[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/sXBXWSnT/The-Question-logo-600x257.png[/img][/center]


[h3]Hub City, Michigan[/h3]


The American Dream is a lie.

I don't mean that in the quasi-socialist, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp plight-of-the-working-class way.

I mean it never existed. 

This nation wasn't founded with egalitarian ideals in mind. It wasn't founded for religious freedom. It wasn’t founded because of high taxes and low representation and all that other bullshit you’ve been spoon-fed in school. It was founded to be a kingdom for those with the wealth of kings and no land to rule. The New World would be theirs for the taking, a compact sealed in the blood of the Natives who had the audacity to call this land home before them. It was decided before the first shots were fired in Lexington and Concord, before the first treaties to the king, before the first chest of tea got chucked into the Boston Harbor, and even before the first anchor dropped off the New England coast.

The royalty of America? They used to have names like Bush, Kennedy, and Rockefeller. But they’ve been displaced by new names: Luthor, Polys, Musk, Bezos. The oil barons and slum lords have been replaced by the tech gods and “revolutionaries” who build their empires on the backs of minimum wage workers. They look like the bleeding edge, but make no mistake on where their loyalties lie. They are the oldest of the old guard, the powers that be, and the keepers of the status quo.

Over the past few years we’ve seen these men, because they are mostly men, command entire governments to do their bidding through political slush funds. Cops act as private armies and promote their interest. When the time comes that the cops can’t do enough, then the real private armies are broken out in the name of that oh so sacred American commandment: thou shall not destroy private property. The events of the last eighteen months have made it very clear how little regard for human life they have. We’re all just collateral damage in the ongoing crusade to expand profits and drive stock prices.



[hr]



Hub City PD Deputy Commissioner Izzy O’Toole shook a cigarette out of the newly opened pack of Marlboro Lights. The wind of Lake Erie ripped down the alley O’Toole was standing in, sputtering the flame on his lighter out. O’Toole cursed and struck it up again. When he did, he saw a familiar figure looking at him from across the alley.

[color=4169E1]“Question: What did the pastor name his cigarette company?”[/color]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/QYRviK4.jpg[/img]

[color=4169E1]“Answer: Holy Smokes.”[/color]


O’Toole ignored the joke and instead blew a thick column of smoke into the air. The faceless man -- The Question -- kept his hands in his trench coat pockets. O’Toole had made his way up the police force through the detective bureau, and had become an expert at reading people. But this man was, pun intended maybe, a real blank when it came to anything. Not just facial cues, but also body language. He knew how to make himself an unreadable tome when it came to thoughts and intentions. 

“Heard you got mixed up with some sort of gun runners the other night,” said O’Toole. “No deaths, but twelve arrested and six sent to the ICU.”

[color=4169E1]“I'm sorry it wasn't more.”[/color]

The Question reached into his trench coat. He pulled out a thick manila folder packed with papers.

[color=4169E1]“And the men I took down were more than just gun runners. They’re front line soldiers for the ‘Ndrangheta. They’re like if the American Mafia were run by Fortune 500 CEOs. They diversify their market share and dabble in everything from trafficking humans, to labor fraud, to loan sharking stockbrokers. They’re worth more than most country’s GDPs.”[/color]

He held up the thick folder and shook it.

[color=4169E1]“And they've found a nice toehold in Hub City. The guys I took down the other night I’d been tracking over the last six months. This is evidence, plenty to take them down and make them stay down.”[/color]

O’Toole took the hefty folder from The Question and tucked it under his arm.

“Jesus, it's as thick as a fucking brick,” said O’Toole. “You ever heard of a USB drive?”

[color=4169E1]“I’m not a fan of electronic data storage. For all the talk of the cloud and encryption, nothing is more hacker-proof than a piece of paper stored in a locked file cabinet.”[/color]

“I’ll see what I can do with this.”

The Question grunted. [color=4169E1]“If my theory is right, it’ll do very little.”[/color]

It was O’Toole’s turn to grunt in reply. The Question may have been nuttier than squirrel shit, but he was right about how justice in Hub City worked. If these gun smugglers were as connected as The Question claimed, a slick lawyer would waltz into the courtroom and get them a sweetheart bail. They’d jump it, of course, and disappear back to Europe never to be seen again.

[color=4169E1]“But there’s more in that folder than just info on ‘Ndrangheta, Deputy. There’s also evidence showing ties to gun running operations and ‘Ndrangheta arms dealers through Eastern Europe and the Middle East and a private military company once called Blackstar… since rebranded as Thornguard.”[/color]

That gave O’Toole pause. He raised an eyebrow at The Question.

“A PMC with shady ties isn’t anything new.”

[color=4169E1]“But a PMC with shady ties, the same PMC who now run day to day operations of Lemire State Penitentiary, a PMC whose shady business partners just so happens to be quietly opening shop here in Hub City. There are no coincidences, O’Toole. It’s all connected.”[/color]

O'Toole raised an eyebrow. “It’s not paranoia if they’re out to get you, right?”

[color=4169E1]“Just read the files, Deputy,”[/color] The Question said as he started down the alley. [color=4169E1]“Follow the money and question everything.”[/color]



[hr]



There will come a time in our world where our governments will fail us, either by design or catastrophe. And on that day, the corporations will swoop in to fill the gap they left behind. A plan nearly fifty years in the making will come to fruition on that day. The decline and inevitable failure of our government institutions is a much bigger game than repealing laws and gerrymandering districts. It’s been a systematic neglect that's lasted for decades, all orchestrated to erode the power the government has and the peoples trust in it. They talked about the new world order in the 90’s like it was some abstract boogeyman, but it’s here. And it's always been here. You want to know what the new world order is? It’s not the Bilderberg Group, or Bohemian Grove, or the FreeMasons. The new world order is Disney and Apple, it’s Lexcorp and Amazon. The companies and products that have an iron hold on your day to day life. They’re weaving a net even now, linking commerce and politics with crime and corruption. It’s happening in front of our very eyes, slowly and surely and completely under the radar. And when the time comes and the net is dropped, we all end up entangled in its uncaring capitalistic snare. Long live our corporate overlords.

My name is Vic Sage, and I’m asking you to question authority, question your reality, [i]Question Everything.[/i]