Prison Planet Earth
By Visayas Outpost
Last thing I remember, I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
Relax, said the night man, we are programmed to receive…
You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!
-The Eagles
Today’s observation from outside the Bubble has to do with borders. Often far away, often invisible, the control or exploitation of people moving through borders has been on my mind now for, oh, almost twenty years or so. I contend that one of the biggest outcomes of the past two-year lockdown mania debacle is the increased movement control over citizens realized by even local governments. We can argue, and often do, that these controls are unconstitutional. But what we have observed is the exercising of this control first; only to slowly, slooowly relinquish it later when forced. It is clear that phrases like ‘New Normal’ were a lot more sinister than most people thought at the time.
Some readers may be old enough to remember that riding on an airplane used to be like riding on the bus. Just pull up to the gate in your car, walk to the plane, and give them a ticket. By the time I took my first flight around 1980, the airline industry had already lost its innocence. For years and years, you could at least accompany your loved ones to the gate, hang out in the terminal, or meet them as they disembarked. One metal detector, and no ID check until you were boarding. The Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security changed all of that, making airports effectively into zones where your rights do not exist.
Getting separated at Immigration can be a worrisome experience, especially if your travel companion holds a foreign passport. All of the humanity seems to be gone, from the time you park your car until the moment you are seated in Row 26 ordering a drink – and I am not even speaking of how the process must have worsened post-Covid. The fact is, it was bad enough pre-Covid, and this writer hasn’t flown since early 2020. I just can’t subject myself to the Stasi-like procedures anymore. Sit, stand, shoes, scan, question, phones, laptops, vax card, passport, liquids, more scans, temperature, masks, lines. Just, no. Who knows if the rules at your destination might even change overnight? Millions of stranded travelers during ’20 and ’21 can attest to this fact, which is just not a risk worth taking in my opinion.
Living outside the Bubble does bring a whole new level of anxiety when crossing borders. I used to cross from China to Macau frequently, and would always bring my laptop and Bible in case they changed the international rules over the weekend and decided not to let me back in. When I travel with my wife now, who has a Philippine passport, she gets questioned by her own Immigration agents at the airport before they will let her leave. It doesn’t matter that she has my last name, a destination Visa in her hand, and is holding on to my elbow. They want to know why she is leaving, whether she is legitimate, and when she will be back. Astonishing. Usually an impatient glare from me keeps the process flowing along quicker, but you can see the mentality in play. We decide when you can leave, and if you are worthy. Of course all of this only became enhanced during Covid, because movement control shifted from the international to the local level, even in America, land of the free.
Speaking to the US Covid response, never before would you have had border checkpoints at State lines. In the Philippines we had checkpoints at City lines. It would have been laughable if not for the Army posting guards there with M16’s. In China they managed to lock down individual apartment blocks. Covid allowed the tightening of the travel noose in unprecedented ways, and one gets the impression that those checkpoints only need some renewed funding by a WHO-sponsored program to go back into effect. Sadly, whether from ambivalence or brain fog induced by the Imaginarium, it is often the local functionaries who have the least ability to refuse compliance. They are “just doing their jobs, Sir”.
So with the relaxation of these restrictions, we are using the opportunity to relocate to another nearby island with a more freedom-oriented outlook. Back in the US, I know there are many people doing the same, heading for ‘free’ states that managed to keep their composure during the dark days of ’20 and ’21. Acting with your feet is a firm step, and so is acting with your wallet. Both of these ideas complement the concept of not rewarding bad behavior; something most young parents learn. When and if the next Plandemic wave occurs, we at least won’t need to react to the situation, and hopefully the Reader is taking necessary steps as well.
The Prison
In my view, restrictive travel controls can be compared to a minimum security prison – but on a global scale. There is a gate, and you can only go through it if you have been compliant, or after the guard grills you, or after some special favors. Make sure your pass has the Warden’s stamp. On the way back in, you will empty your pockets and submit to a search. Hopefully they don’t take you to a special room…definitely try to avoid the special room. This is literally the way humans are treated for wanting to travel. We can resist, complain, or even relocate. But they do control the gates, and are carrying the guns while forbidding you to do the same. It is not a challenge you can win on the day you need to board that plane. Rather, it is a deep and arduous battle that must be fought in the hearts, minds, and legal machinery of the State, until some future victory. You would think with victory currently in the hands of the State on this matter that they would be satisfied they could retain control. But the Deep State, the Borg, the Cabal – whatever you want to call them – is not happy with just controlling your movements. They also want to control goods.
I will skip over supply chains, written about by so many others, but perhaps the Reader has noticed the creeping restrictions on personal shipping. It has been worsening now for well over a decade. Thirty-five years ago I distinctly remember my Mother sending cookies to my APO address… a food product! Unregistered! Any avid eBayer can relate to the differences between the US Mail and commercial services like UPS. Depending on price and content, you may choose one or the other, and there was a time when you didn’t even need a content description to mail that box. If the counter agent at the post office asked, you would just say ‘a gift.’ But sometime around the prohibition on batteries came a whole different restrictive tone. Liquids, that’s a no. Electronic products, is there a receipt? International shipments, do you have a customs code?
I once tried having a diamond shipped to myself overseas – which I had full paperwork for – only to be rejected three different times. Shipping companies just were not able, or liable, or whatever, to work out that I was already the legal owner of a registered stone. Just two weeks ago we had to cancel the sale of a used iPhone, because the shipping company will not touch it without a receipt. This week we learned we cannot ship a motherboard from a broken laptop to a repair shop abroad. Too much something-or-other, and please fill out a form such-and-so, and find out the Customs yada-yada. It has become near total insanity….unless…UNLESS…you just want to order a new item from Amazon! Hey, thank you friend, you are a credit to the global community. Amazon will handle it all. Even with eBay there is probably a way, just don’t try to ship contraband cookies from Grandma. In my business, I can ship a pallet of contracted tools to the US with minimal hassle, just the necessary codes and fees. But Heaven forbid I personally want to ship coffee beans to Mom and Dad for Christmas.
Cash
So you cannot travel, and you cannot ship goods, apart from Government approved methods and channels. Well, here is another restriction that may have slipped below the Readers’ radar: Money transfers. Millions upon millions of people in poor and developing nations depend on this method of getting cash to or from their loved ones across borders. Time was, a quick trip to the Western Union store was all you needed, and it didn’t matter the amount because you were paying it by cash. But that was before the days of supposed ‘drug cartel’ crackdowns. It was before international banking became a whispered no-no, and the coercive FATCA laws that the US forces onto other countries.
Western Union and other money agencies now have literal hidden rules, flags, and limits, which are subject to change at any time. I used to send money to a friend in Africa for years on a regular basis. One day, the payment was rejected. Signing up for an online account or moving to Paypal worked temporarily, until they too were rejected. There is a directive somewhere above these companies they are obeying, probably from DHS. The timing of these changes have coincidentally matched Bank policies on reduced cash withdrawal limits. Do I really need to tell the bank clerk the purpose of that $5 grand withdrawal? Apparently so. It is insulting, especially in the Philippines where the limit is about $400, but that is the Prison Planet we live in. Inmates are only allowed so much cash before the Warden gets worried.
Electricity and Food
After restrictions of movement, goods, and cash, any effective prison must keep a firm control on electricity and food. Can you see where I am headed? Lights out at 11, friend, that is what the EU will be telling its citizens come November. They wouldn’t allow nuclear energy, they rejected Russian gas, and now the only thing left is…energy shortages. We have two of the richest states in the US -- Texas and California -- unable to work out how to keep electricity flowing, while the Borg continually pushes electric vehicles that will stress the grid even more. Subsidized with your tax dollars, naturally, so just allow the anger to build and flow through you as you watch rising vehicle and energy prices. I do believe we warned electricity rationing was coming with the advent of the first smart appliances, but back then we were just conspiracy theorists. When you can no longer afford fuel, then the only alternative is electricity which they control. Funny how that works.
Food, inevitably, is headed for further shortages, of which the Reader is well aware. The Imaginarium is running full bore with this warning, and I hope people are paying attention. Maybe when the supply chains are all broken, the money machines are empty, and the electricity isn’t working, people may willingly turn to Government relief trucks with Bill Gates Farms painted on the side. Prepare yourselves accordingly, fellow inmates, and don’t be that desperate person with no other option. Prison food is notoriously low quality, and I doubt if you’ll like the price you have to pay. I wonder if the unvaccinated will get any of it?
Communications
It must finally be said after controlling Movement, Goods, Cash, Electricity, and Food, that a prison’s overriding concern is avoiding an uprising. They must keep the prisoners from planning, which means preventing Communication. Our elected and unelected overlords are already hard at work on ways to disrupt that as well, you can be sure. Think of this warning every time you see scary stories on sun-spots, Chinese satellite attacks, or those dastardly Russian hackers, who are scheming their next cyberattacks even now. When the time comes that they no longer control the narrative, and we truly shatter the Imaginarium, expect them to just flip a switch on all the cell towers and satellite ground stations.
Sure, they will blame it on the climate, or China, or Trump, like most everything else. Will we get some Comms salvation from the likes of a rebooted Twitter, or Starlink, or even Space Force, as some in the Patriot community suggest? I’m not counting on it; then again in this prison yard I have come to expect the unexpected. Even now, for those paying attention, there are positive events unfolding at a rapid pace. If you have the means and opportunity, it may be a wise idea to look into a Starlink account as a backup plan, or dust off Grampa’s HAM equipment in the basement. At least make sure the Shortwave has good batteries…you DO have a shortwave, right? Available on Amazon, you know.
Almost Heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin’ like a breeze
-John Denver
In closing, let us observe that the worst of prisons feature permanent identification or tracking for their inmates. The Nazis did it with serialized tattoos, and it is a good bet that some sites today use implants. If we lose this war, I don’t think I need to tell you what technology will be rolled out next, waiting for another global scare opportunity. They were inches away from it with their vaunted ‘vaccine passports’. So if you have not started implementing your plan, friends, family, and Patriots, the time is now. I know you want life to return to what it was pre-Covid – me too. I want to be treated like a human being at airports, and enjoy cheap gas and unrestricted travel. I want casual strangers to be able to laugh and interact without being afraid to breathe. I want to return to a church where they let you actually sit next to each other without a mask, but I am still waiting for that.
When we are finally victorious, my belief is that the world will be a much different place – and so I have already let go of what was. I hope and pray you are a follower of Christ, and can move through this landscape with the confidence that only He can bring. He is the only constant.
Stay vigilant, friends,
Visayas Outpost