What was real cause of Nazis, WW II?

(Uncover Dossier) The true origin of World War II: What our history books get wrong

Beauty scam: lured to Thailand, Myanmar...

A butchering factory floor: fancy call center

A pig-butchering scam (Chinese 杀猪盘, sha zhu pan [2] or shazhupan [3], literally "killing pig game")[1] is a type of online scam where victims [usually men on dating sites] are encouraged to make increasing financial contributions over a long period, usually in the form of cryptocurrency [4].

Such scams are commonplace on social media and dating apps [5] and often involve elements of catfishing (fictitious online persona scam), investment fraud, and romance scams.

Found without organs after irresistible job offer | Case of Vera Kravtsova

Romance scam: too good to be true

The scammer (usually not the person one is communicating with but people behind her) builds trust with victims through online communication, subsequently persuading them to invest in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.

The "butchering" or "slaughtering" of the victims transpires when their assets or funds are stolen [6], taking them for all they're worth.

Danger in Cambodia, too

What's happening in post-war (Khmer Rouge) Cambodia? | AB Explained

How could people fall for these scams?

Perpetrators are typically victims of a fraud factory [7], where they are lured to travel internationally under false pretenses, trafficked to another location, and forced to commit the fraud by organized crime gangs [8][9]. More

Belarus, officially called the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an area of 80,200 square miles (207,600 sq km) with a population of 9.1 million. Minsk is the capital and largest city; it is administered separately as a city with special status. More

• Dark Asia with Megan (YouTube); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Real reason USA wages ENDLESS wars

The REAL reason America wages endless wars

(Kim Iversen) Sept. 1, 2025: Caleb Maupin, author, journalist, political analyst, founder of the Center for Political Innovation. Latest book: Trotsky and the Neoconservatives: The Whole Story.

Follow Caleb Maupin on X (twitter): x.com/RealCalebMaupin. Follow the show for more content on favorite platforms. LIVE Monday-Friday at 2:00 pm PST/5:00 pm EST: kimiversenshow.com, X: x.com/KimIversenShow, Instagram: kimiversen, TikTok: kimiversenshow, Facebook: kimiversenofficial, YouTube: kimiversen

LIVE: Jimmy Dore Show w/ Matt Tiabbi

(The Jimmy Dore Show) U.S. seizes a Venezuelan plane in the Dominican Republic. Trump says to LEGALIZE it. Legalize what? Jimmy Dore sits down with guest Matt Taibbi. Kamala Harris and Pulitzer Prize-winning Chris Hedges have something to say, too. RFK Jr.'s VP candidate Nicole Shanahan also put out a nice commercial on TDS ("Trump Derangement Syndrome").

• Jimmy Dore, The Jimmy Dore Show (jimmydore.com); Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"Monopoly" created to show evils of capitalism

"How I Built This" (Planet Money, 1/25/23); Ananda; Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"Monopoly" is a board game built around capitalism, so is its origin story

He used to have a monocle (Mandela Effect)

"Monopoly" is one of the best-selling board games in history. It's been an iconic part of American life: a cheap pastime during the Great Depression, a reminder of home for soldiers during WW II, an American export during its rise as a global superpower, and a best-seller during the pandemic.

The game's staying power may in part be because of a strong American myth — the idea that anyone, with just a little cash, can rise from rags to riches.

Author Mary Pilon: The Monopolists

Mary Pilon, author of The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game, dug into the origin story that was once included with every box of the game:

• A man named Charles Darrow was unemployed and came up with the game to pass the time.

He took Monopoly to the game company Parker Brothers in 1934 and eventually became a millionaire.

But there's another origin story – a very different one that promotes a very different and negative image of financial exploitation capitalism (with two sets of starkly different rules on how to play it).

That story shows how a critique of capitalism (and private property) grew from a seed of an idea in a rebellious young woman's mind into a game legendary for its celebration of wealth at all costs.

Hold onto assets rather than working for salary

• This episode was produced by Emma Peaslee, mastered by Natasha Branch, and edited by Jess Jiang. It was made in collaboration with NPR's Throughline. For more about the origin story of Monopoly, listen to their original episode "Do Not Pass Go."
• The original Throughline episode was produced by Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei, Lawrence Wu, Laine Kaplan-Levenson, Julie Caine, Victor Yvellez, Anya Steinberg, Yolanda Sangweni, Casey Miner, Cristina Kim, Devin Katayama, and Amiri Tulloch. It was fact-checked by Kevin Volkl. Music by Drop Electric.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Always free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR One or anywhere you get podcasts Find more Planet Money: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, weekly Newsletter. Segment: Monopoly is a board game built around capitalism. So is its origin story

Liberated from Myth of American dream

Alissa Quart, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez (democracynow.org); Ed., Wisdom Quarterly

Alissa Quart on Liberating Ourselves from the Myth of the American Dream

Author Alissa Quart's Monetized: perfect pitch for the present (inquirer.com)

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Republic of Outsiders Alissa Quart (NYT)

(Democracy Now!) March 29, 2023. Journalist Alissa Quart (author of Squeezed), executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, talks about her new book, Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream, which examines myths about individualism and self-reliance that underpin the U.S. economy and the inequality it fosters. Banks get welfare bailouts in the billions, but we don't shame them the way we do a single parent living on scraps. Quart says a focus on "succeeding through hard work" obscures the degree to which many rich and powerful people have benefited from social support, resulting in a cycle of "shame and blame" [and severe racial inequality] for those who fall short.

• List of largest bank failures in the USA
• Corporate welfare isn't capitalism
• Latest Democracy Now shows

An unsparing, incisive, yet ultimately hopeful look at how we can shed the American obsession with self-reliance that has made us less healthy, less secure, and less fulfilled.

The promise that we can “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” is central to the story of the American Dream. It’s the belief that if we work hard and rely on our own resources, we will eventually succeed.

However, time and again we have seen how this foundational myth, with its emphasis on individual determination, brittle self-sufficiency, and personal accomplishment, does not help us.

Instead, as income inequality rises all around us, we are left with shame and self-blame for our condition.

BOOK

Acclaimed journalist Alissa Quart argues that at the heart of our suffering is a do-it-yourself ethos, the misplaced belief in our own independence, and the conviction that we must rely on ourselves alone.

Looking at a range of delusions and half solutions — from “grit” to the false Horatio Alger story to the rise of GoFundMe — Quart reveals how we have been steered away from robust social programs that would address the root causes of our problems.

Meanwhile, the responsibility for survival has been shifted onto the backs of ordinary people, burdening generations with debt instead of providing the social safety net we so desperately need.

Insightful, sharply argued, and characterized by Quart’s lively writing and deep reporting, and for fans of Evicted and Nickel and Dimed, Bootstrapped is a powerful examination of what ails us at a societal level and a plan for how we can free ourselves from these self-defeating narratives. Bootstrapped

• Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America (Alissa Quart)
• What if there were a way to stay beautiful? (vegamour.com)

When the US gov't confiscated all the gold

Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Executive Order 6102 was a United States presidential executive order signed on April 5, 1933 that took everyone's gold away by force.

People were forced to accept paper money for their gold. ...The Uebersee Finanz-Korporation entrusted the gold to an American firm for safekeeping, and the Swiss were shocked to find that...

The Gold Reserve Act (the United States Gold Reserve Act of January 30, 1934) required that all gold be turned in and traded for worthless paper... By 1975 Americans could again freely own and trade gold. ...United States Supreme Court, which narrowly upheld Roosevelt's gold confiscation policy.

Did FDR really confiscate Americans' gold in 1933? Did Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscate gold from U.S. citizens in 1933? Is that gold held in Fort Knox, a currently empty gold vault?

They can just steal our gold by decree?

Gold Confiscation? Americans continue to have an attraction to gold perhaps because... I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United States of America, acting under...

Should I be worried about gold confiscation? Americans who owned gold were told to deliver their gold to the... In 1933, the United States found itself in the thick of the Great Depression.

FDR's 1933 gold confiscation was a bailout of the [private bank known as the] Federal Reserve... President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1933 executive order outlawing the private ownership of gold in the United States was arguably unconstitutional. But that didn't stop him...

The day the government seized Americans' gold (four day after April Fool's Day)...

Protest: Standing with Standing Rock (video)

Thom Hartmann (RT); Associated Press; Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

VIDEO: "We Stand With Standing Rock"/against corporate financiers Wells Fargo Bank

The Koch Brothers and their media empire are enforcing a near media blackout on this topic

Company to resume work to finish Dakota Access pipeline

CANNON BALL, North Dakota - With the green light from the federal government, the company building the Dakota Access oil pipeline said Wednesday it plans to resume work immediately to finish the long-stalled project.

Opponents of the $3.8 billion project meanwhile are protesting around the country in an action some are foolishly dubbing the "last stand." This is not the last stand, for many will go on resisting as long as it takes.

 
(Feb. 9, 2017)The Army on Wednesday granted the developer of the four-state oil pipeline formal permission to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota, clearing the way for completion of the disputed project.

"We plan to begin immediately," Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for developer Energy Transfer Partners, said in an email to The Associated Press Wednesday night. Work had been stalled for months due to opposition by the Standing Rock Sioux, but President Donald Trump last month instructed the Army Corps of Engineers to advance pipeline construction.

 
The tribe fears a pipeline leak could contaminate its drinking water. ETP says the pipeline is safe. "Now, we all need to work together to make sure the project is completed safely and with as little disruption to the community as possible. This has been a very difficult issue for everyone who lives and works in the area," U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, said in a statement announcing that the final easement had been granted.

 
Some members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has been at the center of the debate for nearly a year, urged "emergency actions" via social media. Protesters posted an online list of about 50 events nationwide. There were large rallies, including one outside the White House, and smaller ones, such as in Des Moines, Iowa.

A group of protesters in Chicago targeted a bank, and another group went to an Army Corps of Engineers office in New York City but was asked to leave when they started filming without a permit. Several people were arrested for blocking public access to a federal building in San Francisco.

 

"Today begins the next phase of mass resistance to Donald Trump's toxic Dakota Access pipeline," said Dallas Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. "This is our land, our water, our health, and our culture at stake -- and if Donald Trump thinks we will give all of that up without a fight he is wrong." More

Should haters have free speech rights?

Associated Press (via mail.com/news); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Berkeley campus chaos spurs questions at free-speech bastion

BERKELEY, California - The chaos at the University of California at Berkeley, was shocking: Protesters [agent provocateurs against Trump and by extension Milo] set fires, smashed windows, hurled "explosives" [fireworks] at police, and ultimately achieved their goal of canceling an appearance by right-wing [hate speech advocate and] provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

 

I like Milo. UC Berkeley will pay!

The scene gained worldwide attention not just because of the mayhem but because of where it took place. UC Berkeley is the birthplace of the free-speech movement and has been known for more than a half-century as a bastion of tolerance [even or especially of those with unpopular views, even Nazis and Republicans].

 

As the university cleaned up Thursday, it struggled with questions about why the violence spun out of control and what has happened to the open-minded Berkeley of the 1960s.

"It was not a proud night for this campus," school spokesman Dan Moguluf said, later adding, "We are proud of our history and legacy as the home of the free speech movement."

Howard Stern says, "Being president is detrimental to Trump's mental health" (cnn.com)

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Officials knew there was a potential for violence and went to "extraordinary lengths" to prepare for the event, Mogulof said in a statement. But school authorities say they believe the instigators were not Berkeley students.

 

Berkeley was the last stop on Yiannopoulus' college tour, which had sparked protests and sporadic violence around the country. He is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed internet troll whose comments have been criticized as racist, misogynist, and anti-Muslim. More

Occupy Wall Street 5 years later

Associated Press (mail.com); Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Demonstrators in the Occupy Wall Street movement gather to call for the occupation of Wall Street in New York. Alumni of the Occupy Wall Street protest are gathering Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 in the NYC park they took over five years ago to mark the anniversary (AP).

Measuring Occupy Wall St's impact, 5 years later

(OccupyWallSt.org)

NEW YORK - For a time, Occupy Wall Street was everywhere with its grass-roots encampments -- first in New York City, then globally -- and the refrain, "We are the 99 percent!" And then it was gone. Its most famous camp in lower Manhattan was cleared out in an overnight police raid two months after it started, and other Occupy locations fizzled soon thereafter. More

Happy Birthday! (occupy.com)

Economic Delusion: What is Money? (video)

Ven. Ajahn Punnadhammo (Buddhist Publication Society Newsletter No. 61, BPS.lk, 2009); edited by Ashley Wells, Sheldon S., Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Thoughty2: Paagle TV

Thai Theravada monks (HuwPenson/flickr)

The whole world is currently suffering a major economic crisis, which has a good chance of being as severe as the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Can Buddhist teachings help us understand what is happening?

 

It can. Capitalism is like that. The financial markets reflect the cumulative result of millions of individual decisions. Regarding decisions, the Buddha said that it is wise that they not be made on the basis of

• greed (craving)
• anger or fear (aversion)
• delusion (ignorance).

It is obvious how greed and anger/fear (aversion) have poisoned the well. So I would like to focus on something a little deeper, namely, how delusion has worked to create the present financial collapse.
 

This paper bill used to be as valuable as gold.

Specifically, the whole scenario demonstrates the amazing power of mental formations (sankharas) in human history. Money is an abstraction.

 

At some point in the distant past people agreed to believe that one is shiny rock was worth those two cows, even though the real, utilitarian value of a cow is considerably more than the real value of a symbolic shiny rock.

  

Paper money is an even higher level of abstraction. This piece of paper with this number and the queen’s face, or a spooky eye-in-a-pyramid design or whatever it might be, is said to represent so many shiny rocks, which are worth so many cows.

Having gone off the gold standard, our currency is now “fiat money,” meaning that the value is established purely by government whim or fiat.

• The gold standard is a system that depends on a fixed amount of gold. Each paper unit is redeemable for gold at any time. Fiat money means nothing is backing it except the promise of a government that it has value. This is a lot less stable but a lot cheaper, so now nearly all countries use the fiat or "because I say so" method of printing money. U.S. Pres. Nixon took the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971.

This is not fully accurate. A dollar bill doesn’t have value because the government or central bank says so; it has value because the people believe it does. Ours is a faith-based currency.

 

It is not surprising that paper money was first used in China, a civilization deeply affected by Buddhism and Taoism, and used to philosophical subtlety (sophistry).

 

Consider what is happening here: Material goods and hours of labor are freely traded for an agreed convention. Something on the material plane of reality is being surrendered for something on the purely abstract plane of mental formations, which is void and without substance.

Maybe that eye-in-the-pyramid on the dollar bill is telling us something.

 

Fast forward to the dawn of modern capitalism in post-reformation Europe. The “real” economy of goods and services was becoming complicated, involving more and more kinds of goods, some of which were being shipped all around the planet.

(PaagleTV)

What is “money” really? It is debt, but few know that. This is essential viewing on money and our banking system, a fast-paced and highly entertaining animated feature by Paul Grignon. It explains the world's money system. How is money created? "When banks [private corporations] extend loans to their customers, they CREATE money by crediting their customers' accounts," explains Sir Mervyn King in a speech to the South Wales Chamber of Commerce at The Millennium Centre, Cardiff, October 23, 2012. Need more evidence? The Bank of England explains in a "Brief History of Banknotes." "Britain finally left the gold standard in 1931, and the note issue became entirely fiduciary, that is, wholly backed by securities instead of gold." Question is, WHAT securities?

 

To facilitate all these transactions on the plane of material reality, various new kinds of mental abstractions were invented, usually represented by fancy bits of paper.

 

Promissory notes, insurance plans, bonds, and company stocks all came into being, each representing a contract between parties to fulfill certain obligations.

How a non-profit in India is fighting corruption [bribes] with fake money (pri.org)

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Symbolism
Stock certificates, bonds, notes, and bills were often printed with all kinds of elaborate borders, seals, watermarks, and decorations.

This served a utilitarian purpose, making forgery difficult, but it had a more important symbolic function: Much like ritual in religion, it worked to awe observers. Something special is happening here. It wasn’t long before these pieces of paper were trading for more than their book-value. More

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