Ruminations

Behind the screen

Author: Kyle

  • Super-Liminal Spaces

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    Kyle
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    When nostalgia cloaks something much darker. Crossing a threshold Aldiss called this ‘cozy catastrophe’ when he coined it in 1973; I’ll use ‘cozy apocalypse’ here, since it’s the same fantasy, just louder Act I: The Aesthetic of the Grave (The Bait) Act II: Playing Tourist in the Apocalypse (The Dark Confession) Act III: The Critique…

  • Super-Governmental Organizations, part 2

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    Kyle
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    Pseudopods of the Blob Who wins this? This is the 2nd half of the Super-Governmental Organizations article. Part 1. XII. The Mandate Economy: Government Without Spending The standard measure of government’s economic footprint is spending as a percentage of GDP — approximately 36% at federal, state, and local combined. That measure misses the most important…

  • Escaping the Chains of the US Constitution

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    Companion piece to “Super-Governmental Organizations.” Where SGO documented the executive’s fourth branch — independent commissions, government corporations, the contractor/NGO architecture, the three-letter agencies — this one documents how the judiciary exempted itself from checking any of it, and how the executive built a parallel plan to suspend the whole constitutional order outright. Same throughline as…

  • The Experiment

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    Attention Management At the Digital Wellbeing Conference, no one noticed the irony. “The most sophisticated engineering teams in the world are locked in a daily battle for your attention, and you are almost certainly losing.” — Epoch Times, July 2026 I. What They Call Engagement You meant to check your phone for two minutes. Forty-five…

  • Same Oligarchs, Different Accent

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    The Russian Mirror “Not this play again!” “We are being de-modernized.” — Russian lawyer, 1990s, as quoted by Catherine Austin Fitts Series Context This article is part of the “In a Stranger Land” series. It should be read alongside: I. The Horrifying Epiphany It happened slowly, in a London conference room, over the ordinary business…

  • Super-Governmental Organizations

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    Kyle
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    Pseudopods of the Blob If only the lie were so easily ended. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” — James Madison, Federalist No. 47, 1788 I.…

  • The Financialization Coup

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    The banquet of consequences is not fully served yet. “The process by which financial markets, financial institutions, and financial elites gain greater influence over economic policy and economic outcomes is not a side effect of capitalism. It is the replacement of capitalism.” — Gerald Epstein, Financialization and the World Economy, 2005 I. The Bait and…

  • The Apotheosis of the Dollar

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    Kyle
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    A Derivative in Search of an Underlying Asset God has seen this particular mistake before. “Now we see why governments are inherently inflationary: because inflation is a powerful and subtle means for government acquisition of the public’s resources, a painless and all the more dangerous form of taxation.”— Murray Rothbard, What Has Government Done to…

  • The Revolution Will Not Be Verified

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    From Pravda to Goldstein — Truth as a Managed Product If only it were as easy as putting on some sunglasses. “I predict straw horses will be beaten.” — Kyle Davenport, ZeroHedge comment, Mar 27, 2025, re: an ATF entrapment sting later exposed as a possible honeypot I. Reading Pravda Soviet citizens developed a sophisticated…

  • The Apotheosis of Subjectivity

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    Why the Map Assumed a Mapmaker “We’ve got one that can see!” “A finger pointing at the Moon is not the Moon, nor is the Moon broadcasting your pointing finger.” – paraphrasing! I. The Infinite Regress Dressed as Explanation In 2003, philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper arguing that we are almost certainly living in…