We Are Living in Interesting Times

We are in fascinating periods right now. If Gaetz and Patel are n’t confirmed, they will be looking into senators ‘ federally funded hush-money payments for the senators ‘ own sexual peccadilloes ( which is why I predict they’ll be confirmed ), while John Radcliffe will lead the CIA, Matt Gaetz will ( predictably be the Attorney General ), Robert Kennedy will ( predictably be the Secretary of HHS), and Robert Kennedy will ( predictably be the Secretary of HHS).

This brings up another intriguing times.

Many of the Russian client states ‘ personal governments collapsed both before and after the Soviet Union was overthrown. Maybe fiercely, as with Romania or the nuclear of Yugoslavia, maybe more slowly, but pretty equally, the Soviet-aligned protectorates were replaced by their own individuals. &nbsp,

The unification of East and West Germany was n’t particularly violent, but the Germans on both sides of the Wall were very interested in finding out what The German” Democratic” Republic was doing, and to whom, during its reign. &nbsp,

The Minsiterium für Stattssicherheit, affectionately known as the Stasi, was at the center of that and one of the largest components of the GDR state. A good summary is at the link ( at least now, that is, Wikipedia ), but in short, the Stasi arrested upwards of 250, 000 people and extended its hooks into every aspect of East German life.

One key officer for 166 East Germans was the Stasi’s ratio. When the normal dissidents are added, these numbers become significantly higher: In the Stasi’s event, there would have been at least one detective watching every 66 people! When one adds in the projected figures of part-time eavesdroppers, the result is nothing short of horrible: one investigator per 6.5 residents. At least one Stasi investigator was present at any dinner party with ten or twelve people, it would not have been ridiculous. Like a large squid, the Stasi’s appendages probed every aspect of life.

— John O. Koehler,” Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Authorities”

After the” Quiet Revolution” of 1989, Stasi headquarters were taken over by the European people, while original Stasi officials desperately tried to destroy files and documents, repeatedly, as it turned out.

Why, then, did the Stasi gather this information from its libraries? The primary goal was to exert social dominance. The Stasi minister gave the order to determine who is who, which included identifying who thinks what, in almost every conversation. He did n’t want to wait until someone tried to defy the regime. He was anticipating what other individuals were planning and thinking. The East Germans knew, of course, that they were surrounded by dissidents, in a totalitarian program that created trust and a condition of common concern, the most important tools to persecute citizens in any tyranny. &nbsp,

— Hubertus Knabe, German historian

The files were massive and damning. No wonder they were attempting to destroy them. As I say, they were interesting times.

Now we’re having our own interesting times. We’re almost the same age as the German Peaceful Revolution, in my opinion. Oh no, I do n’t mean to say that the FBI, CIA, and DoJ were as bad as the Stasi; I would be very surprised that there were so many people held hostage for wrongdoing.

But thousands? Seems likely. And more thousands were intimidated, charged, and harassed. They are all contained in government files, which are now vulnerable to disclosure. Jeremy Epstein’s passenger lists. records of the FBI agents and informants who were supposed to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer. Records of Crossfire Hurricane and DoJ cooperation with Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, and Letitia James. And most interesting of all, files covering people we do n’t know to expect. Political police operate in this manner: they do n’t intimidate, look into, and coerce themselves into doing what we want.

As I say, we live in interesting times.

Source credit