(credit to u/axrevolutionai for suggesting I make a full post for this)

This is a big one, for multiple reasons.

I am disabled, and live with my mother and stepfather, paying rent from my Social Security disability checks. To their perpetual credit, the house is paid off and they say I'll always have a home here. I am forever grateful for that. Anyway...

My stepfather needed triple (which became quadruple) bypass surgery. He was driven to the hospital early this morning, before sunrise.

However, as my mother was driving him, she turned too soon, and got two tires over the edge of the driveway. They had to call a tow truck, which had to call another to help. And because they couldn't afford it, I had to pay for them, well over $300 worth that I can't afford right now either.

Then it got worse. On the way there, they passed some homeless guy, who got so angry at them for whatever reason that he threw his flashlight at their car, and not only caused serious scratches on the door, but the back panel of a side mirror got completely dislodged, exposing the wiring. Normally Dad would go to a junkyard for a replacement part, but he's currently in the hospital, per above.

I'd share photos, but I don't want to risk self-doxxing.

On top of all this, while the surgery did go very well (thank God), he is currently intubated on a fucking VENTILATOR, for reasons I do not understand. He is expected to be in the hospital for five to seven days. I'll be visiting him once he wakes up.

We don't know what we're going to do. Can GME please fucking go TO THE MOON! already?! That's my only backup plan, and I bought in (over ten shares) because I was desperate and I trust YOU guys! Hell, even if I sold right now, it wouldn't be instantaneous--Computershare would snail-mail me a physical check, and having never done this before, I don't know if the taxes on that income would be deducted for me, or I'd have to make note of this on my 1040 or 1099 later.

Is it possible to duct-tape the back of the mirror in case we have to go somewhere when it rains? We have the car under a carport right now, so there's that. Normally Dad would order and attach the new one, but, well...

Oh, and the car's not insured. Insurance was cancelled a month or two ago because we can't fucking afford anything right now. Because of all of Dad's testing and preparation for this surgery.

Oh, and the warranty on the car has expired because it's about four years old.

God, I'm so frustrated right now. I feel powerless. Please pray for my family's well-being.

Mods, I apologize for the rant. Delete this if you must. But I don't know where else to turn.

(Update: He is OFF the ventilator!)

Knowing what I know now, I can't help but wonder if bursting economic "bubbles" are the elites' way of punishing countries for doing too well without their permission, and are their way of taking us down a few pegs and leaving us worse off than before.

Let's use another country as an example.

A few weeks ago, I saw an anime called Gunbuster, released in 1988-89, for the very first time. You could easily tell it was riding high on the bubble economy the country was going through at the time--it is surging with national pride, background details saying that Japan has basically taken over the world through economic power rather than warfare. As was said in Die Hard, released that same year, "Pearl Harbor didn't work out, so we got you with tape decks."

But around 1992, the bubble burst, and Japan fell into a massive recession so hard, that country still has yet to fully recover from it.

Note that I am absolutely not an economist. Economics, especially macroeconomics, are absolutely waaaaay over my head--I have never been able to make much sense of them, which is one reason I'm making this topic. Apologies for any frustration this may cause.

Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to tie some great anime into our biggest enemies. Who knows.

Gunbuster is fantastic, by the way--it's only six episodes, and I cannot recommend it enough, including the excellent English dub that was finally made last year, cast completely by unknowns looking for their big break, and all of them knocked it out of the park. Don't look up clips, just watch it.

I've been hearing about this for a while, and I've never come close to caring about the real-world stock market. And since, as far as I can tell, there is no .win equivalent of r/Superstonk, I figured I may as well ask you guys.

Here's what I do know, from what I've gathered:

Apparently, GameStop, the chain of video game stores, is one of the very, very few organizations NOT owned in some form or fashion by BlackRock, Vanguard, Rockefeller, or anything else of that nature.

Also apparently, Swamp hedge funds are all betting against GameStop, placing "shorts" and/or "puts" on the company so that they'll make money if GME goes down in price or outright fails altogether. I may have some terminology wrong on this point, so please forgive me if I have--again, this is NOT my forte.

I am told that when the Great Awakening happens and companies start to fail left and right because of the chaos, this will somehow make GameStop's stock skyrocket to astronomical levels; as they say, TO THE MOON! And to Hold On for Dear Life (that is, do not sell) until that happens, possibly even AFTER it happens, because owning so much of that stock will make tons of corrupt hedge funds fail in doing so...somehow.

I didn't buy it for a second. As much uncomfortable truths as I've realized since joining GAW back when it was on Reddit and I went by another name, that just seemed like a bridge too far--that moment where the implausibility of the events in a book or movie shatters your suspension of disbelief and you're just taken completely out of the work.

But again, I didn't know anything about how the real-world stock market. This is all completely over my head. It's one reason I made this topic.

And then, earlier this year, I saw a comment here, comparing it to buying a lottery ticket. If it doesn't go TO THE MOON!, then worst-case scenario, you're out a few bucks. But if it does...your family could be so much better off.

Not the best analogy for someone who doesn't like to gamble, since "the house always wins." And yet, it stuck in my head.

So, a few months ago, I decided to take a chance.

Via Computershare, I bought and DRS'd one share of GME. One. After fees, it ran me just over $20. Feels really weird knowing I'm a minority-owner of a large corporation...

But my family is in serious debt. Even after signing on for a debt-relief agency (and thank you all SO much for the advice, guys, seriously), I still felt like I had to do something to help them.

At the time of this writing, GME's price has dropped about 40% since the time I bought it.

Yet I hold on. I mean...what if you're RIGHT?

I'll probably buy some more soon. I've got some personal matters to take care of in a couple of weeks and I've been saving money for that, but once that's complete, I guess it couldn't hurt to "buy the dip."

But it continues to baffle me how this is even supposed to work. How does this screw our enemies over?

That's what this topic is for. Please, explain it to me.

I've shared this story before, but basically, I was a leftist in my teenage years, because I was naive to how the world really worked.

"Why are there homeless? Just build more homes!" That sort of thing. I was an idiot.

"Why are we spending so much on defense? It's not like anyone's going to ATTACK us!" as I also used to think.

I was even going to vote for Ralph Nader in 2000, my first election where I was eligible to vote, but since it was my first, I forgot to actually register to vote.

And then it happened.

My freshman year of college.

I came into the student union building that morning.

Everyone was looking at the projection TV.

The World Trade Center was on fire. Apparently a plane had hit it.

I had to get to class, so I didn't see the second plane hit. But I do recall that cnn.com was so swamped that day, the front page was running the most bare-bones of UIs.

Leaving aside what we know now and what may come to light in the future, that is what made me take a good long look at my beliefs.

Over the next couple of years, I gradually became a warmongering Republican. I supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq for that reason--I didn't care about oil, I just wanted our enemies crushed so thoroughly that no one would ever dare to even THINK about crossing us again.

Fast-forward several years, and I'm asking myself what the fuck is taking so long with Iraq and such. I don't buy into conspiracy crap and secret families just yet, but I'm really starting to ask some questions.

Skip ahead some more. It's 2015. Donald J. Trump comes down that escalator. I'm wondering what the hell this guy's doing.

I don't support him at first--being from Texas, I was a Ted Cruz guy. I was still blind to the whole Uniparty thing, but I discover Sundance's Conservative Treehouse and similar sites, and they lay out why Trump is the only candidate that truly matters. I promise to vote for him if he ends up the nominee, which I do.

October 2017. The Q operation begins. I learn about the GreatAwakening subreddit, using a name I don't use anymore, but I don't buy it at first--imageboards are notorious for plausible-sounding LARPs, such as the infamous John Titor; fun to think about, could make some excellent fiction based on them (including one of my favorite anime), and I just wrote this off as one of them.

And then Trump starts dropping little hints. The infamous "tippy-top" comment comes to mind.

If not for Donald Trump himself doing this, I probably never would have come around on Q. I know he has to maintain plausible deniability, even to this day--and he'll probably have to deny it for the rest of his life, because OpSec--but those little nods gradually led me down the rabbit hole.

And now I'm here.

I still don't understand a lot of what Q says. Guys like SemperSupra make some valiant efforts, but a lot of the connections here even now still leave me scratching my head as to how any of that makes even a lick of sense. But Trump himself shows me that this is the way to go.

The COVID-19 lockdowns shook my faith, I admit that. I'm only human. I was as scared as most of the people, having never experienced anything like that before. A truly surreal time that I pray we never have to experience again--but Q helped me steel myself so that I didn't take any of their bioweapon shots. I caught the virus in late 2020, followed proper nutrition and the Zelenko protocol, and haven't been infected by anything since.

After Biden "won" the election, and got inaugurated, I was very, very close to giving up. I thought the country had been lost.

I despaired for a while. Lost in my little vices, needing something to distract me from the mental and spiritual pain. I should have prayed more, but I realized that after the fact.

And then, Donald Trump announced he was running again, for 2024.

And he started ending his rally speeches with this strange little instrumental I'd never heard before.

You guys figured out what the song was.

The artist had the stupid and forced pun of a name, "Richard Feelgood."

The song, lowercase intentional, was "Wwg1wga."

Trump could have chosen ANY song to end on. He could have used Hold On, I'm Comin' again.

But he chose a song named for the Q team's catchphrase.

We're going to be all right, lads. It will take longer than I would have liked, but we're going to be all right.

By the way, that John Titor thing above? The excellent fiction I talked about?

I want you all to check out an anime called Steins;Gate. Arrange a watch party here or whatever--it is an absolute must-see for everyone here, if you can find it, because it is VERY relevant to your interests. It honestly makes me wonder how much the author knew. To say any more would be a hell of a spoiler. Just watch all 24 episodes.

And yes, the semicolon is part of the title--I don't get it either.