Free Republic

Calling Raskin, “a rascal,’ is missing the pitch.
He is one slimy piece of dishonesty with, what the English say,
“bloody cheek!”

He's no Desert Drifter, but he puts together some interesting videos.

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:00	·	Hey everyone, welcome to Sidetrack
0:01	·	Adventures. This is Steve.
0:04	·	We are deep in the Mojave Desert, a
0:07	·	place filled with strange stories and
0:09	·	forgotten relics. And today we're going
0:12	·	to be visiting one of the weirdest of
0:13	·	them all, the Mojave Megaphone.
0:17	·	Nobody knows who built it, and nobody
0:19	·	knows why it's there. Some say it's art,
0:23	·	others think it's a leftover from a
0:25	·	secret military experiment, and a few
0:27	·	believe it is something else. entirely.
0:33	·	We are starting out today between
0:34	·	Barstow and Baker near the entrance to
0:37	·	Aftton Canyon.
0:43	·	This is the entrance to Aftton Canyon
0:45	·	off in the distance
0:48	·	and traveling under the bridge here is
0:51	·	the historic Mojave Road.
0:54	·	But we're going to be pretty much
0:55	·	heading in this direction following the
0:57	·	railroad tracks for a while.
1:07	·	In just a minute, we'll get away from
1:09	·	the actual tracks. We don't really want
1:11	·	to be driving here when a train shows
1:12	·	up.
1:15	·	This is the Union Pacific line, but it
1:17	·	was originally the Los Angeles and Salt
1:19	·	Lake Railroad.
1:22	·	But the reason we're traveling out here
1:24	·	today, the Mojave Megaphone, also known
1:28	·	as the Sentinel Enigma,
1:30	·	has puzzled travelers for decades.
1:33	·	Perched high on a lonely ridge, it
1:36	·	stares silently across one of the most
1:37	·	remote stretches of desert in
1:39	·	California.
1:41	·	No one knows exactly who built it, why
1:43	·	it's here, or what purpose it once
1:46	·	served.
1:50	·	As we'll see, this thing is pretty
1:52	·	remote and not exactly easy to get to.
1:58	·	Whoever put it there went through a lot
2:00	·	of effort. And that's part of what makes
2:02	·	it so mysterious because getting it out
2:05	·	here was no easy task.
2:14	·	This is the first train we've seen since
2:15	·	we've been out here. The railroad tracks
2:18	·	kind of cut the desert in half as there
2:20	·	aren't a lot of good places to get from
2:22	·	one side of the tracks to the other.
2:26	·	You may have to go miles in either
2:28	·	direction to find a crossing.
2:34	·	And when there's a rare crossing that
2:35	·	goes over the tracks, some of these
2:38	·	trains are quite long and you could be
2:40	·	waiting for a while to get to the other
2:41	·	side.
2:48	·	Luckily for us though, we don't need to
2:50	·	cross the tracks today. We'll be staying
2:51	·	on the south side of them.
3:02	·	But speaking of the railroad, the
3:03	·	railroad actually ties into one of the
3:05	·	theories about what the Mojave Megaphone
3:07	·	might be and why it's out here in the
3:10	·	first place.
3:12	·	Some people have theorized that the
3:14	·	Mojave Megaphone was actually built for
3:17	·	the railroad.
3:21	·	According to this theory, trains
3:24	·	carrying hazardous chemicals or fuel
3:26	·	would pass near here, and the Mojave
3:28	·	megaphone might have been used to
3:30	·	project a siren, a signal that a
3:33	·	dangerous train was on its way, or that
3:35	·	a spill had occurred somewhere down the
3:37	·	line.
3:43	·	But here's the problem. No records of
3:46	·	such a system exist. And as we'll see
3:48	·	when we get out to it, the structure
3:51	·	doesn't match any known design for
3:52	·	railroad sirens.
3:55	·	Plus, it really isn't that close to the
3:57	·	railroad. You'd think if it was a
3:59	·	warning, they'd put it closer.
4:07	·	My guess is it's probably not a warning
4:08	·	horn, but something else entirely.
4:17	·	We've just come to a spot where you can
4:18	·	see the road had been paved at one time.
4:26	·	This is called Crusero, and this is
4:28	·	where the Union Pacific and the Tonapa
4:30	·	and Tidewater railroads met.
4:36	·	For a while, there was a small town
4:37	·	here. It had a post office, a telegraph
4:40	·	station, and a few hearty people who
4:43	·	called this blistering outpost home. But
4:46	·	when the Tonapawa and Tidewater shut
4:48	·	down in the early 1940s, the trains
4:51	·	stopped meeting here and the town died.
4:56	·	And looking around, there's not much
4:57	·	evidence that anything was ever here.
5:00	·	Though some of these streets are still
5:02	·	labeled on the map, such as Main Street
5:04	·	and First Street,
5:09	·	but other than this grid of roads in the
5:11	·	middle of nowhere, you would never guess
5:14	·	a town was right Here.
5:39	·	There are a few cement blocks over here.
5:42	·	probably what's left of the railroad
5:44	·	sighting for the Tonopah and Tidewater.
5:48	·	Maybe this sign could give us a little
5:49	·	bit more information, but I don't think
5:52	·	we'll be reading it today.
5:59	·	But you can still make out the old
6:00	·	railroad bed here.
6:05	·	I looked to see if I could find any
6:07	·	photos of the old sighting here, but
6:09	·	unfortunately I wasn't able to find
6:10	·	anything.
6:15	·	You can see the Union Pacific line here.
6:17	·	After the Tonopon and Tidewater crossed
6:19	·	the Union Pacific, it would continue
6:21	·	south from here. And its southern
6:23	·	terminus was the town of Lello,
6:27	·	which isn't too far from here. I believe
6:29	·	there were only two or three other stops
6:31	·	between here and Lello.
6:35	·	But since this was the intersection of
6:36	·	two major railroads, as you could see,
6:38	·	this was a pretty big sighting here.
6:42	·	But we need to head a little bit further
6:44	·	south to those mountains in the
6:46	·	distance.
7:19	·	And we finally arrived. There it is up
7:22	·	on the hill up ahead.
7:24	·	The mysterious Mojave Megaphone.
7:34	·	Let's go ahead and climb up and get a
7:36	·	closer look at it.
7:41	·	There is some sort of cross over here.
7:43	·	Looks like it says JFW and dirt bag
7:46	·	crew.
7:52	·	It looks like there's a little bit of a
7:53	·	trail here.
7:57	·	As you can see, it's not exactly easy to
7:59	·	get up there, which just adds to the
8:01	·	mystery.
8:04	·	Getting back into the theories of what
8:07	·	this could be, this part of the Mojave
8:10	·	has seen just about every kind of
8:11	·	testing you can imagine. Weapons
8:14	·	testing, flight experiments, even secret
8:17	·	training grounds going back to World War
8:19	·	II.
8:21	·	Some people think this megaphone might
8:24	·	have been an acoustic monitor, maybe
8:27	·	something to measure shock waves from
8:28	·	explosions or the sonic booms of test
8:31	·	flights.
8:35	·	Others think it was used to relay
8:36	·	warning sirens across the desert, maybe
8:39	·	part of an early warning network for
8:41	·	chemical weapons testing.
8:44	·	As we saw with Crusero, that settlement
8:47	·	was there until the 1940s. So, if there
8:49	·	was some sort of World War II era
8:52	·	testing going on, there was a settlement
8:54	·	not too far from here.
8:58	·	To me, that all sounds far-fetched.
9:02	·	But then again, so does a giant metal
9:05	·	megaphone bolted to a mountain in the
9:07	·	middle of nowhere.
9:14	·	Whoever carried it up here had to carry
9:17	·	it over this kind of terrain.
9:20	·	And each section of it weighs over 300
9:23	·	lb.
9:30	·	As far as this thing having something to
9:32	·	do with the military, there's no
9:34	·	paperwork, no photos, and no sign the
9:37	·	military ever had anything right here.
9:42	·	So, another idea is that this is some
9:44	·	kind of survey or signaling device.
9:49	·	If you look at old maps, this ridge
9:52	·	lines up almost perfectly north to
9:54	·	south.
9:57	·	Though, it doesn't look like the rocks
9:58	·	that it's bolted to line up the same
10:00	·	way.
10:07	·	I just checked. It's about 15 degrees
10:10	·	off north to south.
10:19	·	But looking inside the megaphone,
10:22	·	there's a metal crossbar that almost
10:24	·	looks like a sight.
10:38	·	Here you can see the welding job on this
10:40	·	thing. Not exactly the best welding ever
10:43	·	done. And the two halves are bolted
10:46	·	together.
10:53	·	And here we can see where the megaphone
10:55	·	is bolted into the boulders.
11:06	·	Some people think this might have been
11:07	·	used as a fixed point for a
11:09	·	triangulation or to mark a boundary, but
11:13	·	nobody's ever been able to figure out
11:14	·	what it's supposed to line up with.
11:32	·	And of course, there are some people who
11:34	·	take the mystery even further, saying it
11:37	·	was built to send or receive signals
11:40	·	from UFOs.
11:47	·	I would hope that aliens who could
11:49	·	travel across the stars could do a
11:51	·	better welding job than this though. But
11:53	·	then again, who are we to understand the
11:55	·	minds of aliens?
12:06	·	It looks like unfortunately some people
12:08	·	have shot the Mojave megaphone as well.
12:16	·	If nothing else, there is a pretty great
12:18	·	view from up here. But then again, when
12:21	·	you're up here and you see all this
12:23	·	emptiness,
12:25	·	you know there is no way this was a
12:28	·	siren to warn anyone of anything because
12:31	·	there is no one around here to warn.
12:43	·	This area is just so remote and even the
12:46	·	railroad and the old settlement of
12:48	·	Crusero are miles from here.
13:00	·	Another thing working against a lot of
13:02	·	the theories out there about the
13:04	·	megaphone is it doesn't seem to be as
13:06	·	old as people think.
13:10	·	The mystery itself wasn't even really
13:12	·	known until the early 2000s.
13:16	·	Desert magazine, which famously covered
13:18	·	everything big and small in the Mojave,
13:22	·	doesn't appear to have ever even
13:23	·	mentioned the megaphone before it
13:25	·	stopped publishing in 1985.
13:29	·	A mystery like this doesn't seem to be
13:32	·	something they would have overlooked.
13:44	·	In my research, I tried to find the
13:46	·	earliest possible mention of the Mojave
13:48	·	Megaphone that I could find. And the
13:50	·	farthest back that I was able to find
13:52	·	anything was 1990.
13:55	·	And this is where if you want the Mojave
13:57	·	Megaphone to remain a mystery to you,
14:00	·	you should probably stop watching.
14:03	·	Long before anyone had called this the
14:05	·	Mojave Megaphone, in December 1990, the
14:09	·	Desert Dispatch newspaper in Barstow,
14:11	·	California, printed an article titled
14:14	·	Mojave Desert Holds Many Secrets, and
14:17	·	one of those secrets was called The
14:20	·	Drum.
14:24	·	The article goes on to quote a Bureau of
14:26	·	Land Management ranger who states that
14:29	·	he had met the maker of the drum, what
14:31	·	is now called the Mojave Megaphone, a
14:34	·	year earlier and that he brings up skins
14:36	·	to make drum heads and wires it to a
14:39	·	generator powered amplifier.
14:46	·	The article also confirmed that this was
14:48	·	brought up by hand, which certainly
14:51	·	shows some dedication.
14:57	·	Unfortunately, the article doesn't
14:59	·	mention the creator's name, but unless
15:01	·	the ranger was making up the story for
15:03	·	whatever reason, it appears that this
15:06	·	was built to be a drum.
15:10	·	Why this spot was chosen and why they
15:12	·	did it is still a mystery. But at least
15:15	·	despite what the History Channel might
15:17	·	say, we could be pretty sure that aliens
15:20	·	didn't build this.
15:30	·	And if we bang on it, we can see how it
15:32	·	would make a pretty good drum or a bell.
15:46	·	While the Mojave Megaphone probably
15:48	·	wasn't part of a secret military
15:49	·	experiment, a railroad warning system,
15:53	·	or a device to communicate with aliens,
15:55	·	it still remains a fascinating mystery.
15:58	·	Considering the effort it took to build
16:00	·	it and place it here, and the fact that
16:03	·	its creator has stayed anonymous ever
16:04	·	since,
16:06	·	it's still one of the most intriguing
16:08	·	sites in the Mojave.
16:22	·	Of course, after saying that, I don't
16:24	·	know how well it shows up on the camera,
16:26	·	but almost directly in line with the
16:28	·	Mojave Megaphone, there is something in
16:31	·	the distance that looks to be man-made.
16:33	·	So, I guess real quick, we have to go
16:35	·	check that out.
16:48	·	We've made it to the area where it
16:50	·	looked like there was something man-made
16:51	·	that the Mojave megaphone was pointing
16:53	·	to. The Mojave Megaphone is back in this
16:56	·	direction.
16:58	·	And when we turn around here, yeah,
17:00	·	there was something man-made here. There
17:03	·	is a tractor with a no trespassing sign
17:05	·	and some trailers.
17:12	·	Well, unless the builder of the Mojave
17:14	·	Megaphone knew that in the future
17:16	·	there'd be a tractor and some trailers
17:18	·	here, I don't think it's pointing to
17:20	·	anything. So, that's our look at the
17:23	·	mystery of the Mojave Megaphone. Thank
17:25	·	you so much for watching. If you enjoyed
17:27	·	the video, please give it a thumbs up,
17:28	·	consider subscribing, and we'll see you
17:30	·	next

“First on the agenda should be firing all of the “prison staff,” that allowed Hillary to kill Epstein!” Someone told me that yesterday,

From what I’ve read, I wouldn’t say he’s ‘hardcore atheist’.

I think a lot of people say they ‘don’t believe in God’ simply because they don’t accept the various ‘Gods’ that organized religions have presented to them. That doesn’t mean they don’t have spiritual beliefs.

Thankfully, none of this was around in my early schooling days of the 70’s and early 80’s.

Maybe someone should ask him if it is true.

So, he comes from a long line of Rufuseniks.

I was shocked when I found this was a “club” in our high school in what I thought was a conservative town back in the 90’s. Nobody cared.

Come now, CBS and NYT have the same access and nothing came of their discovery.

Very cool, if true.

Clint Eastwood has been in some great films, and I’d really like to believe he’s found Christ.

Yeah, they should have defined the acronym early on, but this is a continuation in a series of pieces about queer school indoctrination.

From Part 1:

GSA clubs” – basically homosexual and transgender “clubs” for students –have been embedded for years in nearly every high school in America. They are now in many middle schools and even some elementary schools. These “clubs” are the core tool of the LGBT movement’s agenda targeting children.

“GSA” originally stood for “Gay Straight Alliance.” But over the last decades the name has morphed into “Genders and Sexualities Alliance” to reflect the bizarre and depraved direction where they are openly taking kids. (In some schools, less obvious names are used such as Rainbow Club, Diversity Club, Spectrum Club, or Equity Club.)

You think she can fund discovery?

I think the anti-Trump forces have essentially unlimited funds - but they also have dozens of highly-skilled left wing lawyers who would, in a case like this, work for free.

Amen. Thank you for posting.

Until the irrevocable truth is found, all of this will be ding, prettied up, bowtied, front row seat degrading orange man bad, ding.

It rings true to me, because it echoes my own experience.

I was not as successful and rich as Clint Eastwood. I was agnostic edging toward atheist for 40 years.

Then, I got into a pickle I could not solve. I asked for help from God. Things immediately got better. My impossible problem was solved.

I had been raised a Christian but I had left the Church in college. God never left me, I just kept pushing him away.

When I asked for help, he was there.

Maybe this is made up. It is very close to what I experienced.

😢

“”Voice maybe sounds too young to me, and testimony too poished””

That isn’t meant to be the voice of Clint Eastwood - it’s someone TALKING about him....

Welp, lessee...I am a halfbreed Mojave. Were I to be ‘ogf:, I could smile and call y’all feriners.
I don’t. I am an American, born and bred like you

As an American born. I am a Nativist. Born and bred go first, get first, never last. Everybody else that comes here will have to prove themselves, by trade or marketable skills and educated, higher than 6th grade, and investing in the proper way to become a citizen.
(Using those criteria I might be wrong but all those muzzies cannot satisfy the criteria.)

In my years, I have dealt with Eastern Europeans seeking political and religious asylum. I was never prouder than to have met and worked with them. They were the real deal. They got “over the wall”, made it to safe passage to America. They were scientists, so they had a few aces in their hands.

Enough. Good night.

When I read Roe v Wade and saw the “reasoning” I then and there diagnosed Evil . There was no law in that decision but arrogant dismissal of it aplenty.