Numerous Narratives 🍁

Atomic essays, mini explorations, and a digital garden of diverse ideas – welcome! This is my space for creative experimentation, a place where fiction and reality collide. You'll find reflections on everything from economics and politics to culture and technology, alongside the development of my novel and nonfiction projects. My tools of choice? I am an advocate for Open Source Software such as Ubuntu and ZorinOS Linux working in a Gnome desktop Linux environment on all my personal laptops, Standard Notes, Signal with journalists, Manuskript, and the secure writing environment of theQuill.app. The views shared here are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of my employer or any organizations I am affiliated with. My perspectives may evolve over time as I strive to maintain an open mind. This blog offers a snapshot of my thoughts at specific moments, capturing ideas that resonated with me then. Please note that some older posts may no longer align with my current views. - - -

@GaryArmstrong GaryArmstrong.blog

The Power of Drone Surveillance - Break the Soul Before the Body

August 8, 2025•328 words

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." - Sun Tzu "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment... you had to live, did live, from habit that became instinct, in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized." - George Orwell "He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play sp...

Israeli Military Occupation: Concealing Genocidal Actions After 2 years of Israeli Bombings

August 7, 2025•597 words

“The time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is before they shall have gotten hold on us. It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold….” - Thomas Jefferson “We are already in the midst of a catastrophe… Israel is using famine as a weapon of war and that is contrary to international law.” - Josep Borrell “It is not possible to create a famine by accident.” - Alex de Waal “Israel made its intentions to starve everyone in Gaza explicit, implemented its plans and predictably created a fa...

Drones, Everyday More Deadly

August 7, 2025•398 words

“The future of warfare is not boots on the ground, but bytes in the sky.” - P.W. Singer “Technology is teaching us that war no longer needs human closeness to kill, only human intent.” - Chris Hedges “What makes drone warfare so psychologically destabilizing is the fusion of omnipresence with invisibility.” - Laurie Calhoun “The terrifying thing about drones is not just what they destroy, but what they reveal about our moral distance from violence.” - Noam Chomsky “With drones, we have outs...

61 Years Later, A Review of Malcolm X’s Essay, "Zionist Logic"

August 5, 2025•913 words

"You can’t drive a knife into a man’s back nine inches, pull it out six inches, and call it progress." - Malcolm X "Facts do not at all speak for themselves, but require a socially acceptable narrative to absorb, sustain, and circulate them." - Edward Said "There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless.’ There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard." - Arundhati Roy "Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world." - Angela Y. Davis "We know too well that our freedom...

The Mickey Mouse Economics Presidency: One Man Rule Under Fake State of Emergencies

August 4, 2025•759 words

"The United States is now governed by the least responsible, most corrupt, and most dangerous leadership in its history." - Jeffrey Sachs "The truth is that the Congress in Washington is a bunch of millionaires working for billionaires. They don't represent the people, they represent the money." - Chris Hedges "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies... a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - Dwight D. Eise...

An Educated Canada

August 3, 2025•243 words

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela “Investing in education is not just the right choice, it is the smart choice, nations that prioritize learning build the strongest and most adaptable economies.” - Justin Trudeau “Ignorance is not a virtue. It's not cool to not know what you're talking about.” - Barack Obama “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character, that i...

Let’s Pause and Revisit This When We’re in a Better Headspace

August 3, 2025•267 words

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion." - Dale Carnegie "Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it." - Mahatma Gandhi "You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond." - Epictetus "Emotional self-control, delaying gratification and stifling impulsiveness, underlies accomplishment of every sort." - Daniel Goleman People are drawn into emotional territory by con...

Gaza is Canada; Gaza is USA!

August 1, 2025•241 words

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." - Desmond Tutu "The Palestinians are treated as human refuse. This is not a war. It is state-sponsored mass murder." - Chris Hedges "When Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely-crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques, and slums, that is not a war. That is murder." - Noam Chomsky "In Canada, we are strong not in spite of our differences but because of the...

Trump: The Green Light for Ethnic Cleansing and No Statehood for Palestinians

July 31, 2025•993 words

Examine closely the deep disappointment and hostility expressed by U.S. President Donald Trump in response to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recognition of a Palestinian two-state solution. Trump’s reaction, particularly his dictatorial threat to withhold any future trade deal with Canada, reveals the extent of his rigid stance on total unconditional support for Israel, even when blatant starvation and genocide is committed against the Palestinians. Trump has demonstrated a profound anim...

Trump: “Mexicans Can Make America Great, Again!”

July 30, 2025•643 words

“Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.” - George Orwell "Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?" - Steve Jobs "A narcissist paints a picture of themselves as being the victim or innocent in all aspects. They will go to great lengths to make you believe it..." - Shannon L. Alder “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.” - Will Rogers "Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own." - Jona...

Terrorist Attack on Nord Stream 2 & the Last Nail in the Coffin for Germany

July 30, 2025•721 words

"The decision to sabotage the pipelines was made by the President himself after months of secret back-and-forth debate inside Washington’s national security community." - Seymour Hersh "A Europe that is truly united and effectively aligned with the United States in a larger democratic West would be an even more vital partner to America." - Zbigniew Brzezinski "The primordial interest of the United States, over which for centuries we have fought wars... is the relationship between Germany and ...

The Illusion of Stocks, Prosperity, & A Master in Political Manipulation

July 28, 2025•627 words

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” - Noam Chomsky “When the rich rob the poor it’s called business. When the poor fight back it’s called violence.” - Mark Twain “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.” - I. F. Stone “If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.” - Philip K. Dick “Politics have no relation to morals.” - Niccolò M...

My Bros Starlight Tour, January 2, A Cold -35c

July 27, 2025•1,410 words

“The streets were not just a world of predators and prey, they were a world of menaced children fighting to be grown. The fear was there because it had to be. It was the price of the ticket.” - Ta-Nehisi Coates “We come from a people who knew the meaning of family, of connection, of love. And when the world tried to break that apart, we held on to each other.” - Richard Wagamese “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was b...

The Trump Show of Illusion

July 27, 2025•646 words

“Trump has built his political career on scapegoating immigrants and minorities, while handing the keys of the economy to the richest Americans and the biggest corporations.” - Robert Reich “Trump offers people a reality show instead of reality, and blames the weak instead of challenging the powerful. It’s classic shock doctrine use chaos to distract while the rich cash in.” - Naomi Klein “Economic inequality has exploded in recent decades... populist leaders like Trump exploit this by blamin...

How Donald Trump Uses Presidential Power to Protect Himself

July 26, 2025•291 words

“He governs not with laws but with threats, not with transparency but with secrets and this is how personal rule replaces constitutional rule.” - Jeffrey Toobin “Abuse of power becomes normalized when leaders erase the line between self-interest and national interest and Trump has made that erasure his brand.” - Anne Applebaum “Trump doesn’t see the presidency as a public trust but as a private inheritance something to be weaponized against critics and wielded for personal benefit.” - Masha G...

NeoFacist Nationalism: Trump Administration USA Style

July 24, 2025•847 words

"End Times fascism is not about building something new or better. It is a politics of abandonment. Collapse isn’t feared—it’s welcomed, even weaponized, as a way to clear the field." - Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor "Modern authoritarianism isn’t just about crushing dissent—it’s about cultivating resentment, glorifying violence, and distracting the public with enemies, both real and imagined. It thrives not on hope, but on grievance." - Robert Reich "Fascist movements build their mass base no...

Frenemies & Schadenfreude

July 23, 2025•607 words

"Some people only hate you because of the way other people love you." - Karen Salmansohn "False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade." - Christian Nestell Bovee "People will often forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right—especially if your success highlights their failure." - Morgan Housel "The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves." - Wil...

Canadian Liquefied Natural Gas To Asia!

July 22, 2025•439 words

"You can't be a resource colony forever. Sooner or later, you have to invest in your own sovereignty." - Gordon Laxer "Relying on one market makes you a price taker, not a price maker. Diversification isn't optional, it's survival." - Jeff Rubin "Canada must rethink its role in the global energy market. LNG exports to Asia are not just an economic opportunity, they are a geopolitical necessity." - David Keith "Our future depends not on clinging to old partnerships, but on building new ones w...

Should BRICS Countries Partner with China for Semi-Digital Sovereignty? Absolutely!

July 21, 2025•607 words

“There is no technological sovereignty without collaboration. In a connected world, semi-sovereignty may be the most strategic form of independence.” - Carlos Afonso “The shift toward a multipolar world will be determined not just by military or economic might, but by who writes the rules of the digital order.” - Parag Khanna “Technology is not neutral. It reflects the values, interests, and power structures of those who create it.” - Ruha Benjamin “The internet is becoming less of a global ...

The Illusion of Democracies

July 20, 2025•224 words

“The most effective way to limit the scope of political debate is to confine it to a narrow spectrum and then allow lively debate within that spectrum.” - Gore Vidal “Inverted totalitarianism reverses classical totalitarianism. Instead of the state dominating economic actors, corporate power now dominates the state.” - Sheldon S. Wolin “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”...

The USA President Suing Journalists and Media Outlets

July 19, 2025•296 words

"Democracy dies in darkness." - The Washington Post “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” - Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson Just thinking out loud... Technically, a U.S. president can file lawsuits, but trying to sue journalists or media figures for criticism is not just a legal long shot, it’s politically dangerous. Guaranteed, the owner of the Dow Jones and the Wall Street journal will have all his lawyers and the most elite lawyers in America to double check everyth...

A Slow Unraveling, The Beginning of the End

July 18, 2025•623 words

"The descent into war is a numbing journey. It is a collective spell, a shared hallucination. And once the spell is cast, it has a perverse beauty, a seduction, a cleansing of the chaos of daily life. But it is also a lie." - Chris Hedges "Appeals to patriotism, to national greatness, and to the glories of past empires are used to justify war and conquest today. But the realities are exploitation, suffering, and silence imposed on the subjugated." - Edward Said "You are already in the early s...

Ethic Cleansing and Live Genocide

July 17, 2025•588 words

"The descent into despotism always begins with language. The purveyors of war and genocide wrap their crimes in the words of liberation, security, and democracy." - Chris Hedges "Once weapons were manufactured to fight wars. Now wars are manufactured to sell weapons. And the language of war has become a performance—its victims reduced to collateral damage and its critics to traitors." - Arundhati Roy "Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires—that i...

Working With My Young Men

July 17, 2025•174 words

"Hard work with my sons pays off in more ways than I can count." "The hard work I put in with my sons comes back tenfold—in pride, in love, and in the men they're becoming." "Every drop of effort with my sons builds a future we can all be proud of." The best gift I have ever received in my life is being a father. Nothing makes me feel more thankful than working with my sons, lifting weights with them, going for a run, a swim, or helping my son build his backyard fences at his new house, and t...

Schadenfreude vs Mudita

July 15, 2025•302 words

“The truth is that envy is simply the tax we pay for the success of others.” - Robert Greene “To rejoice in the good fortune of others is to show a generous soul.” - Aristotle “Schadenfreude is the emotional byproduct of insecurity in a status-obsessed society.” - Alain de Botton “Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.” - François de La Rochefoucauld “Mudita means that you can be happy about other people’s happiness. That’s a great gift.” - Thích Nhất Hạnh When ...

A Slow Global Shift to a Multi-polar World?

July 14, 2025•254 words

"The international system is no longer unipolar, but multipolar, and the era of Western dominance is ending." ― Fareed Zakaria "In a multipolar world, regional powers will increasingly define the shape of global order." ― Parag Khanna "Economic power is diffusing faster than political or military power." ― Zbigniew Brzezinski We may find our societies no longer at the mercy of a single towering empire dictating the drum beat of global life. The age of unipolar dominance, the United States w...

Trump, "The Buck Does Not Stop Here!"

July 13, 2025•629 words

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." – Lord Acton "The ends justify the means." – Niccolò Machiavelli "The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Abraham Lincoln "In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act." – George Orwell "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." – Martin Luther King Jr. Truman's "The buck stops here" leadership tenet has been completely reversed in our day and age. Donald Trump is a leader who has...

Wag The Dog, Trump American Apprentice Style

July 12, 2025•381 words

"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." ~ George Orwell "Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state." ~ Noam Chomsky "The media's the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses." ~ Malcolm X There are so much lies from politicians... Do you feel like the truth...

USA President Trump — Africa, We Will Take Your Resources, Thank You!

July 11, 2025•503 words

“Colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a people in its grip and emptying the native's brain of all form and content. By a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures and destroys it.” ~ Frantz Fanon “The West has never been interested in Africa except to exploit it.” ~ Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” ~ W.E.B. Du Bois At the African summit, it became apparent almost immed...

Annihilation by Design: Gaza and the Global Silence

July 10, 2025•354 words

Students of Gaza This isn’t just an attack, it’s erasure. You’re not witnessing a war, you’re witnessing ethnic cleansing, masked in the language of security and self-defense. More than 17,000 students are dead. Over 26,000 children have been maimed or left deeply traumatized, many before they could even comprehend what violence truly means. And as you look at the footage, you see that over 90% of Gaza’s schools are gone, reduced to rubble. These aren’t just numbers to you anymore. They are fut...