The last drama post I did about Kuma Miko seemed to have gotten some praise, but some wished to see a Hobby Drama post that had consequences outside “people got angry over it”. So without any further delay, here’s a story about a studio that’s close to my heart, one that I’ve backed twice and seen die twice.
Note: This is a fairly lengthy drama, so forgive me if I’m not able to provide all of my sources. Most of the front half of this comes from this video, which chronicles the first half of Lab Zero entirely in Russian.
From Ahad to Mike Z
Let’s start in the beginning. Alex Ahad is a freelance illustrator who, in between other work, had created character designs for a prospective fighting game. Mike Zaimont is a professional fighting game player best known for games like BlazBlue and Marvel Vs. Capcom, but since 1999 had been coding a custom engine in his free time, which he hoped could be used for a fighting game. The two met in 2008, and the two quickly realized that with each other’s help, their dream could come true. In 2010, the two joined the newly developed game studio Reverge Labs. Joining their team was Mariel “Kinuko” Cartwright, a friend of Ahad’s and daughter of a Disney animator who helped animate games such as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Shantae; Peter Bartholow, who acted as CEO of Reverge as well as their PR arm; and an assortment of other animators and designers. Their goal: a fighting game in the style of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with hand-drawn animation that they called Skullgirls.
After obtaining publishers in Autumn Games and Konami (at the time of development the Microsoft required indie devs to have a retail publisher in order to bring their games to Xbox Live Arcade), the team got to work on Skullgirls. Initial impressions were favorful - people liked Ahad’s unique character designs, the fluid animation, and the solid engine Mike Z built - but upon release, there were some concerns. The time and money needed to develop each character meant a starting roster of only eight characters, a far cry from other fighting games (the original MvC had 15 characters in 1998), and due to the team trying to get the game out, there was no in-game move list. Some were also concerned that the cast, consisting entirely of women, was too fanservice-filled, although Bartholow said that the characters were just attractive women who could fight as opposed to characters using their sexuality in battle (Ahad said that sex wasn’t his main focus, he just wanted to have monster girls fight each other). The team at Reverge Labs stressed that they would continue to update the game, with plans to add DLC if the game sold well enough. Good thing nothing could go wro-
Everything goes wrong
Alongside publishing Skullgirls, Autumn Games and Konami had previously published a karaoke game called Def Jam RapStar. Unfortunately, around March 2012, the time Skullgirls released, both parties were at the end of several lawsuits made against them - one argued that Autumn and Konami did not get the rights to some of the songs used in the game, while another claimed that the game was funded with a bank loan which Autumn Games was unable to pay back. The result of these costly lawsuits was that Autumn was unable to pay Reverge the money made from Skullgirls - this led to the entire Reverge team being laid off around July, and the future of the game in the air.
And so, the team decided on a whim to reconvene as a new development studio, Lab Zero Games. At a fundraiser for breast cancer research which included a fighting game tournament, Mike Z revealed the first DLC fighter and promised that new information about her and the team would be posted soon. This would turn out to be an Indiegogo fundraising campaign that asked for $150,000 to develop the first DLC fighter, with more characters promised if people backed enough.
In the end, $829,829 was raised in the campaign, enough to fund five DLC characters, a bevy of stages and voice packs, and other features. It was quickly becoming a cult classic.
The Skullgirls Curse
And so work on Skullgirls DLC was underway. However, a variety of events happened to befall Lab Zero during development, some causing controversy and others just annoying the team. Some dubbed this “The Skullgirls Curse”. So let’s go over some of them:

• Paypal Woes: During the Indiegogo DLC campaign, Lab Zero announced that Ahad had created around 30 prospective designs for DLC characters, and that there would be a vote to see which characters would be the two “mystery characters” teased in the Indiegogo campaign. As you would guess, this caused the Skullgirls fanbase to get heated, to the point where some stressed that they would ask Indiegogo for their money back if their character didn’t win. PayPal, who managed the funds for this campaign, was concerned about these threats and put nearly all of the money on hold. Bartholow tried to negotiate with PayPal, and was eventually able to get the funding - once PayPal was given a hefty sum as collateral.
• Bad Juju - If you notice on the list of prospective DLC characters, one character is Juju, a character who was designed by Ahad from a fan’s suggestion on a Whiteboard Wednesday art stream. Ahad seemed to like the idea of the character, and kept building her up until she became a legit character in the game. The original fan made a joke on Facebook that he’d like to be compensated for the design, which led Lab Zero to negotiate obtaining the character rights from him. They eventually worked out a contract that would give them the rights to the character, but only if the original fan didn’t reveal it until Lab Zero announced it themselves. The fan then posted about it on the Skullgirls forum the very next day, breaking the NDA immediately and making it so that Lab Zero couldn’t use the character at all.
• Don’t be (Red) Cross with me: One of the characters included in the base game of Skullgirls is Valentine. As you can tell, the two biggest features of her character are her being a nurse and a ninja - as such, her costume is decorated with red crosses. This was upsetting to the real Red Cross, which fights hard to prevent its trademark from being associated with violence - as such, when they came to the Skullgirls publisher demanding a change, all red crosses in the game had to be changed to magenta.
• #FucKonami: In November 2013, due to Konami barely helping at all with the publishing process for Skullgirls (they refused to greenlight any patch or DLC until Lab Zero tested it itself on their own time and money, they didn’t help with Microsoft’s certification process for Xbox, etc), Lab Zero dissolved their publishing agreement. This led to a massive snafu where, due to the dissolution, the original Skullgirls was taken down on consoles, and Lab Zero had to scramble to get a new publisher on the consoles side and then reupload the game as Skullgirls: Encore. It was a tangled web of issues which the above YouTube video relays, but required certification from both console storefronts and even the Japan storefront, as their publisher there was also coincidentally being dissolved at the same time without Lab Zero knowing.
• EVO 2014: During one of the largest fighting game tournaments of 2014, Skullgirls was promised a space for airing their tournament stream by controller distributor Madcatz. Lab Zero and Autumn provided a pot for the tourney, and everything was smooth sailing - until a multitude of delays made it so that the entire time Skullgirls had for streaming was replaced with Tekken tournaments. By the time these issues were fixed, only the final four matches were able to be shown.
• What’s the worst kind of ship? Censor-SHIP!: In April 2015, one of the patches of Skullgirls altered the animation of some characters, which according to Lab Zero themselves was because of their own artistic values (while they admitted that panty shots in a fighting game comprised entirely of girls is unavoidable, they didn’t want to go out of their way to show them). As you might expect, this led to a massive onslaught of negative Steam reviews and caustic tweets from people who abhor censorship of any kind. Funnily enough, this brigade started around October, six months after the changes were made, and only via word of mouth - people didn’t even notice there was a change until someone told them about it.
• Backer characters: As part of their Indiegogo campaign, some of the highest-paying backers could have their original characters put in the background of some custom stages. Lab Zero warned these backers that these stages would be a casino and a ballroom, respectively, so their OCs should ideally be designed with a formal flair. Some backers did follow this unspoken rule - ZONE, a notoriously NSFW Flash animator who helped work on the DLC characters, made a perfectly formal look for his mascot Zone-tan. As for the others, well...
• SonicFox: This isn’t included in the compilation video mentioned above as this occurred way after all the initial Skullgirls drama. Basically, SonicFox is a five-time EVO champion and one of the best Skullgirls players in the world. In May 2020, after Skullgirls was mostly complete, they were given a cameo in Skullgirls’ training stage. Of note is that SonicFox is black, non-binary, and a furry, and the character added to the game was their fursona, who has a trans rights flag in the inside of their jacket you can only see for like one frame. People reacted as you would expect. Also, one of the original backers requested to change their character as they were now transitioning, which didn’t get as much flak, so that’s nice I guess.

So as you can see, Skullgirls had a menagerie of problems and issues during its dev time. However, their Skullgirls curse seemed to have faded away, as they had a new game in store.
If I was Indivisible
Indivisible was a new project of Lab Zero, announced in 2015 as Skullgirls DLC production was nearing an end. Billed as a platformer RPG similar to games like Valkyrie Profile, it would tell the story of Ajna, a young girl whose town is stricken by tragedy and she finds out that she’s a portion of the god of creation, who has grown discontent with the world and wishes to remake it anew. Its Indiegogo campaign focused on Incarnations, party members who came from a variety of cultures, religions, and demographics not usually represented in popular culture. And as you can see by the fact that it got over two million dollars in funding, people were excited to see what Lab Zero could do. They even got enough funding to get Studio Trigger, of anime fame, to create the opening for the game.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Lab Zero without the occasional issue here and there. As shown above, some Incarnations were changed or scrapped during development, which irked some who backed because of that character specifically (not naming any names, but look in the incarnation list and see if you notice any). Backer characters were included again, and although there were more places to add them so they didn’t look out of place, you still had the occasional few that did. Critics liked the art and presentation of the game, but disliked some gameplay issues: the second half of the game became a cakewalk once you progressed far enough, it was a bit of a pain to go from one end of the map to another, especially for side quests, and a bunch of party members simply weren’t complete. Most egregiously of all, the Nintendo Switch version of the game was ported by a different company and released before Lab Zero was even aware of it - which forced them to scramble again to patch it up so it was on par with other consoles.
Still, it was a better situation they were in than when Skullgirls started. They had a legit publisher in 505 Games, people were satisfied with the base game, and Mike Z mentioned how the base game would continue to be refined with gameplay changes, small additions, and guest incarnations from other indie games. NBC even announced that Indivisible would be adapted into a television program for their Peacock streaming service. Things were looking up for Lab Zero.
Everything goes wrong... AGAIN
During the production of Indivisible, Alex Ahad was let go by Lab Zero. Not much is mentioned about it except that he was growing increasingly hostile, making it difficult to work with him, and his art was not meeting the standards for the game. He left, tried to sue Lab Zero, and eventually agreed to a sizable settlement. Mariel became the lead artistic director in his stead, and the art team had to be rearranged to compensate.
Now, as Lab Zero was preparing to transition from being employee-owned, Mike Z was made the temporary head of the studio. In June of 2020, Mike Z did an “I can’t breathe” joke during a Skullgirls livestream just days after George Floyd’s death - he later apologized for this, claiming he was trying to bring attention to the issue. Soon, more people provided proof that Mike Z has had a history of sexual harassment. Kinuko chimes in as well, noting that while she tolerated inappropriate behavior for years, when she talked to Mike Z about it, he blamed her for his actions. She talked with others in the team, who came to the conclusion that Zaimont had treated all of them like this. Some Lab Zero employees resigned on their own, while others pushed for Zaimont to resign. However, as Mike was still head of the studio, he dissolved the studio board and laid off the rest of the staff.
So where does that leave everyone?

• Ahad is still doing art on his own, and gets by with commissions and his Patreon.
• Kinuko, as well as the majority of Lab Zero, created a new studio called Future Club, which has promised to create new titles with the same art style they refined from Skullgirls and Indivisible.
• Autumn Games still own the rights to Skullgirls, and with the help of some former Lab Zero devs, created a mobile version of the game. It’s surprisingly not bad, although it’s of course stuffed with microtransactions. However, they’ve apparently made enough to fund a completely new character for the game for both the mobile and console/PC versions.
• After everything with Mike Z, 505 games put out a statement which signaled the end of all development of the game, leaving it unfinished. Mike Z has been suspended from Skullgirls streams and the like, making his future in the gaming world unclear.

There’s probably something I’ve missed in all of this, but yep. I backed them twice, both for Skullgirls and Indivisible. I don’t regret it, and I’m looking forward to whatever Future Club does, but I won’t lie - I’ll always miss what could have been.

Since McInerney is back in the news spreading conspiracy theories about our recent Presidential election, making up bullshit stories about US Special Operations raids, many will find this article I wrote six years ago helpful in learning who this guy is and what he is really about.
While many are familiar with President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famous farewell speech, fewer have read the original drafts which include dire warnings about the future of America and what Eisenhower termed a “military-industrial complex.”
One of the original drafts, penned by speech writer Malcom Moos, reads:
“We must never let power, implicit in this combination, endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert, knowledgeable, and wise citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that both security and liberty may prosper.
In the councils of government, we must jealously guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We can ignore it only at our peril.”
The tone is softened slightly in the speech that Eisenhower delivered, but his message remained intact. Since the Eisenhower presidency, the military-industrial complex has grown and gone through a metamorphosis, the rhetoric changing to match the current threats, real or perceived, to the United States. The Cold War gave way to the War on Terror.
At the forefront of those who shape the rhetoric are often the same retired generals and admirals who staff the boards of directors of America’s largest and most powerful defense companies.
Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney carries three-star clout following an extremely impressive career. Retiring from the Air Force, McInerney served four tours in Vietnam, including hundreds of sorties as a combat aviator. Afterwards, McInerney served in a succession of important military commands. He is a graduate of West Point and also has a master’s degree from Georgetown. Since his retirement in 1994, General McInerney has also served on the board of directors for perhaps a dozen different defense and defense-related companies.
However, General McInerney says some very odd things. To the uninitiated, like MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, he sounds “nuts.” When McInerney makes outlandish claims as a paid Fox News contributor, people sometimes describe him as sounding crazy. Yes, the general’s claims, a few of which we will examine here, are bizarre, but McInerney is not crazy. In fact, he is very intelligent, highly rational, and each of his words are very calculated.
The Pentagon’s Military Analyst Program When the Pentagon established the military analyst program in 2002, they did so largely to help build public support for the invasion of Iraq. Retired generals were recruited into the program by the Pentagon and given exclusive access to classified briefings, as well as tours of Guantanamo and bases in Iraq. While these analysts were presented on network news each night as being objective experts, they were actually being groomed by the Pentagon and fed talking points. Moreover, many of them had ties to major defense contractors with material interests in the war.
Former Green Beret and member of the military analyst program, Robert Bevelacqua, later said of the program that the Pentagon was telling them, “we need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.” When the New York Times sued the DOD to obtain documents about the program, they found that the talking heads we saw on television were referred to as “message force multipliers” and “surrogates.”
When one retired general in the military analyst program received talking points from the Pentagon, he wrote, “good work” and “we will use it.” That general’s name was Thomas McInerney.
Malaysian Flight 370 While McIerney is known for his very hawkish stances on foreign-policy issues, he is perhaps better known for the straight-up outlandish claims he often makes. One of the most curious is the theory he advanced on Fox News multiple times when Malaysian Flight 370 disappeared somewhere over the Pacific.
The theory: Flight 370 was hijacked by terrorists, probably the pilots, who then turned off the aircraft’s transmitters and flew the plane westward. The pilots then shadowed Singaporean Flight 68 in order to hide their aircraft’s radar signature as they flew over Indian airspace. McInerney insists that the Indian radar operators would not necessarily have picked up flight 370’s radar signature as most countries don’t have their “A-team” manning the radar late at night.
If we are to accept this bizarre leap of faith, we then have to invent some way in which Flight 370 then broke away from Flight 68. McInerney insists that the Malaysian passenger plane then landed in Lahore, Pakistan, and the passengers are being held hostage.
Fox News is always quick to point out on air how General McInerney has amazing sources and contacts within the Pentagon and elsewhere—an attempt to backstop his strange claims and theories. In this case, McInerney pointed out that it wasn’t simply his sources that gave him his information, but rather that logic dictated the plane was hijacked and flown to Lahore.
But this isn’t the same type of logic advanced by Plato, Hobbes, or even Machiavelli. McInerney is making inferences based on inferences based on inferences and none of it adds up or can be verified by anyone. Despite McInerney’s incredible sources that Fox News pundits constantly reference, no one that SOFREP has spoken to in the intelligence community lends a bit of credence to this claim.
DEFCON 1 “Something is happening out there and we are asleep at the switch.”
Another interesting statement made on Fox News by McInerney is that the United States should go to DEFCON 1. Defense Condition One is America’s highest level of alert and means that nuclear war is imminent. McInerney reminds us that America has never gone to this level of alert before.
Even during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the United States was on the brink of nuclear armageddon with the Soviet Union, we only made it to DEFCON 2. Why would America need to raise our alert status to DEFCON 1 in September of 2014? McInerney references a variety of nebulous threats. In various interviews he says that this threat could be nuclear, an EMP weapon, or cyber-warfare attacks against our infrastructure.
Where does this threat emerge from? General McInerney said on Fox that, “unchecked, ISIS is an existential threat to the United States…” However, there is no evidence that ISIS is even remotely an existential threat to America. While ISIS can—and gone unchecked, almost certainly will—become a threat to America, the idea that a ragtag group of jihadists could destroy America has no credibility. Even the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center came nowhere close to actually destroying America.
In the same interview, McInerney then repeats his suggestion that the government raise the alert level to DEFCON 1, and that he believes that multiple American cities are soon going to be attacked because ISIS has slipped through our porous borders and are already staging in American cities to strike. He then pushes for a “massive air campaign in Iraq and Syria.”
Nuclear Iran “Getting the bombs or the components of bombs into the United States would be simple.” (End Game, 27)
At the New Hampshire Institute for Politics, McInerney commented on one of his favorite topics: nuclear Iran. In this speech, he warns America that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon, possibly hand it off to a third party, and then it could be smuggled into the United States to be detonated in a city. McInerney would have us believe that while intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying a nuclear payload can be traced back to the country that launched them, a nuclear weapon smuggled into America would leave no fingerprints as to who the culprits are.
Of course, this claim is patently false. The science of nuclear forensics would allow us to quickly identify who built a nuclear weapon set off on American soil. Iran knows this. So does General McInerney. Contrary to many alarmists, Iran is a rational state and the Iranian government does realize that, should they launch such an attack against America, the nation of Iran would cease to exist in short order.
To effect a regime change in Iran, and according to McInerney, to prevent this nuclear nightmare, he advocates a 48-hour air campaign over Iran. The goal would be to set the Iranian nuclear program back at least 5 years. This would include the use of bunker busters, 70 stealth aircraft, and 400 non-stealth aircraft to bomb 2,500 targets inside Iran.
America’s Nuclear Deterrent “It is very safe and it is very secure.”
Considering the dire threats that McInerney insists America is facing on an almost daily basis, he made one curious appearance on television to assure the public that America’s nuclear stockpile is safe and secure. On January 14th, 2014, McInerney appeared on Fox to address reports of missile launch officers being caught up in a drug investigation and cheating on their certification exams.
General McInerney responded to the question of the disposition of our nuclear stockpile by assuring us that it is, “very safe and it is very secure.” He goes on to point out that there have been some human failings in our nuclear command, but that our “nuclear-deterrent force is in very good shape.” The general pushed for modernizing our nuclear forces and said that these weapons needed to be maintained, but when it came to the personnel and overall capabilities of our nuclear deterrent, he was very positive.
For someone who often warns Americans about dire threats against our nation and even insidious conspiracies from within (in a TruNews interview, he warned that Obama is carrying out a well-orchestrated conspiracy to transform America into a communist/socialist state), it is curious how he assures us that everything is fine with our nuclear forces. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The problems plaguing our nuclear command are not just limited to our aging stockpile, a few drug users in the ranks, or cheating on exams. Major General Michael Casey, who was in command of three nuclear wings, was relieved of command in 2013. The reason? Casey was boozing it up in Moscow and hooked up with two local women at a hotel. He was drunk, incoherent, and belligerent during his trip, and went missing for hours at a time. This sounds very much like a “honey trap” engineered by Russian intelligence services.
Vice Admiral Tim Giardina was also relieved from his position as deputy chief of U.S. Strategic Command, ostensibly because he used fake gambling chips at a casino in Iowa. With Giardina and Casey relieved within days of each other there may be a real conspiracy at play here. It seems likely that beyond a few human failings, America’s nuclear forces are heavily targeted, if not penetrated, by foreign intelligence agents. This raises the possibility that U.S. military counter-intelligence decided to clean house in October of 2013.
Again, the implications of these scandals within our nuclear command would not go unnoticed by someone with the depth of experience and knowledge that McInerney has. All of this begs the question as to why he goes on television to tell us everything is fine with our nuclear forces when he is also constantly warning us about foreign threats and the destruction of American cities.
END GAME “Syria is a domino waiting to fall.” (End Game, 54)
In 2004, McInerney co-authored a book called End Game with Major General (ret.) Paul Vallely. The two graduated from the same West Point class and became reacquainted when they were both brought into the Pentagon’s Military Analyst Program.
Their book opens with, “Today, America is at war with an enemy every bit as dangerous as Nazi 51D6TASMSFL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Germany or the Soviet Union: We know it as radical Islam” (End Game, 9). In order to counter terrorism, they advocate regime change (“major policy shifts”) using military action in six countries. Afghanistan and Iraq were two that had already been toppled when the book was published. They suggested further military action in Iran, Syria, Libya, and North Korea.
Since 2004, Libya has experienced a regime change while Syria and Iran have both been under serious duress. Interestingly, two other countries were identified for reform rather than military action: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. But, according to the book, if Saudi Arabia can’t shape up, we may have to bomb them, too. End Game tells us that we don’t have time to take these countries out in sequence, but rather we have to attack all of them at the same time (End Game, 38). To what extent McInerney and Vallely have actually influenced the policy decisions to target these countries is unknown, but it is a safe bet that they have been hard at work behind the scenes.
End Game is also filled with predictions that never came to pass. For instance, they said that, if North Korea detonates a nuclear bomb, that Japan, and maybe even South Korea, would develop their own nuclear weapons (End Game, 25). They again assert that if a nuclear bomb was detonated in America that “evidence would vaporize,” making the weapon untraceable (End Game, 29).
Regarding Afghanistan, they write that, “The force level that NATO needs to maintain in Afghanistan is relatively small, the duties in the long term, relatively easy.” (End Game, 40). When it comes to Iraq, they write, “We are confident that the Iraqi people are up to the task, based on how enthusiastically they have embraced the opportunities to vote in meaningful elections.” (End Game, 44)
Considering the author’s failed predictions for post-war Afghanistan and Iraq, perhaps we should scale back from attacking the rest of these “rogue” nations all at once with massive American air power as they suggest.
Maddow Gets it Wrong “We report, you freak out.” -Rachel Maddow
Interestingly, journalists and media commentators have never really put McInerney in the spotlight for his many irregularities. On the rare exception in which a critique is offered, it always portrays McInerney as a far-out-there right-winger. Four years ago, Rachel Maddow did a story on McInerney for her show on MSNBC.
The reason for her coverage was because McInerney was supporting an Army doctor who refused to deploy on the grounds that he suspected President Obama was not born in the United States, and therefore was not a valid President. In an affidavit written by McInerney, he praises the doctor’s courage and bravery for standing by his beliefs. Yes, apparently McInerney is a birther as well.
Rachel goes on to say, “what is news is that someone with General McInerney’s qualifications is saying that maybe the President is secretly foreign.” While Rachel is correct in pointing out how preposterous it is that a three-star general would endorse such a zanny conspiracy theory, she is ignorant of the calculated intent behind his carefully worded and pre-rehearsed statements.
She then wraps up the segment with, “the real story, it seems to me, is that a guy this nuts gets paid to comment on foreign policy and wars. The birther general is on Fox New’s payroll…” Rachel is directionally correct in pointing out the strange disconnect between the fact that McInerney is a retired three-star general and that his statements don’t make any sense. However, she misses the fact that, while his statements are off-the-wall, they are never off-the-cuff.
In short, McInerney does not actually believe the bizarre things that he says on air, but rather, these are carefully worded statements fed to the public for political purposes.
The Military-Industrial Complex Thomas McIerney is constantly on television beating his war drums and warning Americans about amorphous threats to our nation. According to him, we are just days away from a horrendous terrorist attack. But McInerney is not simply a television military analyst, rather, he is an active participant in the military-industrial complex via the various boards of directors upon which he sits. What he does is not analysis, but advocacy. He is an advocate for nuclear weapons, long-range bombers, UAVs (specifically Global Hawk), and he is an advocate of going to war with a half dozen countries simultaneously.
This is not conjecture or secret information from anonymous sources, but rather McInerney’s own words. In his book End Game, he claims to have plotted the liberation of Iraq in 2002 on a cocktail napkin with Paul Vallely. They then pitched this plan to Bill O’Reilly at a party hosted by the Fox News network, who agreed to have them on his show to talk about it. In End Game, the generals write, “We knew appearing on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss the plan was something of a risk. In the past, we had acted solely as military analysts. Presenting our plan came close to advocacy.” (End Game, 85)
General McIerney chose not to simply be a passive analyst, but to instead become an active participant in shaping history. He believed we could take down Iraq in 30 days, and that the rest would basically be a cake walk. The U.S. military invaded in 2003 and our soldiers fought, bled, and died in the streets fighting terrorists, Baath-party loyalists, foreign fighters, and run-of-the-mill gangsters in places like Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra for an additional nine years.
Mcinerney is not to blame for the failures of the war in Iraq, but his rhetoric is suspect when the companies he works with have a material interest in the United States going to war—wars in which the products endorsed by McInerney, such as air power and UAVs, would be employed. In order for those products to be used, the American public has to be kept in a constant state of fear. That fear can then be channeled and used as a vehicle to support war. The vehicle of choice for McInerney is radical Islam.
He isn’t a right-wing nut as people like Rachel Maddow would have you believe. If we were to take McInerney’s word’s at face value, the politics he endorses are actually divorced from any ideology in contemporary mainstream politics. Like Lyndon LaRouche, Thomas McInerney’s politics are so far out there that it is disingenuous to describe them as right-wing, Republican, or conservative. But it is highly unlikely that McInerney actually believes silly stories about Flight 370, Iranian nuclear weapons, and birther conspiracies.
Far more likely, he says these things cynically for purely political purposes.
McInerney honorably served his country for many years, but contrary to the lapel pin on his collar, what he does today is far from patriotic. In fact, it is the exact opposite. Misleading Americans with alarmism and hyperbolic statements is deconstructing our political process. An informed public is an absolute necessity for a democracy to function. When retired generals leverage their credibility to mislead the public like a pied piper for political purposes, we are in serious trouble.
When they lend their name to conspiracy theories, it only contributes to polarizing American politics and driving wedges between the American people. When politicians see that the talking heads on television are saying something that does not match up with what our intelligence professionals are telling them, it is then seen as an intelligence failure.
Thomas McInerney is not alone. He is one member of a clique of retired generals, admirals, and CIA officers who have created an echo chamber in which they cite each other as sources and stir up the political fringe of America. They do this intentionally, knowing that their alarmist messages will be diluted by the time they make their way down to more reasonable people. But in the meantime, the damage done to American politics is impossible to calculate.
This is one facet of the modern military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us of.

hi, looking for anyone with experience or knowledge about getting into the HVAC industry. before i start a little about me: I'm 28 years old with an AA in criminal justice and currently a slot technician for the video gaming machines at Chumash casino ( been a tech for 3 years so far). looking to get into an HVAC career but after doing some research the industry is a lot bigger than i thought it would be, leaving me with many questions. first question is what is valued more by the majority of employers, an AA in Hvac or attending a trade program, what are the benefits and draw backs to both in comparison to each other? second will a trade certificate limit me in acquiring higher paying HVAC jobs? or will the experience gained from beginner HVAC work with a trade certificate take me far enough to live comfortably in California (I'm open to relocating). side note: i slacked off in community collage graduated with a 2.68 gpa so transferring for a bachelors would be difficult. i dont know what to choose trade or a degree mainly bc i dont know the cap for how far i can go with a trade certificate. any other information on how to get into the industry and things that i shouldnt over look like taking classes that i can benefit from like electrical, physics ect... or any other advice is much appreciated! thank you

PLEASE NOTE: This article may be updated periodically with new information and links as they become available. All referenced information and a whole lot more is indexed and linked in the related appendix posts. Please feel free to crosspost, share, and take from my ideas to build your own. Namaste.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Appendix A | Appendix B
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Hello. My name is Chris. I am nobody, really. An average citizen. I am an overweight 42 year old white male from the Midwestern suburbs of the US who has been fortunate enough to live a pretty comfortable life. I used to be a freelance graphic designer with a focus on small businesses, but I'm coming to terms with the fact that that career and part of my life is more than likely over in light of current events. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
I've always been concerned about social injustice and tried to stay politically informed, even dabbling in some activism here and there. At times I've stepped away from paying attention for my own mental health, or due to laziness, defeatism, whatever. But I've never stopped caring, or trying, to fight the good fight and do the right thing.
The news recently has of course swept us all up, and touched all our lives in some way or another. The world has never seen anything like the "Coronavirus Pandemic," and it's clear that our society will be changed forever when we finally come out the other end of this mess. But I've had the luxury of time recently, and in reading the news about things that were going on, I couldn't help but notice the patterns, and that a lot of stuff didn't exactly make sense.
So, here we go, with the "conspiracy theory."
I hate that term, because although it's technically accurate, it's been demonized and weaponized by the media and society at large to take on a bad connotation. Tinfoil hats, alien abductions, crazy people muttering to themselves, etc. You've no doubt got a lot of images in your mind of a conspiracy theorist.
And make no mistake, what I'm going to tell you here is all currently very popular conspiracy theory. However, I think that by removing opinions and conjecture from it, and focusing on facts and things that have already happened, I can present this huge amount of overwhelming, disparate information in a way that makes it less a "theory" and more a "research project." And so that is how I have approached this.
I have spent the last week doing little else besides reading every news and opinion article I could find, saving and organizing hundreds of links, and assembling a coherent, logical outline to organize and present these theories, and more importantly, facts. There are a lot of less-than-reputable sites and publications out there, and I have tried when at all possible to provide sources from verifiable news sites, with a wide range of slants and focuses, to illustrate that what is happening is not part of any one particular political agenda.
I hope that you take the time to check the links, really look into the information presented here, and form your own opinions. Please do not just take my word for it. To that end, there are also a few links mixed in that are labeled as having come from conspiracy. These are well-written and well-reasoned posts from other concerned citizens that I think are worth reading, and relevant to the discussion here.
One last thing - If you are new to most of these ideas, the information presented here is more than likely going to seem overwhelming at first. I encourage you now, and always, to take mental health breaks for yourself, and put down your phone or turn off your computer. The information will be here when you come back. And as you'll soon understand, what is happening is an unstoppable tide, truly a force of nature at this point, and there is nothing you can do to fight it, so try your hardest to relax, put on some chill music, hug your dog, and most of all...
BREATHE.
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If you start researching conspiracy theory, you're going to find a lot of information. Some much better or worse presented than others, and some much more plausible or unbelievable than others. Despite the seeming ridiculousness of some things you might read, I encourage you to always approach new information with an open mind.
That said though, I have one main principle that guides all my beliefs about conspiracy theories, and that is the "Filter of Likelihood." Essentially, you have to ask yourself how possible, how likely, and how feasible a piece of information is. Furthermore, you need to ask yourself what the motivation would be. In many cases, it's quite easy to see how something makes a lot of sense based on other known info, whereas some theories seem rather implausible no matter how you look at it.
I am interested only in the plausible, and where possible, the already actualized. Additionally, there's a lot to be said, and a lot that has already been written on many of these topics, so I will focus on current events and simple concepts.
I will also ask you to open your mind to possibility. Please consider this as you evaluate new information:

1. Do you believe there are things going on in the world that you don't know about yet?
2. Do you believe that there is technology and science you've never heard of?
3. Do you believe that society is progressing at an increasing rate?
4. Do you believe that as populations grow, we require new societal strategies?
5. Do you believe that those with power and money want to retain their power and money?

Of course you believe all these things, and none of these are wild or unusual concepts. Rather, these are very basic concepts that apply to everyone, and always have. They are all part of our shared human experience, and undeniable facts of life. Populations grow, societies evolve, technology advances, and the world changes. And most important to our discussion here, people, families, and empires constantly jockey for power and control, while fighting for resources, power, fame, and...
MONEY.
We all hate TicketMaster, right? Who do they think they are, what the hell is this bullshit "service fee," etc. It's something everyone can get behind. But did you know that TicketMaster willingly cultivates that image? That venues, teams, and artists, in their pursuit of more money, raise fees and then let TicketMaster be the bad guy and take the heat so their reputations remain intact?
There are many more people, organizations, and other entities in the world playing that same role for those who really have the money, who really call the shots. And those who call the shots work very hard and spend absolutely unfathomable amounts of money, time, and blood, to make sure that you don't ever realize who's actually taking your money.
They do this in the simplest, easiest way. If you simply control information from the top down, and disseminate it when and where you see fit, you can effect great societal change without lifting a finger.
Please imagine... really, try to imagine... You just read an article, saw a video, whatever, from a very, very reputable source. And it just informed you that an asteroid was 83% likely to impact the Earth next month. What would you do? What would happen in the world?
Hopefully an asteroid will not hit next month, but it's important to really imagine what would happen and why, and how. Because a huge amount of information would be generated and published, people would panic, society would crumble, and the world as you know it would change forever in an instant, the moment you read that headline.
Control of information is one of the most powerful tools known to mankind today. A person living in 2020 can easily encounter as much information in a day as someone in Medieval times might have encountered in a lifetime. And it comes at you from all angles, in all forms, non-stop, 24/7. Much like the water in the pipe, the information is always there, and one needs but turn it on.
Disseminating the information then becomes a practice all its own, and to be sure, information processing accounts for more than half of the US GDP. And the rate at which it's spread, and way it is handled makes a huge difference in the societal repercussions. So a few different techniques are used:

• The "Slow Walk" - If a large, unexpected piece of information is given suddenly, people tend to react poorly and irrationally. Also known as "letting them down easily," this technique restricts the flow of information to prevent the audience from balking or being overwhelmed
• The "Steady Drip" - This technique involves keeping your audience subjected to a constant stream of the desired information, so that they become accustomed to it and it becomes "normalized"
• The "Firehose" - A deluge of information flying out at full blast, designed to overwhelm the audience so that they cannot focus on anything else

It might be the greatest understatement of all time to say that there has been a lot of information passed around about COVID-19, the "Coronavirus," recently. In fact, there has never been anything like what we are currently experiencing in all of human history, and not by a long shot. And this unprecedented turn of events has caused a lot of people to react in a lot of ways, and say and do a lot of things, for better or for worse.
Full disclosure: In particular, if you look up conspiracy theory, you'll see a lot of stuff suggesting that the "Coronavirus is a hoax." (You'll also find a lot of poorly-written rambling) I want to be clear that I DO NOT believe that. I am 100% sure that there is a Coronavirus, that it is making people sick, that a lot of people are dying, and that our medical professionals and many other undervalued workers are overwhelmed, and breaking their backs every day to do their best to keep their friends, families, and loved ones safe. I am extraordinarily grateful for them and admire the resolve and bravery that so many have shown in the face of this disaster. I do not think it is a hoax at all.
However, I think that literally everything else that is happening surrounding the "pandemic" is.
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The Pandemic
In the first week of January this year, I got sick. Really sick. I know when I got it and who I got it from, and honestly the exact moment I got it (I only was in proximity of the dude for a few minutes). He had warned me that he was really sick, and I blew it off. I started feeling sick a day or two later, and a day or two after that I felt like I was dying. Fever, chills, aches, extraordinary fatigue. And literal, nonstop, 24/7 coughing. I had every single symptom of what we now know as COVID-19. I commented to anyone who would listen that I didn't recall ever feeling that sick before in my entire life. The most memorable part of it though was that after a couple days, I completely lost my sense of smell and taste. Joked a lot about how you could feed me onions and soap cause I'd have no idea. I try to have a good attitude about being sick.
I spent a week sleeping on the couch before I finally went to the doctor. She gave me a Prednisolone steroid pack (which has worked well for me in the past), some Trazodone to knock me out, and Benzonatotate for my cough. As soon as I took the first dose of steroids I started to feel pretty fucking great, and it was more or less a non-issue after that.
I spoke to a lot of people about it then and after, and man, I can't tell you how many stories I personally heard from people I know that said the exact same thing. Then I started reading the same story over and over again on Reddit:

• Please leave your experience from November-January if you were Extremely Ill
• An Illness swept through Utah back in DecembeEarly January, was it Covid-19? Did this happen elsewhere?
• How long do you really think covid19 has been in the US?

We didn't start really hearing about the Coronavirus in the media until the beginning of March, and we didn't hear about the "Pandemic" until just a couple weeks ago. And what a couple weeks it's been since then. But I am quite certain that it's been around for a lot longer and that I, and a lot of other people I know, had it - and DID NOT DIE FROM IT - way back in January.
We now know that the first documented case in the US was on January 19th, but that word "documented" is so, so important here. That means that we had identified the virus, developed a test, and tested a person with the symptoms that day. It does NOT mean that was when the virus reached the United States. How sick do you have to be before you take a day off work? Before you go to the doctor? With America's healthcare system or lack thereof, it's almost certain that many people had this virus before we determined what it was, and how infectious it really was.
There is also the matter of the statistics of severity vs the regular flu. This is a highly contentious topic and I am no medical expert, and do not wish to make any assertions. However, what I can tell you from my personal experience is this: I had a horrible "flu" in January, got basic medicine, got better. So, either I had the flu, or perhaps I did indeed have the Coronavirus.
We will never know because I was never tested. But the important thing is that it doesn't matter. Either I (and many others) had the Coronavirus and it did not kill us (calling into question the severity of the infection) or we just had a bad cold or flu, but it had the exact same symptoms as COVID-19 (calling into question the extent of Coronavirus diagnoses). But logically, one of those two statements is true.
Furthermore, the data keeps changing, and I don't mean increasing on a daily basis. I mean up and down, back and forth, it is deadly or maybe it isn't, etc. On January 14 the WHO told you it couldn't spread from human to human. But then on Jan 19 we saw the first case of Coronavirus in the United States. Then it turns out that the Wuhan market outbreak began earlier in December. And then it's an "epidemic," but most people will only get mild symptoms. What are you supposed to believe? And it sure does seem to come at you as a firehose, and it's hard to even think about anything because OHMYGODTHECORONAVIRUS!
But let's stop and look a couple basic facts. As a matter of fact, I'm going to let Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi explain this one to you. This is a very informative 10 minute video, watch it:
Sucharit Bhakdi - Very clear math showing that the COVID statistics are being manipulated
So 80% of people only experience mild symptoms, and we're crashing the economy for this? The statistics aren't any more extreme than many other illnesses we've had over time, and we're crashing the economy for this? It doesn't make sense until you consider that there are other factors besides just the virus at play.
Wolfgang Wodard - Explaining how the statistics are being manipulated to cause panic
The media, and society at large is inundating you with terrifying information about the Coronavirus. But if it's not as bad as we originally thought, then why? We don't freak out about every illness that comes along, and we've certainly never in the history of civilization had over 1/3 of the global population locked down under mandatory quarantine.
And then there's the debate about where the virus came from. We believe it came from a meat market in China, under unsanitary conditions. The science behind a coronavirus making the leap from one species to another is well-established and researched, and it is a very likely scenario. There are also conspiracy theories that state that China released it on its people intentionally, or even that the US military released it in China. Again, we will never know exactly where this Coronavirus came from. It may be natural, it may be man made, and there are very plausible paths for both. I don't know what to believe myself. So here I ask you to make your own judgement based on likelihood.
What we do know though is that the state of the world this virus has been unleashed on has played a major factor in its spread. In 1950 the global population was 2.5 billion, and that has exploded to almost 8 billion people in 2020. As a matter of fact, population growth has been exponential since about the time of the Industrial Revolution.
With all these people on the planet there are sure to be many disagreements and conflicts, and there indeed have been. As a matter of fact, 2019 saw global protests on an unprecedented scale, in Hong Kong, France, Syria, and many other countries. Citizens have literally been fighting police and military with rocks, clubs, arrows, and molotov cocktails.
Did you know that? Despite my seeing headlines and pictures every day of the riots in Hong Kong, I have been shocked to learn that multiple of my close friends, intelligent and aware people, had no knowledge whatsoever of the protests even existing. But that is far from a coincidence; rather, it is quite by design.
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Billionaires and Coincidences
Another major talking point over the last 5 to 10 years has been the "1%" - the handful of super-rich individuals who posess and control the vast majority of the Earth's wealth and resources. Where it used to just be a numerical term, "Billionaire" is now a dirty word, and one of the nastiest. We all hate billionaires. They are evil, and profit off the exploitation of the rest of the world.
The "Illuminati" we call them, in pursuit of a "New World Order." Crazy stuff, right? Mysterious symbols and people in black robes doing nefarious things in secret meetings, and running the world from behind the scenes. We love the Illuminati, it's a huge pop culture thing now. The subject of endless speculation, they are made fun of in the media, movies, and now Taco Bell commercials. It's so far fetched it could never really be true. And the fact that you think that is by design as well.
So, we don't know where the Coronavirus came from, but it's certainly here, and there are lot of other things unfolding in the world around it. Many different current events from all different places and fields of study. Some of it seems a little too coincidental. It is certainly very coincidental that this economically destructive Coronavirus entered the world right as there were global uprisings, protests in the street, and a growing public hatred for billionaires.
Well, here are a few other coincidences: Hundreds of CEOs of major companies stepped down from their positions in recent months. Multiple US Senators sold stock right before the market crashed. Even the boss of the New York Stock Exchange sold his own stock right before the crash. Did they know something they weren't telling us?
Here's another coincidence. In 2010, The Rockefeller Foundation published a selection of future-predicting scenarios in the name of "exploring the ways that technology and development could co-evolve." One of these four scenarios, entitled "Lock Step," eerily predicts a global viral pandemic and the resulting hypothetical consequences, which almost exactly mirrors the COVID-19 pandemic we are in the midst of today.
Also coincidental: The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in China on November 17th, 2019. Literally one month earlier, The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. In this exercise, they discuss the potential implications and consequences of a novel Coronavirus, including an economic crash, martial law, and of particular interest, the control of information. (You can view some published highlights here)
The World Economic Forum is comprised of the richest of the rich. The 1%. The Billionaires. CEO's, politicians, business owners, and many other powerful and influential figures. They meet regularly to discuss topics of global concern, and strongly control the dissemination of information. And of primary concern to many of them is maintaining their wealth and power in a rapidly-changing world.
And finally, here's one more coincidence: At the exact same time as the Event 201 exercise, The World Military Games was held in Wuhan, China, Oct 18-27, 2019. It was the largest military sports event ever to be held in China, with nearly 10,000 athletes from over 100 countries competing in 27 sports. Wuhan China was, as we now believe, the source of our current global COVID-19 outbreak.
Whether you think it is a "conspiracy" or not, that is all certainly coincidental, to say the least.
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"Why didn't I hear about any of this?"
That's an excellent question, and one that likely has multiple answers. For starters, how much do you really pay attention? Where do you get your news from? Do you research things you hear or just accept them on hearsay? Critical thinking skills are paramount in making sense of the chaos unfolding all around us.
As I mentioned before, I can tell you that I personally know multiple people who had no clue whatsoever about the riots in Hong Kong last year. As you read this, you may be one of them. And it may seem like something that is happening far away, and "could never happen here." Or you may have been aware of it but just that it was happening. But please, consider for a moment: millions of average citizens risked their lives and safety in the streets of Hong Kong for months on end, fighting police and military, and transforming the city they lived in into a warzone. WHY? Why would people do something like that? Regardless of their motivations, that many people were banding together to fight for something they believed in. And that is worth considering.
It's not really your fault though that you may not catch wind of all this news. The "mainstream media" that you hear about all the time deliberately controls information - downplaying threats and overreacting to silly things - in order to make sure that you hear the version of the news that they want you to hear.
Did you know that only 6 corporations control 90% of the media In America? That number is reduced from 50 companies in the 80's. And literally all the news you see on TV, at the very least, is 100% owned and controlled by these companies. Lately, distrust is growing for cable news networks, and many people turn to their local hometown station for trusted news. The problem with that though is that your hometown station is probably owned by Sinclair Media, one of the most powerful broadcast networks in the country that you've never heard of.
Please watch this very brief video, illustrating the chokehold that Sinclair Media maintains over your nightly local news broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI
Of course, not every piece of news is pre-programmed but a lot is. The real news is out there, but sometimes you have to look a little deeper than the infographics on TV news. Even if information is being directed from the top down, the boots on the ground tend to be passionate people with a variety of interests and agendas, and they are still doing their best to do real journalism despite corporate oversight.
Think of those who are directing the information as steering an impossibly massive ship with a rudder. You can slowly adjust the course of direction, however it is slow to react. If you want to stop, you have to start thinking about stopping wayyy ahead of time. And similarly, once it gets underway, it is then influenced by an inertia all its own. Micro controls and adjustments aren't really possible.
Our society is this giant ship. There are 8 billion people on this earth - that is 8000 million. An incomprehensible number that grows rapidly every day. As civilization grows and advances, so does our medicine, our technology, our cultural norms. These are all natural processes that are necessary to manage an increasing number of societies all around the globe. And many of the advances we're making have exciting potential benefits for humanity, although as with all tools, they also inherently possess the potential for abuse.
Here are some other things happening in society right now, some you may be aware of and many you may not:

• RealID - The Real ID law requires people to show security-enhanced IDs to pass through airport security checkpoints or to enter certain federal facilities.
• Traffic Cameras - Most people know that there are traffic cameras in an increasing number of areas, some of which can assess your speed and issue you a ticket automatically.
• Automation Everywhere - Beyond assembly lines, robots are continually performing more types of tasks from ever more companies, replacing human employees at an increasing rate.
• Automated Trucks - Autonomous trucks are coming soon that can see forward over a half mile, farther than any other autonomous system in the world, and run during the day, the night and even in the rain.
• Global Satellite Internet - Elon Musk's SpaceX recently launched its fourth batch of internet-beaming satellites, as the company builds a broadband internet business by deploying thousands of satellites into orbit
• Digital Rights Management - Technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works, DRM technologies affect copyrighted works, digital media, and even John Deere Tractors
• Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency - As digital payments become more and more prevalent, digital currency uses cryptography to secure and verify transactions as well as to control the creation of new units of a particular cryptocurrency.
• Voluntary Nanochipping - People are having microchips implanted into their bodies so that they don't need to carry key cards, IDs, and even train tickets.
• Programmable Viruses - As antibiotic-resistant bacteria becomes a greater problem, viruses are being engineered to fight the bacteria in targeted ways
• Facial Recognition Technology - Airports are using facial-recognition cameras to confirm passenger identity. Mobile phone makers are using face recognition for biometric security. Retailers are using it to prevent violence and crime, and for advertising.
• Thermal Scanners - Airports, casinos, and grocery stores are screening passengers for sickness. In China, this data is being used to control traffic.
• ID2020 - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is developing human-implantable capsules that have ‘digital certificates’ which can contain financial data, medical records, tracking tech, and more.

There is an interesting chicken or egg relationship between science fiction and real world science. Sci-fi writers are inspired by the real science of the day, then they apply their creativity to imagine what might be in the future. Young scientists encounter these fantastical ideas and think they are worth pursuing, and then set about to make them a reality, and the cycle continues.
Futuristic concepts are then preempted and introduced through the media to the conscious mind, as we include them in books, movies, TV, video games, and more. Eventually we start seeing headlines of these new technologies and developments happening in other places, usually Japan and China first due to their prevalence in the industrial and technological sectors of our global economy.
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Continue to Part 2

So first start by saying I have "Real" Online work but it requires me to work about 30 mins a day... I work on this other stuff 8-10 hours a day and earn a full-time income alone from this stuff alone...
I'm not including any affiliate signs ups I get when I say earning a living from this
I highly advise you get a cheap Laptop to work on... You cant use your phone ( for the work stuff )
I would recommend something like a Thinkpad 430i, I'm pretty sure I bought one for £85 as I needed a cheap laptop for something else and its been solid
normally they come with dud batteries, You can find a replacement HERE
Appen | non-ref ( I will get $25 if you work I think its 100 hours )

• Payout Method - Payoneer
• Minimum payment - $5
• By far the best site in terms of pay for time, I highly recommend you sign up and apply for every project they have, I currently work 2 and from time to time they have one of task... You can get projects which pay $25-$30 an hour but most pay $14... You are paid monthly and you will normally agree to work 10 hours per week

Neevo

• Payout Method - Paypal
• Minimum Payment - £0.01
• They offer a lot of different Tasks some ranging from 0.04 to $3 per task Some can be completed Once or thousands of time - I highly Advise signing up for this site - Make sure you fill out your profile in full and make sure their emails are not going into your spam folder

Clickworker | non-Ref ( I will get 5 when you earn 10 )

• Payout Method - Paypal
• Minimum Payment - € 5
• The best way to make money on Clickworker is through UHRS - Once you have signed up, Click on Assessments on the top bar and take the test, This is the best way to earn on here. Some of the basic tasks without UHRS can also pay Decent sometimes.

Prolific.co

• Payout Method - Paypal
• Minimum Payment - £5
• By far (In my opinion) The best survey site in terms of consistent pay, Make sure your Profile is always at 100% ( I also always have a tab open with this so I can grab them right away)

Populus Live

• Payout Method - Cheque
• Minimum Payment - £50
• They pay by check once you reach £50 and its sent monthly, Normally they pay between £1-£4, I normally get 2-4 surveys per day I would say

GG2U $1 Bonus | non-ref ( No Bonus ) - I will get 5% of what you earn

• Payout Method - Paypal
• Minimum Payout - $7
• I do the $1 or $1.25 surveys

Timebucks(I think $1 bonus) | Non-Ref ( No Bonus ) - I will earn 15% of what you earn

• Payout Method - Bitcoin, Transferwise + Others
• Minimum Payout - $10, They pay every Thursday
• I would normally do the Yoursurveys .75 surveys here but they pay $1 on GG2U But I have had good luck with Revenuewall and Flapbuck surveys and some can pay pretty decent... The site looks terrible and they used to have Paypal but removed it... I use this only when I have nothing else to do... One of the things, I have had the most luck on here in terms of not getting DQ ( This was one of the first I started using )

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Panelbase - Sign up HERE ( Quidco £10 Bonus )| Non- Ref ( No Bonus ) - Quidco will pay you £0.80p to sign up and if you sign up through my link you will also get a £10 bonus on Quidco when you reach £5 cashback
Some decent surveys on here, I normally check and do them when they are over £1
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I mainly focus my time on Appen, If there is no work on Appen then I will see if there are tasks on Neevo if not then I move to the other sites... I only use the lower-paying survey sites when I have nothing else to do
I still do have something that guaranteed you money regardless, So even if I have a slow do saying this there is no pressure because my other work is there. This past week happen has been slow for me but I was able to smash out thousands of tasks on Neevo which made that up
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Here is also some good offers on a few different sites, They should be the highest paying for that offer
TopCashBack - REF (£5 BONUS ) | NON-REF( NO BONUS)
You will get the bonus once you reach £10 payable cashback
Once you have signed up, here are the offers
They also have a £15 Cashback on a Just Eat order of £15, Worth it for some free food
Betfair Poker - £50 Cashback for signing up and playing £10 of poker | £10 Spend
GiffGaff - £10 Cashback - Order and activate a new sim, The Cheapest package is £6
SearchLoto - £0.82 - Create your account, Make 25 Searched, and use Free Ticket.
Experian - £3 - Sign up for a new account
Graze - £2.47, Order your first box then cancel when it arrives
Totally Money - £2.10 - Make an account and get a free credit report
Tastecard - £3.30 - Free 2 Months trial
Booking buddy - 2p ( Can do 3x per day ) - Make a search.
Quidco - REF ( £10 Bonus ) | NON-REF ( NO BONUS )
Bonus is once you reach £5 cashback
Azimo - £25 Cashback - Make a Minimum Transfer of £151 ( Send the transfer to your other account )
Paddy Power Games £20 Cashback - Deposit and wager £10
Panelbase - £0.80p - Create an account and do a survey ( I highly recommend using this site )
Pick My Postcode - £.80p - Create an account.
booking buddy - 2p ( Can do 3x per day ) - Make a search.
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Swagbucks - REF ( Around £4 BONUS ) | NON-REF ( NO BONUS )
To get the £4 bonus you need to earn 300SB in your first month, Since the offers at the bottom I would do the two offers listed, Then make the rest up by doing 3/4 Surveys but other than this please do not waste your time on Swagbucks doing surveys, I only do them if to complete swago or if they are pretty high paying.
AyeT- CyberGhost VPN Free Trial - 54SB
Adgem - Norton VPN Free Trial - 63SB
100SB Bonus - Install the Swagbutton
Rise of Kingdoms - 4000SB - Get to hall Level 17
Lottoland - 1300SB - Click the offer and it will take you to the sign-up and will cost £1 ( Make sure auto-renewal isn't on )
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GG2U - REF( I think you get $1 Bonus ) | NON-REF ( No $1 if there is a bonus )
William hill ( Find this under Gaming Offers ) - Deposit £10 and wager £10 - Around £27 Back
Normally the Gala offers pay higher but none of them are available anywhere, Normally pay around £40, on TCB or Quidco but they have no offers right now for them
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Ysense - REF( Don't think there is a bonus |NON - REF
Click Offers, Then Offertory
Final Fantasy 100K Power - $10.16. I did this before and I spent £1 and completed really quickly, It was an XP reward I bought, It gave millions of Hero XP which gave enough power
I highly advise you don't waste time on this site doing surveys
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Lionbridge - Like happen but this is more strict and I also found Appen paid more for the Project I am on.
Teamwork- Like Appen and Lionbridge, I have done some work for them in the past everything was fine and paid on time.
Apple at Home Advisor - Work at home Advisor for Apple. Pretty sure they send you an iMac to work on tho I could be wrong
Pretty sure Amazon has remote work also. If you google a company and then "Remote" or at home, It should let you see if they have work
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I had these 3 on a list Its transcription work but Appen, Lionbridge, and Teamwork offer this and probably best going for them.
Rev
transcribeme
GoTranscript
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Sites/Apps that are legit + my thoughts on them
Swagbucks ( Around £4 Bonus ) | non-ref ( No Bonus )
I only do offers on here but I always check other sites before doing them to see if better paying elsewhere and I do swago when it comes up - Do not do surveys unless they are offering a few £ as they normally DQ - Only do Offers, Don't waste your time on anything else
Serpclix| non-ref
You install the plugin and it pops up with a task to search for a website... I barely use it but I would say its worth using for some extra cash ( Some users say £10-£30 a month on here )
Branded Surveys| non-ref
Had a few payouts, Too many DQ would avoid unless nothing else
Life Points
Had some decent paying surveys, But too many DQ.. I would personally avoid
Qmee ( 50p Bonus ) | non-ref ( No Bonus )
In my opinion, it's not worth the time, I do probably 1 or 2 surveys per week and I only touch the ones 75p + unless they take to long... I don't think you should focus anytime on it unless you have nothing else.
Ysense
Don't waste your time, I listed an offer for it above other than them offers.. Don't bother, People only want sign-ups to this cause they pay like 15% of earnings and I think around £5 when someone reached a certain amount
SliceThePie- Don't bother, Its clearly about 10p an hour
HoneyGain ($5 Bonus I think ) | Non- Ref ( No Bonus )
It uses your unused internet in the background, it's perfectly safe personally for me I've not had much luck but it comes down to location and how many devices you are using
20Cogs ( £20 Bonus on cashout ) | Non-ref ( No Bonus )
This is legit but most offers do pay better elsewhere and you need to hit 20 confirmed cogs before they payout, I have done offers on here and have my 20cogs pending but make sure you always check other sites to make sure you are getting the most amount of profit... I mostly do offers on here that I have not seen anywhere else.
PrizeRebel - Don't waste your time.
Microworkers - Can pay decent if you can rattle off some fast task but - Its a pain to get paid, Customer service pretty much ignores you and a lot of the jobs and links are sketchy as hell
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I know nothing about this stuff but you can also teach English online and get paid for it. You might need an ESL certificate. The pay is pretty decent if you can get work If this is something you are interested in I highly advise you do some research for it because its decent work
vipkid- Teach English to kids online, If you want to find more I would advise you to look through Reddit as a lot of users on here use this for work, There are more sites than just this that you can work for, I think they pay from $15-$25 per hour.
QKid- Same as vipkid teaching English online- I think this pays up to $20 per hour
gogokid- Teach English Online $14-25 per hour
There will be more sites than this but these are the ones I know of.
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Amazon FBA
I don't recommend you bring crap in from china there is enough of that,,, My advise would start small, Start by Buying stock from Supermarkets or other online retailers this is called retail arbitrage and then sending that in but make sure you are allowed to sell in that category, also if your going down the video game route that you sell Used video games and older back catalog titles as these hold higher profit margins than new stock, Lego, Toys, etc are good things to keep an eye out for you can also look for this sort of stuff on the Facebook market place
There is very little profit in new stock unless you can pick it up and most of the time you'd be selling at a loss because the big retailers can sell it for the price you buy it
Use Amazons courier ( they use ups) it's like £5 to send in a 15KG Box
Get the hang of it to figure out what works for YOU! Don't follow anyone on youtube and what they say to do... Of course, if you want to make serious money which you can do, You will need to get suppliers, etc but no one will tell you where to get these, and the ones found easily through google search will make you very little if any money using... Here is also some things I recommend using ( I use them or have used them )
Barcode Scanner ( I only use my PC so need scanner )
Barcode Scanner With Stand
Epson XP-3100
FBA Labels
Bags - I use a mixture of different one but these are fine for smaller things.
You don't need to buy the best printer or anything like that these work perfectly fine... You only need that stuff if you're doing thousands of labels per day
As I said before, Don't be scared to try this its actually pretty fun and can make good money just please people on youtube UK and US, Try it see what works for you
Also Amazon handmade but I still think Facebook is a great way to start selling handmade stuff ( if its quality )
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Gambling
First, I recommend you don't touch anything to do with this stuff if you have any mental health problems, feel lonely, etc this can ruin your life if you go off the deep end
Matched Betting - You can make good money from this and I think everyone should do it, It's not complicated once you get the hang of it but don't use Profit Accumulator or the other one that charges £17 a month, in my opinion, it isn't worth it ... You could use something like Team Profit to get the hang of it and then take the £1 profit accumulator trial then get more info from there but cancel before the £17 month
The more money you have to do this the more you're going to make, It can be pretty slow if you are starting with a low amount of money but when you're doing these, Make sure you check cashback sites or offerwalls to see if they will pay you for signing up
People promote PA because they have a good affiliate program
​
Gambling CPA/RS
This is different and you need a website or social media platform, You would have deals with the casinos, Bookmakers, etc But the money, if you get it right, is absolutely ridiculous... This is why you see these guys on youtube spinning such high amount of cash on the casino, If you are good at building sites or have a boatload of cash to chuck at this
You would post them and when people sign up through your link you could be on CPA ( Cost per Acquisition ) RS= Revenue share, So you would get % of a player losses or you could be on a hybrid
This money is life-changing if you get it right but since there is so much cash it is not easy... These sites are spending 10s of thousands a month to be at the top search results.
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​
Cashback Websites
JoinHoney | non-ref - Saves you money by searching for coupon codes, I place a monthly order on a website and it saves me between 20-40 each time, Well worth installing when you shop online
TopCashBack (£5 Bonus ) | nonref ( No Bonus )
£5 Bonus once you reach £10 payable cashback, I listed some good deals at the top of the post ( Check yourself for more on the site ) Also can save money when shopping online
Quidco (£10 Bonus) |non-ref ( No bonus )
You get the £10 bonus once you reach £5 cashback, Same as top cashback... Some offers listed above and you can also get cashback shopping online
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My favorite Offer
Xendpay (£10 Bonus | non-ref( No bonus )
Sign up and Verify your account, Make a transfer of £100 and you will get £10 free.. You can just transfer the money to yourself but you will need an account that takes euros as you need to send £ to euro
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Before you sign up to an offer on this sub, Please check on cashback sites to see if they pay more than a ref link, Example is the Azimo link it has been posted on this sub on the past few days, You only get £10 from that but you will get £25 through Quidco + £10 bonus if you are new to the site
There is also a scam that's posted a lot on Reddit, They claim to pay you $25 to sign up then $25 per person you sign up, This is a scam they go by a few different names sites all look the same with the same fake payouts
I hope this helps someone out.

This is part 2 out of 3 explaining Brazil's current political crisis. This section is the first portion of Bolsonaro's April 22nd cabinet meeting.
This meeting was one of the last meetings attended by Sérgio Moro. This was a full cabinet meeting, held April 22nd in the Presidential Palace. I will first highlight some key things said, and then make a small analysis of what this means. Translation is mine. I have abridged a few transcriptions. Bolsonaro is fully translated, but the ministers are not, as some of the topics held in the meeting are not directly related to the current investigation.
The first topic of the meeting was the creation of a recovery plan, the Pró-Brasil. First minister to talk is Paulo Guedes.
"The government is broke! In all levels. Cities, governors, and the federal government. What did we do? We signalled the opposite. We deleveraged public banks, reduced debts, lowered interest rates, and Brazil was about to recover. So if we launch a public investment process is the same talking point as always, "reduce regional inequality" Paulo Guedes follows the Chicago school of economic thought, and has supported reductions in Brazilian government spending as much as possible, being one of the forces behind Brazil's new pension plan. "It looks good on paper, but it's the same thing Lula and Dilma had been doing. If we want to end like them, we do this". This is followed by some more detailed breakdowns of government investments, and Guedes defending how the government can't spend to leave the Corona recession, but it also has to help the previous economy recover.
Jair Bolsonaro then criticizes the media, and how they twist his words to make his aides disagree and fight. Mainstream media criticism has been a key point of Bolsonaro's government.
Onyx Lorenzoni, Bolsonaro's chief of staff adds that they received 36 government projects that were mid construction and halted under Dilma's PAC, an infrastructure growth program under Dilma and Lula that supported additional government spending to trigger economic growth. This additional spending is considered to be one of the factors that resulted in the 2014 recession. Lorenzoni adds some more comments on how the government has been looking for foreign investment lately. "We are having to deal with something very serious, which is a disease, which has been brought to history because it serves the interest of many which I won't be mentioning here".
Ricardo Salles (Minister of the Environment) "We have the unique possibility right now that the media is focused almost exclusively on COVID [...] So for this there has to be a group effort while we have a tranquility in media coverage, as they only talk about Covid, and pass the entire cattle changing the rulings and simplifying regulations. Of the IPHAN (National Heritage), of the Agricultural Ministry, of the Environmental Ministry. Now is the time to unite efforts to get a quick move and simplify regulations in all aspects."
Bolsonaro soon after follows up (emphasis mine): "The disaster that's coming up, I think Guedes is being nice, huh Guedes? I'm no economist. It's going to be hit bigger than even you can only imagine. It's not only the informals. I think we already hit ten million jobs, all gone. And the state governments don't have how to pay salary for the guys. May, half of the states don't ha.. won't be able to pay salaries again. The disaster is there. They will try to push this shit onto us, these people right next to us will try to push it, and we will react because it's not an infinite bag. Ok? So this worry we will need to have. At the same time there's the BAR association, annoying the Supreme Court to open my impeachment because I didn't present my virus exam, all this bullshit, which everybody has to be paying attention.
It's not only taking care of your ministry in these questions we are talking about, it's talking about the political issues also. All right? So ... this is what we should be worried about, as the fight for power continues. At full steam. No neurosis by my side, ok? The field is fertile for a ... some pieces of shit to show up, huh? Raising the flag of ... of ... of the people by my side, it costs nothing. And the fertile terrain is this, unemployment, chaos, misery, social disorder and other things. This is the worry, all should have it, huh? None of this "all good?", the ministry earns money, "shit happened?", on the president's lap. It can't be like that. Today I saw Magno Malta defending me. Magno Malta, I'm sorry, was treated a long time ago to be the vice president. Later he decided not to be, all right. Later he got contact to be minister, all right.
Não politically he never attacked me, and always is defending with the problems he has. So he is not the minister to open his chest, challenge, enter the lions' lair, but he can't, huh? For example, when we talk about a possible impeachment, action in the Supreme Court, based on watermarks, I'll go in any part of national territory and that's it! The day it's prohibited to go ... anywhere of Brasil, by the Supreme Court, there goes the term. I hope they don't decide, or he, right? Monocratically, wanting to take certain measures because from there we will have a ... a true political crisis. And I won't keep my tail between my legs. That's it ... zero, zero, all right? Because if I'm wrong, they ever find a connection of mine with a construction company, Swiss bank account, I'll take the beating with no issue. It goes to impeachment, it leaves. Now with bullshit, no!
On top of what I said, in front of the Apache Fort. I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Full stop. The people were there, I went there. Army day. And said something I don't think is a big deal. The repercussion is huge. "Look, the AI-5" (the AI-5 was a decree by the military government that closed the Congress in 1968) Where's the AI-5? En ... nded (sic) with the ... the AI-5 doesn't exis (sic) ... there is no more institutional act in Brasil anymore. Some bullshit. Article one, four, two. It's people who can't interpret the Constitution. Now over that make a wave? "Let's listen to Congressmen, businessmen", whatever it is. Now when Congress does there a tribute to Che Guevara, Mao Zedong, and whatever, it's not a problem. When the Communist Party does a convention and praises Fidel, between others, it's no big issue. When a poor person raises an AI-5 sign, that I don't give a shit, because there isn't ... there isn't AI-5. There isn't. Article one, four, two: we want to follow articles one, four, two, everybody wants to follow articles one, four, two. (The article 142 of the Brazilian Constitution establishes the military for national defense)
And given necessity, all the powers, can, right? Ask the armed forces to intervene to reestablish order in Brazil, that place with no issues. Now all of them, huh? You need to worry with the political issue, and of who's right, take your head out of the whole, fuck! It's not just staying inside the whole all the time, no! "All right, I'm taking care of my image, the image is here, I am looking good, and fuck the rest" No! You have to do your part. So this is what I try, I hav ... ha ... have to talk to you, as after a certain momento, where it gets to th ... the ... the ... mind of these people, it's hard to go back, then they want a crisis, it's a crisis. I have no love for this ... for this ... for this term the ... for ... for ... the President's chair. Ne ne ... zero, zero! I'm not provoking nobody. This is how the defense makes a good defense note saying it will follow the constitution, liberty, and co ... ten! And it won't take an attack, ten! Won't take a defensive move from the guys, fuck!
You're going to have some crazy guys, they know who they are, they will be in the fervor of "Oh, oh the president is irresponsible, he is crazy, he commits genocide". It's not like that. Don't go ... what works for one side works for the other, what doesn't work for one side, doesn't work for the other. This is what we should be worried about. With what we have here, the Pró-Brasil, but also with the political question. If we start talking with confidence, and there's pe ... lots of people who speak better than me, and know more than me, have the talk, fuck! Discreetly, but they have to talk, not to let the temperature rise, as it's only punches all the time up on me. And continue going anywhere of Brasil and full stop, that's my problem. All right? If I don't have the right to come and go. Mayor from the end of the world, a jaguapoca (dog with no breed) of a mayor says to arrest. The Justice has to position ... to position itself about this, fuck! Has to position itself, openly! We don't admit arrests from mayor, it's the decree!
You have to talk, not stay in silence. And who is right here, all the ministers have to say this, not only Justice. All have to say. Not staying, leaving the BO (police report) ... sail on isn't it ... and we'll go ahead. Ok? This is all I ask you, fuck. This worry. Wake up to politics and expose yourselves, after all, the government is only one. And if I fall, everybody does. Now come on ... if I have to fall one day, we'll fall fighting, a fair fight. Not for some bullshit of ... of ... of exam of ... antivirus, fuck. For the love of God, fuck. Ok? Even I ... to leave this clear, from some eight years from now, when I asked for specialized pharmacies any medicine I asked the doctor "Use a fake name", because if my name goes there, as it was, always was a known guys, isn't it, there are three four that are going to make the medicine, they can poison me, fuck! It's the same thing with the virus question, among others. According to interest, the guy either tests negative or positive. After it gives a result, it goes to the countertest, but gives a problem.
And we know, all right? That we have a compromise with the truth. I'd never lie if I didn't really have a negative test. I'd never lie that my negative was positive or vice-versa. Never. The truth above all. So it's an appeal I make to all, to worry about politics, so you are not surprise. I'm not going to wait until the boat starts sinking to take away the water. I'm taking away the water, and will continue taking water from all ministries if it's required. The person has to understand. If you don't want to understand, ok then, fuck! I have the power, and will interfere in all ministries, no exceptions. With the bank I speak with Paulo Guedes, if I have to interfere. Never had a problem with him, zero problems with Paulo Guedes. Now the rest of you, I will! I can't be surprised by news. Fuck, I have the Federal Police that doesn't give me information.
I have the intelligence of the Armed Forces that I don't have the informations. ABIN has problems, I have some informations. I don't have more because it's missing, really, we have problems, fuck! Equipment, etc. But we can't live without information. Without info ... co ... who never stayed behind of ... of ... of ... of ... of ... of ... of ... of the door listening what your son or daughter is ... talking about. You need to check and ... later she's pregnant, no using talking to her anymore. Need to check before ... after the kid filled his brains with ... with drugs, there's no use talking with him, that's it. Information is like that. I was watching studying on the weekend here how is the Chinese service, secret, works in the US. What's our worry here? [Redacted] It's simple, "Ah, just don't talk publicly". Who should I speak about it? Everybody sees what's happening. [Redacted] All right, ok? [Redacted] You get from the [redacted] fuck, of [redacted] you don't get.
It's a reality. No need to hide more, cover the sun with a sieve, right? There's, isn't it ... then go ... in some ministries there's their people, inside here, right? So we don't want to fight with [redacted], zero fights with [redacted] (note: the female article here strongly implies China). Do we need them to sell? Yes. They also need us. Because if they didn't they wouldn't be buying our soy. They need it. It's a business, fuck. And we need to ally with who has ... some affinity with us. So we can do ... make worth our will at the moment. No need to hide here, then after there's a problem, you call your uncle, "the Uncle". I'll say "Fuck man, you ignored me all the way to today!". You didn't only call me an imperialist, like the "esquerdalha" (a pejorative term for the left wing) and FHC (Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president) used to say in the past, the rest ... now there's nowhere to go. So this is the worry we need to have. The strategic question, which we aren't having. And I'm sorry, our information service, all, it's a ... they are a shame, a shame! I'm not informed!
You can't work like this, it gets hard. That's why, I'll interfere! Full stop, fuck! Not a threat, not a ... an extrapolation by my part. It's a truth. Like I said, right? Gave you sirs the ministries. The veto power. It all changed. It has to changed, fuck. And I want, it's really, it's govern Brazil. It's not the problem of all of the ones here, as Marinho said, right? It's the same boat, the same boat. If anybody digs the fu ... digs the basement here, we will, we will all go into the bag, we will all drown. So this ... this is what we need, think ahead of what to do internally here. When INMETRO (certification agency) I talked to Paulo Guedes. A, sorry for the language, a whorehouse! INMETRO is a whorehoue! Switching tachographs, taximeters, putting chips on the fuel pumps, a whorehouse! Just like the three pin plug. It's very good there now. The media beat the shit. "Ah, put in a colonel". Colonel is formed by IME (Military Institute of Technology). Wouldn't put in a colonel without a ... without a degree, ok?
[...] The question of the armament, right? The questions of ... but why? Wait there! Minister of Justi ... Mr. Minister of Justice, please. It was decided some time ago you couldn't handcuff almost nobody. Why are they handcuffing the working citizen, the woman in a park, and the Justice does nothing?
You have the speak, fuck! How long will you be quiet? Or do I have to continue exposing myself? You have to speak, get out, pressure them! Can't handcuff, decision of the Supreme Court. And we will stay quiet until when? Keep humiliating our people, why? This is growing. People kep pointing at me, "voted for you to do something!", "voted on you because you have to take decision, for you to fight!". And it's true. I don't give a shit about the reelection. What I want the most is some gets re ... someone is elected, if I'm coming as a candidate, ok? So I can bring ... I want to have peace in Brazil, nothing else. Because if its the left, me and a bunch of you will have to leave the country because you will be arrested. I am sure they will arrest me for homophobia, eight years for homophobia. Then they make up some racism, like they did for (Abraham) Weintraub. Sorry, sorry for the ... the rant: puta que o pariu (literally translates to the bitch that birthed you, basically the strongest swear words)! Weintraub could've said the biggest shit in the world, but racist? We'll have to react people, it's another fight.
We need to be a government with ... with activity. Expose yourselves, show that we have the people on our side. That we follow the people. What we really want, as it's said, if I'm not mistaken, Thatcher, right? Or Reagan, I'm not sure? So we ... it has to be conducted by the Brazilian public, and that's it. Where the people is, we'll be together. I didn't invite anybody to go to the front if the ... the ... the Apache Fort, nobody, zero! I was in my sons house, found out: "Go there!" The media is now talking that, I don't know, that two military ministers didn't accept my invitation. The day that ... either I invite the minister to a barbecue at my house or I'll pay a mission!
Bolsonaro is interrupted, but then resumes speaking
Ok? I don't know, ok? Or I'll pay a mission. If the mission is absurd, the minister says "hey, goodbye, I'm out," all right? Or he goes and gets pissed, but go, fuck! And I'll never pay a shit mission for whoever it is, not even in the military base I would do that to a recruit, not even in the military base, all right? Not even imagining our relationship here which is very good, it's ... going towards that line.
We're not panicking, we are fine. We are not accused of swindling money, of corruption, nothing. In th ... nothing, all clear! We have problems up ahead. We'll try to solve it, like I have talked to various ministers. And we'll solve it because the future of Brazil is at the hand of this privileged group here. And I would be nothing without you. You wouldn't be ministers without ... without me ... I doubt it! Hardly anybody would be minister if there was a Haddad here. I doubt it! Could accept for a few days, right? Later see the bullshit it would be, wouldn't be any different than the two previous year of PT, right? Would ask to leave. So an appeal to you, everybody worry about the future of Brazil, with the political question, criticise an act of a person or another isn't ... it's not to criticise the Supreme Court. It's ... it's a ... who doesn't stay ... who doesn't stay became revo .... saw Moro become revolted ... with the liberty these people have. Because of a ... a ... a virus, they let rapists go free.
Imagine if they were raping a daughter of our, a son of a bitch like this be set free. Now we have to put ourselves in those person's shows, of the father who had the daughter raped, and the ... the fucker was set free. With a decision, fuck whoever it is, have to go hard on top ... hard on top of that. It's not rant, folks. It's a reality. Our boat is leaving, but we don't know yet, at the moment given the last case, thi... virus, where our boat is going. Can be heading towards an iceberg. We'll go down. So let's pay attention, let's worry. Who can do it right, make yourself present, with good language, alright? But have a position! Because everything can't, everything, come for my ass, all right? You have to get beaten together with me, logically when there's a reason to get beaten or a reason to fight.
Braga Netto explains the following speakers, and Sérgio Moro speaks
Moro: No, it's ... well ... first the question of the plan that was there presented, make my compliments registered. Certainly it has details that have to be filled in, there are the economic questions to be resolved at the Ministry of Economics, to be worked together with other economic areas. And ... just would give a suggestion, minister, if you could put in since early in some part of the plan, some reference important also about ... the public safety and ... control of corruption. They were two central themes, right? In the last elections.
Yeah ... they are two themes that, although, obviously, the plan will be subjected there to ... the necessary detailing, but it's important ... to have a benchmark so it seems we aren't moving away from these specific aspects.
Braga Netto and Moro discuss a bit more on whether or not details are on the meetings scope
Moro: You have to point out that also ... what was a victory of the government, the president, last year was a noticeable fall in main crime indexes. Although this might be more tied into the question of life and safety of people, it's also a key factory for economic investment, to attract, improve, the economic environment. And the control of corruption is assumed, right? So I'd do, there ... exclusively this specific suggestion.
Gustavo Montezano (head of the State Development Bank is introduced and starts speaking)
Gustavo Montezano: He begins by saying there needs to be an emphasis on the importance to focus on the reconstruction, as advised by Paulo Guedes. "One of the ... the critical parts is this legislation, or operation of the public machine. It's a very opportune moment for us to make use of this, and this makes a big difference of the price of a project, the speed, it's a big difference. So here I subscribe to what Minister Salles said." He follows up by explaining the restructuring of BNDES from a focus in loans to investments.
Nélson Teich (Health Minister) is introduced, I will put it entirely as it explains Brazil's COVID policy
Teich: He begins by mentioning how controlling the disease is key, as if you're not able to control it, fear will impede economic recovery. "And controlling the disease doesn't mean we'll cure it in a week, but that we're not a lost boat and that we have a strategy to work with this disease, right? So there are three things that we will work. First the information, to understand what is the disease, what's the evolution, how's the infrastructure to treat it because o ... o ... o ... one of the great issues we have today, if you look at Brazil today, it's one of the best countries in relation to mortality (as of May 23rd, Brazil has a CFR of 13%, with around 130k recovered). What's scary is when you see that the hospital can't take in patients, it's the morgue workers, it's that we're opening graves anywhere to bury, and this brings fear. And the fear impedes any other activity from having success. Because as long as this isn't solved, the rest will have no chance of being bought into by society. The next thing is to structure the care operations. So we will invest in logistics, invest in the purchasing process, and try to improve it.
Why? Because I have hospitals working, I'll have patients treated, I don't have the feeling of a crisis, the fear improves and the rest can come in. And the third thing we need to keep clear is a process to leave the isolation, the distancing. Not that it will end tomorrow, but we need to have a plan. Then we can show that the ... situation is under control. It may take a little, but we are controlling this process, that we are not a lost boat. So basically what I wanted to s ... say to you is that this is the method that we will treat and will ... we are going to be interacting with all ministries that will be necessary for this to happen in the quickest way possible. Basically it's that and it's a pleasure being here with you.
Bolsonaro: Yesterday I called the head of the Brazilian Highway Patrol. I found out, a note, from him, about the passing of a patrolman. And he insisted that it was COVID-19, I called him
"Please, what else? He was obese, it was that, was it" well, had, how do you call it? (asks Braga Netto about)
Braga Netto: Comorbidities
Bolsonaro: Comorbidities. But in his statement it only put out COVID-19. So let's alert the responsible, of the respective ministry, you can put COVID-19, but then put that he had fibrosis ... lots of things, I don't understand that stuff. There was a bunch of stuff there exactly not to bring fear to the population. Because we look, died an Army sergeant, for exemplo. On first look it's a healthy guy, right? A federal policeman, right? Whatever it is, this can't happen. So we ask for this care with the coworkers, right? At whoever is responsible, to the respective ministry, there someone in charge of that, right? To take this care to not bring fear to the population.
Teich and Braga Netto discuss on how long it would take to create the exit plan to the isolation
Teich: So we can speed up this process. Because in reality we are ... running against the clock. While we can't control the perception we have today that we can take care of the people, it will be hard, right? The problem of the disease is that you get a system that if you talk about efficiency, the hospitals have to be efficient. So when you talk about efficiency, you ... you go almost in the limit of care. You don't have ... you don't have spares, you don't have fat. When you get a disease that arrives, that has many people at the same time, you can't have the agility to prepare the system to take care of it. And we have an additional problem that we have to be careful, that's the following, as you have the hospitals with few ... you have many people talking about COVID, but hospitals are reducing intakes. Which means they will have financial problems. If this continues, they will have even more challenges, you will have a hospital that is in a worse state or a hospital closed.
What's happening today? Let's put it in numbers today, that we have four million people with COVID. Brazil today has two hundred and twelve million inhabitants. There are two hundred and eight million that are, that aren't, that aren't having adequate care. For you ... it's cancer, it's cardiovascular. This all is dammed, it's restringed demand. When you control COVID, the not COVID will come in strong, and you can risk a damaged structure.
Then you will only transfer the fear. What will be the fear of COVID to the fear of the not COVID. Then we have to be prepared for all that. So it's not only working the ... the short span. We have to prepare for this second stint in which this will all come together. We are doing all of this, just so you know what we are thinking of all this. Just so you can know this is all planned.
Braga Netto introduces Tarcísio Gomes, Minister of Infrastructure. He mentions using the Pró-Brasil recovery plan to invest in infrastructure, and how the money is drying up. The Central Bank has been injecting liquidity to help finish some construction projects.
Braga Netto then introduces Pedro Guimarães, head of Caixa (one of Brazil's government banks). This will be abridged
Guimarães: [...] I mean, all of those thieves, PT, PMDB, PSDB, all that thievery, twenty five percent (interest) per month. And nobody cares. [...] This morning, the people from Band (Bandeirantes, a TV channel) wanted money. The point is is this, will you or won't you give money to Band? Ah, won't give money to Band? Spent half and hour getting beaten up, but replied. And said "Look, are you at home? I have thirty thousand employees on the street. There's not deal, this bullshit of home office. I visited fifteen agencies, and you're at home?" Then they calmed down. [...] know how many people Caixa pays today? Seven million people, and everybody in home office. What bullshit is this?
Note: Band has demanded an explanation, and has said that it has not asked for no official payments. If there was a secret request of money, tell who it was and he will be fired, or else they threatened to take legal action
Guimarães: [...] Luis Lima, who swam with my father, was an Olympic athlete, had his wife and daughter of fourteen years of age arrested yesterday, in the police wagon. What the fuck is this? Sorry ... What the fuck is this? The guys goes in the wagon with his daughter. If it was me, I'd get my fifteen weapons and ... I'd give a ... I would go ... I would die. Because if my daughter went in the police wagon, I would kill or be killed. What is this? Was swimming in the ... the ... she's an Olympic athlete. You take the person, the person is swimming at fourteen years. I have a daughter that's fourteen. If my daughter goes into the police wagon either I'll kill or be killed
M (not sure who this is): Yeah, and Luiz Lima's wife didn't say she's the wife of a Federal Congressman
[...]
Guimarães: And that governor stealing
Guimarães then mentions that out of the 120 high ranking positions he purged 105. He then continues defending about how Caixa is having issues providing credit.
Guimarães: There's people from the TCU (Federal Accountability) of the emergency funds? Know what's happening? There's people there saying we give to much and people saying we give too little. We're fucked!
G continues explaining how Caixa is the one of the largest banks, and is suffering with works coming down with COVID. He continues "I told my wife: if anything happens I'll go there myself ... take a liter of hydroxychloroquine all that crap. So this way, I think we are, just the last thing, in, in a question of collective hysteria. I mean, I can have thirty thousand employees at Caixa, paying seven million today, two million on fri ... yeah, monday. Yesterday we opened 800 agencies, will open saturday, will open sunday, two hours earlier. And what does the media want? That you pay and fuck the employees. But if two die, 9 o'clock news". He goes back to the Luiz Lima case, "And then you set a rapist free?" He then thanks Moro for allowing Caixa security guards (technically federal employees) to work outside the agencies, so that they can help coordinate the lines outside.
Braga Netto introduces Ernesto Araújo, minister of foreign relations
Ernesto Araújo: [...] I'd like to mention the following, I think it's fundamental that this international dimension not be simply an adaptation of us to the international scenario, but that it takes into account the capacity Brazil has today to influence the design of a new international scenario. I am more convinced that Brazil today has the condition, the opportunity to sit in the table of the four, five, six countries that will define the new world order. [...] And this scenario is, ... I think he has to take into account the following ... we are there reviewing the last thirty years of globalization. There will be a new globalization.
What happened in these thirty years? It was a globalization blind for the theme of values, for the theme of democracy, of liberty. It was a globalization that, we are seeing now, creating a model in which the center of the international economy is in a country that isn't democratic, that doesn't respect human rights, etc, right? [...] That brings the project of, of the, the president, that's not only efficiency, economic growth, but there's liberty, the fight against corruption, the reinvention of Brazil, it's free, it's a Brazil free of these issues that we know. Thank you.
Braga Netto introduces Roberto Campos (President of the Central Bank)
Campos: I'll go back a bit here, and remind that at the end of the Dilma government the interest rate was 14.5%, short term. But the long one was 20%. And then we look at what happened and caused the interest rate that fell. [...] The rates fell up to the level of 6.5%, stabilized, had the uncertainty of the elections with the uncertainty of PT coming back, got worse, and when the market understood the pension reform was coming, was when there was space to cut rates again. [...] We have done meetings between ... meetings between the central bankers of various countries in the world, it's ... almost every week. I think there are three key points. First, there is a consensus, today, it's ... that the private world is afraid of taking risk. So, it won't ... there won't be a quick exist without the government coming in, in some way, taking risk. Because the private world is afraid to task risks due to the fear factor. [...] If you allow everybody to watch a football game tomorrow, will everybody leave their house and go?
Campos then goes explaining the fear factors, and how it has a multiplier effect to a degree.
Braga Netto then introduces Damares Alves, Minister of Human Rights, Family and Women
Damares: [...] This government has the pillar of values. [...] We received a government that didn't have data, and the data we had was false, lied. A Brazil of guesswork, a Brazil of maybe, "I think it is", "maybe yes maybe no". [...] When we went looking for traditional groups to building the fight against the coronavirus, we discovered, ministers, that we have 1.300.000 Ukrainians in Brasil and nobody every said anything about them to us. [...] We have 1.5 million gipsies and I spoke of 1.3 million. [...]
She follows up with some extra data disparities, such as rubber tappers, descendants of escaped slaves, children and elderly in care homes.
Damares: In this moment of the pandemic we see the joke of the Supreme Court bringing back abortion, and there was the question of ... are the women victim of zika will abort, and now of the coronavirus? Will they allow all that had coronavirus an abortion in Brazil? Will they allow everybody? Minister, it's filled with feminists that have a single issue that is allowing abortion. I want to remind you minister, that's arriving now, this is a pro-life government, pro-family. [...]
Follows up explaining how they are dealing with native populations and Covid
Damares: Do you know why we went there president? Because we received the news that there would be deliberate contamination in Roraima and Amazonas in natives, to kill them and blame them on Bolsonaro. I had to go there with the head of the Funai and met with generals of the region and the head the PF, so we could do a covert operation, because they had to kill more natives to say that our policy wasn't working.
Damares: So president, just to wrap up. Yeah, I'd like to say that your nervousness has a reason. There has never been so many violations of human rights in Brazil such as during this period. Fundamental rights have been violated. In our hotline there are over five thousand registries of human rights violations. But you sir have a very brave staff and minister of Human Rights. There are over five thousand proceedings and actions being made. Governors and mayors will respond to legal action.
The elderly are being arrested and thrown inside police vans in Brazil. Women thrown to the floor and being handcuffed for doing nothing ... doing nothing. We are seeing priests being fined 90 thousand reais because they were inside church with two worshippers. The greatest violation of human rights of the history of Brazil in the last thirty years of Brazil is happening right now, but we are taking action. The pandemic will pass, but governors and mayors will respond and we will ask for the arrest of governors and mayors. [...] the governor Wellington (Piauí) today, yesterday, determined that the police will be able to enter houses.
Bolsonaro asks if he signed the decree
Damares: Signed! The police will be able to enter houses without warrants. So, this way, the biggest violations are happening now. So, we are preparing, over five proceedings our ministry has taken initiative and we are asking for the arrest of a few governors.
Braga Netto introduces Marcelo Antônio, Minister of Tourism. Not much happens, with the exception of him defending the legalization of casinos, to Damares' anger. He believes it to be possible to do so with proper police work guaranteeing that it is done properly and legally.
In Damares' words "Deal with the devil"
General Mourão, vice president, invites Damares to play the roulette
Marcelo follows up with a proposal to rent hotels to isolate medical professionals and reduce exposure.