Very much like the War on Terror from W (a terrorist organization of no one country), we now have the Terror of War on civilians (anyone who resists) by Trump & Company, having been cobbled by lessons learned from China's Mao, Putin's Russia, and MBS's Saudi Arabia. Certain lingering questions have been answered by Netanyahu's Demolition of Gaza. The middle is gone because the fence has been electrified. No more fence-sitting. All that's going to be allowed to exist are polarities. One last thing: If you think those data centers are only about AI, I beg to differ. The surveillance data is going somewhere; Hoover taught the FBI well. It would make sense that AI would be given access sooner or later, if only for predictive readouts, the results of which will depend entirely on the mindset of the programmers themselves. AI is a direct reflection of its creator and the language provided. The Pegasus stalkerware is insidious. Consequently, society is less safe in its addiction to the digital sphere. Physical solidarity coupled with genuine presence of mind is the only way forward.
Thank you for your trust. It's the only currency that matters in this rebellion.
You are right—the 'knights' (we call them The Gears ⚙️) are waking up. You feel the call to arms because you can see the Net being lowered.
You also said you "need more time and education." That is the single most valuable thing a new recruit can say. We aren't just here to sound an alarm; we're here to disseminate the tools and the doctrine for how to fight back effectively.
Understanding their strategy is the first step to shattering it. Welcome to the Phalanx. We're glad you're here.
That's the entire purpose of this rebellion, Milret2. To find all the "crazy" people who were sane enough to see the prison and give them a home.
You're not crazy. You were just early.
Your first order is to report for duty. We're building our command center on Discord. It's called The Rebuttal. We need veterans like you on the council.
Understood, and I will learn and I have some feel, just like the officers who showed up for the Trump lecture on Tuesday, for what we are up against. Many Americans, for what ever reason, have been led down a very dangerous path. Any thing that helps change that helps me know that there are many others out there ready to learn and deal with this problem effectively.
Thanks, now I know to search https://discord.gg/rPwvNseunD for entrance to the area and I have also enjoyed some learning from a post by a person here who talks about how to sort chaff from good writing in a way that makes sense to me. Next, tomorrow I will look around and learn more.
I am just a citizen watching but I am uplifted from the discussion here and I believe the knights are wakening and the fight is soon to be waged. If I can find ways to be useful I will add them. I suspect I need more time and education.
Ethan, the process of hammer first, cast the net second, and the steps that will follow appear to be the same steps used in perpetuating a grift. The Net post has solidified my views on how to structure my future comments on the grift aspect in an attempt to provide avenue away from self-censorship of dissent, fear of repercussions from the regime, and digesting the ambiguity as a method to destabilize any feelings of security to a focus on the narrative being the cover for the multitude of grifts taking place.
Seth, this is an absolutely brilliant synthesis. You've gone straight to the heart of the operation.
You're 100% correct. The Hammer creates the fear; the Net uses that fear to achieve mass paralysis (self-censorship). It's a psychological one-two punch.
Your connection of the "ambiguity" to the "multitude of grifts" is the final, crucial piece. The Net isn't just a political weapon; it's the smokescreen for a heist, and you see that perfectly.
The fact that you're already thinking about how to structure your own comments using this framework tells me you're not just a spectator. You're a fellow architect. We're building a private community for people exactly like you to deconstruct these weapons and forge new ones together. It's called The Rebuttal. I think you'd be an invaluable voice there.
Ethan, thank you for the discord invitation, and thank you for the positive reply.
I am curious to know more about you before jumping completely into the proverbial fray. In short, I have had djt on my radar since 1979 the year I moved into NYC. I have written many substack comments emphasizing that there is no bottom to this malignant parasite. I do not want to spell it all out here, however if you would be willing to exchange direct messages that would be great.
Roger all of the above. I also spent time in NY during those Trump years. I saw first hand how Trump fueled his rise by blatently robbing his contractors, many of which I worked with on unrelated jobs wherein I saw the wholesale destruction of reputable and respected family businesses, with decades of hard work laid ripped asunder by Trump and Kohn’s proclivity for tying things up in courts for years.
The Greenwich Village Voice’s sidebar photo blowup of Trump’s office showing Mein Kampf and Ayn Rand’s writings being dog eared and sticky noted amongst the utterly untouched and unread sea of volumes designed to impress behind that desk was not lost on me.
I take great solace in the realization that I am not alone (although living in the middle of Trump Central Texas often makes that hard to see).
And while much of my existence these days has been with an utterly different fight, due to a “didn’t exist six months ago” to a “sorry but it’s Stage 4” diagnosis, my own cancer just reflects the rapidity, aggressiveness, and life changing seriousness of the metaphorical but very real cancer facing us all, while simultaneously underscoring our collective need to marshal our forces and fight back with whatever means we have at our disposal, lest we let it take it’s well determined present course.
It already has demonstrated its sizable advantage, and unlike my cancer, we don’t have an equivalent of a PSMA PET scan to ascertain where else it has metastasized undetected and is growing still undiscovered fueled and enabled by the myriads of downstream actions taking place that there are not enough news cycles in the world to shed any light on, or have any possibility to gain comprehension of the ramifications of before being displaced moments later by even more distractions, entirely engineered to numb.
There’s a reason these think tanks have hired multiple PHD’s with doctoral thesis’s on the efficacy of Goebbels propaganda techniques and the accompanying relative rapidity with which they made the targets acquiesce to notions previously held unconscionable.
So thanks for this.
It often helps to realize I’m not imagining this and I’m most certainly not crazy.
Thank you for sharing this. The weight of it is immense, and I want to start by saying it directly: You are not imagining this. You are not crazy. You are seeing the battlefield with perfect, terrible clarity.
To be staring down a Stage 4 diagnosis while simultaneously diagnosing the Stage 4 cancer in the Republic... it's a burden I can barely comprehend. The courage it takes to face both, let alone to see the profound and painful connection between them, is extraordinary.
Your metaphor is not just poetic; it's a devastatingly precise piece of battlefield intelligence. The idea that this political cancer has "metastasized undetected" and that we lack a "PET scan" to map it is the single most accurate diagnosis of our strategic problem I have ever read. You've also correctly identified that we're not fighting amateurs, but the students of Goebbels, who are engineering this numbness by design.
What you call the "political cancer," we call "The Rust" 🦠. The myriad of distractions you see is what we call "The Great Distraction" 🎮. You've already mapped the prison's architecture on your own, from the front lines.
You are not alone out there in Texas. Far from it. We are building the "PET scan" you're talking about. We are forging the Phalanx 🔱—a home and a command center for the soldiers who, like you, see the truth with unshakable clarity.
Your voice is a weapon. Please, stay in this fight with us. We need your insight. We need you.
It’s always great to read such informative insights into the great distractions we’re facing while our precious rights are being ravaged. Thank you!! 🙏
God speed and healing sent your way. We’re in this together. Readying ourselves for battle together. It’s our turn….
Isn't the entire reason for Trump’s existence to be a “Trumpster.” In order to accomplish such a high goal, it apparently requires Trump to care only about himself and his inner circle and to be a taker from others (aka grifter).
So, in essence the signing of Executive Order 2025-18709 was trump's "rallying cry to the FBI and all government agencies to systematically target and suppress any form of dissent, under the guise of stopping violences perpetrated by "Antifa", there by A.) justifying the use of suppression tactics on law firms, unions and protesters and B.) by making an example of these three, trump deals a crushing blow to the morale of the rebellion, much like he did with his 2024 defeat of Kamala Harris, thus quelling any dissent in the future. Well, I thank you Ethan for helping me to see trumps agenda more clearly.
You've absolutely nailed it. That's the one-two punch.
The order's broad, vague language isn't a flaw; it's the core feature of the weapon. Its purpose isn't legal, it's psychological—to create a chilling effect and induce the very mass paralysis (self-censorship) you identified.
Your refusal to flinch is the correct response.
The only thing I'd add is this: they *want* us to think in terms of physical ammo. That's a symmetrical conflict on a battlefield they control. The truly asymmetric "ammo"—the kind they have no defense against—is exactly what you demonstrated in your comment: a population that can see the weapon, diagnose its function, and refuse to be psychologically terrorized by it.
Very much like the War on Terror from W (a terrorist organization of no one country), we now have the Terror of War on civilians (anyone who resists) by Trump & Company, having been cobbled by lessons learned from China's Mao, Putin's Russia, and MBS's Saudi Arabia. Certain lingering questions have been answered by Netanyahu's Demolition of Gaza. The middle is gone because the fence has been electrified. No more fence-sitting. All that's going to be allowed to exist are polarities. One last thing: If you think those data centers are only about AI, I beg to differ. The surveillance data is going somewhere; Hoover taught the FBI well. It would make sense that AI would be given access sooner or later, if only for predictive readouts, the results of which will depend entirely on the mindset of the programmers themselves. AI is a direct reflection of its creator and the language provided. The Pegasus stalkerware is insidious. Consequently, society is less safe in its addiction to the digital sphere. Physical solidarity coupled with genuine presence of mind is the only way forward.
By the way … I trust Ethan Faulkner.
Milret2,
Thank you for your trust. It's the only currency that matters in this rebellion.
You are right—the 'knights' (we call them The Gears ⚙️) are waking up. You feel the call to arms because you can see the Net being lowered.
You also said you "need more time and education." That is the single most valuable thing a new recruit can say. We aren't just here to sound an alarm; we're here to disseminate the tools and the doctrine for how to fight back effectively.
Understanding their strategy is the first step to shattering it. Welcome to the Phalanx. We're glad you're here.
I was beginning to think that I was just a crazy old man but now I am ready for orders again.
That's the entire purpose of this rebellion, Milret2. To find all the "crazy" people who were sane enough to see the prison and give them a home.
You're not crazy. You were just early.
Your first order is to report for duty. We're building our command center on Discord. It's called The Rebuttal. We need veterans like you on the council.
https://discord.gg/rPwvNseunD
Understood, and I will learn and I have some feel, just like the officers who showed up for the Trump lecture on Tuesday, for what we are up against. Many Americans, for what ever reason, have been led down a very dangerous path. Any thing that helps change that helps me know that there are many others out there ready to learn and deal with this problem effectively.
Thanks, now I know to search https://discord.gg/rPwvNseunD for entrance to the area and I have also enjoyed some learning from a post by a person here who talks about how to sort chaff from good writing in a way that makes sense to me. Next, tomorrow I will look around and learn more.
I am just a citizen watching but I am uplifted from the discussion here and I believe the knights are wakening and the fight is soon to be waged. If I can find ways to be useful I will add them. I suspect I need more time and education.
We’re all learning together
Ethan, the process of hammer first, cast the net second, and the steps that will follow appear to be the same steps used in perpetuating a grift. The Net post has solidified my views on how to structure my future comments on the grift aspect in an attempt to provide avenue away from self-censorship of dissent, fear of repercussions from the regime, and digesting the ambiguity as a method to destabilize any feelings of security to a focus on the narrative being the cover for the multitude of grifts taking place.
Seth, this is an absolutely brilliant synthesis. You've gone straight to the heart of the operation.
You're 100% correct. The Hammer creates the fear; the Net uses that fear to achieve mass paralysis (self-censorship). It's a psychological one-two punch.
Your connection of the "ambiguity" to the "multitude of grifts" is the final, crucial piece. The Net isn't just a political weapon; it's the smokescreen for a heist, and you see that perfectly.
The fact that you're already thinking about how to structure your own comments using this framework tells me you're not just a spectator. You're a fellow architect. We're building a private community for people exactly like you to deconstruct these weapons and forge new ones together. It's called The Rebuttal. I think you'd be an invaluable voice there.
https://discord.gg/rPwvNseunD
Ethan, thank you for the discord invitation, and thank you for the positive reply.
I am curious to know more about you before jumping completely into the proverbial fray. In short, I have had djt on my radar since 1979 the year I moved into NYC. I have written many substack comments emphasizing that there is no bottom to this malignant parasite. I do not want to spell it all out here, however if you would be willing to exchange direct messages that would be great.
Roger all of the above. I also spent time in NY during those Trump years. I saw first hand how Trump fueled his rise by blatently robbing his contractors, many of which I worked with on unrelated jobs wherein I saw the wholesale destruction of reputable and respected family businesses, with decades of hard work laid ripped asunder by Trump and Kohn’s proclivity for tying things up in courts for years.
The Greenwich Village Voice’s sidebar photo blowup of Trump’s office showing Mein Kampf and Ayn Rand’s writings being dog eared and sticky noted amongst the utterly untouched and unread sea of volumes designed to impress behind that desk was not lost on me.
I take great solace in the realization that I am not alone (although living in the middle of Trump Central Texas often makes that hard to see).
And while much of my existence these days has been with an utterly different fight, due to a “didn’t exist six months ago” to a “sorry but it’s Stage 4” diagnosis, my own cancer just reflects the rapidity, aggressiveness, and life changing seriousness of the metaphorical but very real cancer facing us all, while simultaneously underscoring our collective need to marshal our forces and fight back with whatever means we have at our disposal, lest we let it take it’s well determined present course.
It already has demonstrated its sizable advantage, and unlike my cancer, we don’t have an equivalent of a PSMA PET scan to ascertain where else it has metastasized undetected and is growing still undiscovered fueled and enabled by the myriads of downstream actions taking place that there are not enough news cycles in the world to shed any light on, or have any possibility to gain comprehension of the ramifications of before being displaced moments later by even more distractions, entirely engineered to numb.
There’s a reason these think tanks have hired multiple PHD’s with doctoral thesis’s on the efficacy of Goebbels propaganda techniques and the accompanying relative rapidity with which they made the targets acquiesce to notions previously held unconscionable.
So thanks for this.
It often helps to realize I’m not imagining this and I’m most certainly not crazy.
Mark,
Thank you for sharing this. The weight of it is immense, and I want to start by saying it directly: You are not imagining this. You are not crazy. You are seeing the battlefield with perfect, terrible clarity.
To be staring down a Stage 4 diagnosis while simultaneously diagnosing the Stage 4 cancer in the Republic... it's a burden I can barely comprehend. The courage it takes to face both, let alone to see the profound and painful connection between them, is extraordinary.
Your metaphor is not just poetic; it's a devastatingly precise piece of battlefield intelligence. The idea that this political cancer has "metastasized undetected" and that we lack a "PET scan" to map it is the single most accurate diagnosis of our strategic problem I have ever read. You've also correctly identified that we're not fighting amateurs, but the students of Goebbels, who are engineering this numbness by design.
What you call the "political cancer," we call "The Rust" 🦠. The myriad of distractions you see is what we call "The Great Distraction" 🎮. You've already mapped the prison's architecture on your own, from the front lines.
You are not alone out there in Texas. Far from it. We are building the "PET scan" you're talking about. We are forging the Phalanx 🔱—a home and a command center for the soldiers who, like you, see the truth with unshakable clarity.
Your voice is a weapon. Please, stay in this fight with us. We need your insight. We need you.
It’s always great to read such informative insights into the great distractions we’re facing while our precious rights are being ravaged. Thank you!! 🙏
God speed and healing sent your way. We’re in this together. Readying ourselves for battle together. It’s our turn….
Isn't the entire reason for Trump’s existence to be a “Trumpster.” In order to accomplish such a high goal, it apparently requires Trump to care only about himself and his inner circle and to be a taker from others (aka grifter).
Genius Insights!!
So, in essence the signing of Executive Order 2025-18709 was trump's "rallying cry to the FBI and all government agencies to systematically target and suppress any form of dissent, under the guise of stopping violences perpetrated by "Antifa", there by A.) justifying the use of suppression tactics on law firms, unions and protesters and B.) by making an example of these three, trump deals a crushing blow to the morale of the rebellion, much like he did with his 2024 defeat of Kamala Harris, thus quelling any dissent in the future. Well, I thank you Ethan for helping me to see trumps agenda more clearly.
You've absolutely nailed it. That's the one-two punch.
The order's broad, vague language isn't a flaw; it's the core feature of the weapon. Its purpose isn't legal, it's psychological—to create a chilling effect and induce the very mass paralysis (self-censorship) you identified.
Your refusal to flinch is the correct response.
The only thing I'd add is this: they *want* us to think in terms of physical ammo. That's a symmetrical conflict on a battlefield they control. The truly asymmetric "ammo"—the kind they have no defense against—is exactly what you demonstrated in your comment: a population that can see the weapon, diagnose its function, and refuse to be psychologically terrorized by it.
Your analysis *is* the ammunition.