Monthly Archives: June 2018

Book Review: Unearthing Atlantis, 3d Edition (2017)

Posted on by
1

An Archaeological Odyssey to the Fabled Lost Civilization
By Charles Pellegrino [Reviewed by Brian R. Wright]

When it comes to hard evidence and breathtaking scope of delivery, there is none higher…

Reading Unearthing Atlantis is a transcendent experience, very similar to how I felt when I first read The Longest Walk (2015) by George Meegan,[1] for slightly different reasons:

Mr. Meegan’s adventure was a down-to-earth journey touching large numbers of everyday people from different worlds, which he experienced in real time. His life became intertwined with their lives, and inspired George to dedicate himself to a mission of preservation of peoples’ unique cultures and languages—bringing out the best in all humanity via true noncompulsory ‘education.'[2]

Dr. Pellegrino, while similarly sharing in the lives of men and women, these ones going about their arduous scientific-discovery business around the world, communicates their work and discoveries—not only in the context of archaeology, but paleontology and cosmology as well. He’s an amazing writer with an exceptional ability to draw you high above the mundane while at the same time dwelling in it, reveling in it… rigorously. Further, he skillfully condenses eons of time in a bottle, rather a priceless vase, belonging to our wealthy, erudite neighbors, on an island in the Aegean Sea, in 1628 B.C., who had to leave their precious homes suddenly due to one of the world’s major supervolcanoes.

Sadly, these neighbors of ours turned to vapor in the next 24 hours, so we can only converse with them now indirectly in what they left behind. Continue reading →

Movie Review: National Bird (2017)

Posted on by
Reply

They hate us because we blow all to hell their men, women, and children
Reviewed by Brian R. Wright

This film just fell into my lap one night as I was visiting a lady friend. She had downloaded it from PBS, where I believe you can watch it for free [Nope, the deal expired there]. I’m guessing it’s widely available on YouTube as well [Nope, as well. But trailers and clips are readily available and the full movie can be watched on your PC/TV for a $3.99 fee… extremely reasonable].

Basic Description per PBS:

“National Bird follows the dramatic journey of three whistleblowers determined to break the silence around one of the most controversial issues of our time: the secret U.S. drone war, which has been waged globally for more than a decade. The film, executive produced by Errol Morris and Wim Wenders, gives rare insight into the program through the eyes of veterans and survivors, to explore the complexities of drone warfare from a human perspective.

“At the center of the film are three U.S. military veterans — Heather, Daniel, and Lisa. Plagued by guilt over participating in the killing of faceless people in foreign countries, each decides to speak out publicly, regardless of the consequences. Their stories take dramatic turns, leading one of them to Afghanistan, where she learns about a tragic incident involving drone warfare. But her journey also gives hope for peace and redemption.

“National Bird explores the difficult circumstances faced by military personnel involved with combat drones, the use of which has transformed modern warfare. Missions are highly classified, and there are no official counts of military or civilian casualties. The need for operators and intelligence analysts is increasing, yet their experiences and perspectives have been largely neglected because of their distance from the battlefield. While it may be true that these veterans don’t sustain battlefield injuries, their psychological wounds can be substantial, leading some to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Pilots and analysts observe airstrikes live and in detail, including the aftermath, when survivors pick up human remains for burial. Yet due to the secrecy of their positions, they are prohibited from discussing the details of their experiences with anyone — even their psychiatrists. For some veterans these constraints are too much to handle.”

My Personal Reaction

Continue reading →

Guest Column: Trade War Distraction

Posted on by
Reply

Trade war provides perfect cover for the elitist engineered global reset
by Brandon Smith [via column for Bob Livingston News]

Over the past several months, I have been examining the underlying or hidden motivations behind the currently expanding global trade war, including the impressive level of cognitive dissonance surrounding the issue. The initial reaction in conservative circles was unfortunately denial, with many refusing to call the situation a “trade war” at all and some predicting an end to the conflict before it began. Obviously the assumptions are proving incorrect.

Now that acceptance of the trade war as a reality is setting in, the Trump bandwagon is doubling down and embracing blind enthusiasm for what they assume will be a victorious outcome, no matter how long it takes. Though the team-geopolitics mentality is enticing, I don’t find much in the facts and evidence department to support the notion of America winning a global trade war. As I outlined in my article America’s Debt Dependence Makes It An Easy Economic Target, as long as the U.S. retains historic levels of debt on government, corporate and consumer levels, and as long as we remain addicted to either foreign investment in that debt, trade war opponents have all the ammunition they need.

The argument I now see regurgitated over and over is that this trade war has actually been going on for decades, and only now do we “have a president with the guts to do something about it.” I’m not sure where this nonsense meme was started, but it’s everywhere.

The U.S. has not been engaged in a trade war “for decades,” not with China or any other nation. It has been involved in a subversive trade arrangement which benefits the elitists on both sides of the world while the common people suffer. Only in the past year have we seen a “trade war” develop, but even now, it is a staged war that will once again empower international banks and global elites. Continue reading →

Donut Wholes: Brian Wright Campaign for State Rep, 2018

Posted on by
Reply

BRIAN R. WRIGHT
38TH DISTRICT STATE REP
2018 CAMPAIGN

This column is my campaign brochure, and the three-panel brochure is located here:

http://brianRwright.com/BW38th.pdf

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts… Can’t Lose!

Some will recognize this Dillon Panthers’ team cheer from the NBC series, Friday Night Lights. These fighting words express why I’m running… to help us to:

  • SEE thru the ‘Barrier Cloud’
  • IGNITE our independent spirits
  • WIN by discarding our self-chains

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” Political problems start and end with the individual. If YOU choose to think for yourself, WE win… no matter who takes office.

High Level: Independents Rising

In 2016, I wrote a novel, The Truman Prophecy, which foresees a benevolent, abundant future for human beings of independent consciousness—Independents. We achieve this “Billion + Points  of Light” society per The Wizard of Oz (1939) analogy:

  1. Toto retracting the Wizard’s curtain,
  2. Dorothy chastising the Wizard,

  … and The Truman Show (1998) analogy:

  1. Truman realizing and rejecting being a ’Collared’ slave living for others.

So 1) Truth, 2) Justice, 3) Liberty. You can’t have one without the others. The key is easy, and we can all do it: lose the inner chains, the self-removing mind-control collars that Teacher.gov clamped on our necks in kindergarten… and “Indie up.”

As described in the positions section,  Michigan’s success lies in “People Taking Charge” of their government via First Principles’ grand juries.

Diane McGilvery, former two-term mayor of Whitehouse, Ohio, has written the core book on American First Principles, What is the Foundation?, and my companion piece is  The Accountability Project, for practical rollout of people’s grand juries in Michigan. Continue reading →

Book Review: Leaving the Sandbox (2014)

Posted on by
Reply

Grand strategy for Libertarians in an era of wanton federal crimes and terror
by Brian Wright

Reposting this review on the eve of my 2018 campaign for state representative in Michigan. The LP is the vehicle upon which I’m seeking the office, but my mission is more fundamental: establishing a system in Michigan for First Principles grand juries via legis-lative act. My brochure lies here: http://brianrwright.com/BW38th.pdf. The book reviewed is about how the LP became controlled opposition and must change its stripes entirely. A bit dated now thanks to my First Principles GJ route, but still worthwhile ideas for the LP.  

FrontReviewed by the author.

Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism…

A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers.

— Aldous Huxley

Leaving the Sandbox is my book on grand strategy for the Libertarian Party, in particular,  and for the liberty movement in general (in terms of what can be done sans party to bring about a free society).

From the Foreword

The motive force of the Old Paradigm—a political-economic Western Cabal with immense and concentrated state power and material resources—is desperately trying to hang on to its Old World privileges. The average American feels this in the onrushing accouterments of the federalized, militarized police state, where citizens have all the rights the Occupying Government tells us we can have. Continue reading →

Movie Review: Casino Royale (2006)

Posted on by
Reply

Casino Royale (2006)____7/10
Worthy heir to the Bond franchise

Directed by Martin Campbell

Selected Cast
Daniel Craig … James Bond
Judi Dench … M
Eva Green … Vesper Lynd
Giancarlo Giannini … Mathis
Mads Mikkelsen …. Le Chiffre

Casino Royale with the new James Bond (Daniel Craig) starts with an exhilarating chase scene in an African-port construction site.  Bond and his prey dance about the cranes and building columns like Spidermen or the swordsfolk of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

If you’re afraid of heights, you may want to avoid these first full 15 minutes of death-defying jumps and rumbles on high steel.  The camera pans out over the ocean with these tiny men in the foreground shinnying up greasy cables, surrounded by empty space. I felt twinges of vertigo combined with fear of falling.

Craig is the most physical Bond we’ve seen, and the most capable of tough-man-competition-like violence.

You wonder if the new Bond is simply a glorified killing machine, until we get into the actual plot with a beautiful associate Vesper Lynd (Eva Braun) winning his affection. Continue reading →

Guest Column: We Owe it to Everybody

Posted on by
Reply

America’s massive debts make true recovery impossible
by writing for Bob Livingston Alerts

Link to original here.
There is a classic denial tactic that many people use when confronted with negative facts about a subject they have a personal attachment to.  I would call it “deferral denial” — a psychological postponing of reality.

For example, point out the fundamentals on the U.S. economy such as the fact that unemployment is not below 4 percent but actually closer to 20 percent when you factor in U-6 measurements including the record 96 million people not counted because they have run out of unemployment benefits. Or point out that true consumer inflation in the U.S. is not around 3 percent as the Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Labor Statistics claims, but closer to 10 percent according to the way CPI used to be calculated before the government rigged the numbers.  For a large part of the public including a lot of economic analysts, there is perhaps a momentary acceptance of the danger, but then an immediate deferral — “Well, maybe things will get worse down the road, 10 or 20 years from now, but it’s not that bad today…”

This is cognitive dissonance at its finest. The economy is in steep decline now, but the mind in denial says “it could be worse,” and this is how you get entire populations caught completely off guard by a financial crash. They could have easily seen the signs, but they desperately wanted to believe that all bad things happen in some illusory future, not today. Continue reading →