Here Thar Be Monsters!

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23.3.14

The Play Is The Thing

If you are a fan of Shakespeare, then you know that the title of today's column comes from Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2, and the next line is, "In which we shall catch the conscience of the King."  That is what I intend to do today, since "all the world's a stage, and all the men and women are but actors upon't."

I assume, since the readers here are highly intelligent humans, that we all see world events from a certain perspective high above the fray.  From where we sit, things like the Ukraine situation look like silly schoolyard blustering between rival gangs.  Not to belittle the actual and very real suffering of people caught in the middle of this pissing match, but the actions of especially the Western factions look like so much unbridled testosterone flying about.

What is interesting to note about the Ukraine mess is that the West is playing poker, while the East is playing chess.  Perhaps we can call it a game of "choker".  The West is bluffing and upping antes, while the East is enacting gambits and positioning fronts.  And frankly, the East is kicking a little tail, since apparently the West is also a very bad poker player, not to mention having brought a knife to a gun fight.

Putin is oviously the superior intellect in this match.  Obama, being a vacuous creation of committees of power brokers, is hopelessly outmatched and outclassed. 

Putin is approaching the situation with a sharp and idealistic intellect.  He is an Russian Orthodox Catholic, a nationalist and steeped in history.  He is a veteran of Russian intelligence services and understands world politics and geomancy   He is viewing the world and his country's place in it from the perspective of centuries of history.

Obama, on the other hand, can barely remember his own history, much less that of nations.  He was carefully groomed by handlers to be what he is: an automaton.  He has no thoughts besides those fed to him on Tele-Prompt-R.  He serves no noble purpose outside feeding his vices and base desires.  He has no ideals or beliefs that can be discerned or expressed.  Even his "autobiography" was ghost-written by a marketing team determined to have a Manchurian Candidate at their disposal.

Putin acts as an idealistic individual who receives advice from his courtiers.  Obama is a camel - a horse by committee - incapable of acting without his strings being manipulated.

And the people of the West have only themselves to blame for having allowed, through hubris and sloth, their system of law to deteriorate to such a deplorable state.

On other fronts...

MH370.  Now this is starting to get rather intriguing.  At first, I viewed this exclusively as a theater or slight of hand intended to distract the masses and fill column inches and push more important topics off the front page.  To a certain extent, I still believe it is distraction, but only in the way it is being handled in the public sphere. 

Behind the scenes, I am coming around to the idea that no one, at any level, has any idea what is going on.  All the major players seem just as mystified as everyone else.  All the stories and details being floated about don't have the "flavor" of being scripted, unlike say the 9/11 movie of the week.

In the case of 9/11, global broadcasts were preempted for a week, the evil-doers were identified before the sun even set the first day.  The storyline was installed within hours and was only tweaked by public opinion over the next few months.

In the case of MH370, they were all caught with their pants down.  Instead of a single narrative being foisted on us from the very start, the top actors are scrambling around trying to back-engineer some plausible cover.  The longer the situation goes on, the more baffled - and even scared - the top dogs seem to be.  There's a certain smell of desperation in the way the PTB are throwing around "debris fields" and "pilot fanaticism" and "possible flight paths". They really have no clue what is going on, and the are frantically trying to concoct a story out of some bits and pieces they've found lying around.

The scripted game has been in the Ukraine, and that's where they want all of us focused to receive our mental templates.  But this damn plane thing keeps distracting everyone from their game and they are not happy about it.  Furthermore, at some level, folks instinctively know that the "authorities" have no answers, and it's undermining their power structure.  This problem is untenable to them.

The way to approach this is ask the ago-old question, "Qui bono?"  To whose benefit is this event?

The Trilateral Group (US, Russia, China) obviously want us all focused elsewhere - specifically Ukraine.  Also, if any one of them were found to have instigated this mess, they would instantly lose credibility in their Hunger Game.  I don't think we can look that direction.

Israel is an obvious culprit.  They've been losing creds faster than a Sterno-drinker at a Baptist wedding.  If we follow the Zionist playbook, we would have "disappeared" a jetliner from a fundamentalist Islamic country, floated stories about the pilots being "true believers" and then dropped the plane on the Knesset within a couple of days.  The problem is, the plane is still missing and their slavering over the prospects of finding it and using it for propaganda are dimming fast.  In other words, we got part of the scenario, but something happened...they lost the plane or it was lost for them.

Other than the Big Four, there are no real contenders for Global Domination who could pull something like this off and then use it to their benefit.  Which means...

Another player.

What we are looking at is beyond your standard 2-D chess game.  We are now in the realm of 3-D Star Trek chess with a twist - a third player whose pieces are invisible and whose presence we only detect by having accidently stumbled over a piece while playing the "independence gambit".

Ukrainian "independence" was supposed to have set off a series of similar movements (Venice, Scotland, etc.) that would have freed up the classic bankster strongholds and placed the EU firmly inside the orbit of Russia.

Instead, Putin threw a monkey-wrench in the works with the Crimea Gambit, while global headlines were - and continue to be - stolen by a missing passenger jet.

A new (or very old) player has entered the game.  The new player has been quiet for some amount of time, be it years, decades, centuries, or even millennia.  This new player has chosen a specific time to reveal itself that sends the clear message to the PTB that it can play the game just as well (maybe better) and has the advantage at the moment.

We are witnessing a most interesting set of circumstances.  An unknown power has injected itself onto the world stage at a crucial moment when the "standard" players were comfortably executing their "standard" moves.  The apple cart has been upset and everyone is slipping and tripping trying to stay upright while at the same time catch the rascal that did it.

From our position high about the fray, the usual mess has suddenly become quite a bit more interesting, and entertaining.  It bears watching to see how things will play out.  We can be quite certain, though, that anything "official-dumn" tells us at this point is wild speculation, because they haven't got a clue either.  The worm has turned.

If nothing else, we must admire the skill and timing of whomever or whatever has thrust its way into the plot.  It's almost as if this new entity is a deus ex machina.

19.3.14

Ride A Wooden Horse

If you don't follow Chinese astrology, then you may not be aware that this is the Yang Wood Horse year.  If you are a Westerner, you probably have visions of carousels and those little nickel rides in front of the drugstore.  Of course, that assumes you are an old fart Westerner, I suppose, since visions like that don't exist any more.

It's not quite that simple.

The horse is a fire sign and wood obviously feeds fire.  Yang light casts a positive spin on things and enhances them, but things can get out of control.

This year is liable to see extreme weather (continuing) and lots of health problems, especially with the stomach and gut.  Look for outbreaks of stomach flu in general populations and bouts of indigestion on an individual basis.

The wood part implies strong and fast growth, which can be good for some things, like spiritual awakenings, but can be bad in socio-political situations (read Ukraine, etc.).  Explosive growth can also mean weak foundations and poor construction.  Trees that grow very fast tend to have shallow roots and fall over easily in storms.

And we are in for some storms.  Yang Wood Horse years are known for wars.  The last one in 1954, saw the defeat of France in Vietnam, which ultimately led to the US Vietnam War and the socio-political upheaval in the US commonly called the 60s. On the positive side, the 60s were known for bursts of creativity, but as we have seen, many of the movements that began in that era were shallow and have withered over time.

In this year of the Yang Wood Horse, efforts to expand one's spiritual life will see the return of immediate and rapid results.  The nobility of the Horse will tend to make these efforts positive and beneficial, but one should take care to ensure that things don't get out of hand and "lose the name of action".

What we can likely expect this year is:
  • late cold blasts in the northern hemisphere;
  • soggy, cool cummer in many places;
  • wars and conflicts;
  • a protracted and severe outbreak of intestinal flu;
  • a rapid spiritual awakening of large numbers of people;
  • greater efforts to live more harmoniously on a personal level.
 It's not going to be an easy year, but if folks are aware of the esoteric forces affecting the world around us, we can control and focus those forces in positive ways.  If not, then we are in for some nasty conflicts.

All in all, we can sum up the year as being one of having an energetic horse by the tail.  We can either learn to control and marshal the horse's strengths into positive focus, with the aid of a positive bias on our side, or we can let it get out of hand and end up with a stampede of events that will surely run us over.

Or it's all superstitious bullshit and we shouldn't pay it any mind.

I subscribe to the notion that astrology has some foundation in fact and science, though it's been covered over with hocus-pocus for a long time.  I tend to take the themes more seriously than the particulars, so I'm ready for some upheavals and health issues going forward.

Happy happy!

16.3.14

All The World's A Stage

Yes, folks, the roar of concern over our long silence on the Far Side has been heard!  We apologize for yanking the rug out from under everyone, but unfortunately, we have yet to discover circumventions to the Laws of Physics, though we are trying furiously!

As we described the situation in one recent response to a long-time reader, we are busy putting all our rants and raves into action.  On top of that, everything we've examined and fretted over here in this column is now coming into reality, so there seems little point to reiterating what can be found in copious amounts in our archives.

As we have previously mentioned, our latest project has been starting up Indonesia's first international-standard theater, as well as several large galleries, a museum, and all the ancillary things attendant to them.

A theater is an incredibly complex series of interlocking technologies married to highly specialized architecture to deliver a spectacle for the eyes and ears.  Cable trucks as big around as a man carry signals to lighting instruments, communications, sound, and rigging, and any mistake in judgement could kill a person.

Consideration like having the systems isolated from the internet because nasties like StuxNet infect the control systems of theaters that support incredibly large loads over people's heads.  A misfire or miscommunication among any of the myriad parts could end up in disaster, as the experience at the Apollo Theater in London a few months back will attest.

Most people are blissfully unaware of how complex putting on modern stage shows can be, and really, that's the point.  The audience is supposed to be amazed and enthralled, not thinking about how that massive chandelier was hung over their heads.  All of the effort and machinery are supposed to be invisible or the illusion is lost.  Yet, somewhere in all that mix, someone has to worry about the safety and security of that 3-year-old in the 24th row who is staring in wide-eyed amazement at flying Disney characters - not on TeeVee or the movie screen - but in real life.

Among our copious responsibilities is knowing the dizzying intricacies of the theater's innards.  If a single cable ceases to function properly, it is our responsibility to know where that cable originates, where it terminates, and the precise path it takes in between.  We must know precisely how much load and stress can be applied to any given spot on the stage or in the rafters.  We must know the precise measurements of every function of every system in the venue.

Add to that the various social and political concerns of being GM of such a place - it's unique position in Indonesian history - and the desire to inform, educate and entertain large masses of people, and one can begin to appreciate the demands on the time of an individual.

Despite the demands and stresses of managing such an effort - still in construction phase - we would not have it any other way.  We have always maintained that when one does the thing one loves the most, there is no such thing as work.  There is only joy.

Some letter writers to us on the Far Side have asked why we don't have columns on Malaysia Air or the Ukraine situation.  The simple answer is that our answers are contained in the archives.

Malaysia Air is a distraction.  It is an operation planned and executed to do one thing - keep you from looking at the Big Picture.  The Ukraine is little more than the dying crash of Western hegemony and the rise of the New East.  These are topics we have explored at great length within these pages.

The Malaysia Air mystery is designed to soak up headlines and column inches, distract the minds, and hold attention off other - more important - events.  There is something in this story for everyone, conspiracy theorist or not.  If there is in fact a real flight with real people involved, then our heart goes out to them for their suffering.  But we are unconvinced to the extent that we have followed the story at all.  It is not a cause, but a symptom of a much larger story being played out on the world's theater, with its attendant million moving parts.

The Ukraine story is also a symptom and part of the kibuki theater of global politics.  Not to make light of the suffering there, but the people of the Ukraine must at some point see that they are being manipulated in a crass and cynical game of geo-pissing.

The Western oligarchs set into motion back in the 80s a plan to crater the Soviet system, rearrange the Mid-East to their liking, and ensure that none of them could mount a serious challenge to Western hegemony.

They had not counted on China having its own agenda.  Instead, they were supposed to be infinitely grateful to the banksters for having unloaded tons of toxic debt within their borders.  They had not counted on the Russians experiencing a moral and religious reawakening and cleaning house of the mafia corruption, as Putin has done.  They had not counted on the internet becoming a means of circumventing the official media and mind-numbing distractions of network TeeVee.  In short, they f^cked up.

Once they realized what they had done, the various factions within the bankster class began fighting amongst themselves trying either to salvage the original plan, or scavenge for any amount of power and wealth as could be grabbed in the collapse.  The dominant group, myopically and pathetically wedded to their 40-year-old plan, are moving as fast as they can to complete it, though nearly all the assumptions of their plan - all the million variables - have changed, and it is no longer viable.

Thus, the Ukraine, and Libya, and Syria, and Iran, and Afghanistan, Egypt, et cetera ad nauseum.

The collapse of Empires is a dangerous time, but as the Chinese say, there is opportunity in chaos, or as their Western counterparts would say, Ordo ab chao.

As the audience, we have three choices: 1) we can sit passively and be enthralled like a 3-year-old in the 24th row; 2) we can seek to understand all the miles of cabling and systems integration of the theater we call the world/ or 3) we can ignore the bastards, refuse to buy a ticket and go set up our own show elsewhere.  We here on the Far Side stand firmly in the Option 3 camp.

Now, back to work!