American Civil War 2.0

Namaste and welcome to another posting for the Quiet Mouse Strikes back. I'm happy to have you here with me today to read my thoughts and would be happy to see my readers go back and read my library of other blogs as well. For now, however, let's jump down the rabbit hole and see where this thought process takes us.

Many Americans never believed another Civil War could besiege this nation since the first one fought between the North Union and the South Confederacy over states rights vs civil unity; slavery and banking being the foremost issues. 

Neither those living in the South nor those living in the North or any of the other respective states really was able to get over the late 1800's as the laws changed from Chattel slavery to a more broad approach that affected more than just blacks in physical bondage, favoring monetary debt over physical slavery, i.e. Jim Crow laws, many of which are still in existence today into our modern culture. 

Jim Crow laws are national, state, and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the U.S. were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation, despite many bans against discrimination in public accommodations and voting. These laws were voted out in 1965, officially, but the effects of nearly 4 centuries of inequality have left the black communities still filled with anger: less opportunities for secondary education, less job opportunities in low-income areas, less housing opportunities outside of low-income areas, etc. 

We saw first hand the results of the inequality during the pandemic as black communities and those who stood up to support them protesting out in public over high profile deaths in the black community due to racially motivated police violence that lead to murder. The BLM movement had bad marketing, I'm gonna be 100% honest about that. The grievances were real, but the message got muddled from violent actions taken by others, SEPARATE from the BLM movement that took advantage of a highly charged situation and used it for their own advantage, such as ANTIFA, the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers, among other extremist groups that have their own anti-government and anti-citizen agendas.

I live and work in the Portland Oregon metroplex and I have heard countless accounts of friends and co-workers that joined the BLM movement in solidarity to end the persecution of the black community. Jews, Caucasians, Hispanics, immigrants, and other groups all joined together to end police on citizen violence, because it is NOT JUST blacks and Hispanics being murdered by over-zealous police officers.

On a side note, this is not a post to bash on police, they are over-worked and often under-paid to deal with day in and day out the shit-show horrors of the modern American society. This is a point of reference that will be concluded later in this discourse.

As far as the BLM riots, nearly EVERY time there was an actual riot, which was NOT every time the group began a protest, FAR-RIGHT  political actors and activists would show up to COUNTER-PROTEST and nearly always instigate what would later become a riot due to the back and forth fighting as racist zealots attacked peaceful protesters and their families. One clear example of this to me is one of my Jewish co-worker woman got attacked during a protest because she was white and married to a black man, standing along his side to protest the blatant inequality in prosecution of unarmed blacks by police. Thankfully she was able to escape before any great harm came to her or her husband who I will not disclose their identities due to fears of further violence from the right-wing mob. From her account, at a multi-racial peaceful protest, unmarked black vans and off-duty school buses began to unload members of the predominantly white right-wing counter-protesters that had been later reported to have came into the Portland, OR area from outlying areas like Idaho, eastern Washington, and Northern California. These individuals streamed out of their conveyances dressed in all black, wearing tactical military style gear, riot shields, and many carrying weapons. A member of the local media later did an expose to reveal that there were several members of the black-clad counter-protest mob that were later identified as off-duty Portland police officers, caught on video vandalizing local businesses so they could make case to use violent force against the BLM and ANTIFA left-leaning crowds they would later use bean bag bullets, tear gas, and use of Federal agents to arrest people off the streets, secretly into unmarked vans, all caught on tape for this expose I previously referred to. 

In the years since these events, both major political ideologies have pushed further and further away from a centrist view of the United States of America. The break and ideological differences cannot be summed up so easily as the build up to the first Civil War because it is no longer about simple geographical differences being the North and South. Many of the ideological issues are still the same now as they were then, being a fundamental argument about individual rights and liberties vs. state rights to control the narrative of the populace within its' jurisdiction vs. national Constitutional rights and the greater good of the populace at large. 

The REALITY is that both the Republicans AND the Democrats have for too long been courting the far extremists of their parties, respectively, PLUS decade after decade of our scam of a voting system forcing Americans to choose the "lesser of two evils" that are preselected for us,  while always voting for self-serving con artists belonging to the two parties that BOTH support the ostentatiously wealthy oligarchy at the top of the pyramid scam. This is the real reason that no matter what party is in charge the rich always get richer and every generation, the wealth gap of inequity and inequality increases dramatically. 

The two political extremes are the SAME ideologies that have been fighting since forever in human society, both willing to use violence and violent rhetoric to incite the public masses into fighting one another while they finance BOTH parties and their respective candidates, because no matter who wins an election, they win the game of acquisition, power, and control. 

The Pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 strain of virus widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots, many Americans losing their jobs, their businesses, and their livelihoods. Some have lost their will to participate in this society and have left the job markets. Some have lost their retirement funds in the volatile markets and the bounce- back of the economy under Joe Biden has yet to be felt by struggling families that are still paying more for things like food and fuel, unfortunately, mostly due to greedflation. Many lost their benefits such as health insurance. Most are STILL trying to recover, many of whom are still working multiple jobs to make ends meet. 

Meanwhile there is a narrative being put out by the media that Americans don't want to work or are just lazy or that we should just be happy because things COULD BE A LOT WORSE, always being compared to a third-world nation, with now president Donald Trump calling our nation "pathetic" while dismantling our government with the help of Elon Musk and other sycophants and "yes-men/women" in order justify the privatization of government agencies and public services.

According to the SEC or Securities Exchange Commission, corporate profits are up by over 25% across the board the calendar year of 2023. I have not yet seen the statistics for 2024, my apologies. 

Meanwhile while taking in billions in profits and government subsidies paid for with our tax dollars, corporations called the workforce lazy and unmotivated, advocating for the removal of social safety nets like Social Security and Medicare. The truth is that they are only partially right. Americans don't want to work- that is, for sub-standard wages in shitty conditions only to be forced to take exploitative ill-treatment from abusive customer bases, i.e. the restaurant, service, and hospitality industries, many of whom are still required to work for substandard wages and benefits. But we should be grateful, so we are told as a society because the stock market is booming. Never mind the fact that over half of American citizens do not have the money to participate in the stock market...

The irony is palpable as the upper 1% of earners that reap over 90% of societal wealth through no hard work of their own, having a representative class of Congressional lackeys, made up Senators and Representatives, lobbyists, and lawyer, bought and paid for, to enact their own perpetuating money scheme against the true Americans, the working class and the working poo, as the laws are written to benefit their group, their class, not the masses. That makes the struggle more real for the rest of us who weren't born with a silver spoon in our mouths.

This is NOT to say that all of those with money are evil, nor all poor and working class good. There is an undercurrent in our society from top to bottom, including members of all ethnicities and social backgrounds. This undercurrent seeks to control information in order to control the narrative of society in order to keep you living IN FEAR. The billionaires want the rest of us to be fat, diseased, lazy, stupid, living in fear, and obsessed with consumerism. 

Don't get me wrong, the second Civil War has already begun. We averaged nearly 52 violent homicides PER DAY last year!!! We don't perceive it as a Civil War because we have been conditioned to the historical textbook idea of men wearing different colored matching clothing fighting across a battlefield. The battlefield of this age is not just physical, but digital as well. There is a war going on EVERY SINGLE DAY on social media where the members of political affiliation and citizen representation are glorifying their biased agenda to damage the Constitution and large portions of its citizenry including the most vulnerable groups: children and senior citizens. 

There have been open calls for Civil War by members of Congress (like Marjorie Taylor Greene: with rhetoric of 'national divorce') and an openly fueled insurrection on January 6th 2021 because the lies of the deep state and FOX News DEMANDED that the followers of their cult leader Donald Trump do so. Since then they have cancelled books, movies, entertainers, women's bodily autonomy and rights to medical care...

Next, in their Project 2025 manifesto, the Republicans are openly stating their intention to go after LGBTQIA+ individuals and their liberties. They want to shut down schools to force them to teach a singular religion (rather than freedom of all religions), rather than science, history, math, and language, to focus on sports rather than learning. They want to get rid of contraception and abortion, but don't want to add a single cent into the budget that would help out pregnant mothers or the child they are forced to carry, like mandatory maternal leave pay, low-cost birth (it costs over $10,000 to give birth at an American hospital), WIC, SNAP/food stamps, head start, low-cost child care while the mother has to go back to work, pre-K, free school lunches for children (which should include a salad bar in every school), etc...

For every racist, inbred, obese, Bible-thumping nitwit, there is an educated, rational, enlightened, well-meaning citizen to balance them out. The most important thing to know and understand is that the ideologies of the far right "conservatives" are dying out and going the way of the dinosaurs. They come up with clever catch phrases like "woke" to marginalize people that are sick of the lopsided system that benefits the few rather than the many. They try to ban education because it is a reminder of their own falsehoods and inadequacies, their irrational uneducated opinions that contradict facts and rational reality.

There is hope for the future because the younger generations are coming up to be more tolerant and more intelligent, finding solutions to problems created by prior generations. Sometimes that means they step away from toxic people and situations that haven't benefited them on a soul level. 

Two things can be real at the same time. We can have a prosperous economy and still help those in need. The younger generations are getting it... why can't the older ones?

It took a long time for me to understand it. It will take even longer for the new mindset of coexistence and conscious living to become the norm, but that is the direction things are headed, like the currents that push the waves in the ocean. So is this shift in the current of energy on this planet. 

Those that choose to hold onto the past will be left behind. Yes, unfortunately there will be people that violently try to cling onto the antiquated beliefs that comforted them in the past, but soon they will be faced with the acknowledgment that there are intelligent beings among us already. Soon the need for war will be nonexistent. It is a manufactured construct of the human mind, after all. The Earth is plentiful. We just have inadequate distribution systems that favor the rich and impoverish the poor. Poverty is a man made creation. Things like poverty and homelessness are not easy to overcome. There will always be some people who choose to live outside societal boundaries and norms. For those who wish to see the real American dream, it doesn't have to be a current nightmare. It doesn't have to be negative. There is a dying grasp on power and control. That generation built on warmongering and hoarding wealth is dying out. 

I see a future where the United States returns to a land of not just opportunities, but innovation. Yes, I think we will have some rough times ahead caused by the people who are afraid of the change that has already begun. It started around 2012 and hasn't stopped. People across all walks of life are sick of the corporate greedflation. People are deciding they have had enough. Some have turned to violence. But many many more, that don't make the nightly "news", are individuals and communities coming together to improve things on a more micro level. 

Despite what the dick heads in Washington DC want to believe, the true American spirit was fashioned in hard working folks coming together for a unified belief that anyone can make it with enough hard work, but it takes a village to create good people. We all have the desire to take care of the ones we love and seek that same love in return. We don't need government, the government needs us, taxpayers. Want to stick it to the man? Grow a garden, co op on a farm or plot of land. Recycle, reuse, or repair anything you can. Sew your own clothing. Fix your own car. 

The point is that it doesn't have to be something major to make a major change. If everyone does a few kind things, with no expectations of reward and payment, just out of caring. Many people say that they love this country then bash on it and don't help. Change is easy to talk about, but it's difficult to break out of negative thought patterns, negative living situations. My personal experience is that I want us to succeed as a nation. Because if we have all this wealth countered by all this poverty, then are we really all that successful as a nation? And do you really think that trying to take us back to a more repressive era is somehow going to make life better? That mindset has caused major divides in our culture. 

Yes, the Civil War 2.0 is already here being fought in our schools, our government, and our daily lives at home and at work, in some instances. We are forced to live, breathe, and work around others that we don't always agree with, even on basic civil issues like work environments, grocery and shopping store etiquette, driving, and taxes, for example. Yet, somehow despite all those differences, if no one starts any discord, then there won't be any discord. Communication is paramount in dealing with life. There will always be people who rub us the wrong way, ones that we can't or won't agree to disagree. Like myself for example, I think we can agree to disagree on things like fashion, sports, and food preferences. I refuse to agree to disagree on things like human rights which include things like gender rights, and other Constitution afforded rights in equality with any other group. In a perfect society I wouldn't even have to make that affirmation for those that are being excluded from living their American dream. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are our rights. The cornerstone of those rights is bodily autonomy. Without that, all other rights are meaningless. In order to restore our nation, we must become the greatness that we preach about. In order to do so, we must stop the petty fighting. We are one people, not the enemy of one another. The people trying to come here to make a better life... they are our people too. We are ALL part of the same family: homo sapiens. When we realize that when we hurt one, we hurt all, the world will understand peace. No war or violence against your fellow human is justified. We must protect ourselves, yes, but for far too long we've allowed ourselves to be the instigators and we've suffered greatly for it. Do no harm, but take no shit. Words to live by. 

American Conservatism

Once we recognize that Libertarianism is essentially neo-feudalism, and that it is now the dominant conservative philosophy of the Republican Party, it’s not hard to understand Republican priorities. 

The basic idea of neo-feudalism, at least as I discuss it here, is that power is properly derived from wealth and the willingness to seize it, and not from votes. Power is held by wealthy employers and investors, who use it to build loyalty among the less fortunate, by means of patronage or bullying, without being hindered by popular elected officials. 

 

While this aligns somewhat with fascism, neo-feudalism has different reasons for many of the same priorities. Yet it’s still a a weaponization of the state’s power for the use of wealthy individuals, the church, and corporations—specifically away from traditionally marginalized or non-wealthy groups. (I’d call it more of a “semi-fascism,” although perhaps it’s just another example of how fascism localizes itself wherever it rises.) Shrinking the size and power of democratic government is therefore essential to this philosophy, because it moves power away from the majority and their votes, and toward individual wealth and existing power.

 

Those with the most capital tend to have a small check on their activities in a democracy already, because they aren’t elected officials and their power can’t be voted away. They also have a built-in barrier to being elected, despite their ability to spend more on their races, because in a democracy the policies they promote will be unpopular with most citizens. 

So instead, they build fear and distrust of any government by and for the people by targeting marginal groups, and then point to the weakened and/or untrusted state to create a power vacuum that they themselves can fill. Trump himself is a good example of how this works in action, and the continuing election of extremely wealthy fraudsters like Rick Scott show just how popular this anti-democratic movement has become. 

Here are some the tools being used:

-Citizens United & unlimited campaign contributions to PACs, including from foreign sources, to ensure higher influence of wealth in votes

 

-Deliberate shift away from democracy and voting by limiting who can vote

-Push for any assistance to be church- or corporate-based, creating reliance on generosity of individuals and not society as a safety net for poor

 

-Intense opposition to any government assistance, as it lessens employer dominance; this includes govt-funded healthcare, unemployment assistance, social security, etc.

-Pumping money into military budgets at expense of everything else, for this system will require massive enforcement AND because a weak government makes foreign takeover a real concern and the budgets are just increasing annually as the wasteful spending drains taxpayer dollars and stifles American innovation and excellence.

 

-Privatize everything, even the military, to link corporate control to all of society’s functions - and enables massive profit-taking for the well-connected (look at the immense fortunes built by decades of ineffective “training” in Afghanistan)

With this “neo-feudalist” lens, it becomes fairly straightforward to predict where the GOP will land on any given issue. Despite their lack of a policy platform, we don’t actually need to read it. After all, it would only expose their most unpopular beliefs, and we can ascertain those simply by looking at what keeps power in the hands of the powerful. 

From their opposition to social security, to universal healthcare (harder to exploit people when they aren’t desperate), to FEMA (can’t funnel money through their own organizations that way), to women’s rights, to contraception (same issue on exploitation), to military privatization, to private prisons, to taxes (especially to taxes), it’s all predictable if you see what shifts power to the already-powerful. 

 

It’s what conservatism has always done. It’s simply more brazenly authoritarian now, because it’s fighting back against real power from an engaged and evolving nation. 

Conservatism is authoritarian, and it always was. When conservatives face change they will always abandon democracy and impose their beliefs through force to retain power. It has happened here before and it is happening here again.

 

Small government? That has always applied to one thing, and one thing only: reducing the power of the state to regulate the wealthy. And today that means reducing the ability to vote. Rules limiting what you can read, how you worship, what you can do in private as a consenting adult, where you can speak and what you can say, that’s where conservatives adore big government. But letting the will of the common people prevail? That’s where conservatives want to drown democracy in a bathtub.

Dear Anti-vaxers

I'm just gonna skip the formalities and get straight to the point. I am sick and tired of hearing all the bull shit and excuses for why Americans won't get the Covid 19 vaccine. I've been angry for a while about it, but this morning I've decided I'm gonna say my peace and attempt to be done with it; wash my hands of it...

Dear Anti-vaxxers, you are correct about your rights to your body, but ironic that consideration isn't given to pregnant women over their own bodies. 

You are correct about your Constitutional rights, but you aren't in the least considering those rights of your fellow citizens or considering the flip side of the coin which is your civic duties to this nation and its citizens. 

You are correct that you shouldn't have to be forced to take a shot you don't want, but that's the WHOLE POINT. You SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BE FORCED TO DO THE RIGHT THING!!! 

You are correct about these vaccines being pushed out on the market very quickly, but what you don't know is that this technology has been in development for nearly 20 years in attempt to fight other SARS Covid viruses, so it was easy, with $50 billion of our tax dollars injected into the industry and allowing all 3 phases of testing and trials to be completed simultaneously, to transition the technology into fighting this newer deadly pathogen. Now the Pfizer vaccine has received full FDA approval after rigorous testing. 

You are correct that there are some side effects from getting the vaccine, none of which compare to DEATH...

You are correct about saying we don't know the long term effects of this vaccine, but let's look at the efficacy of other vaccines on the market... when's the last time you had polio? Measles? Rubella? Typhoid? Tetanus? Scarlet fever? Diphtheria? Oh that's right! You haven't had them because your parents GOT YOU VACCINATED!!! 

The REALITY is that the modern world you and I live in is because of medical technology. 

I had childhood cancer that I SURVIVED TWICE because of medical technology. 

There's less infant mortality because of medical technology. 

There's more prevention of transmittable diseases because of medical technology. 

People live longer lifespans because of medical technology. 

Less people die from surgery and post surgical complications like infections due to medical technology. 

We can detect cancers, diseases, and other illnesses through simple tests now and begin treatment quicker so you don't die!!! Because of medical technology. 

You have the right to be upset about being inconvenienced by the nation not being reopened for regular business and pleasure as you would like, or having to show a card proving you are vaccinated, but just know this one thing very emphatically:

YOU ARE THE REASON THINGS CAN'T AND HAVEN'T GONE BACK TO NORMAL YET!

25% or more of Americans say they absolutely will not take the jab, not even to get to the "herd immunity" they ranted on and on about for the entire year of 2020. They don't even want to give Donald Trump the credit he deserves. It took him 9 months of lies and misinformation to pull his head from his fat orange ass, but once he did, the response was swift and effective. Biden just made the process faster and more efficient to get the vaccine into as many Americans as possible to stave off more unnecessary deaths from a 100% preventable disease. 

Y'all didn't want to be inconvenienced by having to stay home when sick. 

Y'all didn't want to be inconvenienced by washing your hands or social distancing. 

Y'all didn't want to be inconvenienced by wearing a mask to protect yourself and others. 

Y'all didn't want to have the bars, restaurants, clubs, gyms, bowling alleys, movie theaters, etc. shut down either. 

Y'all especially didn't want to consider the health and well being of other people besides yourself. 

Y'all wanted to act patriotic, but won't actually do anything to protect your fellow citizens. Y'all flew Trump flags and screamed about Antifa and BLM as over 400,000 Americans during that time had died and has now more than doubled that since due to the mutations and new variants like delta and omicron. 

Y'all threw Covid parties and some of you lost friends, family, loved ones or your own life due to arrogance, stupidity, or just plain hubris.

Y'all spread hate across the Internet towards those of Asian ancestry. Hate crimes went up by 300% due to the rhetoric of calling Covid 19 the "China Virus" or "Kung-flu". A close friend, an immigrant from Vietnam had her adult child harassed and bullied on a college campus this last year. 

Y'all blamed the Obama's, the Clinton's, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Gates, Hunter Biden, the Chinese communist party, LEFTISTS, Marxists, socialists, ANTIFA, and ANYONE else you could use as a SCAPEGOAT to AVOID TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY in this matter. 

The reality is that it doesn't really matter where the virus came from in how we treat it (there are ongoing investigations on the origins of this pathogen), medically, and how we treat one another, humanely. This sad situation over the last two years has shown us very clearly that 25% or more of the American people DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE OTHER 75% or less. That is their RIGHT. It's just a shit attitude and a shit way to treat your fellow humans; fellow citizens.

Anti-vaxxers DON'T YOU DARE COMPLAIN ABOUT THINGS BEING CLOSED OR BEING BURDENED OR THAT YOUR A VICTIM. YOU'RE NOT. We saw very clearly now that YOU are the bully and you want to PRETEND PATRIOTISM while showing vile contempt for the rest of us. I heard so many people from this minority in the Anti-vaxxer community that they were perfectly fine with people dying so they didn't have to be inconvenienced. 

Empathy is inconvenient. I get it. I just don't want to see the victim card played EVER AGAIN by ANYONE that was fine with millions of deaths across the globe. 1% of 7.5 billion humans is 75 million people. Current global death toll because of caring, hard working doctors, technicians, scientists, chemists, and all their supporting staffs is only 3.76 million. Those lost lives are tragic and my heart goes out to any and all who lost loved ones to this preventable disease... all because folks were too inconvenienced to mask, wash hands, social distance, stay home when sick, and get vaccinated. 

Y'all claim to be adults so now it's time to grow the fuck up. 

Now we have new variants that are more contagious and harmful if not deadly. Thanks for that. Was it worth it?

The LOKI Paradox

Namaste my fellow geeks as well as to my friends, family, and fellow knowledge seekers. Now as you all know, or at least I believe you all to be aware, there is a new show out on Disney+ called LOKI. I'm gonna start with a little recap of the MCU and then postulate from there about the direction of the show. Also, even though today is the release of episode 2, I have not yet watched it yet... so there won't be any spoilers...

As we know from Norse mythology and it's subsequent role in the MCU over the Infinity saga, LOKI is a formidable, cunning adversary. Born LOKI Laufeyson, his father Laufey ruled over the ice/frost giants of Jotunheim. LOKI was unusually small for a frost giant and was left in a temple to die, shortly after to be found and rescued by ODIN after the war between the frost giants and the Asgardians. ODIN brought LOKI back to Asgard and used his magic to make the child look like an Asgardian; adopting and raising him as a son to be brothers with Thor, his biological child. 

We know from Thor that LOKI felt burdened with glorious purpose to rule over Midgard, Asgard, and the other realms. In the sequel, we saw LOKI fake his own death and indeed show himself as a mischievous scamp. We later find out that he messed with Odin's mind, usurp the throne of Asgard, parade around in his father's clothes, commemorate statutes in his true image, but went as far as commissioning a theatrical play of his accomplishments, featuring Liam Hemsworth, Sam Neil, and fan favorite Matt Damon. This segment was good for some laughs, to be sure. 

Unfortunately, LOKI from the first Avengers (Assemble) was bound by his pursuit of glorious purpose. The Infinity stone, the tesseract, fell into the hands on Loki due to the time travel angle he figured out by smelling the cologne of Tony Stark from the future who was dressed as an agent in combat attire. Brilliant. We saw how he was teleported to Mongolia and almost immediately was met by the Time Variance Authority or TVA. LOKI was knocked silly by a time baton and apprehended into TVA custody; TVA agents releasing something unusual that was going to reset that last part of the timeline for the locals as the agents, with LOKI,  disappeared through their temporal portal. 

After the fear tactics and humiliation, he is brought into a courtroom and ruminated about himself being the victim of conspiracy at the hands of who he deemed as the real culprits in the Avengers. LOKI very casually suggests he be allowed to return to his timeline and rectify the situation by destroying the Avengers. To his shock, he is told that their deeds of time travel are allowed, but LOKI teleporting out of Avengers tower with the tesseract was unacceptable, he was a variant, and they were going to kill him... until Agent Mobius M. Mobius stepped in with a different direction to the story. We find out just after that they are in a large city like structure before Mobius gives LOKI his "This is your life" greatest hits and misses. Followed by the revelation that this variant of LOKI was needed to hunt down an even more dangerous variant of LOKI. That catches up to the end of episode 1.

I want to rewind and go over a few details of episode 1 before I reveal my theory about the show. 

1) the Skrull when LOKI first arrives in the TVA. 

2) inside the courtroom you could see 3 panels on the wall, each with a mural of different classes of TVA employees. You could see the agent enforcement group, the civil servant group, and what look like the Judges...

3) after LOKI's brief escape, a woman is seen briefly in what looks like 1950s attire with brown hair similar to Peggy Carter...

4) the fact that LOKI laughed at his own death, but cried at his adopted mother's death showed a great deal about the character of this variant. Other variants apparently weren't this remorseful...

5) LOKI calling the 3 time keepers "Space lizards". This ironic and likely could be a plot point later on, likely linked to He Who Remains, the sole survivor of the destruction of the previous universe. 

6) if you recall the short video with Miss Minutes, she described an ancient multiversal war (madness) with a short animated video that looked exactly like the home planet of Thanos, Titan. Doubt that's a coincidence. Perhaps this will be a pivotal plot point for the Eternals?

7) I have to mention Casey's box of Infinity stones. In the TVA, we're told that the magical powers of characters and Infinity stones just flat out doesn't work there. Ironically there are more green time stones than any of the other colors, leading me to wonder how many times the Sorcerer Supreme: Dr. Strange and/or the Ancient One had been pruned by the TVA? This too could explain the variant difference in the Red Skull Johan Schmidt on Vormir...

Okay, now it's time for my personal theories about what is going on in the show. 

1) I personally believe the TVA is located inside of the quantum realm, based upon evidence from Ant Man and the Wasp. Fan theories pointed to evidence of a large city existing inside the quantum realm and this could both explain the presence of the TVA and Janet Van Dyne being able to survive for nearly 30 years. This also could explain why Scott Lang was immune from the snap of the Infinity Gauntlet, as the magical powers of the Infinity stones don't work in the quantum realm.

2) The Ancient One had a talk with Professor Hulk in Endgame about the "sacred timeline" which defined for the viewers the overview that mortals of this universe have about the timeline. It is highly likely she was aware of the TVA, albeit unaware that their existence is outside and beyond the physical bounds of their current universe.

3) It is highly likely that we've already seen the first glimpses of the Multiverse in Dr. Strange as we explored the shattered dimension as well as the realm of Dormammu, the 9 realms of Thor, and the quantum universe of Ant Man and the Wasp.

4) The TVA seems clearly upset about losing agents to another variant of LOKI, meaning there are ALREADY alternate timelines in play. I've postulated about this in other blogs on the subject and my analysis is that Disney Marvel is going to write off the other Marvel projects done by other studios like FOX and SONY, to be in different timelines and that the TVA is misleading the audience into believing there is only 1 timeline in THEIR protected SACRED TIMELINE. 

5) The variant dilema. Marvel writers could very easily use this idea of variants to explain away some of the inconsistencies of the MCU such as Terrance Howard in the original portrayal of Colonel Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine, Edward Norton as the Hulk, and surely the Tobey McGuire and Andrew Garfield Spider-man variants from Sony. This also could possibly be the catalyst to bringing the extended cast of characters in from the previous studios like the X-men and the Brotherhood, Fantastic 4, Defenders, Sinister 6, Dr. Doom, etc. 

6) Another variant dilema is the pandora's box they've opened with this concept. There could likely be variants of our favorite heroes in the MCU. Quicksilver variant could have actually been Ralph Bohner or vice versa. Will we end up seeing Captain Hydra variant where Steve Rogers joined Hydra instead of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Will we see a reboot of those characters from non-canon stories like Agent Carter or the Defenders like Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones? Did I just stumble onto the premise for the upcoming animated Disney+ show "What if...?"? We've already seen in the trailer for "What if..?" Peggy Carter dressed up as Captain Britain with the infamous shield from Howard Stark. T'Challa as Star Lord. Marvel Zombies... Seems like those possibilities are endless.

7)Why was the time travel done by the Avengers deemed as acceptable, but LOKI jumping out of his path on the timeline was forbidden? My theory is because the entire Infinity Saga was just a big time loop, similar to the one we saw in Dr. Strange as he entrapped Dormamu into rage quitting from boredom of killing the sorcerer supreme in an infinite loop.

Steve Rogers was the time anchor for the entire time loop, starting from his time travel into the future from being frozen in ice, "Capsicle" to Tony Stark. The TVA didn't punish the Avengers because of Steve Rogers time loop that nearly always ended with LOKI making the best versions of the titular hero characters by inducing pain, misery, and suffering, devoid of the events of the subsequent movies that humbled him to being an anti-hero rather than a villain. Steve Rogers had already gone back in time, as we can clearly see the older version of his character as a pallbearer at his late wife Peggy Carter's funeral, seen in CA: Civil War. The loop was already in progress, the Avengers just didn't figure it out yet... except Steve and Bucky. Bucky knew Steve's secret because he encountered the older version of Steve at some point in the past where he was already married to Peggy Carter at that point under his alternate identity as Roger Stevens. They had 2 children together. Bucky kept his secret and in the future for Steve, the present for the rest of the Avengers, both Bucky and Steve looked very chill and Steve opted not to relay his life story for his friend Sam Wilson. Steve got to disappear and be dead to the world, as we saw in Falcon and Winter Soldier. 

When Steve left the current timeline, he likely took his time to return the stones to their proper place in the timeline due to the fact that he was already aware of the loop he was in. As it resulted for him personally to have his dream life with Peggy Carter, I doubt he really was too concerned with the idea of any kind of sacred timeline, only to pass on the legacy of Captain America to the next worthy person he could think of in Sam Wilson: a good man with a good heart. He clearly returned all the stones because the present for Sam and Buck was seamless when the older version of Steve Rogers returned with an intact shield to pass on his legacy to Sam. 

LOKI, on the other hand, obsessed with his GLORIOUS PURPOSE, sought to use the Infinity stones for a nefarious, self-serving purpose, as opposed to the Avengers who used time travel to stop the universe from being destroyed by Thanos and his dark order. The TVA snatched the variant LOKI out of the Gobi desert in Mongolia and returned a cloned version of himself back into the timestream to keep the Sacred Timeline intact, the version where LOKI was apprehended by the Avengers and taken back to Asgard to pay for his crimes. The captured variant of LOKI learned that there was no timeline where he didn't live as an antagonist or villain existing only to bring out the better versions of others like the Avengers. Mobius gives the character a bit of hope that there can be a life beyond the preset limitations set upon him by the alleged all-knowing Time Keepers. This is likely also a point of reference for the remainder of the show as this variant audibly threatened to burn down the TVA... a different, more sinister version of this character might not have the moral compass of this LOKI, i.e. the girl pointing at the image of the devil in the cathedral in the first episode. 

The existence of the variant LOKI still alive, yet replaced in his own timeline leads the viewers to question how many different LOKI variants there could be in the story. Mobius wants to understand the psychology of this variant in hopes to find a way to stop the more deadly, likely female, variant wreaking havoc on the Sacred Timeline, likely leading us back to another multiversal war between the different timeline universes. As I said before, this is a good way to bring in more characters, possibly even more cosmic characters like the Celestials, namely Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer.

Another point of reference for the story is the previous Disney+ show WandaVision. In the Miss Minutes video we learn that a divergent timeline branch that spawns a variant from the Sacred Timeline is called a NEXUS event. Wanda, we had learned is a NEXUS BEING, capable of rewriting reality due to her contact with the Mind Stone in the staff of LOKI, incredibly increasing her innate Scarlet Witch magic. We've already learned that the title of the next Sorcerer Supreme movie is Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Could Wanda Maximoff be the catalyst for breaking the sacred timeline and expanding into a dangerous multiversal war? Are there other Nexus beings in the current MCU or will they be introducing more in the near future?

Well, this has been fun and a lot to think about I'm sure. I thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to read my thoughts and hope this day finds you with blessings and joy as you watch the newest episode tonight. This has been the one and only Quiet Mouse.

Misophonia

Namaste and welcome to my blog, my friends, family, and fellow knowledge seekers. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to read my thoughts. Let's just jump right in and get started.

Misophonia is a disorder in which certain sounds such as eating, chewing, loud breathing, snoring, and repeated pen-clicking, for example, trigger emotional or physiological responses that some might perceive as unreasonable given the circumstances. These likely come from the sympathetic nervous system that regulates our fight, flight, or fuck responses. 

Someone who has this disorder might describe a certain sound that "drives you crazy", ranging from an angry or annoyed reaction to panic and the need to flee, a.k.a. the fight or flight response I mentioned previously. 
Although this is not recognized in the DSM-IV ("Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders") and it is not classified as a hearing or psychiatric disorder. It is thought to be related to a form of sound-emotion synesthesia, with parallels to some anxiety disorders. 

Be courteous to those with mental health issues. Treat others the way you would like to be treated, yourself. 

This has been the one and only Quiet Mouse. 

The ASSASSINATION of a Peaceful Dream.

Namaste and I welcome you to my blog on this Martin Luther King Jr. day. I hope this day finds you warm and well. Today I want to briefly write about individuals that have been assassinated for, basically no other reason than trying to spread the message of peace, love, and fellowship among humans, to the point of attempting to alleviate the suffering of the masses at the hands of the greedy, powerful, and ruthless.

I wish it weren't so, but those that seek to end the wars and end the hatred are sadly often met with more hatred and more violent responses. Dr. King, among others, wished for a peaceful dream where white folks and colored folks could live peacefully, free of hatred and discrimination, judged by the quality of character over color of skin. Imagine a world where everyone gets the same fair shake at the life they deserve. 

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

John Lennon

Abraham Lincoln 

Mahatma Ghandi

John F. Kennedy 

Jam Master Jay

Robert Kennedy

 

Tupac Shakur

Benazir Bhutto

Huey Newton 

Qasim Soleilmani (I only added this person because he was on his way to Iraq to broker a peace deal between Iraq and Iran before his illegal assassination ordered by Donald J. Trump, that has increased hostilities in the middle East and strained American foreign relations with the region; our allies in NATO and United Nations.)

Notorious B.I.G.

And many many more who tried to change the world only to be met with an untimely death at the hands of an assassin.

Rest in peace.