Tom Budinger

A farmer, tired of rats destroying his crops and stealing his grain, came up with a clever but cruel plan. He threw a dead pig into a deep, abandoned well. Attracted by the smell, nearly 80 rats rushed into the well to feast on the carcass. At first, everything seemed wonderful. There was more than enough food for everyone, and the rats ate until they were satisfied. But when the food was gone, they discovered something terrifying. The walls of the well were too steep to climb. They were trapped. Days passed, and hunger turned into desperation. Desperation turned into aggression. The rats that had once eaten peacefully beside one another began fighting for survival. Eventually, they began killing and eating each other. One by one, their numbers dwindled until only a single rat remained. Its eyes were bloodshot, and it had survived by consuming its own kind. Then the farmer returned, lowered a rope into the well, and rescued the last surviving rat. But he didn't save it out of kindness or compassion. The farmer knew the rat had learned to survive by hunting other rats. When he released it into his fields, it would continue killing its own kind instead of eating his grain. The farmer had turned his enemy into his greatest weapon. And that is the lesson of divide and conquer. Those who control the trap don't need to fight the battles themselves. They simply create the conditions in which others turn against one another. The rats believed their enemies were the other rats. They never realized that the true enemy was the farmer who had put them there. The greatest danger isn't always the enemy standing in front of you. Sometimes it's the one who created the conflict and stands quietly watching you destroy each other. Before you turn against your neighbor because of their political beliefs, ask yourself who benefits from keeping Americans divided. While we fight each other over Republican and Democrat, we may be overlooking those who profit from the conflict. Perhaps the real question isn't which side you're on, but who built the well—and why they want us fighting at the bottom of it. 🎩 Credit to perspective owner Was in Betty’s FB memories. Applicable for the times we live in… #truth

We are living through a massive information crisis in which at least half the population is being systematically misinformed, making any sane national debate increasingly difficult. Without a shared factual foundation, there is nothing to discuss. People are not merely drawing different conclusions from the same evidence. They are living in entirely different realities. That is what makes the Fauci story so tragic. He caused untold harm, yet millions of people know almost nothing about it. We can debate precisely how large a role Fauci played in the creation of Covid, but half the country does not even know that Covid came from a lab. We are therefore several steps removed from the basic conditions required to have an intelligent discussion. Other facts are even more black and white. Fauci’s private diary contradicts what he told the public. His own words reveal a man of almost limitless narcissism. These are not matters of interpretation. They are documented facts. Yet we still cannot have a national conversation about them because the media either refuses to report them or actively lies about them. Anyone who is not on Twitter, which is most people, may never encounter the underlying evidence at all. The result is that I increasingly find it almost impossible to discuss any of this with ordinary people, whether family members, acquaintances, or people at events or birthday parties. Unless someone has followed the evidence closely, there is no common starting point. Before you can debate what happened, you first have to dismantle at least ten years of falsehoods and omissions. I do not know how this ends, but it is not sustainable. A country cannot function indefinitely when its people are no longer capable of discussing almost anything beyond sports on the basis of shared factual knowledge.

10 years ago today. Champions forever. Relive the final 3:39 of Cavs vs. Warriors from 2016.

I don't know what's happening inside the lake, but there's an important meeting. 🥹😅

It's all about technique....

📱🔉

Cats.. 😅

JPMORGAN CEO DIMON SAYS BANKS WANT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD WITH CRYPTO FIRMS

Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Fujifilm, their closest competitor, had the same problem: digital cameras killed film. Fujifilm's response was to repurpose its chemical expertise. The same particle science that put emulsion on film now produces CMP slurry, the polishing compound that flattens every chip layer to atomic smoothness. Nearly half the world's copper CMP slurry comes from Fujifilm. They spent $700 million acquiring a high purity process chemicals business from Entegris and built a new plant in Kumamoto, right next to TSMC's first Japanese fab. Revenue target for electronic materials by 2030: $3.3 billion. While Kodak saw a dying business, Fujifilm saw the chemistry underneath.

If your position at The Washington Post was recently eliminated, please consider applying to write for The Babylon Bee. We are seeking applicants experienced in writing fictional content presented in the tone and style of a legitimate news organization.

It's time we start dressing like this again.