat it. Have a full fault of hide and now you throw out every bit of it you get? A Gacha will eat it. Maybe you have too many Rex Bone Helmet Skins? Sadly a Gacha won't eat it... just kidding yes they will! These things will eat all your garbage you get after you take a newly raised creature out to kill Rexes for XP. All those skins you get every time you respawn, they'll eat those too. With a Gacha, everything has a purpose now, even those Smithy Blueprints you get from every Blue Supply Drop.
Below I'll list the things Gachas will eat in order (1 being most preferred and 10 being least preferred):

1. Stone (stacks of 20 until gone)
2. Structures, Ammo (stacks of 20 until gone), Armor, Weapons, Tools, Blueprints
3. Food items such as raw meat (not Raw Prime Meat/Raw Prime Fish Meat), Spoiled Meat, berries, seeds, cooked meat, crops, mushrooms, etc. (These will be eaten in stacks of 20 until there is no stack of 20 in the Gacha, even if there are 2 stacks of 17, they will be left untouched until later.)
4. Other materials such as Chitin, Hide, Thatch, Wood, Fiber, Oil (Oil produced by sea creatures is included), etc. (These will be eaten in stacks of 20 until there is no stack of 20 in the Gacha, even if there are 2 stacks of 17, they will be left untouched until later.)
5. The least wanted things such as incomplete stacks from tier 3 and 4, Rockwell Recipes, Skins, Feces, possibly more. At this point it will also eat Raw Prime Meat, as it considers it an incomplete stack since it can't eat it in groups of 20.

Keep in mind I have not tested every item, it would take a long time and probably be more trouble than it's worth. I would assume other minerals such as Crystal and Obsidian as well as Metal would be in tier 1 with Stone, but I haven't tested them nor do I want to, besides Stone would be undoubtedly easier. I have found that the easiest way to get stuff to feed Gachas is just to keep all the random junk you'd normally throw out, I already listed them but I'll list them again:

• Spoiled Meat
• Stim Berries
• Excess items of which you have a full vault
• Trophies if you don't care for them
• Tools/Weapons/Armor not worth grinding (such as stone tools, stone arrows, cloth armor, slingshots, etc.)
• Rockwell Recipes
• Inferior Blueprints (Blueprints that are worse than your best ones and you either throw out or leave in a row of bookshelves that are labeled "Trash") as well as blueprints for structures and normal items
• Skins (mostly Rex Bone Helmet Skins you get from alphas as well as Fireworks Flare Gun Skins from killing deep sea creatures)
• All that extra meat you get from every hunt, as well the berries you'll never use

Passive Collecting: If you set a Gacha to wander with "Resource Harvesting" enabled, they'll harvest trees and rocks and other things around them. If you don't feel like taming a Doedicurus or Castoroides, then these work quite well as a replacement, not to mention they'll gather both Wood and Stone at the same time. The downside is that they'll eat them, but they'll keep collecting resources at the same time so for the most part this shouldn't hinder it's resource collection.
Probably the best part of setting a Gacha to wander and collect resources on its own, is that you won't have to feed it anything yourself. It will collect resources, eat them, grow crystals, drop crystals. All you have to do is be in the area and pick them up. The problem with this is that Gacha Crystals are easily hidden under bushes, which can result in you missing a significant amount of the crystals produced. I've found that it's easier to do this at night as the crystals glow and stand out very well.
However, before setting a Gacha to wander, make sure to build a pen and have a few other dinos wandering around in it to lower the spawn rate of wild creatures. If the Gacha gets attacked by a Raptor or something, it'll be in a bad mood for a little while and it's crystal production will be extremely lowered for a time. With this in mind I would not recommend using Dino Leashes and instead building a wall out of something like Stone Dinosaur Gates. Fence foundations and walls work well but I've noticed that trees/rocks/bushes spawn closer to gates than walls, and in the long run it's probably a lot easier to place gates than fence foundations as they tend to randomly dislike being placed in a certain area. I'd also recommend having a Carno or something set to follow the wandering Gacha, as they do not do much damage nor do they have a lot of health compared to other creatures of its size.
What I Do: I just have a single Gacha set to produce Metal sitting off my deck but right next to it, with 2 Snow Owls leaning over the Gacha but standing on the deck. Everyday when I log off, I take everything out of the Gacha and put it into a Snow Owl so it won't eat it while I can't collect the crystals. So when I log on, I take it out of the Snow Owl and put it back in the Gacha, since the Snow Owls are leaning over the Gacha, they puke the snow owl pellets right in front of it so it just picks it up (it's in a good mood due to being the only Gacha around).
Then I go on my daily routine (gather kibble eggs and get a few cave drops nearby) and come back and there's a couple crystals on the ground giving me free Metal to put straight in the forge. I also filter the meat in the main feeding trough and the Hyaenodon next to it and give the Gacha about 1900 Spoiled Meat. Every time I go out on my Rock Drake or other tame, I dump all the stone tools and arrows and other garbage (my Chitin and Hide vaults are full constantly and now Stone, Thatch, Wood keep hitting the max every other day) into the Gacha as well, there's always stuff left at the end of the day because I get so much absolutely useless junk that the Gacha seems to believe is food. Occasionally on a slow day it might run out, so I just go to an oil drill or gas collector and grab everything and take it straight back to the Gacha. Every day I get at least 900 Metal in the forge (raw, not ingots).
Other Notes:

1. I've seen a lot of people say that mate boosted Gachas produce crystals more, this is not the case. The only good thing about keeping a male and female Gacha next to each other is it allows you to fit twice as many Gachas in an area without them having bad mood.
2. When a Gacha is set to produce Organic Polymer the best option is to not open the crystal, and instead put it inside a storage container and only open it once you need Polymer, due to the eventual spoilage of Organic Polymer.
3. Gachas will pick up Feces if a creature defecates close enough to them, but Feces is only eaten as a last resort option compared to most available items.
4. If you always have a folder in your inventory with your less used items like a Canteen and Sickle and probably same ammo, then it's best to be aware when you transfer all items straight into the Gacha. Sometimes the "Transfer All" button will take things out of your folder as well, resulting in you accidentally feeding the Gacha your own tools (I have lost over 5 Ascendant Sickles and well over 10 stacks of Shotgun Ammo to this). However this seems to usually only happen when you log on for the first time after opening the game. I should know better at this point but I literally just sacrificed 20 Shotgun Ammo today so I'm gonna start dumping everything out of my folder and into my private vault at the end of every day.
5. I don't think the item that Gachas eat impacts the crystal growth, except tools/weapons/armors/structures seem to equal a group of 20 items (i.e. one mouthful).
6. Since snow owl pellets spoil after 14 days (default settings), if you don't have anything in your Gacha for it to eat and you're just using it to collect pellets for later use, I'd recommend taking all of them and dumping them into a Dung Beetle at the end of every day. Dung Beetles increase the spoil time of all feces, including snow owl pellets. If you don't have a Dung Beetle, crop plots work as well, although it will be tedious to place down enough crop plots for a large amount of snow owl pellets as each one has an inventory of only 10 slots.
7. Before editing this post, I said you can only get Element Dust as a Production option through a wild-born Gacha, but people have informed me that this is not the case and you can in fact breed Gachas to get one that produces Element Dust. I'm saying this here in case I forgot to delete one of the times I said it.
8. If you go out for a long time while your Gacha is making crystals, just keep in mind that they only last 15 minutes (default rates).

Anyway that's all I can think of right now, yet I have the feeling I forgot to mention 47097894703 things. If there's anything anyone can confirm or point out, or anything that I should add then please let me know. I'd like for this Gacha essay to help a few people figure out what to do so they don't have to scour the internet for a week. If people actually care about this post then I'll make a detailed post about an optimal Gacha Crystal farm.

Space struck is a debut collection of poetry from Paige Lewis, and also my first time reading an entire book of poetry.
I just read Space Struck in its entirety one last time, this is my 3rd time. I listened to the audiobook while reading the book in tandem, and omg it was so immersive. I honestly would be content to read this book over and over again for months, it's just so good. And I'm not going to fully "finish" it, Space Struck gives me something I need so dearly and I will revisit many of these poems over and over again until I understand them as I understand my own heart beat. So it's not goodbye, not really. Just time to move on.
This was the first collection of poetry I've ever read and I'm, well, space struck. It was gorgeous. Paige's use of language is just incredible, it's so seemingly simple and minimalistic and yet their imagery is extremely inventive and they manage to say so so much. These poems really really struck my soul. Every one just means so damn much to me, I've let this book become a part of my heart for the past week and I'm so incredibly glad I did.
Another thing that was really cool was the formatting. Most of the poems have a specific shape to each stanza that they adhere to throughout the poem, and I just find that so interesting. It really redirects the flow of the reading, and also gives it such a cool sense of structure.
The heart. The love. The meaning and the depth. Every one of these works I felt so deeply, and I feel like I've come out of reading this book with more of myself than when I went into it. I bathed in Paige's words, I let them infiltrate my mind and unpack their suitcase. Several poems inspired my own work, and the narrative voice really deepened my own, I think.
It's rather crazy just how personal this poetry is to me. I wouldn't feel the same way sharing a paragraph from my favorite book as I do sharing a poem from this. They resonated with me so deeply and changed me and I feel so...not different—I feel so much more. I never knew words could have this much power.
I'm so so happy I read this. It was my first book of poetry, but it will most certainly not be the last I read. Poetry is going to become a part of my life now, I can't believe it hasn't been for so long.

In an era marked by a relentless pursuit of energy efficiency and sustainability, the prominence of lithium-ion batteries stands as a testament to human ingenuity. These compact powerhouses have become the cornerstone of modern technology, driving everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. Check out: lithium-ion battery
However, the journey of lithium-ion batteries from laboratory experiments to ubiquitous consumer products is a saga marked by persistence, innovation, and continual refinement.
Origins and Development: The inception of lithium-ion batteries can be traced back to the 1970s when scientists explored the potential of lithium as an anode material due to its lightweight and high electrochemical potential. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino made groundbreaking contributions that laid the foundation for the modern lithium-ion battery. Whittingham utilized lithium cobalt oxide as the cathode material, while Goodenough replaced it with lithium iron phosphate, significantly improving safety and stability. Yoshino’s innovation of using petroleum coke as the anode material enabled the commercialization of lithium-ion batteries in the early 1990s.
Key Components and Working Principle: At the heart of a lithium-ion battery are its key components: the cathode, anode, electrolyte, and separator. The cathode typically consists of metal oxides like lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron phosphate, or lithium manganese oxide, while the anode comprises carbon-based materials such as graphite. The electrolyte, a lithium salt dissolved in an organic solvent, facilitates the movement of lithium ions between the cathode and anode during charging and discharging cycles. Meanwhile, the separator prevents direct contact between the cathode and anode, minimizing the risk of short circuits.
The functioning of a lithium-ion battery revolves around the reversible intercalation of lithium ions into the host materials of the electrodes during charging and discharging. When the battery is charged, lithium ions migrate from the cathode to the anode through the electrolyte, where they are stored within the structure of the anode material. During discharge, the ions travel back to the cathode, releasing energy that powers electronic devices or electric motors.
Advantages and Applications: The widespread adoption of lithium-ion batteries can be attributed to their numerous advantages over traditional battery chemistries. They boast high energy density, allowing for the storage of large amounts of energy in a compact form factor, making them ideal for portable electronics and electric vehicles. Moreover, lithium-ion batteries exhibit low self-discharge rates, enabling them to retain charge for extended periods without significant loss. Their versatility and scalability have also made them indispensable in renewable energy storage systems, grid stabilization, and even aerospace applications.
Challenges and Future Prospects: Despite their remarkable progress, lithium-ion batteries are not without limitations. Issues such as cost, limited availability of raw materials, and safety concerns surrounding thermal runaway incidents continue to pose challenges. However, ongoing research endeavors aimed at developing alternative electrode materials, solid-state electrolytes, and advanced manufacturing techniques hold promise for overcoming these obstacles. Additionally, emerging technologies like lithium-sulfur and lithium-air batteries offer higher theoretical energy densities, paving the way for the next generation of energy storage solutions.
Conclusion: The evolution of lithium-ion batteries represents a triumph of scientific collaboration and technological innovation. From humble beginnings in research laboratories to revolutionizing the way we power our world, these batteries have reshaped industries and propelled us towards a cleaner, more sustainable future. As we continue to push the boundaries of energy storage technology, the journey of lithium-ion batteries serves as a testament to the boundless potential of human creativity and perseverance.
For more information regarding lithium mining visit our website: https://edisonlithium.com

For the sake of transparency, I am not the architect of the following discoveries, and am just helping to forward their message and clean it up. Copywrite of the following work belongs to no one and everyone is not only welcome to share these findings as if they were their own, but openly encouraged to do so.
Introduction
If you think you know anything about MAGA. Trust me, you know nothing. Not even his most devout followers or haters will have considered the following. And for the sake of our democracy and way of life, I hope people read this.
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
Snippet From My Thesis On MAGA
As I work on tidying up the master file with the helpful dms I got, allow me to post just the most contentious part of it below, now that it’s able to stand on its own.
MAGA didn’t begin in 2015. I argue it began in 2001 on 9/11, while also harnessing and funneling decades of anti-government resentment till many Americans would openly call for a “wrecking ball” figure to help “drain the swamp.”

A Key Fueling Factor To American Outrage- Inflation
Many elements contributed to growing American anger that would later contribute to MAGA, this is a snippet from the larger work.
Rising Cost of Living
o In 1950, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 24.1. By 2000, it had risen to 168 (a 597% increase), and by 2023, it had reached 304.7, a 1163% increase from 1950.
o Housing prices saw a drastic rise overtime, with the median home price increasing from $7,354 in 1950 to $388,700 in 2023, a staggering 5185% increase.
o While rising rent costs can contribute to overall inflation and cost of living, even the left has largely failed to address how exponentially increasing real estate prices impact the cost of living. This omission has made many other conspiracy theories seem more plausible in its wake.
o If we don’t find real solutions for real estate that also aren’t extreme, then society will feel more and more pressure to accept “unreasonable solutions” like Trump, even though he’s the last person on earth who could solve it, considering his business acumen and history.
MAGA Dynamics and Blind Devotion
In 2016, it wasn't just the left calling the MAGA movement a cult. Trump famously said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." Even the left failed to grasp the gravity of this statement. As someone who nearly died in a deadly cult and based on my research, I don't know of a single cult where the founder could openly commit murder without losing members. Trump didn't just believe he'd created one of the largest cults ever; he believed he'd created the most fanatical. Let's hope his followers prove him wrong by showing a willingness to criticize him, regardless of their vote.

The MAGA Question
Instead of challenging MAGA supporters on fallacious beliefs, ask them this question to see if they’re at least able to see a world where Trump isn’t a biblical King: "If Trump admitted he was behind 9/11 and used resulting insurance money and donations from hostile governments to create false “grass root” campaigns. And did it all in a way to make it seem like others committed his own atrocities. And that he intended to destroy America in every way if he got elected, would you still vote for him?"

Yet even then, getting through to a MAGA supporter inevitably refers to 9/11 “research” out there when they realize individual positions are usually fallacious. This quagmire me decide to investigate this tragedy, to see if there was a more plausible counter theory. Honestly, the more I looked the more surprised I became. Here are my findings that are but a snippet of my full thesis on MAGA.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories and MAGA
Conspiracy Theories and Credibility:
o First off, conspiracy theories should involve some effort to verify narratives, rather than just repeating claims across multiple sources that mistake themselves as evidence; like a bunch of people who repeat “bob farted” across multiple websites may see that as evidence, when in fact, it was Sean. Sorry Sean.

Early Origins of MAGA:
o Although some believe MAGA began in 2015, its roots lie as early as the 1980s with Rush Limbaugh and later became "serious" on 9/11.
o 9/11 conspiracy theories claim controlled demolitions were used, but the lack of any cellphone recordings of explosions weakens this theory.

Suspicious Factors:
o The official narrative involving chaotic jet fuel leading to a straight fall seemed questionable.
o The collapse of a third building (WTC 7), which wasn’t directly hit, fueled suspicions.
o Airline stocks were heavily shorted before the attacks, raising concerns about insider trading. Harvey Pitt, Republican SEC Chairman at the time, investigated this and claimed there was nothing amiss, but was criticized for later crimes and forced to resign.
o It’s also suspicious that in Trumps 2000 book “The America We Deserve” that he stated, “I really am convinced we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the [1993] bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen*.”*
§ Yet democrats would largely miss this point entirely and obsess over his false claim that he called for Bin Laden to be killed, when he had not. Somehow conspiracy theorists would find this ‘cool’ rather than suspicious.
CNN Fact Check Donald Trump Osama Bin Laden Book Claim

Reports and Simplified Narratives:
o FEMA's 2002 report and NIST's 2005 report provided technical explanations of the tower collapses.
o However, the Port Authority Chairman stuck to the oversimplified narrative that "jet fuel melted steel beams," even though he knew this was a half-truth, as detailed in the next section, fueling anti-government conspiracies. The question is why.

Potential Impact:
o 9/11 conspiracy theories sowed distrust in the government, which may have been one of the attackers' objectives. Anyone that heavily profited from this tragedy, and helped further those objects, should be questioned.
o The ‘Loose Change’ “documentary” pointed out suspicious parts of the story, but failed to give any clear claims as to who was purportedly behind it. It also failed to note the Twin Towers titanic design flaw that could result in a straight fall. Even the 2015 version of this film fails to mention nearly all of the known facts in this report.
o The Director of that film later states:
“I DON’T THINK WE’D HAVE PRESIDENT TRUMP IF IT WEREN’T FOR 9/11”
“9/11 created a culture of fear, of xenophobia, this sense of entitlement and everything we’ve seen. Warrantless wire-tapping, Guantanamo Bay, everything that’s happened led us to this point, we wouldn’t be here without 9/11. They want to kick out all the Mexicans and Muslims because of this culture of fear and bigotry and xenophobia that directly led to the election of fucking Donald Trump. [laughing] That’s our world now! We had Reagan before, and Governor Schwarzenegger. But President Donald Trump? It’s just weird. Everything is just weird.”
Theoutline Reflecting On Loose Change
o While the director was in the right to ask questions, he failed to ask the most obvious ones.
o However, his lead “researcher,” Jason Bermas, would turn out to be a full blown MAGA wingnut.
Patriot Jason Bermas
o Anyone that would benefit politically and financially from 9/11 should be fully investigated.
Further Reading:
Harvey Pitt - Wikipedia
Politifact How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation
It will never be possible to defeat MAGA followers “logically” with people who believed his parties rhetoric “that 9/11 was an inside job.”

I say… what if those Republican leaders were self reporting?
What if Trump followers have been rallying behind the very man responsible for its orchestration?

The Twin Towers and Larry Silverstein
Architectural Pitfalls of the Twin Towers:
· The Twin Towers had unique architectural flaws due to the excessive heavy load on their exoskeletons to allow for more floor and leasing space, which greatly contributed to their straight collapse after the 9/11 attacks. This was the first and last skyscraper made in this way.
· For anyone who said that “any other building would have fallen sideways,” you were right, though perhaps not entirely how you may have imagined. A "Coke Can" analogy shows how a similar weakened structure can result in a straight fall, contrary to conspiracy theories claiming controlled demolitions. This isn't something I'm asking you to take for granted, or to read from media sources you don’t trust. This is something you can verify on your own, in person, in real time, in reality.
· However Trump, despite being close friends with Silverstein as we’ll cover later, claimed "It wasn’t architectural defects, you know, the World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building” per the attached PolitiFact article.
· Supporting Article:
Engineering Experts Explain the Collapse of the Twin Towers
Politifact Donald Trumps 911 Speculation

Larry Silverstein, The Leasor Of The Twin Towers:
· Nearly went bankrupt after losing his main tenant Drexel Burnham in 1980 after he built tower 7 with him in mind.
· I don't know how many of us understand the level of desperation a situation like this can cause in someone and how many potential crimes it can easily push them towards.
· He is known for then saying, “…looking up at the twin towers and thinking, my building is huge, but it is made diminutive by the twin towers. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be incredible someday to own those?" That's not the statement of a sane person who nearly went bankrupt, and if anything, hints towards jealousy.
· He managed to secure Salomon Brothers two years later, which later paid $300 million in securities fraud penalties casting suspicion over the entities who saved Silverstein, in addition to their overall plans for the future.
· How he would become able to outbid everyone else in 2001, for the right to lease the twin towers, would become a mystery we will untangle later.
Further Reading
Manhattan Institute – Silverstein On Ground Zero
Justice Department: Salomon Brothers Securities Fraud

Trump and Real Estate Connections
Historical Context and Redevelopment Plans:
· A redevelopment plan commenced in the 1990s by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, spurred a commercial revival in downtown Manhattan, making the World Trade Center prime property. Pataki would go on to criticize trump, while the other would prove to be one of this wildest, if not craziest, supporters to truly fanatical degrees.
Further Reading:
Manhattan Institute: Rebuilding Ground Zero
· Tom Leppert was the CEO of Turner construction which right wing conspiracy theorists claimed helped ensure the towers would fall straight down. He also became part of Trumps transition team. While there’s no evidence of explosives being used, tampering with the exoskeleton and weaking the relatively thin central column ahead of time are theoretically plausible.
Huffpost Donald Trump Transition Team
Wikipedia Tom Leppert

The bidding for the World Trade Center lease involved only a few major real estate firms as allowed by the Port Authority Chairman. Below are the allowed bidders and their estimated worth at the time included:

· Donald J. Trump’s Organization:
o Worth around $1.5 billion in 1996 after multiple bankruptcies. Confirmed only by Forbes magazine in 2005.
· Tishman Speyer:
o Valued at approximately $1.8 billion in 2000, would soon face ‘tenant issues’ with many scrupulous legal claims against them.
· Gale & Wentworth:
o Worth a few million.
· Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties:
o Mortimer Zuckerman alone was worth around $2 billion.
· The Rouse Company:
o Mainly a shopping mall operator.
· Brookfield Properties:
o A Canadian firm valued at over $20 billion in 2000.
· Vornado Realty Trust:
o Worth an estimated $2-3 billion. Had the highest bid, but was unexpectedly outed by the Port Authority Chairman, paving the way for Silverstein’s win. CEO of Vornado Trust, Steven Roth would later do many deals with Trump in 2005 and beyond.
· Larry Silverstein:
o As mentioned, was nearly bankrupt in the 1980s, and was mysteriously awarded the right to lease the World Trade Center contract at $3.2 billion, twice the original asking price of 1.2 Billion. It would still be owned by the Port authority of NY and NJ, he would just own the rights to lease it.
o Port Authority Chairman, Lewis Eisenberg, made this unexplained decision, who also later became Trumps lead fundraiser in 2015.
o After putting down only $125 million, as per the contract, Silverstein would be getting back $100 million just 6 weeks after his bid and with an uncommon terrorist insurance addition. His exaggerated bid and insurance contract would also greatly inflate the amount of money he could get from an insurance claim. If the winning bid was 1.5 billion, the insurance payout would also have been much less.
o In real estate, its quite rare for a prudent investor to bid twice the asking price, as demonstrated by the other companies that backed out, of which I find no connections to Trump.
o If anyone had known about 9/11 ahead of time, like Trump claims he did, it would become drastically easier to outbid all competitors, knowing that for pennies on the dollar, you would be getting much more back.

Further Reading:
NY Times Article on World Trade Center Deal
Wikipedia on Lewis Eisenberg
Patch On Lew Eisenberg Leading Trump Fundraising
NY Times Article Silverstein Gets Most Of His Money Back

Giuliani’s Gangster Acts
Arguably, if the above points are what they objectively appear to be, that would be a bad thing. You’d think that would be enough. However, Guliani would say “hold my beer’ to those sentiments.

1. Outdated Equipment for First Responders:
· Due to Giuliani’s inadequate leadership, first responders used old equipment that failed to warn them to evacuate the towers. Which contributed to their deaths while they searched for survivors.
NY Times Article: Giuliani’s Preparedness on 9/11
2. Obstructed Recovery Efforts:
· Giuliani delayed proper search and rescue operations for days, possibly costing lives of citizens and first responders who didn’t know they needed to leave.
· 20 Years later he would claim that some of Bidens actions were so reckless that… “It would be as if I got down to ground zero and said take out the firefighters, all you civilians see if you can get yourselves out.” Self report?
NBC News Report: Giuliani’s Role in Recovery
NY1: Giuliani Reflects on 9/11 Anniversary
3. Twin Towers Fund and Privatization:
· Giuliani privatized the Twin Towers relief funds, making them unauditable.
NY Times Article on Privatization
NY Post Article: Giuliani and Twin Towers Fund
4. Survivors Threaten To SUE Guliani For Relief Funds
· Even after privatizing the twin towers fund, Giuliani would make it incredibly difficult for the victims to receive their fair share. Requiring many of them to spend unnecessary money on advisors and consultants.
· Even with their legal pressure, he only agreed to “give the remaining 100 million to victims,” out of 170 million, if he could first put the money into the bank account of a charity in which he controlled.
· From the attached article: “But Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said that he remained adamantly opposed to any transfer of funds to Mr. Giuliani's charity.
He also objected to Mr. Giuliani's continued control over even the $15 million in his private charity. Mr. Giuliani, he charged, gives every indication of using the Twin Towers Fund to maintain a staff of loyal supporters and to advance his political aspirations.
'The concern that politics will infiltrate the fund becomes even more apparent when one reviews the list of the mayor's former political appointees who are assuming senior staff positions or serving on the fund's board of directors,'' he wrote in a letter on Monday to Eliot L. Spitzer, the state attorney general.”
NY Times Article On Guliani Pressed To Disperse Twin Tower Funds
· However, there is no evidence of Giuliani making good on this promise.
· There are honestly no words for this. All associates of Guliani should be investigated.
5. Attempted Election Cancellation in 2001:
· Giuliani tried to cancel the 2001 election to stay mayor longer. He even considered removing term limits with Governor Pataki’s support. Similar to how Trump has “joked” about increasing his own term limits.
Business Insider: Giuliani and Pataki’s Attempt to Cancel Elections
Esquire Trump Joke Third Term
6. Motive
· In 2000, Guliani unfortunately got prostate cancer. We have to be willing to ask if this was a motive for his corrupt acts.
SurvivorNet: Giuliani’s Cancer


Silverstein’s Unscrupulous Greed
1. Initial Settlement Demands and Profit Claims:
· Despite only having been out for $25 million, Silverstein initially sought nearly $8 BILLION in insurance settlements and argued for "loss of revenue from those buildings," which is quite an uncompassionate claim considering how many lost their lives. Talk about a prime example of the working and lower classes making sacrifices while rich elites complain they didn’t profit enough from the same tragedy.
2. Rebuilding Contributions and Insurance Payout:
· Despite the fact that he only owned the leasing rights to the twin towers, ‘Silverstein Properties’ received up to $4 billion from insurance payouts, instead of the Port Authority, which would be customary as the owner.
· While it's assumed that most of that money went to rebuilding, this isn't actually known or proven. It would be different if he had a separate insurance policy that was not connected to the rebuilding of the towers, with different monies going to the Port Authority to rebuild. This was not the case.
History.com: Rebuilding of Ground Zero
· He additionally refused to return the rights of Building 1 to the Port Authority until he secured additional funds from an $8 billion state fund. Talk about heartless.
Wikipedia: Larry Silverstein
· Various entities would contribute a total of $20 billion to rebuild all six damaged or destroyed towers, including four towers leased by Silverstein and two others he hadn't. This makes it unlikely that he had to go out of pocket with his 4 Billion.
3. Estimated Net Worth:
· While earlier records of Silverstein's net worth are unavailable, aside from his near bankruptcy in 1980, he is currently estimated to be worth around $1 billion.
Forbes Profile: Larry Silverstein

Silverstein’s Controversial Alignment with Trump
Larry Silverstein's connections and public persona have often been scrutinized. This scrutiny became particularly relevant in 2015 when he publicly displayed his support for Donald Trump:

• Long-standing Relationship: Silverstein revealed a 30-year-long acquaintance with Trump, emphasizing the depth of their connection. This means his relationship started in 1985, roughly two years after gaining a powerful criminal organization as a tenant in his tower 7, that saved him from bankruptcy, and 6 years before Trumps first, of many, bankruptcies. This also means they knew each other before 9/11.
• Supportive Yet Vague: He commended Trump for diligently pursuing what he believed to be right, echoing Trump's own ambiguous rhetoric. When pressed about the righteousness of Trump’s goals, Silverstein ambiguously responded, "well, it’s... you know... we’ll find out." This mirrors Trump’s evasive " Well, we're going to have to see what happens" stance, when questioned about committing to a peaceful transfer of power prior to January 6th—an event that ultimately unfolded with violence and chaos.
• Early Endorsement: By voicing his support when Trump announced his presidential campaign, Silverstein positioned himself as one of the early prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

Watch Silverstein Discuss Trump
CNN Trump On 2020 Election

The Man Who Boasted
When most people witness a tragedy, especially of this size, it takes time for their brains to comprehend what happened, it takes even more time to process it. Thus, anyone who was able to brag about their own assets hours after this tragedy on a radio show, is at least worthy of Investigation, especially if this very event helped reshape a misinformation landscape in which he would thrive as its King.
Politifact – How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation

· Insensitive Boasts About Building Height:
o Trump also boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, his building became the tallest in Manhattan—an inaccurate and insensitive claim given the context.
Independent 9 11 Trump Tallest Building
· Early Claims and Revisions:
o Shortly after 9/11, Donald Trump claimed he saw the second plane hit the towers from his Manhattan apartment. He also made an unfounded claim that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering, a statement that has been widely debunked. Despite varying explanations and suggesting that he saw it on an untraceable video that was “widely covered,” these claims helped fueled significant conspiracy theories. If anything, this was a self-report.
o Snopes: Trump Claims Muslims Cheered
o FactCheck.org: Trump’s Revised 9/11 Claim
· Visit to Ground Zero:
o A week after the attacks, Trump visited Ground Zero and stated that although he was present, he wouldn’t consider himself a first responder. This attempt at humility struck many as morbidly insensitive, considering the true heroism displayed by actual first responders.
ABC News: Trump Shares New Details About Morning of 9/11

Legacy of Suspicion:
These actions paint Trump as one of the more suspicious figures post-9/11, who may have used the tragedy for personal and political gain. His connections with figures like Larry Silverstein and Lewis Eisenberg, the Port Authority chairman, hint at deep financial interests potentially influenced by the 9/11 aftermath. Meanwhile, survivors and first responders faced challenges in securing support, highlighting the disparities between their experiences and the political maneuvers at play. Again morbidly juxtaposing the struggles of the poor and working class versus elite swamp members such as Trump and his ilk.

While being, arguably, one of the more suspicious Americans of potentially “being an insider," Trump would go on to cast doubt everywhere else with his new holier than thou rhetoric and hints and claims that “it was an inside job” for the next 15 years.

What if he was speaking from personal experience.

The Deepfake Dilemma
Now in a world where Trump's followers already discount reality, the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes threatens to further distort the truth. This technology could transform legal standards of evidence, making it easy to dismiss genuine evidence against the right as fabricated, while baseless accusations against the left might be accepted as the long-awaited proof.

The Potential Escalation of MAGA Actions
Given the willingness of MAGA supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6th, bolstered by Trump's incendiary rhetoric, the potential for escalation is alarming. The advent of fabricated images and videos could present unprecedented national security threats.

Trump's Incendiary Rhetoric on January 6th
Trump's speech on January 6th was a clear incitement, as he urged his followers to "fight like hell" to "stop the steal," despite admitting DURING THE SPEECH that there was no evidence of the massive electoral fraud he claimed. As well as his lawyers laughable court “arguments.”
“...while there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing…”
Npr.Org Read Trumps Jan 6 Speech
LawAndCrime Come On Now

This speech, coupled with his undermining of constitutional processes, underscores the risks and intentional deceit of his rhetoric. Too bad Republicans senators and our Supreme Court have either claimed he was above the law, or continue to postpone his court dates till after elections. A wild position when treason is on the table. Did that dude commit treason that claims he wants to become a dictator? I dunno, lets let him potentially get elected and then find out!

Elon Musk's Political Shift
Elon was once very much a leftist, unfortunately in more and more far left “activists” continue to attack him endlessly for not agreeing with them on their own singular issues and perspectives. To them I say congratulations, you successfully pushed the most powerful man on earth into the far right. Great job. Great job.
Elon Musk's journey from a liberal supporter to a figure embraced by the far right highlights the volatile nature of political affiliations in today's polarized environment. His actions since acquiring Twitter—such as promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and making high-profile firings—suggest a departure from his initial free speech advocacy.
Especially when considering he fired Don Lemon from his platform for an interview he found offensive. Canceling opinions you find offensive isn’t free speech, it’s literally the opposite. I’m sure many people were offended by the examples below. What about them?
Far Right Support Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Need for a Critical Approach
Supporters of Trump should critically evaluate why he did not pardon the January 6th insurrectionists during his term, despite using them as political leverage now. This pattern of using allies until they are no longer useful is evident throughout his political and personal dealings.
What better example could there possibly be as to what trump truly thinks of his supporters, how sacrificial he sees them as part of his endless narratives, then his refusal and failure to pardon January 6th insurrectionists while still in office?
Of course, anyone “just on the grass” or outside the building should only get a day in jail at most, however people that barged inside the capital should naturally get much more.
And while trump refused to pardon those people before, he now calls them “hostages” and is using them as political bait to a truly wild degree. It's very likely he will make good on this promise to further embolden the narrative that “Democrats are trying to take you down and only I can save you.”
His supporters need to seriously ask, “Why didn’t he pardon us before?”
Also, remember when he claimed he would pay legal fees for supporters that were violent at his rallies, but then seemed to falter and change his mind. Much like how Amber Heard donated her money, “by pledging it.”
List of allies he was quick to discard or dump. And let's face it, all of these people have done more for him than the average MAGA supporter. The only person he cares about is himself.
Trump claims that Mike Pence, the man he vetted more than anyone else, “has gone to the dark side.”
Trump seems to have supported the chants to “Hang Mike Pense,” at least in jest? We hope? There are also no links of him condemning them. Yet admittedly this one point doesn’t have hard evidence like a recording or video as far as I know, it certainly fits his brand.
Mike Flynn, a Trump appointee, later testifies against him.
Trump admits Flynn lied on his behalf, accidentally testifying against him, but does pardon him. As long as you’re colluding with Russia you’re ok it seems?

The Future Under Trump's Influence
Trump's rhetoric about overriding constitutional norms to address what he calls "massive fraud" hints at authoritarian aspirations. His praise for dictators and divisive language further aligns with dangerous historical precedents.
Important Articles:
“How a second trump term could end us democracy.” -commondreams
“Ask the expert: What a 2nd Trump term could mean for democracy and advancing policy.” - Msu Today
“Judgement Day” for political opponents.

To predict the future lets base it on known facts:
Apparently, he will help attack our constitution like he may have with the Twin Towers.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Stated he intended to be a Dictator on day one, but then promises it will be just for a day. Is that how that works? Or is it “Once you go Dictator you don’t go back?”
Praising dictators, referring to immigrants as vermin etc, akin to Hitlers rhetoric against “blood mixing.”
More fraudulent use of lawyers and courts that gets everyone else in trouble but him, with them arguing he's above the law. This further shows how much he will consistently use people for his own ends and then dump them when they're no longer of use.
Warning from republicans and notes on ass kissing. As well as being generally unfit for office.
If you want help from Trump you better kiss his ***
Trumps says he kept Omarosa just because she said nice things about him, while defaming her
DeSantis: "You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful."
Thehill Trump Views People Who Kiss His A As Weak.
And if you dare to speak out against trump, you better kiss his ****
Politico Graham Breaks With Trump On Abortion
WashingtonPost Trump Graham Abortion
News Yahoo 30 More Republicans Denounce Donald Trump Unqualified President
Hot take, if he’s elected president America, and the world, is frankly fucked.

Predicting MAGA 2024 And Beyond
Naturally there are endless possibilities of what MAGA and dictators around the world decide to do this year and into the future. I believe that the one thing that insinuates when it's time for their next evil actions is dictated by their standings in the polls or when a fellow dictator needs a little more political pressure from war torn inflated oil prices etc.
Dictators Unite
While writing my thesis, I speculated that dictators globally were uniting, finding mutual benefits in their governance and deceitful tactics. This theory is increasingly recognized as these autocrats appear to be forming a coalition, undermining peaceful unity efforts through conspiracy theories to preserve their power.
Unherd How Autocrats Unite
The True Nature of MAGA
MAGA was never genuinely about speaking truth to power or restoring America's glory. It has been an elaborate scheme funded by immense wealth, perpetuating anti-American sentiments through fabricated grassroots movements by domestic and foreign actors. This movement has primarily enriched a select few power-hungry dictators and may have been responsible for some of our most horrific moments in history in the past and acts yet to come.
Trump and MAGA
While 'MAGA' predates Trump, he conveniently stepped into a role long in the making. Despite occasional deviations from the MAGA ideology, such as promoting vaccines to emphatic boos, Trump has largely embodied its principles. The real architects of MAGA, however, are likely disillusioned with his unpredictable attacks, which contradict their broader agenda of absolute power.
Nbc News Donald Trump Booed
Trump as a Martyr
Regardless of election outcomes, Trump is poised to claim interference. His rhetoric and the devout belief of his followers in his divine anointment could lead to his martyrdom, especially given his age and the vulnerabilities it brings. This martyrdom could solidify his legacy while serving the interests of MAGA strategists who find him increasingly burdensome even if he “wins.”
Factcheck Trumps Bogus Voter Fraud Claims
La Times Trump Democrats Effort Presidential Ballot

u/neodestiny and friends.
Introduction
If you think you know anything about MAGA. Trust me, you know nothing. Not even his most devout followers or haters will have considered the following. And for the sake of our democracy and way of life, I hope people read this.
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
Snippet From My Thesis On MAGA
As I work on tidying up the master file with the helpful dms I got, allow me to post just the most contentious part of it below, now that it’s able to stand on its own.
MAGA didn’t begin in 2015. I argue it began in 2001 on 9/11, while also harnessing and funneling decades of anti-government resentment till many Americans would openly call for a “wrecking ball” figure to help “drain the swamp.”
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
A Key Fueling Factor To American Outrage- Inflation
Many elements contributed to growing American anger that would later contribute to MAGA, this is a snippet from the larger work.
Rising Cost of Living
o In 1950, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 24.1. By 2000, it had risen to 168 (a 597% increase), and by 2023, it had reached 304.7, a 1163% increase from 1950.
o Housing prices saw a drastic rise overtime, with the median home price increasing from $7,354 in 1950 to $388,700 in 2023, a staggering 5185% increase.
o While rising rent costs can contribute to overall inflation and cost of living, even the left has largely failed to address how exponentially increasing real estate prices impact the cost of living. This omission has made many other conspiracy theories seem more plausible in its wake.
o If we don’t find real solutions for real estate that also aren’t extreme, then society will feel more and more pressure to accept “unreasonable solutions” like Trump, even though he’s the last person on earth who could solve it, considering his business acumen and history.
MAGA Dynamics and Blind Devotion
In 2016, it wasn't just the left calling the MAGA movement a cult. Trump famously said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." Even the left failed to grasp the gravity of this statement. As someone who nearly died in a deadly cult and based on my research, I don't know of a single cult where the founder could openly commit murder without losing members. Trump didn't just believe he'd created one of the largest cults ever; he believed he'd created the most fanatical. Let's hope his followers prove him wrong by showing a willingness to criticize him, regardless of their vote.

The MAGA Question
Instead of challenging MAGA supporters on fallacious beliefs, ask them this question to see if they’re at least able to see a world where Trump isn’t a biblical King: "If Trump admitted he was behind 9/11 and used resulting insurance money and donations from hostile governments to create false “grass root” campaigns. And did it all in a way to make it seem like others committed his own atrocities. And that he intended to destroy America in every way if he got elected, would you still vote for him?"

Yet even then, getting through to a MAGA supporter inevitably refers to 9/11 “research” out there when they realize individual positions are usually fallacious. This quagmire me decide to investigate this tragedy, to see if there was a more plausible counter theory. Honestly, the more I looked the more surprised I became. Here are my findings that are but a snippet of my full thesis on MAGA.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories and MAGA
Conspiracy Theories and Credibility:
o First off, conspiracy theories should involve some effort to verify narratives, rather than just repeating claims across multiple sources that mistake themselves as evidence; like a bunch of people who repeat “bob farted” across multiple websites may see that as evidence, when in fact, it was Sean. Sorry Sean.

Early Origins of MAGA:
o Although some believe MAGA began in 2015, its roots lie as early as the 1980s with Rush Limbaugh and later became "serious" on 9/11.
o 9/11 conspiracy theories claim controlled demolitions were used, but the lack of any cellphone recordings of explosions weakens this theory.

Suspicious Factors:
o The official narrative involving chaotic jet fuel leading to a straight fall seemed questionable.
o The collapse of a third building (WTC 7), which wasn’t directly hit, fueled suspicions.
o Airline stocks were heavily shorted before the attacks, raising concerns about insider trading. Harvey Pitt, Republican SEC Chairman at the time, investigated this and claimed there was nothing amiss, but was criticized for later crimes and forced to resign.
o It’s also suspicious that in Trumps 2000 book “The America We Deserve” that he stated, “I really am convinced we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the [1993] bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen*.”*
§ Yet democrats would largely miss this point entirely and obsess over his false claim that he called for Bin Laden to be killed, when he had not. Somehow conspiracy theorists would find this ‘cool’ rather than suspicious.
CNN Fact Check Donald Trump Osama Bin Laden Book Claim

Reports and Simplified Narratives:
o FEMA's 2002 report and NIST's 2005 report provided technical explanations of the tower collapses.
o However, the Port Authority Chairman stuck to the oversimplified narrative that "jet fuel melted steel beams," even though he knew this was a half-truth, as detailed in the next section, fueling anti-government conspiracies. The question is why.

Potential Impact:
o 9/11 conspiracy theories sowed distrust in the government, which may have been one of the attackers' objectives. Anyone that heavily profited from this tragedy, and helped further those objects, should be questioned.
o The ‘Loose Change’ “documentary” pointed out suspicious parts of the story, but failed to give any clear claims as to who was purportedly behind it. It also failed to note the Twin Towers titanic design flaw that could result in a straight fall. Even the 2015 version of this film fails to mention nearly all of the known facts in this report.
o The Director of that film later states:
“I DON’T THINK WE’D HAVE PRESIDENT TRUMP IF IT WEREN’T FOR 9/11”
“9/11 created a culture of fear, of xenophobia, this sense of entitlement and everything we’ve seen. Warrantless wire-tapping, Guantanamo Bay, everything that’s happened led us to this point, we wouldn’t be here without 9/11. They want to kick out all the Mexicans and Muslims because of this culture of fear and bigotry and xenophobia that directly led to the election of fucking Donald Trump. [laughing] That’s our world now! We had Reagan before, and Governor Schwarzenegger. But President Donald Trump? It’s just weird. Everything is just weird.”
Theoutline Reflecting On Loose Change
o While the director was in the right to ask questions, he failed to ask the most obvious ones.
o However, his lead “researcher,” Jason Bermas, would turn out to be a full blown MAGA wingnut.
Patriot Jason Bermas
o Anyone that would benefit politically and financially from 9/11 should be fully investigated.
Further Reading:
Harvey Pitt - Wikipedia
Politifact How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation
It will never be possible to defeat MAGA followers “logically” with people who believed his parties rhetoric “that 9/11 was an inside job.”

I say… what if those Republican leaders were self reporting?
What if Trump followers have been rallying behind the very man responsible for its orchestration?

The Twin Towers and Larry Silverstein
Architectural Pitfalls of the Twin Towers:
· The Twin Towers had unique architectural flaws due to the excessive heavy load on their exoskeletons to allow for more floor and leasing space, which greatly contributed to their straight collapse after the 9/11 attacks. This was the first and last skyscraper made in this way.
· For anyone who said that “any other building would have fallen sideways,” you were right, though perhaps not entirely how you may have imagined. A "Coke Can" analogy shows how a similar weakened structure can result in a straight fall, contrary to conspiracy theories claiming controlled demolitions. This isn't something I'm asking you to take for granted, or to read from media sources you don’t trust. This is something you can verify on your own, in person, in real time, in reality.
· However Trump, despite being close friends with Silverstein as we’ll cover later, claimed "It wasn’t architectural defects, you know, the World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building” per the attached PolitiFact article.
· Supporting Article:
Engineering Experts Explain the Collapse of the Twin Towers
Politifact Donald Trumps 911 Speculation

Larry Silverstein, The Leasor Of The Twin Towers:
· Nearly went bankrupt after losing his main tenant Drexel Burnham in 1980 after he built tower 7 with him in mind.
· I don't know how many of us understand the level of desperation a situation like this can cause in someone and how many potential crimes it can easily push them towards.
· He is known for then saying, “…looking up at the twin towers and thinking, my building is huge, but it is made diminutive by the twin towers. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be incredible someday to own those?" That's not the statement of a sane person who nearly went bankrupt, and if anything, hints towards jealousy.
· He managed to secure Salomon Brothers two years later, which later paid $300 million in securities fraud penalties casting suspicion over the entities who saved Silverstein, in addition to their overall plans for the future.
· How he would become able to outbid everyone else in 2001, for the right to lease the twin towers, would become a mystery we will untangle later.
Further Reading
Manhattan Institute – Silverstein On Ground Zero
Justice Department: Salomon Brothers Securities Fraud

Trump and Real Estate Connections
Historical Context and Redevelopment Plans:
· A redevelopment plan commenced in the 1990s by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, spurred a commercial revival in downtown Manhattan, making the World Trade Center prime property. Pataki would go on to criticize trump, while the other would prove to be one of this wildest, if not craziest, supporters to truly fanatical degrees.
Further Reading:
Manhattan Institute: Rebuilding Ground Zero
· Tom Leppert was the CEO of Turner construction which right wing conspiracy theorists claimed helped ensure the towers would fall straight down. He also became part of Trumps transition team. While there’s no evidence of explosives being used, tampering with the exoskeleton and weaking the relatively thin central column ahead of time are theoretically plausible.
Huffpost Donald Trump Transition Team
Wikipedia Tom Leppert

The bidding for the World Trade Center lease involved only a few major real estate firms as allowed by the Port Authority Chairman. Below are the allowed bidders and their estimated worth at the time included:

· Donald J. Trump’s Organization:
o Worth around $1.5 billion in 1996 after multiple bankruptcies. Confirmed only by Forbes magazine in 2005.
· Tishman Speyer:
o Valued at approximately $1.8 billion in 2000, would soon face ‘tenant issues’ with many scrupulous legal claims against them.
· Gale & Wentworth:
o Worth a few million.
· Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties:
o Mortimer Zuckerman alone was worth around $2 billion.
· The Rouse Company:
o Mainly a shopping mall operator.
· Brookfield Properties:
o A Canadian firm valued at over $20 billion in 2000.
· Vornado Realty Trust:
o Worth an estimated $2-3 billion. Had the highest bid, but was unexpectedly outed by the Port Authority Chairman, paving the way for Silverstein’s win. CEO of Vornado Trust, Steven Roth would later do many deals with Trump in 2005 and beyond.
· Larry Silverstein:
o As mentioned, was nearly bankrupt in the 1980s, and was mysteriously awarded the right to lease the World Trade Center contract at $3.2 billion, twice the original asking price of 1.2 Billion. It would still be owned by the Port authority of NY and NJ, he would just own the rights to lease it.
o Port Authority Chairman, Lewis Eisenberg, made this unexplained decision, who also later became Trumps lead fundraiser in 2015.
o After putting down only $125 million, as per the contract, Silverstein would be getting back $100 million just 6 weeks after his bid and with an uncommon terrorist insurance addition. His exaggerated bid and insurance contract would also greatly inflate the amount of money he could get from an insurance claim. If the winning bid was 1.5 billion, the insurance payout would also have been much less.
o In real estate, its quite rare for a prudent investor to bid twice the asking price, as demonstrated by the other companies that backed out, of which I find no connections to Trump.
o If anyone had known about 9/11 ahead of time, like Trump claims he did, it would become drastically easier to outbid all competitors, knowing that for pennies on the dollar, you would be getting much more back.

Further Reading:
NY Times Article on World Trade Center Deal
Wikipedia on Lewis Eisenberg
Patch On Lew Eisenberg Leading Trump Fundraising
NY Times Article Silverstein Gets Most Of His Money Back

Giuliani’s Gangster Acts
Arguably, if the above points are what they objectively appear to be, that would be a bad thing. You’d think that would be enough. However, Guliani would say “hold my beer’ to those sentiments.

1. Outdated Equipment for First Responders:
· Due to Giuliani’s inadequate leadership, first responders used old equipment that failed to warn them to evacuate the towers. Which contributed to their deaths while they searched for survivors.
NY Times Article: Giuliani’s Preparedness on 9/11
2. Obstructed Recovery Efforts:
· Giuliani delayed proper search and rescue operations for days, possibly costing lives of citizens and first responders who didn’t know they needed to leave.
· 20 Years later he would claim that some of Bidens actions were so reckless that… “It would be as if I got down to ground zero and said take out the firefighters, all you civilians see if you can get yourselves out.” Self report?
NBC News Report: Giuliani’s Role in Recovery
NY1: Giuliani Reflects on 9/11 Anniversary
3. Twin Towers Fund and Privatization:
· Giuliani privatized the Twin Towers relief funds, making them unauditable.
NY Times Article on Privatization
NY Post Article: Giuliani and Twin Towers Fund
4. Survivors Threaten To SUE Guliani For Relief Funds
· Even after privatizing the twin towers fund, Giuliani would make it incredibly difficult for the victims to receive their fair share. Requiring many of them to spend unnecessary money on advisors and consultants.
· Even with their legal pressure, he only agreed to “give the remaining 100 million to victims,” out of 170 million, if he could first put the money into the bank account of a charity in which he controlled.
· From the attached article: “But Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said that he remained adamantly opposed to any transfer of funds to Mr. Giuliani's charity.
He also objected to Mr. Giuliani's continued control over even the $15 million in his private charity. Mr. Giuliani, he charged, gives every indication of using the Twin Towers Fund to maintain a staff of loyal supporters and to advance his political aspirations.
'The concern that politics will infiltrate the fund becomes even more apparent when one reviews the list of the mayor's former political appointees who are assuming senior staff positions or serving on the fund's board of directors,'' he wrote in a letter on Monday to Eliot L. Spitzer, the state attorney general.”
NY Times Article On Guliani Pressed To Disperse Twin Tower Funds
· However, there is no evidence of Giuliani making good on this promise.
· There are honestly no words for this. All associates of Guliani should be investigated.
5. Attempted Election Cancellation in 2001:
· Giuliani tried to cancel the 2001 election to stay mayor longer. He even considered removing term limits with Governor Pataki’s support. Similar to how Trump has “joked” about increasing his own term limits.
Business Insider: Giuliani and Pataki’s Attempt to Cancel Elections
Esquire Trump Joke Third Term
6. Motive
· In 2000, Guliani unfortunately got prostate cancer. We have to be willing to ask if this was a motive for his corrupt acts.
SurvivorNet: Giuliani’s Cancer


Silverstein’s Unscrupulous Greed
1. Initial Settlement Demands and Profit Claims:
· Despite only having been out for $25 million, Silverstein initially sought nearly $8 BILLION in insurance settlements and argued for "loss of revenue from those buildings," which is quite an uncompassionate claim considering how many lost their lives. Talk about a prime example of the working and lower classes making sacrifices while rich elites complain they didn’t profit enough from the same tragedy.
2. Rebuilding Contributions and Insurance Payout:
· Despite the fact that he only owned the leasing rights to the twin towers, ‘Silverstein Properties’ received up to $4 billion from insurance payouts, instead of the Port Authority, which would be customary as the owner.
· While it's assumed that most of that money went to rebuilding, this isn't actually known or proven. It would be different if he had a separate insurance policy that was not connected to the rebuilding of the towers, with different monies going to the Port Authority to rebuild. This was not the case.
History.com: Rebuilding of Ground Zero
· He additionally refused to return the rights of Building 1 to the Port Authority until he secured additional funds from an $8 billion state fund. Talk about heartless.
Wikipedia: Larry Silverstein
· Various entities would contribute a total of $20 billion to rebuild all six damaged or destroyed towers, including four towers leased by Silverstein and two others he hadn't. This makes it unlikely that he had to go out of pocket with his 4 Billion.
3. Estimated Net Worth:
· While earlier records of Silverstein's net worth are unavailable, aside from his near bankruptcy in 1980, he is currently estimated to be worth around $1 billion.
Forbes Profile: Larry Silverstein

Silverstein’s Controversial Alignment with Trump
Larry Silverstein's connections and public persona have often been scrutinized. This scrutiny became particularly relevant in 2015 when he publicly displayed his support for Donald Trump:

• Long-standing Relationship: Silverstein revealed a 30-year-long acquaintance with Trump, emphasizing the depth of their connection. This means his relationship started in 1985, roughly two years after gaining a powerful criminal organization as a tenant in his tower 7, that saved him from bankruptcy, and 6 years before Trumps first, of many, bankruptcies. This also means they knew each other before 9/11.
• Supportive Yet Vague: He commended Trump for diligently pursuing what he believed to be right, echoing Trump's own ambiguous rhetoric. When pressed about the righteousness of Trump’s goals, Silverstein ambiguously responded, "well, it’s... you know... we’ll find out." This mirrors Trump’s evasive " Well, we're going to have to see what happens" stance, when questioned about committing to a peaceful transfer of power prior to January 6th—an event that ultimately unfolded with violence and chaos.
• Early Endorsement: By voicing his support when Trump announced his presidential campaign, Silverstein positioned himself as one of the early prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

Watch Silverstein Discuss Trump
CNN Trump On 2020 Election

The Man Who Boasted
When most people witness a tragedy, especially of this size, it takes time for their brains to comprehend what happened, it takes even more time to process it. Thus, anyone who was able to brag about their own assets hours after this tragedy on a radio show, is at least worthy of Investigation, especially if this very event helped reshape a misinformation landscape in which he would thrive as its King.
Politifact – How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation

· Insensitive Boasts About Building Height:
o Trump also boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, his building became the tallest in Manhattan—an inaccurate and insensitive claim given the context.
Independent 9 11 Trump Tallest Building
· Early Claims and Revisions:
o Shortly after 9/11, Donald Trump claimed he saw the second plane hit the towers from his Manhattan apartment. He also made an unfounded claim that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering, a statement that has been widely debunked. Despite varying explanations and suggesting that he saw it on an untraceable video that was “widely covered,” these claims helped fueled significant conspiracy theories. If anything, this was a self-report.
o Snopes: Trump Claims Muslims Cheered
o FactCheck.org: Trump’s Revised 9/11 Claim
· Visit to Ground Zero:
o A week after the attacks, Trump visited Ground Zero and stated that although he was present, he wouldn’t consider himself a first responder. This attempt at humility struck many as morbidly insensitive, considering the true heroism displayed by actual first responders.
ABC News: Trump Shares New Details About Morning of 9/11

Legacy of Suspicion:
These actions paint Trump as one of the more suspicious figures post-9/11, who may have used the tragedy for personal and political gain. His connections with figures like Larry Silverstein and Lewis Eisenberg, the Port Authority chairman, hint at deep financial interests potentially influenced by the 9/11 aftermath. Meanwhile, survivors and first responders faced challenges in securing support, highlighting the disparities between their experiences and the political maneuvers at play. Again morbidly juxtaposing the struggles of the poor and working class versus elite swamp members such as Trump and his ilk.

While being, arguably, one of the more suspicious Americans of potentially “being an insider," Trump would go on to cast doubt everywhere else with his new holier than thou rhetoric and hints and claims that “it was an inside job” for the next 15 years.

What if he was speaking from personal experience.

The Deepfake Dilemma
Now in a world where Trump's followers already discount reality, the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes threatens to further distort the truth. This technology could transform legal standards of evidence, making it easy to dismiss genuine evidence against the right as fabricated, while baseless accusations against the left might be accepted as the long-awaited proof.

The Potential Escalation of MAGA Actions
Given the willingness of MAGA supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6th, bolstered by Trump's incendiary rhetoric, the potential for escalation is alarming. The advent of fabricated images and videos could present unprecedented national security threats.

Trump's Incendiary Rhetoric on January 6th
Trump's speech on January 6th was a clear incitement, as he urged his followers to "fight like hell" to "stop the steal," despite admitting DURING THE SPEECH that there was no evidence of the massive electoral fraud he claimed. As well as his lawyers laughable court “arguments.”
“...while there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing…”
Npr.Org Read Trumps Jan 6 Speech
LawAndCrime Come On Now

This speech, coupled with his undermining of constitutional processes, underscores the risks and intentional deceit of his rhetoric. Too bad Republicans senators and our Supreme Court have either claimed he was above the law, or continue to postpone his court dates till after elections. A wild position when treason is on the table. Did that dude commit treason that claims he wants to become a dictator? I dunno, lets let him potentially get elected and then find out!

Elon Musk's Political Shift
Elon was once very much a leftist, unfortunately in more and more far left “activists” continue to attack him endlessly for not agreeing with them on their own singular issues and perspectives. To them I say congratulations, you successfully pushed the most powerful man on earth into the far right. Great job. Great job.
Elon Musk's journey from a liberal supporter to a figure embraced by the far right highlights the volatile nature of political affiliations in today's polarized environment. His actions since acquiring Twitter—such as promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and making high-profile firings—suggest a departure from his initial free speech advocacy.
Especially when considering he fired Don Lemon from his platform for an interview he found offensive. Canceling opinions you find offensive isn’t free speech, it’s literally the opposite. I’m sure many people were offended by the examples below. What about them?
Far Right Support Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Need for a Critical Approach
Supporters of Trump should critically evaluate why he did not pardon the January 6th insurrectionists during his term, despite using them as political leverage now. This pattern of using allies until they are no longer useful is evident throughout his political and personal dealings.
What better example could there possibly be as to what trump truly thinks of his supporters, how sacrificial he sees them as part of his endless narratives, then his refusal and failure to pardon January 6th insurrectionists while still in office?
Of course, anyone “just on the grass” or outside the building should only get a day in jail at most, however people that barged inside the capital should naturally get much more.
And while trump refused to pardon those people before, he now calls them “hostages” and is using them as political bait to a truly wild degree. It's very likely he will make good on this promise to further embolden the narrative that “Democrats are trying to take you down and only I can save you.”
His supporters need to seriously ask, “Why didn’t he pardon us before?”
Also, remember when he claimed he would pay legal fees for supporters that were violent at his rallies, but then seemed to falter and change his mind. Much like how Amber Heard donated her money, “by pledging it.”
List of allies he was quick to discard or dump. And let's face it, all of these people have done more for him than the average MAGA supporter. The only person he cares about is himself.
Trump claims that Mike Pence, the man he vetted more than anyone else, “has gone to the dark side.”
Trump seems to have supported the chants to “Hang Mike Pense,” at least in jest? We hope? There are also no links of him condemning them. Yet admittedly this one point doesn’t have hard evidence like a recording or video as far as I know, it certainly fits his brand.
Mike Flynn, a Trump appointee, later testifies against him.
Trump admits Flynn lied on his behalf, accidentally testifying against him, but does pardon him. As long as you’re colluding with Russia you’re ok it seems?

The Future Under Trump's Influence
Trump's rhetoric about overriding constitutional norms to address what he calls "massive fraud" hints at authoritarian aspirations. His praise for dictators and divisive language further aligns with dangerous historical precedents.
Important Articles:
“How a second trump term could end us democracy.” -commondreams
“Ask the expert: What a 2nd Trump term could mean for democracy and advancing policy.” - Msu Today
“Judgement Day” for political opponents.

To predict the future lets base it on known facts:
Apparently, he will help attack our constitution like he may have with the Twin Towers.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Stated he intended to be a Dictator on day one, but then promises it will be just for a day. Is that how that works? Or is it “Once you go Dictator you don’t go back?”
Praising dictators, referring to immigrants as vermin etc, akin to Hitlers rhetoric against “blood mixing.”
More fraudulent use of lawyers and courts that gets everyone else in trouble but him, with them arguing he's above the law. This further shows how much he will consistently use people for his own ends and then dump them when they're no longer of use.
Warning from republicans and notes on ass kissing. As well as being generally unfit for office.
If you want help from Trump you better kiss his ***
Trumps says he kept Omarosa just because she said nice things about him, while defaming her
DeSantis: "You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful."
Thehill Trump Views People Who Kiss His A As Weak.
And if you dare to speak out against trump, you better kiss his ****
Politico Graham Breaks With Trump On Abortion
WashingtonPost Trump Graham Abortion
News Yahoo 30 More Republicans Denounce Donald Trump Unqualified President
Hot take, if he’s elected president America, and the world, is frankly fucked.

Predicting MAGA 2024 And Beyond
Naturally there are endless possibilities of what MAGA and dictators around the world decide to do this year and into the future. I believe that the one thing that insinuates when it's time for their next evil actions is dictated by their standings in the polls or when a fellow dictator needs a little more political pressure from war torn inflated oil prices etc.
Dictators Unite
While writing my thesis, I speculated that dictators globally were uniting, finding mutual benefits in their governance and deceitful tactics. This theory is increasingly recognized as these autocrats appear to be forming a coalition, undermining peaceful unity efforts through conspiracy theories to preserve their power.
Unherd How Autocrats Unite
The True Nature of MAGA
MAGA was never genuinely about speaking truth to power or restoring America's glory. It has been an elaborate scheme funded by immense wealth, perpetuating anti-American sentiments through fabricated grassroots movements by domestic and foreign actors. This movement has primarily enriched a select few power-hungry dictators and may have been responsible for some of our most horrific moments in history in the past and acts yet to come.
Trump and MAGA
While 'MAGA' predates Trump, he conveniently stepped into a role long in the making. Despite occasional deviations from the MAGA ideology, such as promoting vaccines to emphatic boos, Trump has largely embodied its principles. The real architects of MAGA, however, are likely disillusioned with his unpredictable attacks, which contradict their broader agenda of absolute power.
Nbc News Donald Trump Booed
Trump as a Martyr
Regardless of election outcomes, Trump is poised to claim interference. His rhetoric and the devout belief of his followers in his divine anointment could lead to his martyrdom, especially given his age and the vulnerabilities it brings. This martyrdom could solidify his legacy while serving the interests of MAGA strategists who find him increasingly burdensome even if he “wins.”
Factcheck Trumps Bogus Voter Fraud Claims
La Times Trump Democrats Effort Presidential Ballot

u/neodestiny and friends.
For the sake of transparency, I am not the architect of the following discoveries, and am just helping to forward their message and clean it up. Copywrite of the following work belongs to no one and everyone is not only welcome to share these findings as if they were their own, but openly encouraged to do so.
Introduction
If you think you know anything about MAGA. Trust me, you know nothing. Not even his most devout followers or haters will have considered the following. And for the sake of our democracy and way of life, I hope people read this.
This work may very well help to shift the narrative on Trump in a meaningful and foundational way, but I don't want this work exacerbate any feelings of ill will to MAGA members, for they have been prey to possibly one of the largest con jobs our world has ever seen, especially without the help of this counternarrative.
Snippet From My Thesis On MAGA
As I work on tidying up the master file with the helpful dms I got, allow me to post just the most contentious part of it below, now that it’s able to stand on its own.
MAGA didn’t begin in 2015. I argue it began in 2001 on 9/11, while also harnessing and funneling decades of anti-government resentment till many Americans would openly call for a “wrecking ball” figure to help “drain the swamp.”

A Key Fueling Factor To American Outrage- Inflation
Many elements contributed to growing American anger that would later contribute to MAGA, this is a snippet from the larger work.
Rising Cost of Living
o In 1950, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 24.1. By 2000, it had risen to 168 (a 597% increase), and by 2023, it had reached 304.7, a 1163% increase from 1950.
o Housing prices saw a drastic rise overtime, with the median home price increasing from $7,354 in 1950 to $388,700 in 2023, a staggering 5185% increase.
o While rising rent costs can contribute to overall inflation and cost of living, even the left has largely failed to address how exponentially increasing real estate prices impact the cost of living. This omission has made many other conspiracy theories seem more plausible in its wake.
o If we don’t find real solutions for real estate that also aren’t extreme, then society will feel more and more pressure to accept “unreasonable solutions” like Trump, even though he’s the last person on earth who could solve it, considering his business acumen and history.
MAGA Dynamics and Blind Devotion
In 2016, it wasn't just the left calling the MAGA movement a cult. Trump famously said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters." Even the left failed to grasp the gravity of this statement. As someone who nearly died in a deadly cult and based on my research, I don't know of a single cult where the founder could openly commit murder without losing members. Trump didn't just believe he'd created one of the largest cults ever; he believed he'd created the most fanatical. Let's hope his followers prove him wrong by showing a willingness to criticize him, regardless of their vote.

The MAGA Question
Instead of challenging MAGA supporters on fallacious beliefs, ask them this question to see if they’re at least able to see a world where Trump isn’t a biblical King: "If Trump admitted he was behind 9/11 and used resulting insurance money and donations from hostile governments to create false “grass root” campaigns. And did it all in a way to make it seem like others committed his own atrocities. And that he intended to destroy America in every way if he got elected, would you still vote for him?"

Yet even then, getting through to a MAGA supporter inevitably refers to 9/11 “research” out there when they realize individual positions are usually fallacious. This quagmire me decide to investigate this tragedy, to see if there was a more plausible counter theory. Honestly, the more I looked the more surprised I became. Here are my findings that are but a snippet of my full thesis on MAGA.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories and MAGA
Conspiracy Theories and Credibility:
o First off, conspiracy theories should involve some effort to verify narratives, rather than just repeating claims across multiple sources that mistake themselves as evidence; like a bunch of people who repeat “bob farted” across multiple websites may see that as evidence, when in fact, it was Sean. Sorry Sean.

Early Origins of MAGA:
o Although some believe MAGA began in 2015, its roots lie as early as the 1980s with Rush Limbaugh and later became "serious" on 9/11.
o 9/11 conspiracy theories claim controlled demolitions were used, but the lack of any cellphone recordings of explosions weakens this theory.

Suspicious Factors:
o The official narrative involving chaotic jet fuel leading to a straight fall seemed questionable.
o The collapse of a third building (WTC 7), which wasn’t directly hit, fueled suspicions.
o Airline stocks were heavily shorted before the attacks, raising concerns about insider trading. Harvey Pitt, Republican SEC Chairman at the time, investigated this and claimed there was nothing amiss, but was criticized for later crimes and forced to resign.
o It’s also suspicious that in Trumps 2000 book “The America We Deserve” that he stated, “I really am convinced we’re in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the [1993] bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen*.”*
§ Yet democrats would largely miss this point entirely and obsess over his false claim that he called for Bin Laden to be killed, when he had not. Somehow conspiracy theorists would find this ‘cool’ rather than suspicious.
CNN Fact Check Donald Trump Osama Bin Laden Book Claim

Reports and Simplified Narratives:
o FEMA's 2002 report and NIST's 2005 report provided technical explanations of the tower collapses.
o However, the Port Authority Chairman stuck to the oversimplified narrative that "jet fuel melted steel beams," even though he knew this was a half-truth, as detailed in the next section, fueling anti-government conspiracies. The question is why.

Potential Impact:
o 9/11 conspiracy theories sowed distrust in the government, which may have been one of the attackers' objectives. Anyone that heavily profited from this tragedy, and helped further those objects, should be questioned.
o The ‘Loose Change’ “documentary” pointed out suspicious parts of the story, but failed to give any clear claims as to who was purportedly behind it. It also failed to note the Twin Towers titanic design flaw that could result in a straight fall. Even the 2015 version of this film fails to mention nearly all of the known facts in this report.
o The Director of that film later states:
“I DON’T THINK WE’D HAVE PRESIDENT TRUMP IF IT WEREN’T FOR 9/11”
“9/11 created a culture of fear, of xenophobia, this sense of entitlement and everything we’ve seen. Warrantless wire-tapping, Guantanamo Bay, everything that’s happened led us to this point, we wouldn’t be here without 9/11. They want to kick out all the Mexicans and Muslims because of this culture of fear and bigotry and xenophobia that directly led to the election of fucking Donald Trump. [laughing] That’s our world now! We had Reagan before, and Governor Schwarzenegger. But President Donald Trump? It’s just weird. Everything is just weird.”
Theoutline Reflecting On Loose Change
o While the director was in the right to ask questions, he failed to ask the most obvious ones.
o However, his lead “researcher,” Jason Bermas, would turn out to be a full blown MAGA wingnut.
Patriot Jason Bermas
o Anyone that would benefit politically and financially from 9/11 should be fully investigated.
Further Reading:
Harvey Pitt - Wikipedia
Politifact How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation
It will never be possible to defeat MAGA followers “logically” with people who believed his parties rhetoric “that 9/11 was an inside job.”

I say… what if those Republican leaders were self reporting?
What if Trump followers have been rallying behind the very man responsible for its orchestration?

The Twin Towers and Larry Silverstein
Architectural Pitfalls of the Twin Towers:
· The Twin Towers had unique architectural flaws due to the excessive heavy load on their exoskeletons to allow for more floor and leasing space, which greatly contributed to their straight collapse after the 9/11 attacks. This was the first and last skyscraper made in this way.
· For anyone who said that “any other building would have fallen sideways,” you were right, though perhaps not entirely how you may have imagined. A "Coke Can" analogy shows how a similar weakened structure can result in a straight fall, contrary to conspiracy theories claiming controlled demolitions. This isn't something I'm asking you to take for granted, or to read from media sources you don’t trust. This is something you can verify on your own, in person, in real time, in reality.
· However Trump, despite being close friends with Silverstein as we’ll cover later, claimed "It wasn’t architectural defects, you know, the World Trade Center was always known as a very, very strong building” per the attached PolitiFact article.
· Supporting Article:
Engineering Experts Explain the Collapse of the Twin Towers
Politifact Donald Trumps 911 Speculation

Larry Silverstein, The Leasor Of The Twin Towers:
· Nearly went bankrupt after losing his main tenant Drexel Burnham in 1980 after he built tower 7 with him in mind.
· I don't know how many of us understand the level of desperation a situation like this can cause in someone and how many potential crimes it can easily push them towards.
· He is known for then saying, “…looking up at the twin towers and thinking, my building is huge, but it is made diminutive by the twin towers. So I said to myself, wouldn't it be incredible someday to own those?" That's not the statement of a sane person who nearly went bankrupt, and if anything, hints towards jealousy.
· He managed to secure Salomon Brothers two years later, which later paid $300 million in securities fraud penalties casting suspicion over the entities who saved Silverstein, in addition to their overall plans for the future.
· How he would become able to outbid everyone else in 2001, for the right to lease the twin towers, would become a mystery we will untangle later.
Further Reading
Manhattan Institute – Silverstein On Ground Zero
Justice Department: Salomon Brothers Securities Fraud

Trump and Real Estate Connections
Historical Context and Redevelopment Plans:
· A redevelopment plan commenced in the 1990s by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Giuliani, spurred a commercial revival in downtown Manhattan, making the World Trade Center prime property. Pataki would go on to criticize trump, while the other would prove to be one of this wildest, if not craziest, supporters to truly fanatical degrees.
Further Reading:
Manhattan Institute: Rebuilding Ground Zero
· Tom Leppert was the CEO of Turner construction which right wing conspiracy theorists claimed helped ensure the towers would fall straight down. He also became part of Trumps transition team. While there’s no evidence of explosives being used, tampering with the exoskeleton and weaking the relatively thin central column ahead of time are theoretically plausible.
Huffpost Donald Trump Transition Team
Wikipedia Tom Leppert

The bidding for the World Trade Center lease involved only a few major real estate firms as allowed by the Port Authority Chairman. Below are the allowed bidders and their estimated worth at the time included:

· Donald J. Trump’s Organization:
o Worth around $1.5 billion in 1996 after multiple bankruptcies. Confirmed only by Forbes magazine in 2005.
· Tishman Speyer:
o Valued at approximately $1.8 billion in 2000, would soon face ‘tenant issues’ with many scrupulous legal claims against them.
· Gale & Wentworth:
o Worth a few million.
· Mortimer Zuckerman’s Boston Properties:
o Mortimer Zuckerman alone was worth around $2 billion.
· The Rouse Company:
o Mainly a shopping mall operator.
· Brookfield Properties:
o A Canadian firm valued at over $20 billion in 2000.
· Vornado Realty Trust:
o Worth an estimated $2-3 billion. Had the highest bid, but was unexpectedly outed by the Port Authority Chairman, paving the way for Silverstein’s win. CEO of Vornado Trust, Steven Roth would later do many deals with Trump in 2005 and beyond.
· Larry Silverstein:
o As mentioned, was nearly bankrupt in the 1980s, and was mysteriously awarded the right to lease the World Trade Center contract at $3.2 billion, twice the original asking price of 1.2 Billion. It would still be owned by the Port authority of NY and NJ, he would just own the rights to lease it.
o Port Authority Chairman, Lewis Eisenberg, made this unexplained decision, who also later became Trumps lead fundraiser in 2015.
o After putting down only $125 million, as per the contract, Silverstein would be getting back $100 million just 6 weeks after his bid and with an uncommon terrorist insurance addition. His exaggerated bid and insurance contract would also greatly inflate the amount of money he could get from an insurance claim. If the winning bid was 1.5 billion, the insurance payout would also have been much less.
o In real estate, its quite rare for a prudent investor to bid twice the asking price, as demonstrated by the other companies that backed out, of which I find no connections to Trump.
o If anyone had known about 9/11 ahead of time, like Trump claims he did, it would become drastically easier to outbid all competitors, knowing that for pennies on the dollar, you would be getting much more back.

Further Reading:
NY Times Article on World Trade Center Deal
Wikipedia on Lewis Eisenberg
Patch On Lew Eisenberg Leading Trump Fundraising
NY Times Article Silverstein Gets Most Of His Money Back

Giuliani’s Gangster Acts
Arguably, if the above points are what they objectively appear to be, that would be a bad thing. You’d think that would be enough. However, Guliani would say “hold my beer’ to those sentiments.

1. Outdated Equipment for First Responders:
· Due to Giuliani’s inadequate leadership, first responders used old equipment that failed to warn them to evacuate the towers. Which contributed to their deaths while they searched for survivors.
NY Times Article: Giuliani’s Preparedness on 9/11
2. Obstructed Recovery Efforts:
· Giuliani delayed proper search and rescue operations for days, possibly costing lives of citizens and first responders who didn’t know they needed to leave.
· 20 Years later he would claim that some of Bidens actions were so reckless that… “It would be as if I got down to ground zero and said take out the firefighters, all you civilians see if you can get yourselves out.” Self report?
NBC News Report: Giuliani’s Role in Recovery
NY1: Giuliani Reflects on 9/11 Anniversary
3. Twin Towers Fund and Privatization:
· Giuliani privatized the Twin Towers relief funds, making them unauditable.
NY Times Article on Privatization
NY Post Article: Giuliani and Twin Towers Fund
4. Survivors Threaten To SUE Guliani For Relief Funds
· Even after privatizing the twin towers fund, Giuliani would make it incredibly difficult for the victims to receive their fair share. Requiring many of them to spend unnecessary money on advisors and consultants.
· Even with their legal pressure, he only agreed to “give the remaining 100 million to victims,” out of 170 million, if he could first put the money into the bank account of a charity in which he controlled.
· From the attached article: “But Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said that he remained adamantly opposed to any transfer of funds to Mr. Giuliani's charity.
He also objected to Mr. Giuliani's continued control over even the $15 million in his private charity. Mr. Giuliani, he charged, gives every indication of using the Twin Towers Fund to maintain a staff of loyal supporters and to advance his political aspirations.
'The concern that politics will infiltrate the fund becomes even more apparent when one reviews the list of the mayor's former political appointees who are assuming senior staff positions or serving on the fund's board of directors,'' he wrote in a letter on Monday to Eliot L. Spitzer, the state attorney general.”
NY Times Article On Guliani Pressed To Disperse Twin Tower Funds
· However, there is no evidence of Giuliani making good on this promise.
· There are honestly no words for this. All associates of Guliani should be investigated.
5. Attempted Election Cancellation in 2001:
· Giuliani tried to cancel the 2001 election to stay mayor longer. He even considered removing term limits with Governor Pataki’s support. Similar to how Trump has “joked” about increasing his own term limits.
Business Insider: Giuliani and Pataki’s Attempt to Cancel Elections
Esquire Trump Joke Third Term
6. Motive
· In 2000, Guliani unfortunately got prostate cancer. We have to be willing to ask if this was a motive for his corrupt acts.
SurvivorNet: Giuliani’s Cancer


Silverstein’s Unscrupulous Greed
1. Initial Settlement Demands and Profit Claims:
· Despite only having been out for $25 million, Silverstein initially sought nearly $8 BILLION in insurance settlements and argued for "loss of revenue from those buildings," which is quite an uncompassionate claim considering how many lost their lives. Talk about a prime example of the working and lower classes making sacrifices while rich elites complain they didn’t profit enough from the same tragedy.
2. Rebuilding Contributions and Insurance Payout:
· Despite the fact that he only owned the leasing rights to the twin towers, ‘Silverstein Properties’ received up to $4 billion from insurance payouts, instead of the Port Authority, which would be customary as the owner.
· While it's assumed that most of that money went to rebuilding, this isn't actually known or proven. It would be different if he had a separate insurance policy that was not connected to the rebuilding of the towers, with different monies going to the Port Authority to rebuild. This was not the case.
History.com: Rebuilding of Ground Zero
· He additionally refused to return the rights of Building 1 to the Port Authority until he secured additional funds from an $8 billion state fund. Talk about heartless.
Wikipedia: Larry Silverstein
· Various entities would contribute a total of $20 billion to rebuild all six damaged or destroyed towers, including four towers leased by Silverstein and two others he hadn't. This makes it unlikely that he had to go out of pocket with his 4 Billion.
3. Estimated Net Worth:
· While earlier records of Silverstein's net worth are unavailable, aside from his near bankruptcy in 1980, he is currently estimated to be worth around $1 billion.
Forbes Profile: Larry Silverstein

Silverstein’s Controversial Alignment with Trump
Larry Silverstein's connections and public persona have often been scrutinized. This scrutiny became particularly relevant in 2015 when he publicly displayed his support for Donald Trump:

• Long-standing Relationship: Silverstein revealed a 30-year-long acquaintance with Trump, emphasizing the depth of their connection. This means his relationship started in 1985, roughly two years after gaining a powerful criminal organization as a tenant in his tower 7, that saved him from bankruptcy, and 6 years before Trumps first, of many, bankruptcies. This also means they knew each other before 9/11.
• Supportive Yet Vague: He commended Trump for diligently pursuing what he believed to be right, echoing Trump's own ambiguous rhetoric. When pressed about the righteousness of Trump’s goals, Silverstein ambiguously responded, "well, it’s... you know... we’ll find out." This mirrors Trump’s evasive " Well, we're going to have to see what happens" stance, when questioned about committing to a peaceful transfer of power prior to January 6th—an event that ultimately unfolded with violence and chaos.
• Early Endorsement: By voicing his support when Trump announced his presidential campaign, Silverstein positioned himself as one of the early prominent figures in the MAGA movement.

Watch Silverstein Discuss Trump
CNN Trump On 2020 Election

The Man Who Boasted
When most people witness a tragedy, especially of this size, it takes time for their brains to comprehend what happened, it takes even more time to process it. Thus, anyone who was able to brag about their own assets hours after this tragedy on a radio show, is at least worthy of Investigation, especially if this very event helped reshape a misinformation landscape in which he would thrive as its King.
Politifact – How 911 Attacks Helped Shape Modern Misinformation

· Insensitive Boasts About Building Height:
o Trump also boasted that with the fall of the Twin Towers, his building became the tallest in Manhattan—an inaccurate and insensitive claim given the context.
Independent 9 11 Trump Tallest Building
· Early Claims and Revisions:
o Shortly after 9/11, Donald Trump claimed he saw the second plane hit the towers from his Manhattan apartment. He also made an unfounded claim that he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering, a statement that has been widely debunked. Despite varying explanations and suggesting that he saw it on an untraceable video that was “widely covered,” these claims helped fueled significant conspiracy theories. If anything, this was a self-report.
o Snopes: Trump Claims Muslims Cheered
o FactCheck.org: Trump’s Revised 9/11 Claim
· Visit to Ground Zero:
o A week after the attacks, Trump visited Ground Zero and stated that although he was present, he wouldn’t consider himself a first responder. This attempt at humility struck many as morbidly insensitive, considering the true heroism displayed by actual first responders.
ABC News: Trump Shares New Details About Morning of 9/11

Legacy of Suspicion:
These actions paint Trump as one of the more suspicious figures post-9/11, who may have used the tragedy for personal and political gain. His connections with figures like Larry Silverstein and Lewis Eisenberg, the Port Authority chairman, hint at deep financial interests potentially influenced by the 9/11 aftermath. Meanwhile, survivors and first responders faced challenges in securing support, highlighting the disparities between their experiences and the political maneuvers at play. Again morbidly juxtaposing the struggles of the poor and working class versus elite swamp members such as Trump and his ilk.

While being, arguably, one of the more suspicious Americans of potentially “being an insider," Trump would go on to cast doubt everywhere else with his new holier than thou rhetoric and hints and claims that “it was an inside job” for the next 15 years.

What if he was speaking from personal experience.

The Deepfake Dilemma
Now in a world where Trump's followers already discount reality, the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes threatens to further distort the truth. This technology could transform legal standards of evidence, making it easy to dismiss genuine evidence against the right as fabricated, while baseless accusations against the left might be accepted as the long-awaited proof.

The Potential Escalation of MAGA Actions
Given the willingness of MAGA supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6th, bolstered by Trump's incendiary rhetoric, the potential for escalation is alarming. The advent of fabricated images and videos could present unprecedented national security threats.

Trump's Incendiary Rhetoric on January 6th
Trump's speech on January 6th was a clear incitement, as he urged his followers to "fight like hell" to "stop the steal," despite admitting DURING THE SPEECH that there was no evidence of the massive electoral fraud he claimed. As well as his lawyers laughable court “arguments.”
“...while there is no evidence to prove any wrongdoing…”
Npr.Org Read Trumps Jan 6 Speech
LawAndCrime Come On Now

This speech, coupled with his undermining of constitutional processes, underscores the risks and intentional deceit of his rhetoric. Too bad Republicans senators and our Supreme Court have either claimed he was above the law, or continue to postpone his court dates till after elections. A wild position when treason is on the table. Did that dude commit treason that claims he wants to become a dictator? I dunno, lets let him potentially get elected and then find out!

Elon Musk's Political Shift
Elon was once very much a leftist, unfortunately in more and more far left “activists” continue to attack him endlessly for not agreeing with them on their own singular issues and perspectives. To them I say congratulations, you successfully pushed the most powerful man on earth into the far right. Great job. Great job.
Elon Musk's journey from a liberal supporter to a figure embraced by the far right highlights the volatile nature of political affiliations in today's polarized environment. His actions since acquiring Twitter—such as promoting unfounded conspiracy theories and making high-profile firings—suggest a departure from his initial free speech advocacy.
Especially when considering he fired Don Lemon from his platform for an interview he found offensive. Canceling opinions you find offensive isn’t free speech, it’s literally the opposite. I’m sure many people were offended by the examples below. What about them?
Far Right Support Examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The Need for a Critical Approach
Supporters of Trump should critically evaluate why he did not pardon the January 6th insurrectionists during his term, despite using them as political leverage now. This pattern of using allies until they are no longer useful is evident throughout his political and personal dealings.
What better example could there possibly be as to what trump truly thinks of his supporters, how sacrificial he sees them as part of his endless narratives, then his refusal and failure to pardon January 6th insurrectionists while still in office?
Of course, anyone “just on the grass” or outside the building should only get a day in jail at most, however people that barged inside the capital should naturally get much more.
And while trump refused to pardon those people before, he now calls them “hostages” and is using them as political bait to a truly wild degree. It's very likely he will make good on this promise to further embolden the narrative that “Democrats are trying to take you down and only I can save you.”
His supporters need to seriously ask, “Why didn’t he pardon us before?”
Also, remember when he claimed he would pay legal fees for supporters that were violent at his rallies, but then seemed to falter and change his mind. Much like how Amber Heard donated her money, “by pledging it.”
List of allies he was quick to discard or dump. And let's face it, all of these people have done more for him than the average MAGA supporter. The only person he cares about is himself.
Trump claims that Mike Pence, the man he vetted more than anyone else, “has gone to the dark side.”
Trump seems to have supported the chants to “Hang Mike Pense,” at least in jest? We hope? There are also no links of him condemning them. Yet admittedly this one point doesn’t have hard evidence like a recording or video as far as I know, it certainly fits his brand.
Mike Flynn, a Trump appointee, later testifies against him.
Trump admits Flynn lied on his behalf, accidentally testifying against him, but does pardon him. As long as you’re colluding with Russia you’re ok it seems?

The Future Under Trump's Influence
Trump's rhetoric about overriding constitutional norms to address what he calls "massive fraud" hints at authoritarian aspirations. His praise for dictators and divisive language further aligns with dangerous historical precedents.
Important Articles:
“How a second trump term could end us democracy.” -commondreams
“Ask the expert: What a 2nd Trump term could mean for democracy and advancing policy.” - Msu Today
“Judgement Day” for political opponents.

To predict the future lets base it on known facts:
Apparently, he will help attack our constitution like he may have with the Twin Towers.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
Stated he intended to be a Dictator on day one, but then promises it will be just for a day. Is that how that works? Or is it “Once you go Dictator you don’t go back?”
Praising dictators, referring to immigrants as vermin etc, akin to Hitlers rhetoric against “blood mixing.”
More fraudulent use of lawyers and courts that gets everyone else in trouble but him, with them arguing he's above the law. This further shows how much he will consistently use people for his own ends and then dump them when they're no longer of use.
Warning from republicans and notes on ass kissing. As well as being generally unfit for office.
If you want help from Trump you better kiss his ***
Trumps says he kept Omarosa just because she said nice things about him, while defaming her
DeSantis: "You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful."
Thehill Trump Views People Who Kiss His A As Weak.
And if you dare to speak out against trump, you better kiss his ****
Politico Graham Breaks With Trump On Abortion
WashingtonPost Trump Graham Abortion
News Yahoo 30 More Republicans Denounce Donald Trump Unqualified President
Hot take, if he’s elected president America, and the world, is frankly fucked.

Predicting MAGA 2024 And Beyond
Naturally there are endless possibilities of what MAGA and dictators around the world decide to do this year and into the future. I believe that the one thing that insinuates when it's time for their next evil actions is dictated by their standings in the polls or when a fellow dictator needs a little more political pressure from war torn inflated oil prices etc.
Dictators Unite
While writing my thesis, I speculated that dictators globally were uniting, finding mutual benefits in their governance and deceitful tactics. This theory is increasingly recognized as these autocrats appear to be forming a coalition, undermining peaceful unity efforts through conspiracy theories to preserve their power.
Unherd How Autocrats Unite
The True Nature of MAGA
MAGA was never genuinely about speaking truth to power or restoring America's glory. It has been an elaborate scheme funded by immense wealth, perpetuating anti-American sentiments through fabricated grassroots movements by domestic and foreign actors. This movement has primarily enriched a select few power-hungry dictators and may have been responsible for some of our most horrific moments in history in the past and acts yet to come.
Trump and MAGA
While 'MAGA' predates Trump, he conveniently stepped into a role long in the making. Despite occasional deviations from the MAGA ideology, such as promoting vaccines to emphatic boos, Trump has largely embodied its principles. The real architects of MAGA, however, are likely disillusioned with his unpredictable attacks, which contradict their broader agenda of absolute power.
Nbc News Donald Trump Booed
Trump as a Martyr
Regardless of election outcomes, Trump is poised to claim interference. His rhetoric and the devout belief of his followers in his divine anointment could lead to his martyrdom, especially given his age and the vulnerabilities it brings. This martyrdom could solidify his legacy while serving the interests of MAGA strategists who find him increasingly burdensome even if he “wins.”
Factcheck Trumps Bogus Voter Fraud Claims
La Times Trump Democrats Effort Presidential Ballot

Two nail-biting finishes in a fortnight see Hawthorn locked into 15th on the ladder coming into round 10, with three wins for the season. The key to Hawthorn’s success this last fortnight really comes down to the application of intense pressure across the ground and maintaining such pressure for all four quarters.
Hawthorn’s next opponent is Port Adelaide who are coming off a big scalp, having beaten Geelong at the Cattery on Friday night. The Power has been a little hot and cold this season however they’re sitting at sixth on the ladder. They come into round 10 with a Loss-Win-Loss-Win record from the last month.
Port had a blistering start to Friday's game, stunning the Cats with eight goals in the first quarter. Ollie Wines, Jason Horne-Francis and Zak Butters each had a blinder, with the Port midfielders comprehensively beating Geelong in the stoppages. Meanwhile, the rest of the team held true, never conceding the lead.
Port Defender Esava Ratugolea dominated Tom Hawkins in the forward line, keeping him to seven touches and one goal for the match. Meanwhile, Jed McEntee disrupted Tom Stewart's ability to play intercept defender, enabling the likes of Willie Rioli to snag four goals, while Mitch Georgiades, Kane Farrell, and Darcy Byrne-Jones bagged two each.
Despite Geelong’s spirited comeback, Port dominated the Cats in just about every statistical category. This comes as Port was also missing their captain Connor Rozee. Next Sunday, Port will have a home-ground advantage while also potentially having Rozee return to their already dangerous midfield.
The last time Hawthorn faced Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval, the Power dominated the Hawks, defeating them by 55 points. While Hawthorn fought back hard in the second half it was never enough to close the gap created by 16 goal lead in the first half. Port had eleven goal kickers for the day, with forwards Jeremy Finlayson and Todd Marshall kicking five each, while Rioli kicked four.
Hawthorn did not have James Sicily in the side for that game and our defence, which at the time was made up of Jarman Impey, Sam Frost, Lachy Bramble, Blake Hardwick, James Blanck, and Bailey MacDonald, struggled to shut down Port’s forward line.
Hawthorn’s forward line at the time also looked quite different, consisting of Sam Butler, Jacob Koschitzke, Dylan Moore, Luke Bruest, Tyler Brockman, and Mitch Lewis.
It is not unlikely Sicily would return next week and his addition to the side should prove helpful. However, Sam Mitchell would have to consider the possibility of Sicily being tagged by McEntee, similar to his role against Stewart. Thankfully, Jack Scrimshaw has played two excellent games in the intercepting role and could negate the effects of that move, as could Impey who was BOG in round seven against the Dogs.
The inclusion of Seamus Mitchell and Jai Serong should also help sure up things in defence, with both playing well on Saturday against the Saints. However, the addition of Ethan Phillips is still warranted given Port’s tall timber in the forward line i.e. Marshall (198cm) and Finalyson (197cm), especially considering the Saints began using their height to their advantage following half time in Launceston. Sam Frost will also have to be at his best having struggled against Port last time. Changouth Jiath, who is currently having a lovely return in the VFL (8+ disposals and 4+ I50s), may find himself in the mix to play next week as well.
The Hawks may also need Mabior Chol (if he is available) back in the forward line to assist Gunston and Dear, who were both goalless on Saturday. Sicily and Hardwick could both play swingman roles to disrupt Port Adelaide’s structure, but ultimately, the forward line has to work hard to make the most of all opportunities at goal. St Kilda were able to more or less shut down Hawthorn’s ability to send the ball long into the forward line on Saturday, with the likes of Callum Wilkie and Josh Battle amassing six contested marks and 15 intercept possessions between them. Lloyd Meek would also be expected to move forward as he had on Saturday, resulting in a goal. If Chol isn’t available, Max Ramsden could provide the forward line with another target. As of writing, Ramsden has slotted two goals in the VFL against Sandringham.
Lastly, Hawthorn’s mids will be tested against one of the best midfields in the competition. Expect Meek to have some dominance over Dante Visentini, while Jai Newcombe, James Worple, Connor Nash and co will have to work very hard to win the clearances against Butters, Wines, Horne-Francis, and potentially Rozee.
Port Adelaide are a much more formidable side than the Bulldogs or St Kilda; one that has been considered a shoo-in for finals contention. Hawthorn must produce a similar effort as the past two weeks, perhaps even digging deeper, and must tighten things in the forward line if they are to compete strongly against Port.
Port’s last loss was against Adelaide, at Adelaide, following a win against St Kilda at the same ground. Their loss against Adelaide and inability to string multiple wins together might give the Hawks some confidence, but it may be wise to temper expectations lest they perform as they had against the Swans.
Edit: Fixed some spelling mistakes.

I have a question:
(will these things even be possible) but it will take this post to create coherent questions:
Personally I think that the West has gotten so advanced in all things because of a few reasons, mainly it's history of basic tension.
First let me say that of course I recognize that they used to be terrible, but, by, let's say, the 90's, they fixed themselves for the most part, gay marriage is legal even in the US (my country), lgbtq people aren't treated well enough in a lot of places, but there's an enormous economic and popular base that supports them that they should be proud of building as a freedom-loving and humane society. Problem is, now the slippery slope has ended in a landslide from Heaven. I have no doubt that this country will be punished for allowing incredibly vile things in the arts of society, as well as trampling on the innocence of the young.
I personally think that your religion dictates what civilization you belong to, so even though I only speak English and I am of Guatemalan descent (A Spanish-speaking country directly South of and bordering Mexico) I consider myself part of Middle Eastern civilization (please correct me if that's wrong).
Firstly:
One of those things that makes the West great is the two city system.
In the West the dialectic between philosophy (philosophy used to just mean an intellectual pursuit like a science) and morality is very stark. They can make a scientific discovery and not believe it, and they can believe something without evidence, but the struggle produces epic results. It invented science, opened the door of theology as a formal discipline, launched man into space (I get that the Soviets said they weren't Western but philosophically they were, after all Marx and Engels were Central/Western European) and the West made quick work of most of the other nations on Earth, and yet they have the right to believe the world was created when they were born, or that the Earth is flat. All this is the dialectic between Athens and Jerusalem, or, should I say, Athens tempered by Jerusalem.
One can say that this is a flawed value system, but it is certainly superior to anything produced by any other civilization thus far.
Ours must be the rise of a system similar to, yet detached from both of those cities and gaining our history back as the West did to Greece and Rome in their Renaissance, then improve it until we cross the span toward the Islamic equivalent of the Jewish Enlightenment.
We can do this with a balance between Babylon, tempered by Mecca. Babylon was a great city, and the first major metropolis (arguably after Uruk) in history, but really standing for all of the civilizations in Mesopotamia, mainly because the West may have invented science, but we invented civilization itself. They may have invented freedom, but we invented justice. We may be outnumbered by advocates of politicized shariah, but what can stop the forward march of justice?
There is also the matter of a structure of government. The well known and eminent Jewish-British-American historian Bernard Lewis, specializing in middle-Eastern civilization, who said, if I recall correctly: "the Muslims will have to create their own form of government (and separate it from religious rule)" after that he said that Islam has a huge tradition of humane, limited, responsible governance to draw from in order to make a modern society, especially in their use of the term consultation (shurah), where organization, power and authority came from within or below, not from above.
If there is a way to create a new kind of government for the Middle East I think it would take those shurah groups and have them act as American-style branches of government, with separation of powers, vetos overcome by major majorities, a branch for the clergy (the closest thing you have is the Ulema), a branch for the military, a branch of commerce, a branch of worker's unions etc. and to let them elect their own leaders to a high council that will be odd in number and do its voting that way.
So, after reading all of that, do you think this is, or that there is a superior model to Western Liberal democracy in the Middle East? I get that you might want a consultation based monarchy , certainly it would improve long-term wellbeing of the lands, but is it worth it to give up the ability to change the government without violence? It seems to me like there should be the council because of that, but honestly I'm incredibly ignorant of the Middle East, and Islam, I am merely here to ask a question.
We will create a civilization, and it will shine, and as a waining West succumbs to our fertility, we will be the faith populating the stars, that is if the Day of Judgement doesn't come first.

[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]
Jaskel just stared. In horror, in shock, in fear, he didn't know.
He just stared.
The Terran was completely engaged, in the middle of all of the creatures. Their tentacles whipped at him, curved exoskeletal hooks slapping at him, blades emerging to stab at him, mechanical three prong grippers opening up to grab at the Terran and try to fire lasers directly into the Terran's skin. One moved forward, cavernous mouth wide open, a hot red glow in the back of the conical mouth, the teeth wiggling.
The Terran just shoved his fist through the creature's maw and caused it to explode into rags of flesh and chunks of armor, the tentacles falling to whip around on the floor as the punch continued to hit a rippling field in front of one of the crystalline creatures. The field collapsed in a shower of sparks.
"OH YEEAAAAAAAH!" the Terran gave a bass roar, stepping forward again.
"No shot, no clear shot," Jaskel said, moving his light machinegun around, trying to figure out what to shoot, hell, where to shoot that wouldn't hit the Terran.
"SHOOT, PUSSY!" the Terran roared out, grabbing one of the crystalline articulated 'tentacles' and ripping it free to jam the crystalline blade through the side of one of the green eyed creatures, continuing the blow until the blade shattered on the wall and the creature was pulped between his fist and the bulkhead.
Jaskel fired his weapon, seeing the liquid filled cartridges shattering on the Terran's skin, just coating his skin. The rounds that hit the crystalline creature that was backing up made the crystalline structure start to smoke and sizzle.
"YOU GOT NUTHIN!" the Terran roared out, knocking the last crystalline creature out of the way and rushing forward.
The one in the back screeched, trying to back up, flailing tentacles at the Terran. The blades chipped at the spikes, but did little else.
Besides get the tentacles in reach of the Terran.
One of the green eyed ones lunged at Jaskel and he hosed it with the LMG. The steel tip shattered armor, the lye splattered. The thing screeched, spinning in place, trying to interpose the tentacles between the full auto 150 rounds a minute and itself.
Jaskel just kept shooting, the tentacles shattering, the creature shrieking again, making his phasic shielding jump to 85%.
More creatures were flooding into the hallway, but Jaskel didn't have time to think about them, just shifting targets and firing as first one, then another collapsed.
The Terran was covered, but it kept grabbing with its hands, ripping the creatures off. The Terran would twist the tentacles, or squeeze the bulbous body, or smash it against the wall.
Still advancing on the larger one, which was flailing its seven remaining tentacles.
The Terran grabbed one of the black armored ones, ripped its tentacles off, slapped it twice, and tossed it as Jaskel.
"Catch!" it roared. "Live one!"
Jaskel let the LMG drop onto the sling, clumsily catching the one that was tossed. Black goo had covered the amputated tentacle stumps and then hardened. It screeched, trying to wriggle and bite.
Jaskel slapped it again.
"Jaskel, get that lunatic to pull back. The dropship is under heavy assault. NavInt wants us to pull back," the Gunny said.
"TERRAN! WE'RE LEAVING!" Jaskel shouted.
The Terran stopped, facing the bigger one with the red and green eyes.
The Terran held out its first two fingers in a 'V', touched just under his own eyes, then thrust them at the creature, which was still backing up.
"I'll be back for you, smartass," the Terran growled, starting to back up.
Creatures kept lunging out of doorways, dropping from hidden vents, lunging out of ventwork in the walls.
Jaskel barely got turned when one lunged out of a vent, the cover slapping him in the fact, the tentacles wrapping around him. The mouth glommed onto his chest and the body started pulsating.
The armor's defense went live, electricity arcing.
The creature dropped, smoking.
The Terran stomped on it.
Jaskel swallowed, still moving back. He kept shooting with one hand, the power armor's strength allowing him to keep the barrel steady. He just hosed the hallway, no longer concerned about hitting the Terran, who didn't seem to care about the highly caustic lye, the steel penetrator tips, or the kinetic energy.
An obvious robot lunged out and the Terran grabbed it, ripped off its arms, ripped off part of its hull, and then snatched out something that registered as a power-source on Jaskel's armor.
"Got a robot, bringing it back," the Terran rumbled.
Jaskel could see his words on his HUD right afterwards.
"Naw, it'll be fine," the Terran said. It kept reaching in and pulling stuff out. Jaskel saw what looked like bullets, maybe tiny missiles, a six-sided pinkish crystal he knew was one of the best types of crystal to use for blue-shift laser beams.
When Jaskel got to the huge crater, he could see the problem.
Robots and what looked like spiders with cannons on their backs were on the edge of the crater, firing down on the dropship and the troops moving into the dropship.
The Terran paused, lifting up one fist, arm bent and the elbow. He made a cocking motion, his biceps suddenly bulging and lumpy, leveled his fist, and started firing. Jaskel's armor ID'd it as 20mm magac shells.
"Get in the dropship, kid," the Terran said, turning and backing up, sweeping robots off of the lip.
Jaskel hustled to the dropship, noting that the Terran had handed off the gutted robot to another Telkan.
Jaskel ran up the boarding ramp, Captain Nakwel slapped the top of his helmet.
"Nineteen! All accounted for!" the Captain called out.
"Hammer Two Six, fall back, board the dropship," came a perfectly calm voice over Jaskel's radio. "Go garrison form on entry."
The medic onboard the dropship moved up to Jaskel, holding a stasis lock usually used for severed limbs. "In here."
Jaskel frowned, then remembered the creature he was holding. He nodded, shoving it into the opening. The medic closed it and it hissed, frost covering it.
The Terrans started boarding the dropship right as Jaskel heard the ship's point defense cut loose. Jaskel saw them go from huge monstrous looking forms to shrinking down, steaming, into the large Terrans.
They even had their shirts back.
"All loaded!" Captain Nakwel called out.
One by one they got in their seats as the ramp whined up and the side doors slammed shut.
It lifted off and Jaskel leaned back slightly, relaxing in his armor.
--that was fun-- 8814 said.
"Felt like a waste of time," Jaskel said. He closed his eyes. "Wake me if something stupid happens."
--roger roger--
99999
Captain N'Skrek moved into the ready room, going over to his chair and sitting down.
His Command Staff as well as the Terran officers acting as advisors were all sitting down already.
N'Skrek waited a moment, lit a cigarette, then tapped his lighter against the top of the table.
"Sit-rep?" he asked.
"The singularity ignited. It should be stable for roughly ten years. Our Nav-Int complement believes it should slow, maybe even devour any Mar-gite clusters too close," Commodore Brakte'ek said.
N'Skrek nodded.
"Gravity focus lensing, while a good idea, would have kept us here for another four weeks to manufacture and deploy them," Commander KrekNak said. The Kobold tapped the table. "However, with Mar-gite clusters still warping in, the need to backtrack them is becoming more and more obvious."
N'Skrek puffed on the cigarette, then pointed at the hologram of the disabled enemy ship floating in the table's holo-emitter.
"We get anything good off of that hulk before we destroyed it?" he asked, looking at the Science Intelligence Section's Chief Warrant officer.
The Lanaktallan nodded. "Quite a bit of data," he pointed at the holoemitters that were cold and dark on the table. "May I?"
"Of course," N'Skrek said.
The Chief nodded and began typing on the holographic keyboard that sprang up under his lower hands.
The holograms came to life.
Molecular breakdown of the atmosphere on the ship. Molecular breakdown and scans of the interior structural elements. More breakdowns of the ship's armor, superconductor cabling. Finally, four holoemitters held images of the creatures that had defended it.
Only one didn't have a DNA/XNA breakdown underneath it.
"First item: They use steel in their interior construction," CW4 In'tel'lmo'o stated. "Nothing unusual, standard high grade steel. A little heavy on the chromium layer, but that's known to keep phasic energy from sinking into the metal too deeply," he tapped another key and the molecular breakdowns rotated. "Judging from the pieces brought back, the steel is gravity well manufactured, with the imperfections that point to a natural gravity well."
"So, they have planetary logistics and manufacturing centers?" one of the Terrans asked.
In'tel'lmo'o nodded. "Yes. Their manufacturing is not all that impressive in the materials department. The shimmering chrome liquid appearance is a function of their battlescreens, not any memetic polyalloy. That, and their armor is laminate with a chrome layer on the outside just over standard gold."
Everyone just made notes.
"Several of the Terran Monster Class found active data lines. Using induction pads built into their hands, they were able to intercept and observe data flows through superconductor as well as fiber optic," In'tel'lmo'o said. He nodded at Commander Hresket, Chief of the Intel Section. "Cryptography is working on the data."
"First of all, judging by pulsing, it looks like they use base-12 numbering. That gives us plenty of signal to look over," Hresket said.
N'Skrek annotated the information on his VR scratchpad.
The briefing moved into power generation and capability, battlescreen estimates (one of the Terrans had ripped a battlescreen projector free and then tore it apart while his scouter eyepiece had recorded it all), and other technological information.
"The object started bringing its engines online, that was when a recall was transmitted to the dismount team," CW4 In'tel'lmo'o said. "Which moves us to what we've all been waiting patiently through all of the briefing to get here. Everyone knows the prize is at the bottom of the cereal box."
That got light chuckles.
"Four life forms were encountered, as well as six different types of robots and what we believe are three autonomous or semi-autonomous drones," In'tel'lmo'o stated.
Images of the creatures popped up.
"They're XNA. Silicon was the predominate theory, based on the Mar-gite, which we have begun calling the Mar-gite Autonomous Bioweapon. However, data gathered by the Terran infantry showed that they are primarily boron based, with sulfuric running a close second. By what we have observed from life in the galaxy so far, that means that these creatures are native to a highly volcanic region with a high probability," In'tel'lmo'o stated.
He tabbed the big one, with the ten tentacles that ended in three manipulator claws. "This appears to the top of their system. The other four are all based on the same XNA template, just heavy modification. We believe they created, or evolution forced them into, several biological castes."
"Phasic energy is high in this one," the crystalline one shot through with red veins. "This one also has a higher sulfur and phosphorous dependency," he tapped the big one again. "This one also possesses phasic ability."
He tapped the other two. "These appear to be combat," the dark one with the gleaming spurs, then one that had a shiny, chrome-like surface. "This one appears to be primarily engineering and work, with built in manipulators and sensory systems."
There was brief video of the larger one firing off conical phasic bursts that made the misty atmosphere of the corridor ripple and twist.
"Standard waves of force, generated with phasic power," In'tel'lmo'o stated. He pointed one hand at the Terrans seated. "Consulting with those who fought against the Atrekna before the Terran Xenocide Event shows us that the upper life form's phasic abilities are not in the category of the Atrekna."
N'Skrek felt a bit of relief at that.
"Furthermore, consultation with Mantid phasic warfare specialists, we believe that the upper caste, as of what we know at this moment, has less phasic power than a Mantid Warrior or High Speaker," In'tel'lmo'o said.
He sat down, the holograms going dim as the contents were saved to the command staff's data stores.
"As of now, we know more than we did, but now we just know how much we don't know."
N'Skrek nodded. "All right. Excellent briefing," he said. He looked around. "Set our course along Nav-Int's estimate of where the next energizing construct will be."
He clacked his mandibles in amusement.
"Let's keep taking this war to them."
[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]

The Fascinating World of Cell Biology: Exploring Cell Structure, Cell Cycle, Cellular Transport, and Signaling
If you are unable to Handle your Online Biology Exam, Assignments and other coursework Tasks, get paid help from Online Helpers at Hiraedu!
Contact Details for Hiraedu Helper:
WhatsApp: +1 (213) 594-5657
Call: +1 727 456 9641
Website: hiraedu. com
Email: info@hiraedu. com
Cell biology is the branch of science that seeks to understand the intricate mechanisms of cells, the basic units of life. It is a field that has revolutionized our understanding of the world and has led to numerous breakthroughs in fields such as medicine, genetics, and biotechnology. In this blog, we will delve into the fascinating world of cell biology, exploring cell structure and organelles, cell cycle and division, cellular transport, and signaling.
Cell Structure and Organelles
Cells are the basic units of life, and their structure and organelles play a crucial role in their function. The cell membrane, also known as the plasma membrane, is the outermost layer of the cell that separates the cell from its environment. The cell membrane is semi-permeable, allowing certain substances to pass through while keeping others out.Inside the cell membrane, there are various organelles that perform specific functions. The nucleus is the control center of the cell, containing the genetic material in the form of DNA. The mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, responsible for generating energy in the form of ATP. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a network of membranous tubules and cisternae that is involved in protein synthesis, transport, and storage. The ribosomes are small organelles found throughout the cytoplasm, responsible for protein synthesis.
Cell Cycle and Division
The cell cycle is the process by which cells grow, replicate their DNA, and divide into two daughter cells. The cell cycle consists of three main stages: interphase, mitosis, and cytokinesis. Interphase is the longest stage of the cell cycle, during which the cell grows, replicates its DNA, and prepares for cell division. Mitosis is the stage during which the replicated DNA is divided equally between two daughter cells. Cytokinesis is the final stage, during which the cytoplasm divides and the cell splits into two daughter cells.
Cellular Transport and Signaling
Cellular transport refers to the movement of molecules and ions across the cell membrane. There are two main types of cellular transport: passive transport and active transport. Passive transport occurs without the use of energy, while active transport requires energy to move molecules against their concentration gradient.Cell signaling is the process by which cells communicate with each other through signaling pathways. Signaling pathways involve a series of molecular interactions that allow cells to respond to changes in their environment. There are two main types of cell signaling: intracellular signaling and intercellular signaling. Intracellular signaling occurs within the cell, while intercellular signaling occurs between cells.
Online Courses and Certifications

• Cell Biology by University of California San Diego
• Cell Structure and Function by University of Geneva
• Cell Cycle and Division by Johns Hopkins University
• Cellular Transport and Signaling by University of Manchester
• Cell Biology and Genetics by Duke University

Books

• Cell Biology by Thomas D. Pollard and William C. Earnshaw
• Molecular Biology of the Cell by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, David Morgan, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, and Peter Walter
• Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics by Robert Schleif
• The Cell: A Molecular Approach by Bruce Alberts, Dennis Bray, Karen Hopkin, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, and Peter Walter
• Cell Signaling by John T. Hancock

Practice Exams

• Cell Biology Practice Exam by McGraw Hill
• Cell Biology and Genetics Practice Exam by Kaplan
• Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics Practice Exam by Elsevier
• Cell Signaling Practice Exam by Biology LibreTexts

Other Resources

• Cell Biology Tutorials by BioTecNika Store
• Cell Biology Online Courses by edX
• Cell Biology Study Guide by Biology LibreTexts
• Cell Biology Help and Review by Khan Academy

Cell biology is a fascinating field that has revolutionized our understanding of the world. To study cell biology, there are many resources available, including online courses, certifications, books, practice exams, and other resources. These resources can help you gain a deeper understanding of cell biology and its applications in various fields.
If you are unable to Handle your Online Biology Exam, Assignments and other coursework Tasks, get paid help from Online Helpers at Hiraedu!
Contact Details for Hiraedu Helper:
WhatsApp: +1 (213) 594-5657
Call: +1 727 456 9641
Website: hiraedu. com
Email: info@hiraedu. com
Share your thoughts and views in comment section!
Join This community to stay Updated!

First/Previous
Gemma was right about the sky’s open night, and I could sympathize with her recollection of the beauty, but for me it must’ve been a greater tragedy—the young woman had only ever enjoyed the stars in the pits of Golgotha; I could, long before, drink in the sky at leisure. Cruel memories.
The night the Rednecks died was one of viscera, but before that it was coolness on the breeze, a warmth by the fires while John played his guitar and we had only just taken two dozen kegs of lager (personal reserves) from the Atlanta despot—the man that kept his subjects as slaves and not a person among the camp was left without budding intoxication. No matter the age, everyone was invited to be merry; if it was that children too faced the plight of a bad world, then so too should they reap the moments of plenty—or so the camp figured.
John had taken a group by the fires where wagons were drawn in interlocking semicircles for cover and Jackson sat beside the picker. Jackson was a man which normally preferred quiet reflection over boisterous singing and nearly never wore the band on his throat, and yet there he was belting out the chorus at the top of his lungs, tankard in hand, red cloth blazed around his neck—it was a contagion and those drunk enough for easier embarrassment sang proudly along:
“There is power, there is power in a band of working folk!
When we stand hand in hand,
That’s a power, that’s the power,
That must rule in every land!”
I’d taken to the outlying shadows with my back pressed against the gas-powered caleche, my own tankard in hand. I loved the warmth of that great big family, truly, but even in those days—and maybe it was that queer youthfulness which longed for individualism that made me that way then—I remained as distanced as possible when I could. I sipped the lager, it was a fine drink and my brother Billy, nearly as old as I was when I’d first taken up in the infantry, swaggered to stand beside me just as quiet for minutes and we looked at the stars and he asked me what it was like to kill a man.
“Is it hard?” he asked.
I nodded, “Sometimes.”
“Killing monsters ain’t so bad. Don’t know if I could do it to a person.”
“You could if they meant to kill you; or if they meant to do it to someone you cared about,” I promised him. In those days, spry, energized, I held no time for staring into abysses; though I still wasn’t a man fully, I pretended as one. It was about family, and it was about doing what was right—what’s right seemed to change, or I changed. The world felt stark with good and evil and even later I’d feel that sentiment well up in me, but if that’s true, I know I stand more on the latter and so I intentionally obfuscated it—this I know. If not, it might be too much to bear. I was required to lie to myself and even in knowing I lied, it was better.
Billy tugged on the red kerchief around his throat and asked me how it looked on him.
“Looks good,” I said.
“Don’t think I look stupid at all?”
I smiled over my drink, “You always look stupid.” I sipped. “The neckwear’s fine.”
“Give me a break,” said Billy; he investigated his own cup, gave it a swish with his wrist, watching its contents swirl. “Aren’t you ever afraid you’ll die?”
“Sometimes—nights like this—I wouldn’t mind it.”
“Really?” my brother asked.
“There’s always a chance of it. Every moment, I guess.”
He smiled. “I wish I had that confidence.”
“You’ll get it,” I returned his smile; it was true that he would gain the fighting spirit. It came to us all with time and reminiscing on the early days, I recall the grit and the hatred—there was learning there too though. Besides, I’d seen the squalors of a stationary man. The stagnation of a place, an unmoving home.
John put his guitar away and laughter erupted from the crowd from something said and Sibylle, cowboy hat cocked funny, traipsed across the camp to the open keg for a refill; the man there, tending the cylinders, was a man named Tandy (a foreigner and one unknown besides the way he smoked a skunk pipe and told wild stories). My mother leaned over while Tandy opened the spigot mouth on the keg, and she froze there, and I could see her there cut out forever against the light of the fires; I watched, and it came so suddenly that I couldn’t be sure what’d happened at all. It was so sudden that I couldn’t find my weapon and I couldn’t find even the courage to fight because in those moments it wasn’t courage I needed, it was grounds to understand.
Sibylle came apart in two pieces immediately, torn completely through and dust erupted as her legs struck the ground while her torso spun through the air like a top, a trail of liquid trailed after, caught in the blue of night so it shone as black; she couldn’t scream. Tandy was a statue. Before anyone could react, more flesh, other bodies, went up and there was all manner of limbs which filled the ground, and it is astounding how quickly a red mist forms across the ground during a massacre. Perhaps the wails of my comrades started before, perhaps others fell before Sibylle, but I could not comprehend the goings-on till I saw her drop the way she did.
Frail human screams rose on the night; I slammed to the ground, tankard gone away and hands scrambling in the dirt; I reached up blindly and yanked Billy to my level and his expression was one of innocence, panic, tears even. Glancing around, I saw the demons bolt from the pitch-black darkness on the edges of camp, mutants taking the fore while greater creatures lurked further back, some hurled whips of gliding metal which writhed over their heads when they stretched them out for a strike—alien—and they sliced directly through soft human bodies. Not even a cry escaped me, but Billy let go with it and I slapped my cupped hand over his mouth hard to hold the screams. His voice would not have been alone anyway, not alongside that startling cacophony. Amidst the cries of people, there were the cries of horses, of our hounds.
We rolled across the ground, slipped beneath the raised body of the gas-powered caleche, remained quiet in the dark, peeked out between the wheels.
“What’s happening?” Billy whispered through my fingers; I removed my hand from him and caught a glimpse of him framed in a square of firelight through the wheels—we lay there on our bellies and the left side of his face was glazed with dirt where I’d pulled him down.
“Shh,” I told him, “Shh, please. Please.” Not another word came while I pleaded with him, pleaded with the world to make this all a nightmare.
Through the haze and the running silhouettes painted black, I saw what might have been Jackson; he stumbled and in the moment that it took me to gasp, his head was gone from his body, his torso slid on as he collapsed, came to rest mere feet from the motor wagon. I told myself that it wasn’t him, but it probably was.
Some mutants lumbered through the camp like animated corpses, some leapt with wild energy or sprayed noxious fumes which lingered in the air; others still were amalgams of humanlike limbs themselves—fiends—exhausting terrible sounds, producing smells of sulfur, glistening with whatever liquids excreted from their oblong alien orifices. Demons ran amok, chanted in devil tongued languages, laughed madly at the destruction—others still, those which displayed some greater intelligence, broke into a song I could never hope or want to replicate; it seemed a unified damnation.
“Please,” I repeated in a whimper and Billy hushed me this time and I realized we were holding hands, squeezing for dear life as figures walked the camp, speared those half-alive, elected others for twisted carnality.
In darkness, in fright plainly, we scuttled from the recess of our hiding place, kept quiet, held to each other, and went into the wasteland where nothing was—every shadow was a potential threat, every second could’ve been the last. We were holding hands; then we weren’t.
Only a glance—that’s all I afforded my brother and nothing more—what a joke of a person I am! What a coward I was. Always.
Something got him in the dark and instead of dying alongside those I cared about, I went on, heartbeat driving me till it was all that I heard in my ears and my muscles ached and my chest heaved and sweat covered me, chilled me in the breeze of the night—it was only once I’d accepted the dark completely, crawled into a hollowed space of rocks along a squat ridge that I watched the demolished camp; it seemed no larger than a spark, but the creatures, fiends and others continued their war cries; never before had I witnessed demons participate in such an attack.
I watched till the sun came, till the fires became smoke, then I watched the band of hell creatures disband. The smell of sulfur remained in the air—copper too—and I stumbled back to the camp in a dreamlike daze, totally unbelieving of the things I saw. Among those dead on the ground, I could recognize none; among those piked from rear to shoulder, standing like morbid scarecrows where they’d been steadied against the ground, I could not want to recognize.
Many of the wagons were overturned, including the gas-powered caleche and I went to it; the metal of its body was warped but I fell to the ground by it and pushed my back against the exposed undercarriage, remained frozen there while examining the bodies, the terrible strips of skin which rested places like wet sheets of paper, the piles of bones removed and smashed and piled.
I cried so deeply that oxygen became a memory, and the shakes couldn’t be contained.
It was like that for so long, knees pulled up, face pushed between, and the wails came unafraid of whatever attention they might garner; there was no rationale, but I imagine if there had been, I would’ve welcomed death in that misery. It was a deep wound that not even my own cowardice would overcome for the sake of survival.
Unaware of my surroundings, not wanting to look up from the ground between my legs, the noise which had started out as imaginary became real and I raised my head then to listen better and wipe my sore eyes; it was the sound of clip-clop horse hooves and I mildly wondered if any of the animals had been spared. I stood and pivoted around the dead camp and there it was, a man on a painted horse with golden hair; he leisurely drove the mount through the place, maneuvering around pools of blood, clumps of body parts and upon seeing me, he smiled and offered a languid wave, keeping one of his gloved hands on the reins.
The man wore white and swished his hair back upon arriving directly in front of me. Ahoy, he offered kindly, Did you happen to see the other riders?
I shook my head, feeling numb.
Ah, he said, I could have sworn four other riders, at least, passed me on my way. His gray eyes examined the carnage. Shame. He shook his head. You are?
“H-harlan.”
He nodded and nearly offered an expression of genuine condolence before descending from the horse; the animal gave a gentle grunt and wandered away from its master to inspect a nearby group of the dead. The man offered his hand, and I took it in a shake. Mephisto, said the man. He flashed a smile again before his face grew serious. I’ve come to you to deal.
I shot him a questioning look, one of bafflement.
I heard your calls from far off. He nodded, removed a white handkerchief from his breast pocket and swiped it down his face. Hot out. He shrugged then replaced the cloth in his pocket. This, he motioned to the disarray of vehicles, of bodies, I can’t fix all this—it’s too much—but there’s a person you love, I know. I could bring them back.
“Doctor?” In retrospect it was such a naïve question.
He shook his head.
“Angel?”
He grinned and nodded, Sure.
“Demon?”
Undoubtedly. His eyes—pits of gray in that radiant face—nearly expressed solemness; he daintily shook the hair from his face and looked at his steed which sniffed a corpse. What’s the word, Harlan? There are others calling and I must be on my way soon—I can’t dally. There was a sharpness to the words. Can’t dally. We must convene soon, or I’ll mosey on.
I snorted back the clog in my nose from the tears and wiped my eyes with my sleeves. “Okay.”
Deal?
I nodded, “Deal.”
Sleep tonight, said Mephisto, Sleep and you’ll be rewarded in the morning.
“You said it’s a deal.”
He nodded and scanned the carnage before we matched gazes and then he said, Yes?
“What is it you want from me?”
Nothing you need now. He called the horse, and it came, and he swept his feet quickly from the ground and settled into position atop the animal. Sleep, Harlan. You won’t be bothered. There are worse things still over the horizon.
I watched him go till he disappeared and once he was gone, I couldn’t cry anymore and instead rummaged through the wagons for what I might carry; along the way I found John, face twisted but corpse intact. The body from the previous night that I’d guessed was Jackson couldn’t be determined but I found him nowhere else. I slid Sibylle’s holster from her hips, fell hard onto the ground and found that I could sob more. I took her cowboy hat, placed it on my head and held her pistol in one hand and the belt holster dangled from the other while I searched the other bodies; there were so many, but I could not find Billy.
Waiting for darkness, I took the spot where I rested, back against the caleche’s undercarriage, watched the sky and felt the gun in my hand; it was heavy. I put it to my head, closed my eyes, and whispered affirmations to myself then I put the pistol between my splayed legs, watched it still in the dirt, and pulled the hat down over my eyes but it did little for the smell. Though the brim of the hat cut the sky out, I watched the ground and saw circling shadows form overhead and heard calls of turkey vultures; they came to pick over the bodies. I withdrew my knees to my chest there again and laid my forearm across them and bit into my arm while closing my eyes. I had thought I was a man and for a time, maybe I was, but there in that miserable pit of despair I became a child again and if I’d become more delirious, I’m sure I might’ve called out for Jackson like it was a bad dream.
Into a fading stupor of sleep in the sun I went and when I awoke again it was dark and chilly and I was tired and hungry but too sick to eat and hardly strong enough to move; I looked at the gun and put it into its holster and left it there by the caleche. In the light of the moon and stars, I moved to gather a bolt of canvas; I unfurled the fabric and created a leaning shelter against the overturned vehicle and crawled into it. There was a hole in the canvas, and I peeked out at the stars.
Weeping came again, but not so uproarious; I was stuck there letting go of whimpers, lying on my back, feeling the tears trace in lines from the outer corners of my eyes to collect along my earlobes. In time, I fell to sleep again on the hard ground because the mourning had taken all else from me.
A pinpoint of sunlight broke my eyelids and I jerked awake and reached for the holster, but it was gone. So was the hat. I crawled from the leaning shelter and there he was.
Billy stood plainly among the dried, congealed blood-soaked field and he looked on to the horizon and all shadows were long in the midday sun which hung up there in a soft blue sky. Whether it be a dream or a spell, I couldn’t care—I charged to him and spun him so he faced me and though his face was plain and expressionless, I wrapped him into a forceful hug. He placed his hands on my back and gave a gentle squeeze; when I pulled from him, my hands on his shoulders, I saw he held Sibylle’s hat in his left hand, pinched by the brim; he’d already tugged her holster belt around his hips—he could have it all. I shook while holding him then let go to wipe my face.
“You’re alive,” I nodded.
He nodded without speaking then looked at the hat in his hand and placed it on his head and firmly pressed it down.
“Billy! Hell, you’re alive!”
The corners of his mouth twitched upward for a moment then he nodded again. “Yeah.” His eyes curiously searched our surroundings like he meant to take each detail in forever.
I slapped him on the shoulder and almost squealed. “Goddammit.” I wiped my eyes again and could do little to keep the excitement from exploding from me. “Oh, we should go. We should go on and get somewhere safe.”
He nodded toward the horizon, “’Lanta?”
“Sure.”
We packed and it was a like an ethereal phantom remained among us beside the quiet dead; turkey vultures cawed to break the silence, pecked where they pleased on the bodies, and I couldn’t want to fight them. I kept sidelong eyes on Billy with the ever-present worry that he’d vanish. Perhaps he was the phantom.
From the rear of the caleche, I removed a few sentimental books Jackson liked, essential cookware, and sparse rations for the trek. The last thing I grabbed was my shotgun and a bit of ammo.
As we set from the dead place, the terrible silhouettes that were cut from there on the horizon behind us grew in my mind with every backward glance—I wanted to fall to pieces, but I saw Billy walk alongside me and although contented is not the right word, it is the nearest. The steps of our boots were all that was heard because I could not fathom to pierce the space between us with words for fear that it would all end. It was a dream, surely. I’d lost my mind. With my hands thumbed into the straps of my pack, I saw I my hands still shook, and they would shake a lot longer—years and with memories too. The crunch of earth underfoot became a rhythm and instead of looking at my brother, I watched his shadow on the ground.
“Everyone’s dead?” He asked.
“Yeah.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah,” I repeated.
“How ain’t I? How ain’t you?”
To say that it was luck would’ve been too morbid. Instead of saying anything, I shrugged, kicked a loose stone, watched my feet some more, and felt a queasiness come over me. For the moment, the immeasurable deaths of those I’d left behind were forgotten in the company of my brother and a sickness welled up inside of me so suddenly that I felt that I’d fall to pieces at the slightest provocation. Finally, I did speak again, but only after steeling myself to the troubles, “Yeah, how are you alive?”
Billy shrugged at me then stumbled up a hill which overlooked trash wood wilderness where sticks lay twisted and bare and further on the sight of Atlanta was visible and I cupped a hand across my brow and Billy did the same and we looked on at the shadows of the place out there where strings of smoke rose from the skyline as a signature for the desolation of the city; it was dead. I felt it in my bones.
My hands were light while my head was heavy, my throat was dry, and the entire world seized in moments of stillness or perhaps it was my own vision which construed the world in that way; I took to the small hill which Billy had climbed and sat there and stared at the place between my feet to steady myself.
“Fire,” said Billy.
I nodded and nearly choked.
Leviathan—till then I had no belief in dragons—glided over the broken city, its winged shadow little seen but its voice was deep across the scene, letting go of roars which shook the ground. We hid among the trash wood and moved down the hill and watched the creature thrash in the air as if it was angry for its abominable life. Whatever millennia it spent in the pits of hell seemingly thrust upon it a love of destruction and pain.
My brother moved with a more assured stride and kept a cool distance and upon fleeing from the wreckage, from the outlying area of Atlanta and the place we’d left our family, he spoke little and watched me strangely whenever I took to melancholic fatiguing. We lit no fires for fear of what it could draw from the night so in the dark I’d see him watching some far-off place, maybe seeing through the reality which surrounded us, and he’d snap from it, catch my eye, and disappear for minutes to scan the perimeter of whatever place we stayed. Being alongside my resurrected brother was lonelier than I could bear, and I hoped he’d disappear for good or that I could work up the courage to end my own life. It was like purgatory explained in books and for a time, it felt endless; upon witnessing the destruction of Atlanta, we pushed to Marrietta, and it was much the same. As was Chatanooga, Nashville, Knoxville, Louisville, Charlotte. The ocean had risen so that Fayetville was gone underwater, and the Florida leg disappeared completely as far as I’m aware. I understood later that Memphis was overlooked and more places further west were alive too, but when we’d exhausted the south, we moved north and found strongholds of families or traders or even small groupings of civilization, but by and large we found nothing much in the two years that we hoofed it from place to place; it was my doing mostly—I wanted to find a place untouched by the mayhem in the area my family had once patrolled.
In retrospect, I am certain that Billy only stayed by my side for convenience; there wasn’t any of my brother left in the man that was my travelling companion for that time. He was a ghost of a person and Mephisto had preyed upon my desire in the worst moment of weakness in my life. There were nights—maybe we’d taken up in a natural alcove for shelter or we’d locked ourselves in some ancient structure for sleep—I’d watch Billy lay where he was, Sibylle’s hat and holster lying beside him, and I’d think of putting him down but he’d stir and in a brief shadow I’d see my brother as he’d been and withdraw to bury my face in fake sleep to be met with images of the night the demons attacked where I’d shake, sweat, and bite my lips so hard I’d drink blood.
Two years we marched around the Appalachians and in that time, I felt myself wither and disconnect.
Upon moving further north we met Indianapolis—that’s what it was called back then—and it was run by an older woman called Lady Lazarus; I reckon her father, affluent and dead, was a fan of Plath. Indianapolis was fortified more than most with its high walls, and its wall men, and its underground facilities which produced substantial ammunition. We—me and Billy’s revenant—were travelling with a group of traders we’d taken up with from out west; they called themselves wizards and although they seemed of the occult, their spirits discounted whatever suspicions I might’ve had of them.
I remember first pushing through that big gate; the town kept with it an indisputable malaise and though we were greeted at the gate by the leader Lady Lazarus—her brothers came along with her—and her jovial demeanor carried a certain infectious quality, I could not help but notice that the regular denizens maintained a healthy distance from their leader (the guards which followed the Lady everywhere probably had something to do with this).
Lady Lazarus touched each of our hands in greeting with enthusiasm and I could not help but notice how soft they were, how vibrant her eyes were, how much she smiled, and how beautiful she was given her age; already her head was fully gray.
Upon meeting each of us, going through the wizard traders first, she came to me, and Billy and she shook my hand then pivoted to Billy.
“Welcome. You can call me Lady.”
Billy caught her hand in his, held it longer than she’d intended so that they held eye contact, and he smiled broadly, tipped the cowboy hat on his head back to expose his smooth forehead and said, “And you can call me Maron, mam. You are quite a sight for a tired man.”
Though Maron—as he’d named himself—was more boy than man, Lady took a disturbed liking to him immediately and we prolonged our stay in Indianapolis after the wizards departed to head west.
Under the rule of Lady, Indianapolis was a theocracy, with her addressing the huddled masses at the steps of her grand abode, she’d preach for hours on sin and strife and quote her favorite passages; though reminiscent of my time with the Rednecks, I never found any truth or sincerity or freedom in her teaching—hers was more trouble, brimstone, fire and I’d had enough of that for a lifetime. Public execution was common. As was torture.
Maron distanced himself further from me, but I remained to keep an eye on him—it was not sentimentality but rather I existed without purpose and conjured some from watching my brother.
Often, Lady invited Maron to her private rooms and though the rumors and speculation ran the full spectrum of perverse speculation, every denizen feigned ignorance at her pregnancy.
Upon giving birth, the infant was malformed with two heads—her brothers took this as an omen and killed the child, put their leader in the stocks for months, and stripped her of dignity while the denizens did to her what they pleased.
Maron rose through the wall men while Lady’s brothers assumed control of Indianapolis and called themselves Bosses; in the time since Lady’s reign, the place was renamed to Golgotha for its closeness to a messiah.
I went west but always found myself drawn back to Golgotha because of some emptiness in me. It was only with Suzanne that I wanted something more and knowing them, I almost believed in a world like the one that children dream about. The world that Gemma and Andrew chased after when they left home, like the one Aggie talked about in her mother’s books. There’s a hopelessness in me that I’ll never be rid of. In the interim between our initial arrival to Golgotha and that flight from that terrible city, I cannot know how many people I sacrificed in convening with demons because I refuse to know because the number would destroy me. That is the worst of it; I do not even have courage enough to face myself or the actions of my past in any substantive way.
Mephisto tainted me so that I could speak with his kind as a dealmaker and the disease grew.
Billy or Maron or whatever he is should have been reaped long ago or better, I should never have brought that abomination alive. Such a cruel world where a deep longing like that can be inverted, weaponized. Me and him should both die; me and him should have died a long time ago.
First/Previous
Archive

hey guys, does anyone know how you would draw a symmetrical lewis dot structure for OSiP2H4 ? ive managed to get one but its not symmetrical. any ideas?

VII. The Ideological Assault on the Ego
The Exhaustion of Political Ideologies after World War II
…
The demands of “emotional survival” prompted a third course of action, leading many “world-conscious people,” as Dorothy Dinnerstein puts it, into attempts to renew the capacity for devotion on the modest scale of personal friendship and family life, “in the service of some spiritual equivalent of the ancients’ household gods.” The events of World War II reduced radicals of her generation, Dinnerstein writes, to a “state of moral shock,” a condition of “historic despair so deep that few of us could recognize it clearly as despair.” What made these events so shattering, she argues, was they they did not result simply from the actions of evil men but seemed to be rooted in large-scale social structures as such. “The impulse to build large-scale societal structures which would contain and eventually greatly reduce these nightmare forces was stalemated by massive evidence that large-scale societal structures per se - not just those in capitalist countries - were the habitat in which they managed most hideously to thrive.”
Dinnerstein argues that the postwar generation, even in its flight from politics, communicated to the next generation its “infernal vision of society” and its quasi-solutions to the problem of emotional survival.” <“Riding the Tiger”> Thus it inadvertently planted the seeds of the cultural politics that flowered in the sixties and seventies. From this point of view, the radicalism of the sixties represented not so much a return to political commitments after a period of political retreat as a metamorphosis of personal life into politics . “Make love, not war.” The most characteristic features of the new left derived from its attempt to “combine the ‘personal’ with the ‘political,’” as Shulamith Firestone noted in 1970, and from its belief that the “old leafletting and pamphletting and Marxist analysis are no longer where it’s at.” The new left’s suspicion of large-scale social organization; its rejection of democratic centralism; its distrust of leadership and party discipline; its faith in small groups; it repudiation of power and “power trips,” work discipline, and goal-oriented activity in general; its repudiation of “linear” thinking - these attitudes, the source of so much that was fruitful in the new left and of so much that was futile and self-defeating as well, originated in the central contention (as the San Francisco Redstockings put it in their 1970 manifesto) that “our politics begin with our feelings.”
Such a politics can take many forms: radical feminism, environmentalism, pacifism, nihilism, a cult of revolutionary violence. “Cultural revolution” is an ambiguous slogan. In China, it was invoked on behalf of systematic attacks on intelligence and learning, a revolution against culture . In the West, a critique of “instrumental reason” has sometimes degenerated into a Dionysian celebration of irrationality. The revolt against technological domination points toward “addled subjectivity,” as Lewis Mumford has called it. But in spite of the anti-intellectualism, the infantile insurgency, and the taste for destruction so often associated with cultural politics, it addresses issues ignored by the dominant political tradition: the limits of reason; the unconscious origins of the desire for domination; the embodiment of this desire in industrial technology, ostensibly the highest product of the rational intelligence.
The Neo-Freudian Left
The best way to understand why the idea of a cultural revolution encourages such contradictory applications is to study its attempt to ground social theory in psychoanalysis, with the usual disclaimer that many exponents of this position take no interest in psychoanalysis at all. But those who did turn to Freud, in the years following World War II, did so for good reasons. His work - in particular Civilization and Its Discontents, which provided both Brown and Herbert Marcuse with a starting point for their investigations of culture - seemed to speak more directly than any other intellectual tradition to the question that haunted the postwar world: Why is it precisely the highest civilization that has developed and unleashed unprecedented powers of destruction?
In order to address this question, Brown and Marcuse had to discard an earlier tradition of psychoanalytic radicalism, developed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich, Eric Fromm, Karen Horney, Gregory Zilboorg, and other “neo-Freudians,” who tried to press psychoanalysis into the service of social reform by emphasizing cultural instead of biological determinants of personality. The cultural school had set out to strip Freudian theory of its “biological determinism,” its “disregard of cultural factors” and “social conditions,” its undue emphasis on sexuality at the expense of “feelings of inferiority” and the “hunger of appreciation or affection,” its neglect of “interpersonal relations,” its “patriarchal” bias, its “hydraulic” theory of psychic energy - everything, in short, that allegedly stamped Freud’s thought as a product of nineteenth-century mechanistic science and bourgeois culture. Reinterpreted in the light of Marxism, feminism and cultural anthropology, psychoanalysis allegedly undermined the idea that sexual difference are divinely or biologically ordained and therefore unchangeable, destroyed the myth of the patriarchal family and monogamous marriage, and laid bare the psychological dynamics by means of which the patriarchal family and a repressive sexual morality served “to maintain the stability of class society,” in Fromm’s words. Feminism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis thus appeared to converge in an expose of the authoritarian family and of the “patricentric” personality who experiences suffering as guilt instead of injustice, accepts his lot instead of trying to change the social conditions that make him unhappy, and “identifies with the aggressor” instead of attempting to unite the victims of aggression against the prevailing social system.
In their eagerness to bring psychoanalysis up to date and to reconcile it with progressive social philosophies, the “neo-Freudians” deleted whatever was distinctive and original in Freud’s work and ended up with a psychological theory that merely confirmed what every literate, humane, right-thinking man or woman already knew. As Marcuse noted in his “Critique of Neo-Freudian Revisionism,” they “flattened out” the “depth dimension of the conflict between the individual and his society” and turned psychoanalysis into a “moralistic philosophy of progress.” According to Brown, they reversed the axiom that the child is father to the man, restated by Freud and supported with new evidence, and wrote instead as if toilet-training, parental injunctions against masturbation, and other child-rearing practices, repressive or enlightened, played the decisive role in psychological development. By dropping the “whole theory of infantile sexuality,” they recovered optimism “cheapy.” In place of psychoanalysis, they served up “lullabies of sweetness and light.” Even Reich, who rightly argued that “to fulfill its own therapeutic promises, psychoanalysis has to envisage a social transformation,” went astray, according to Brown, “in limiting the social transformation involved to the liberation of adult genital sexuality.” As Marcuse tried to show, the transformation of the polymorphous perversity of the infant into genital sexuality already reflected the triumph of the performance principle, as he called it, over the pleasure principle. A social revolution that aimed to break the cycle of domination and rebellion could not stop with the creation of a more permissive sexual morality. A so-called sexual revolution that confined itself to genital pleasure could easily lend itself to new forms of domination. The task confronting the culture revolution was not to set aside more opportunities for erotic indulgence, as a momentary release from the demands of alienated labor, but to eroticize work itself. The task was not to enlarge the domain of leisure but to abolish the very distinction between work and leisure, to make work into play, and to get rid of the aggressive, domineering attitude toward nature that informs the present organization of work.
Marcuse on “Surplus Repression”
The postwar reformulation of psychoanalytic social theory had to begin, then, with an attempt to undo the damage done by the cultural school of Freudian revisionists. For Marcuse, Freud has to be approached much as Marx had approached David Ricardo, as a hardheaded ideological opponent whose work needed to be taken more seriously than that of well-meaning but tender-minded ideological allies - the utopian socialists for Marx, the neo-Freudian revisionists for Marcuse - and when properly understood, contradicted its own assumption that human happiness remains a mirage “Freud’s own theory,” Marcuse insisted, “provides reasons for rejecting” Freud’s pessimism. Marx had turned political economy against itself by arguing that the laws of the market, described by Adam Smith and Ricardo as natural, inevitable, and unchanging, derived from a particular series of historical developments and were therefore open to further modification. In the same way, Marcuse historicized Freud. Whereas Freud’s theory of civilization derived the need for repression from the “natural” disproportion between human desires and the demands of reality, Marcuse tried to show that “natural” categories under close analysis proved to be historical and that repression originates not in the “struggle for existence but only in its oppressive organization.” By distinguishing between repression and “surplus repression,” Marcuse tried to give a psychological dimension to Marx’s theory of alienated labor, according to which labor beyond what is necessary for human survival goes into the production of “surplus value.” Surplus repression as Marcuse called it, originates in the organized apparatus of class rule and domination, which forces men and women to labor beyond the satisfaction of their needs. As society becomes more complex, the relations of production become increasingly hierarchical and the psychological sanctions enforcing alienated labor correspondingly severe. Thus civilization inflicts on individuals a burden of renunciation, of psychological suffering and guilt, bey
Just as Marx’s critique of political economy demanded a historical analysis of alienated labor, Marcuse’s position appears to demand a historical analysis of its psychological consequences, a history of surplus repression. Whereas Marx devoted much of his life to a study of changing modes of production, however, Marcuse fell back on Freud’s dubious theory of the primal horde, which traced the origin of patriarchy to the abortive uprising against the primal father. The sons overthrow the father but internalize his authority and reimpose it on women and children. This “patriarchal counterrevolution,” according to Marcuse, becomes the prototype of failed revolutions ever since. The alternating “rhythm of liberation and domination” arises out of the sons’ unconscious identification with the hated father. Instead of ridding themselves of his rule, they reestablish it in the form of the “patriarchal monogamic family,” which institutionalizes instinctual renunciation, channels “polymorphous perversity” into the single acceptable outlet of monogamous marriage, and enforces submission to social rules and the patriarchal compulsion to work. The uprising of the rebellious sons momentarily breaks the “chain of domination,” according to Marcuse; “then the new freedom is again suppressed - this time by their own authority and action.” Once established, this pattern repeats itself throughout history - as in the life and death of Jesus, which Marcuse reinterprets as a struggle against the patriarchal laws in the name of love, a struggle betrayed by Christ’s disciples when they deified the son beside the father and codified his teachings in oppressive new laws.
The theory of the primal horde served Marcuse, as it has served other theorists of the Freudian left, as a substitute for historical analysis, an admittedly “speculative” and “symbolic” encapsulation of the entire course of patriarchal history. It is easy to see the idea’s attraction for the left. It not only implicates the family in the origins of a repressive civilization but spells out the psychological linages between them. It purports to show how the Oedipus complex, and with it the whole apparatus of patriarchal domination, transmits itself from one generation to the next. It traces the Oedipus complex back to the dawn of history and thus helps to define the need for cultural revolution that transcends a mere change in power or institutions and breaks the cycle of rebellion and submission. But as Marcuse himself pointed out in his attack on the cultural school, psychoanalysis offers the “most concrete insights into the historical structure of civilization” precisely when it least concerns itself with developing a general theory of culture and sticks instead to clinical concepts - “concepts that the revisionists reject.” This warning - unfortunately unheeded by most of those who attempt to remodel psychoanalysis as a social theory, including Marcuse - applies with particular force to Freud’s speculations about group psychology, both in his essay of that name and in Moses and Monotheism, which rest on a model of mental conflict already discarded in the more strictly psychological writings of his last phase. Freud’s increasing awareness of a more deeply buried layer of mental life underlying the Oedipus complex, his revision of his instinct theory, and his new psychology of women point to the conclusion incompatible with many of the generalizations he continued to advance in his sociological writings. For one thing, this new line of analysis suggested that sexual pleasure is not the only object of repression. For another, it suggested that the agency of repression is not simply “reality.” Accordingly the outcome of the Oedipus complex - the theory of which Freud now made explicit for the first time - cannot be seen simply as the submission of the pleasure principle to a reality principle imposed on the child by the father. It is not just that parental commands and prohibitions, toilet-training practices, and threats of castration play a less important role in the child’s development than Freud had previously thought. The entire conceptual scheme that opposes pleasure and reality, equating the former with the unconscious and that latter with conscious adherence to parental morality, has to give way to a different model of the mind.
Marcuse himself challenged Freud’s group psychology in an essay published in 1953, misleadingly entitled “The Obsolescence of the Freudian Concept of Man.” Noting that Freud saw all social groups as revivals of the primal horde, with a “leader as a unifying agent” and the “transference of the ego ideal to the leader as father image,” Marcuse went on to argue that modern societies have dispensed with patriarchal imagery and patriarchal authority. “The fascist leaders were no ‘fathers,’ and the postfascist and post Stalinist top leaders do not display the traits of the heirs of the primal father - not by any stretch of the ‘idealizing’ imagination.” The emergence of a “society without fathers,” according to Marcuse, “invalidated” the “classical psychoanalytic model, in which the father and the father-dominated family were the agent of mental socialization.” The “decline in the role of the father” reflected the “decline of the role of private and family enterprise” and “society’s direct management of the nascent ego through the mass media, school, and sport teams, gangs,” and other agencies of collective socialization. These changes led to a “tremendous release of destructive energy,” a “rampant” aggressiveness “freed from the instinctual bonds with the father as authority and conscience.”
What these developments invalidate, of course, is not the “Freudian concept of man” but a social theory “extrapolated,” in Marcuse’s own words, from Freud’s extrapolations of clinical data into prehistory. They invalidate the idea, already weakened by Freud’s later work and by much of the work subsequently produced by Kleinians, object-relations theorists, and ego psychologists, that repression originates in the subjection of the pleasure principle to the patriarchal compulsion to labor. Yet Marcuse continues, even in his later writings, to condemn the “performance principle” as the primal source of human unhappiness and alienation. Forgetting even his own plea for the union of work and play, he insists that “no matter how justly and rationally the material production may be organized, it can never be a realm of freedom and gratification.” Because work “serves ends outside itself,” it remains “inevitably repressive” for Marcuse - a “neurosis.” For this reason, he argues that the liberation of Eros demands the technological abolition of work. Disavowing any intention of advocating a “romantic regression behind technology,” he insists on the liberating potential of industrial technology. “Is it still necessary to repeat,” he asks in his Essay on Liberation, “that science and technology are the great vehicles of liberation, and that it is only their use and restriction in the repressive society which makes them into vehicles of domination?” Automation alone makes it possible for Orpheus and Narcissus to come out of hiding. The Triumph of polymorphous perversity depends on its antithesis: instrumental rationality carried to the point of total regimentation. Presumably an exercise in dialectical thinking, this line of argument should give even Hegelians pause when they read (in Eros and Civilization) that the “transformation of sexuality into Eros presupposes the rational reorganization of a large industrial apparatus, a highly specialized societal division of labor, the use of fantastically destructive energies, and the co-operation of vast masses.” The achievement of “libidinal work relations,” it appears, requires the organization of society into a vast industrial army.