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Adventures With Danno, 3/14/26
"Massive Price Increases At Dollar Tree!"
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So, we rise from the rubble...
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Saturday, March 14, 2026
"This Species is Amusing Itself to Death. The Addictive Contaminated Media Reality"
"This Species is Amusing Itself to Death.
The Addictive Contaminated Media Reality"
By Dr. Gary G. Kohls
“And when they found our shadows (grouped ‘round the TV sets), they ran down every lead; they repeated every test; they checked out all the data in their lists. And then the alien anthropologists admitted they were still perplexed, but on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise they logged the only explanation left: This species has amused itself to death.” - Roger Waters
“Apathy and indifference are nurtured in the modern age as most peoples’ free time is frittered away with worthless trivia like ball games, computer games, movies and soaps, and fiddling with their mobile phones. These distractions might be fun, but after most of them you’ve learnt nothing of any value, and remain ignorant, malleable and suggestible, which is just how the elites want you.” – Clive Maund
“A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed… When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.” – Dresden James
“A lie gets halfway around the world before
the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
– Winston Churchill
"30 years ago (1985) Neil Postman (a professor of communications arts and sciences at New York University – until his death in 2003) wrote the best-selling book “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”. (Free download below.) The book exposed, among other things, the subtle but profound dangers to the developing mind from the mesmerizing (and addictive) commercial television industry.
The lessons from that book have essentially been ignored by the amoral and corrupted sociopathic capitalist system that says “damn the torpedoes/full steam ahead” and blindly and greedily promotes unlimited growth no matter what the costs and who or what gets hurt long–term in the resource-extractive, exploitive and permanently polluting processes.
But Postman’s thesis applies even more strongly today to the current internet/computer/ age-inappropriate, pornographic sex and pornographic violence-saturated televangelist/political-contaminated media reality with which the prophetic Postman was properly alarmed.
SOMA, the Drug That Predicted Prozac by 50 Years: In the classic “Brave New World” (1932) Aldous Huxley wrote about the new form of totalitarianism that has now come to pass in the developed world, thanks to the privatized profit-driven, drug, medical and psychiatric corporations whose practitioners were once (naively or altruistically?) mainly concerned with relieving human suffering and trying to holistically and permanently cure their distressed patients’ ailments (rather than lucratively “managing” said “clients” as permanently paying consumers of unaffordable prescription drugs). Nearly 30 years after he wrote the book, Huxley said,
“And it seems to me perfectly in the cards that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda, brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods.” Neil Postman’s very last sentence of his book concerned the prescription drug-infested victims of the new form of totalitarianism that Huxley had described in “Brave New World”.
Of course, Huxley’s book was all about his imaginary psychotropic drug SOMA that Prozac’s makers and promoters in the late 1980s to falsely claim to make its swallowers “feel better than well”. One of the characters in Brave New World said: “And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always Soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always Soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears; that’s what Soma is.”
Postman ended his book by writing: “What afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.” A couple of years after the publication of Postman’s book, Roger Waters (of “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” fame) released a “concept” album that was inspired by the book. He titled the album “Amused to Death”. The lyrics of the title track are as follows:
“Amused To Death”
by Roger Waters
"Doctor, Doctor what’s wrong with me?
This supermarket life is getting long.
What is the heart life of a color TV?
What is the shelf life of a teenage
queen?
Ooh western woman,
Ooh western girl,
News hound sniffs the air
When Jessica Hahn goes down
He latches on to that symbol of
detachment
Attracted by the peeling away of
feeling
The celebrity of the abused shell
of the belle
Ooh western woman
Ooh western girl
And the children of Melrose strut
their stuff
Is absolute zero cold enough?
And out in the valley warm and clean
The little ones sit by their TV screens
No thoughts to think
No tears to cry
All sucked dry down to the very
last breath.
Bartender what is wrong with me,
Why I am so out of breath?
The captain said excuse me ma’am,
This species has amused itself to death
We watched the tragedy unfold,
We did as we were told.
We bought and sold,
It was the greatest show on earth.
But then it was over,
We oohed and aahed,
We drove our racing cars,
We ate our last few jars of caviar,
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed look-out
Spied a flickering light
Our last hurrah.
And when they found our shadows,
Grouped ‘round the TV sets,
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test,
They checked out all the data in
their lists.
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed.
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise,
They logged the only explanation left.
This species has amused itself to death.
No tears to cry,
No feelings left,
This species has amused itself to
death…"
○
Freely download “Amusing Ourselves to Death:
Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”, by Neil Postman, here:
"The Psychology of Manipulation: 6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"
"The Psychology of Manipulation:
6 Lessons from the Master of Propaganda"
by Ryan Matters
"Edward L. Bernays was an American business consultant who is widely recognized as the father of public relations. Bernays was one of the men responsible for “selling” World War 1 to the American public by branding it as a war that was necessary to “make the world safe for democracy”. During the 1920s, Bernays consulted for a number of major corporations, helping to boost their business through expertly crafted marketing campaigns aimed at influencing public opinion.
In 1928, Edward Bernays published his famous book, "Propaganda", in which he outlined the theories behind his successful “public relations” endeavours. The book provides insights into the phenomenon of crowd psychology and outlines effective methods for manipulating people’s habits and opinions. For a book that’s almost 100 years old, "Propaganda" could not be more relevant today. In fact, its relevance is a testament to the unchanging nature of human psychology.
One of the key takeaways of the book is that mind control is an important aspect of any democratic society. Indeed, Bernays maintains that without the “conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses”, democracy simply would not “work”.
We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. According to Bernays, those doing the “governing” constitute an invisible ruling class that “understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses”.
In "Propaganda", Bernays draws on the work of Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Walter Lippmann, and Sigmund Freud (his uncle!), outlining the power of mass psychology and how it may be used to manipulate the “group mind”. If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?
I recently explored this topic in an essay about how occult rituals and predictive programming are used to manipulate the collective consciousness, influencing the thoughts, beliefs and actions of large groups of people, resulting in the creation of what occultists call “egregores”. Here I have extracted some key insights from Bernays in an attempt to show how his book "Propaganda" is, in many ways, the playbook used by the globalist cryptocracy to process the group mind of the masses.
1. If You Manipulate The Leader Of A Group, The People Will Follow: Bernays tells us that one of the easiest ways to influence the thoughts and actions of large numbers of people is to first influence their leader. If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.
In fact, one of the most firmly established principles of mass psychology is that the “group mind” does not “think”, rather, it acts according to impulses, habits and emotions. And when deciding on a certain course of action, its first impulse is to follow the example of a trusted leader.
Humans are, by nature a group species. Even when we are alone, we have a deep sense of group belonging. Whether they consciously know it or not, much of what people do is an effort to conform to the ideals of their chosen group so as to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging.
This exact method of influencing the leader and watching the people follow has been used extensively throughout the last few years. One notable instance that comes to mind is the horrendously inaccurate epidemiological models created by Neil Ferguson, which formed the basis for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s lockdown policies. Once Johnson was convinced of the need to lockdown and mask up, the people gladly followed.
2. Words Are Powerful: The Key To Influencing A Group Is The Clever Use Of Language: Certain words and phrases are associated with certain emotions, symbols and reactions. Bernays tell us that through the clever and careful use of language, one can manipulate the emotions of a group and thereby influence their perceptions and actions. By playing upon an old cliché, or manipulating a new one, the propagandist can sometimes swing a whole mass of group emotions.
The clever use of language has been employed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to great effect. An obvious example of this was when the definition of “vaccine” was changed to include injections utilizing experimental mRNA technology. You see, the word “vaccine” is associated in the public mind with a certain picture – that of a safe, proven medical intervention that is not only life-saving but absolutely necessary.
If governments had told people to go get their “gene therapies”, the vast majority of the public would likely question the motives behind such a campaign; they would feel extremely skeptical because the phrase “gene therapy” is not associated with the same images, emotions and feelings as “vaccine”.
The same goes for the word “pandemic”, the definition of which was also changed. The word “pandemic” is generally associated in the collective consciousness with fear, death, chaos and emergency (largely thanks to Hollywood and the myriad virus films it has released over the years).
3. Any Medium Of Communication Is Also A Medium For Propaganda: Any system of communication, whether phone, radio, print, or social media, is nothing more than a means of transmitting information. Bernays reminds us that any such means of communication is also a channel for propaganda. There is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda.
Bernays goes on to stress that a good propagandist must always keep abreast of new forms of communication, so that they may co-opt them as means of deliberate propaganda. Indeed, systems that most people would associate with freedom of speech and democracy are none other than means of circulating propaganda. Facebook fact-checkers, Big Tech censorship and YouTube’s Covid banners certainly fall into this category.
Other examples of this include the recent algorithm updates made by various search engines (including Google and DuckDuckGo) to penalize Russian websites, although this should come as no surprise (Google has been engaging in this type of “shadow propaganda” for many years).
4. Reiterating The Same Idea Over And Over Creates Habits And Convictions: Although Bernays terms this a technique used by the “old propagandists”, he, nonetheless, recognizes its usefulness. It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction.
Repeating the same idea or the same “mantra” again and again is a form of neuro-linguistic programming aimed at instilling certain concepts or emotions into the subconscious mind. Indeed, people who are feeling sad or depressed are often advised to repeat to themselves an uplifting saying or affirmation.
There are many examples of this simple, yet effective, technique being used to great effect over the last few years. Think Q’s “trust the plan”, the globalist favourite, “build back better” or the incessant repetition of that twisted phrase, “trust the science”. Included in this category are the 24/7-in-your-face death statistics and case numbers, aimed at promoting the illusion of a pandemic.
There are more obvious examples of this as well, such as news anchors in different areas all reading from the exact same script.
5. Things Are Not Desired For Their Intrinsic Worth, But Rather For The Symbols That They Represent: After studying why people make certain purchasing decisions, Bernays observed that people often don’t desire something for its usefulness or value, but rather because it represents something else which they unconsciously crave. A thing may be desired not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself.
Bernays gives the example of a man buying a car. From the outside, it may appear as if the man is buying the car because he needs a means of transport, but in actuality, he is buying it because he craves the elevated social status that comes with owning a motor vehicle.
This idea, too, applies to the events over the last few years. For example, masks are a symbol of compliance. Everyone knows they don’t work but they wear them because of their desire to “fit in”, and to be seen as an upstanding citizen who follows the rules. Covid-19 injections are also a symbol and many people choose to get them because they have a desire to avoid being called an “anti-vaxxer” or a “conspiracy theorist”.
6. One Can Manipulate Individual Actions By Creating Circumstances That Modify Group Customs: Lastly, Bernays tells us that if one wishes to manipulate the actions of an individual, the most effective way to do so is to create circumstances that engender the desired behavior. What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? […] He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars. The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom.
For example, why all of a sudden does everyone “stand with Ukraine”? According to Bernays, it’s not because there is a war going on and innocent people need our love and support, but rather because it is the new “group custom” to do so. The process of altering group customs begins from the top down. In every nation or social clique, there are leaders, public figures and influencers. Manipulating those with the most sway eventually filters down into the public mind. That is why when a celebrity decides to wear something extravagant on the red carpet, a whole new trend can arise overnight.
Similarly, at the beginning of the Covid saga and then the Russia-Ukraine war, the media were quick to circulate stories of celebs “catching Covid” and urging people to stay home, or public figures condemning Russian actions and calling for stricter sanctions (which just so happened to hurt the West more than they hurt Russia).
The Propaganda Playbook: The world is a volatile place right now. Things seem to change quickly and no one knows what might happen next. However, amid all this chaos there is one thing that has not changed and is unlikely to change any time soon, and that is human psychology. Because of this, the tactics used to manipulate people’s thoughts, beliefs and actions have not changed either. In fact, most of them were outlined in detail 100 years ago by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book, "Propaganda."
That’s right, the Puppet Master’s playbook isn’t a secret. It’s right there, freely available to anyone who cares to understand how the powers that be seek to influence them on a daily basis."
○
Freely download "Propaganda", by Edward L. Bernays, here:
"The Inner Cabinet and the Outer Media"
"The Inner Cabinet and the Outer Media"
by Edward Curtin
“One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had
nothing to do with it - it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.”
Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking-Glass"
"Anyone who is not sick at heart and raging over the slaughter of over 165 young Iranian girls at a school by the American-Israeli monsters waging war on Iran is depraved and evil. It sickens me to state something so obvious, but I am afraid it is true that many are not distraught by the news. A nod to “how terrible” and on with the war is a common response for those who even know about it, not just because of moral indifference but because of the acceleration of digital news reporting that disappears today before it has become tomorrow.
The young girls are forgotten with each passing day in the U.S. and Israel – but not in Iran. For war criminals Trump and Netanyahu, the death of those children is a joy on the way to further slaughter of the innocent.
On the other hand, there are many in this functionally illiterate U.S.A. with its functionally illiterate president who have probably never heard of this war crime. And U.S.-Israeli war crimes are so common that they come and go like ripples on a stream, like a scroll through a “smart phone.” Little penetrates the propaganda bubble, and when it does, it is quickly replaced by the illusion that once these bad guys are swept out of office these wars will end because our good guys will return in the game of musical chairs to make all copacetic. Peace will reign, as in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza, etc.
I repeat a question that I have asked before, but to what avail I know not: Why do Americans think the United States has 750 + military bases in over 80 countries, supported by a bi-partisan consensus? The answer is blatant except for idiots and those willfully blind, and there are plenty of both. The United States is an imperial warfare state and these bases exist to wage wars around the world, as the U.S. has done. End of story.
The Jeffrey Epstein Files release, aside from diverting the public’s attention from Iran, Ukraine, etc., has caused many people to contemplate how certain rich and connected people conspire behind the scenes for nefarious sexual purposes but also to manipulate financial and political matters. To the most naïve, the naming of so many prominent people – university presidents, politicians, bankers, et al. – in this criminal club is very surprising.
Yet, more perversely, the Epstein long-running serial (not the reality for the victims of the sexual abuse) is entertainment in Neil Postman’s sense of "Amusing Ourselves to Death," the title of his prescient 1985 book wherein he argued television had redefined the modern sense of reality, truth, and intelligence; had achieved the status of myth, “a way of thinking so deeply embedded in our consciousness that it is invisible”; that had turned everything into entertainment. Narcoticized by their technological obsession, he argued, people were losing themselves in a fantasy world of unending diversions, as television news was becoming entertainment and all a show, the business of show business.
In Postman’s words: “Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western World.” Facts, data, and the delusive “news of the day” were abundant, but all in the fragmented and pseudo context of televised amusement. One can only scream in accord when contemplating today’s digital internet Screen Society in which mini-televisions accompany people everywhere in the form of cell phones, keeping them constantly entertained with pointillistic nanosecond “news” catered to their personal tastes and devoid of any context.
While the inner workings of the imperial ruling class might not usually involve as much sexual abuse as the Epstein Serial, or what the journalist Pepe Escobar calls “the Epstein Syndicate,” its members have long conspired to control their wealth, power, and political domination of the masses.
Waging wars, globalizing their control (started greatly circa 1985), filling the coffers of the military industrial complex that they own, are prime goals. Many of these vile creatures, of course, in their hubris, thinking they are in full control, have entered a trap of international espionage and sexual blackmail, as is evident in the Epstein case, where the presumed controllers are the controlled.
Despite their wealth and power, their little boy minds and sexual avidities have drawn them to “pleasure islands” where they have been exposed as jackasses braying their little boy innocence. They thought Epstein and his intelligence handlers in Israel, Britain, and the U.S were offering them deeper access to the Syndicate’s Inner Cabinet, but they failed to see the trap doors. Yet now that the Epstein “scandal” has received partial exposure, aside from the few that must be sacrificed to appease the public, most skate and profit mightily. It’s an old game of propaganda as palimpsest.
Just the other day, I had coffee with a friend whose family ties to these imperial ruling class criminals go back more than a century. We discussed his life as a dissident within his wealthy family’s connections to the CIA, the Rockefellers, Morgans, Harvard, the Kennedy assassinations, the industrial corporations essential to the warfare state and massive profits (G.E., General Dynamics, Lockheed, etc.), Wall Street, the banks, corporate media, Big Tech, and on ad infinitum. Many details of a gross world of privilege, betrayal, and endless lies where all the insiders know and associate with each other despite different political parties; what, if you were a sensitive child with a conscience, would repulse you, as it did my friend.
We could call it the Old School Wasp Ruling Class except that old is new and White Anglo Saxon was never just that but connected early on to Zionism and its wealthy supporters in and out of government, here and in Israel. Endless connections that most people alive today know nothing about. The hypocrisy involved is appalling and staggering.
The moneyed elite’s hatred for ordinary people is extreme, and their use of the word “democracy” to cover their crimes is routine. Their proclivities have been inculcated in them within the unreal bubble of filthy lucre and its cultural trappings by their parents and reinforced by those toadies who kiss their asses for access to their worlds of ease and glitz. The same is true for the new billionaires who have recently joined the club and are surrounded by sycophants and tongue hangers.
One of the saddest realities of political life is the way people are fooled again and again by the propaganda these people and their media at the entertainment circuses that they own and that pass lies for news feed them. That it is the same slop dished out endlessly from different media cooks means nothing. The conservative media simply shout for war and more war, while the liberal play both sides (anti-war and pro-war) against the middle in a hypocritical manner to support the wars that the U.S. wages endlessly. The most insidious garbage is swallowed by those who consider themselves “intellectuals” and highly educated.
When my friend mentioned one of his parents’ famous associates, Walter Lippmann, who would stay at their home when he was young, I was reminded of Edward Bernays and others who laid the foundations for today’s mind control. Lippmann, a prominent journalist termed the “Father of Modern Journalism,” and Bernays, the so-called “Father of Public Relations,” were two heavyweight insiders who, beginning in the 1920s laid the groundwork for U.S. government and corporate propaganda today.
Their work extended into the 1970s. Bernays, the paradigm for the propagandist on the inside, and Lippmann, the model for the slick journalist on the outside, each worked his side of the invisible fence: "The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country…We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet."
Edward Bernays penned those words in 1928 to open his book, "Propaganda." They perfectly summarize the truth of how the US is ruled.
Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s double nephew (his mother was Freud’s sister and his father was Freud’s wife’s brother). He was born in Vienna, Austria, but his family moved to New York when he was very young. He worked as a propagandist for the US government during WWI.
He coined the term “the engineering of consent,” and for many decades worked behind the scenes for the major corporations (General Electric, the American Tobacco Company, United Fruit, etc.), politicians, and the US government to manipulate the public’s mind – e.g. convincing women to smoke by calling cigarettes “torches of [women’s] freedom” and helping the CIA in its 1954 coup in Guatemala against the democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz, and so much more. He was a master shadowy manipulator and anti-democrat who served the interests of the imperial ruling class and was highly respected by it for his techniques of propaganda and mind control that rendered reality “virtual” in the service of power.
Lippmann, while considered a journalist and public intellectual, and who, unlike Bernays who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes as a member of the “inner cabinet,” labored for “the inner cabinet” mostly from the outside-in through his newspaper columns. In books, which the average newspaper reader didn’t read, he advocated a similar elitist credo as Bernays, advocating that the government use symbols and movies to prevent the public from independent thought and to control them emotionally. In an early book, "Drift and Mastery: An Attempt to Diagnose the Current Unrest" (1914), whose words could have been written today by snide elitists, the CIA and its assets (and have in similar words), he wrote:
"The sense of conspiracy and secret scheming [among the public] which transpires is almost uncanny. ‘Big Business,’ and its ruthless tentacles, have become the material for the feverish fantasy of illiterate thousands thrown out of kilter by the rack and strain of modern life. It is possible to work yourself into a state where the world seems a conspiracy and your daily going is beset with an alert and tingling sense of labyrinthine evil. Everything askew – all the frictions of life are readily ascribed to a deliberate evil intelligence, and men like Morgan and Rockefeller take on attributes of omnipotence, that ten minutes of cold sanity would reduce to barbarous myth."
Both Lippmann and Bernays thought of ordinary people as nasty creatures that had to be controlled through lies and deception. They were pioneers in the inside-outside technique of propaganda that has been used for a long time by the government and their media allies to confound ordinary people.
By inside-outside I mean that for propaganda to be effective, those using it need to have many working secretly to develop and exercise techniques of deception like Bernays and the CIA, and public media figures like Lippmann who reinforce the lies but in a seemingly “reasonable” way from the outside. The latter group is employed at the large media companies that are owned by the very rich outright or by massive international media monopolies.
The CIA and other American intelligence agencies secretly develop propaganda techniques and have their people placed within all departments of the government (see "Understanding Special Operations: 123 ff.") and throughout the mass media to work the public from the outside. Of course, as is evident from the Israeli genocide in Gaza and its joint evil war with the U.S. against Iran, Israel and its Mossad play a large part in this as well, not only influencing Trump and the U.S. Congress, but much of the U.S. government and media, where they have placed many assets.
A homely basketball analogy is apt in describing how the propaganda game is played: One successful basketball strategy known as “Inside-Out” is to have players drive to the basket to begin the game, which forces the defense to contract near the basket, which in turn opens up scoring opportunities from the outside. It is simple but effective, depending, of course, that the players can shoot and make some baskets.
Enter Trump, who seems to be and may be clinically insane or just plain evil like his Israeli counterpart Netanyahu, and who on the face of it seems to contradict much of this inside-out approach to controlling the masses. Like a bull escaped from a pen, he just bellows threats and wages wars at home and abroad, seemingly not caring whether or not he convinces the population that his actions are just and in their interest. It’s as if he is announcing to all who voted for him, that they were fools to believe for a moment that he wouldn’t start any new wars and would end America’s “endless wars,” and to those who didn’t vote for him, “F*ck you, too.”
In the past, presidents felt compelled to try to justify through propaganda the wars and coups they waged, from Vietnam to Iraq to Libya, etc. No matter how obvious their lies, like Colin Powell holding up a little vial to show how Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (which he later said was a mistake and not a lie to cover his complicity), they told them and used all the propaganda at their disposal to make them sound true, having “journalist” friends and assets provide justifications. Trump seemingly doesn’t care.
Some say that is because he is a complete anomaly and was able to twice become president by some strange twist of fate. If that is so, it would be the first and second time in modern history that it happened. A man with no political experience, a comical reality-tv joke, a bombastic fat party boy with weird dyed hair who talks like a version of an East Coast Valley Girl, a womanizer, a very wealthy New York real estate wheeler and dealer, etc. gets the votes of middle Americans who are losing their farms and factory jobs and are angry at the government. All sorts of explanations have been given for this “anomaly,” except that it was not one, except in appearance.
Before Trump was first elected in 2016, it was accepted that one could never be elected president of the U.S. unless one checked off a list of boxes approved by the inner controllers of the Democratic and Republican parties. Independent or small party candidates like Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Jesse Jackson were never given a real chance but were viewed as spoilers.
In 2000, Trump entered the primaries seeking the Reform Party’s nomination but dropped out. He had no chance, even if he had won it, and he knew it. Then came sixteen years of burnishing his establishment credentials. So by 2016, and then again in 2020 and 2024, he was the Republican Party’s nominee, clearly a member of the establishment’s two-party club that had (and has) a lock on the presidency. He was an insider.
So if this insider is no longer following the traditional propaganda script of inside/outside, it is highly likely that those who control the political parties for the imperial ruling class have invented a new technique of mind control to serve their purposes. Since more and more people are starting to question the conventional propaganda as U.S. society cracks up, a new technique must be added to the old – a turning of things inside-out and further out, so to speak. Give Trump free range to say and do the most outlandish things, the things that many have come to suspect were previously said only by the hidden manipulators like Bernays and the CIA, and one side of the western “free press/media” will rip him for his grotesquely brazen mouth and actions, while the other will praise him. The latter will claim that he has finally liberated the country, while the former will rip him as a maniac. Both, however, owned by the same imperial ruling class that might disagree over tactics but not U.S. long term strategy, and knowing Trump got elected because he is a political insider which they must deny, will be satisfied that the masses are confused, angry, and divided, and therefore more easily controlled.
They call it “transparency,” and no one has to answer the question of why, under Republican and Democratic presidents, the U.S. has 750 + military bases in over 80 countries all around the world from which they have been waging wars for many decades, some of which have recently been attacked by Iran, after the U.S./Israel waged the current savage war of aggression against it in a continuation of "The Great Game."
Orwell called it Doublethink in "Nineteen Eighty Four": "To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself - that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word ‘doublethink’ involved the use of doublethink."
Yes, we are through the looking-glass, but even Alice finally woke up before it was too late."
"US-Israel-Iran War, 3/14/26"
Glenn Diesen, 3/14/26
"Yanis Varoufakis:
Iran War Collapses U.S. Neoliberal Economy"
"Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, the former Finance Minister of Greece, and the author of numerous bestselling books. Yanis Varoufakis discusses the historical mistake of attacking Iran (again)."
Comments here:
o
Waael FSN, 3/14/26
"Scott Ritter:
US Has Completely Failed in Its War With Iran"
The conflict between the United States and Iran is becoming one of the most dangerous geopolitical crises in the world. In this analysis, former U.S. Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter explains why he believes the United States has failed to achieve its strategic goals in the confrontation with Iran. Ritter argues that Iran has been preparing for this type of conflict for decades and has developed strong military capabilities, regional alliances, and defensive strategies that make a decisive U.S. victory extremely difficult. Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict is already creating global consequences - including rising oil prices, regional instability, and growing criticism over the lack of a clear long-term strategy for the war. In this video, we break down the geopolitical implications, military realities, and strategic mistakes that could shape the future of the Middle East and global power balance."
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"Trump’s Kharg Island Fantasy…
All Bark, No Bite"
by Larry C. Johnson
"Late on Friday Donald Trump claimed in a social media post that military facilities on Kharg Island were targeted. Read his Truth carefully:
Trump is deep into fantasy land. Yes, I think he has lost touch with reality. He admits that the oil terminals were not attacked, just some unidentified military targets. Iran has previously warned of that an attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure would be answered by a comparable attack on all oil and gas infrastructure in the region in which the US and its allies have an interest would be set ablaze and destroyed.
If you don’t know it now, only one of Iran’s 5 operational oil export terminals is located on Kharg Island. According to data from the international company Kepler, the amount of oil loaded from the tanks installed on Kharg increased by 1.5 times in the past month. This suggests that Iran, by quickly emptying Kharg’s tanks, was prepared for this attack. If Iran’s oil terminal on Kharg had been destroyed, Iran would have launched missiles at identified the oil terminals in all the countries bordering the Persian Gulf. Here’s the list:
• Saudi Arabia
Ras Tanura: The largest marine oil loading center in the world; capacity: 6 million barrels per day.
Ras Al-Ju’aymah: The second most important terminal; capacity 3 to 3.6 million barrels per day.
• United Arab Emirates
Fujairah: Has multiple docks and is the largest fueling center in the region.
Jebel Ali: Site for crude oil and petrochemical exports.
• Qatar
Ras Laffan: The largest LNG export facility in the world.
• Kuwait
Mina Al-Ahmadi: Central crude oil export terminal with deep docks and high capacity.
• Bahrain
Sitra Terminal: Exports refined.
Here is Iran’s report on the limited impact of US attacks on Kharg Island on Saturday morning: According to Fars field reports, 2-3h ago, Kharg Island was subject to US attacks with more than 15 explosions on the island. During these attacks, the US attempted to damage the Army’s air defense systems, the Joshan Naval Base, the airport control tower, and the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) helicopter hangar. Fars’ Field observations indicate thick smoke rising from various parts of the island, but none of the oil infrastructure was damaged in these attacks. Iran had previously warned of the consequences of attacking the country’s energy infrastructure, stating that should such an event occur, all oil and gas infrastructure in the region in which the US and its allies have an interest would be set ablaze and destroyed.
Following these attacks, Trump claimed that the US had successfully targeted all military objectives on Kharg Island & “complete destroyed” the island’s air defense systems. However, 1h after the attack, there was air defense activity on the island which straight up debunks their claims that they destroyed all air defenses here. Trump has also repeatedly claimed the complete destruction of Iran’s missile capabilities, yet the wave of missile and drone attacks [from Iran] has now reached its 48th round.
There are a couple of ways to look at this. Perhaps Trump’s lie about devastating Kharg Island is the start of his PR campaign to gaslight the American public into believing Iran is defeated, which would allow Trump to declare victory and start withdrawing US forces. That’s one possibility. Alternatively, he really believes the lie and is convinced that this latest strike will convince the Iranians to surrender. If you want to glean some keen insights into Trump’s drift into madness, please take an hour to watch Danny Davis’ interview with Robert Barnes (linked here)."
o
Highly recommended:
Friday, March 13, 2026
"Alert! 10,000 US Troops To Iran! Nuclear Risk Is Extreme! Military Draft!"
Canadian Prepper, 3/13/26
"Alert! 10,000 US Troops To Iran!
Nuclear Risk Is Extreme! Military Draft!"
"US is deploying Marines to Iran, they are preparing population for a false flag, Trump is the WW3 president, Nuclear Event and EMP threat are highly elevated, mlitary draft, its all unfolding."
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o
Full screen recommended.
Money Over History, 3/13/26
"Why the US Is Sending 2,200
Marines to the Strait of Hormuz"
"Why is the United States sending 2,200 US Marines to the Strait of Hormuz? In this video, we break down the growing crisis in the Persian Gulf and explain why this strategic waterway has become one of the most dangerous flashpoints in the world. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most important energy corridors on Earth, with nearly 20% of the world's oil supply passing through it every day. As tensions rise in the Middle East, the deployment of US Marines and naval forces could signal a major escalation in the region.
In this analysis, we explore the military strategy, geopolitical implications, and global economic impact of the US deployment. What role will these Marines play? Could this lead to a larger conflict in the Gulf? And why does control of the Strait of Hormuz matter so much for global energy markets? Watch until the end to understand the real reason behind the deployment and what it could mean for the future of the Middle East and global security."
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"Friday The 13th"
"Friday The 13th"
by History.com
"Long considered a harbinger of bad luck, Friday the 13th has inspired a late 19th-century secret society, an early 20th-century novel, a horror film franchise and not one but two unwieldy terms - paraskavedekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia - that describe fear of this supposedly unlucky day.
The Fear of 13: Just like walking under a ladder, crossing paths with a black cat or breaking a mirror, many people hold fast to the belief that Friday the 13th brings bad luck. Though it’s uncertain exactly when this particular tradition began, negative superstitions have swirled around the number 13 for centuries.
While Western cultures have historically associated the number 12 with completeness (there are 12 days of Christmas, 12 months and zodiac signs, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 gods of Olympus and 12 tribes of Israel, just to name a few examples), its successor 13 has a long history as a sign of bad luck.
The ancient Code of Hammurabi, for example, reportedly omitted a 13th law from its list of legal rules. Though this was probably a clerical error, superstitious people sometimes point to this as proof of 13’s longstanding negative associations. Fear of the number 13 has even earned a psychological term: triskaidekaphobia.
Why is Friday the 13th Unlucky? According to biblical tradition, 13 guests attended the Last Supper, held on Maundy Thursday, including Jesus and his 12 apostles (one of whom, Judas, betrayed him). The next day, of course, was Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. The seating arrangement at the Last Supper is believed to have given rise to a longstanding Christian superstition that having 13 guests at a table was a bad omen - specifically, that it was courting death.
Though Friday’s negative associations are weaker, some have suggested they also have roots in Christian tradition: Just as Jesus was crucified on a Friday, Friday was also said to be the day Eve gave Adam the fateful apple from the Tree of Knowledge, as well as the day Cain killed his brother, Abel.
The Thirteen Club: In the late-19th century, a New Yorker named Captain William Fowler (1827-1897) sought to remove the enduring stigma surrounding the number 13 - and particularly the unwritten rule about not having 13 guests at a dinner table - by founding an exclusive society called the Thirteen Club.
The group dined regularly on the 13th day of the month in room 13 of the Knickerbocker Cottage, a popular watering hole Fowler owned from 1863 to 1883. Before sitting down for a 13-course dinner, members would pass beneath a ladder and a banner reading “Morituri te Salutamus,” Latin for “Those of us who are about to die salute you.” Four former U.S. presidents (Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and Theodore Roosevelt) would join the Thirteen Club’s ranks at one time or another.
Friday the 13th in Pop Culture: An important milestone in the history of the Friday the 13th legend in particular (not just the number 13) occurred in 1907, with the publication of the novel "Friday, the Thirteenth" written by Thomas William Lawson. The book told the story of a New York City stockbroker who plays on superstitions about the date to create chaos on Wall Street, and make a killing on the market.
The horror movie "Friday the 13th", released in 1980, introduced the world to a hockey mask-wearing killer named Jason, and is perhaps the best-known example of the famous superstition in pop culture history. The movie spawned multiple sequels, as well as comic books, novellas, video games, related merchandise and countless terrifying Halloween costumes.
What Bad Things Happened on Friday 13th? On Friday, October 13, 1307, officers of King Philip IV of France arrested hundreds of the Knights Templar, a powerful religious and military order formed in the 12th century for the defense of the Holy Land. Imprisoned on charges of various illegal behaviors (but really because the king wanted access to their financial resources), many Templars were later executed. Some cite the link with the Templars as the origin of the Friday the 13th superstition, but like many legends involving the Templars and their history, the truth remains murky.
In more recent times, a number of traumatic events have occurred on Friday the 13th, including the German bombing of Buckingham Palace (September 1940); the murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York (March 1964); a cyclone that killed more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh (November 1970); the disappearance of a Chilean Air Force plane in the Andes (October 1972); the death of rapper Tupac Shakur (September 1996) and the crash of the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the coast of Italy, which killed 30 people (January 2012)."
Gerald Celente, "Prepare: Global Turmoil, Economic Shock"
Very strong language alert!
Gerald Celente, 3/13/26
"Prepare: Global Turmoil, Economic Shock"
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What's Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
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Oh, Gerald's in fine form today! lol
"No One Wants To Pay Their Bills Anymore And It's Hitting Critical Levels"
Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 3/13/26
"No One Wants To Pay Their Bills
Anymore And It's Hitting Critical Levels"
"People are openly refusing to pay their electric bills, their medical debt, their student loans, and even their federal taxes. And they are saying it out loud, on camera, for millions to see. In this video, we react to real TikToks from Americans who have simply had enough, and we try to understand what is really driving this moment.
From $800 electric bills to medical debt that follows families for years, the financial pressure on everyday Americans has reached a point where more and more people are choosing to opt out entirely. We look at what that actually means, what the real consequences are, and why so many people feel like the rules of the game were never written in their favor to begin with.
We also look at the other side of this conversation. Because while some voices online are encouraging people to ignore collectors and stop paying taxes, others are sounding a different alarm,one about personal responsibility, living below your means, and building a life that does not depend on the economy staying stable. Both conversations are worth having, and we try to hold space for all of it here.
At Epic Economist, we believe that working toward self-sufficiency is one of the most grounded responses to a system that keeps squeezing regular people. That does not mean rage-quitting your responsibilities. It means being intentional, getting informed, and slowly building a life where you need less from systems that have proven time and again they are not looking out for you.
If your bills have gone up, if you are living paycheck to paycheck despite doing everything right, or if you have been quietly wondering whether any of this is sustainable — this video is for you. Drop a comment and let us know what you are seeing in your own life. We read every single one."
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Musical Interlude: Mario Frangoulis and Justin Hayward, "Nights in White Satin"
Full screen recommended.
Mario Frangoulis and Justin Hayward,
"Nights in White Satin"
"A Look to the Heavens"
"Why doesn't the nearby galaxy create a gravitational lensing effect on the background galaxy? It does, but since both galaxies are so nearby, the angular shift is much smaller than the angular sizes of the galaxies themselves. The featured Hubble image of NGC 3314 shows two large spiral galaxies which happen to line up exactly. The foreground spiral NGC 3314a appears nearly face-on with its pinwheel shape defined by young bright star clusters. Against the glow of the background galaxy NGC 3314b, though, dark swirling lanes of interstellar dust can also be seen tracing the nearer spiral's structure. Both galaxies appear on the edge of the Hydra Cluster of Galaxies, a cluster that is about 200 million light years away.
Gravitational lens distortions are much easier to see when the lensing galaxy is smaller and further away. Then, the background galaxy may even be distorted into a ring around the nearer. Fast gravitational lens flashes due to stars in the foreground galaxy momentarily magnifying the light from stars in the background galaxy might one day be visible in future observing campaigns with high-resolution telescopes."
"Live All You Can..."
"Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much
matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life.
If you haven't had that, what have you had?"
- Henry James
The Poet: James Broughton, "Having Come This Far"
"Having Come This Far"
"I've been through what my through was to be,
I did what I could and couldn't.
I was never sure how I would get there.
I nourished an ardor for thresholds,
for stepping stones and for ladders,
I discovered detour and ditch.
I swam in the high tides of greed,
I built sandcastles to house my dreams.
I survived the sunburns of love.
No longer do I hunt for targets.
I've climbed all the summits I need to,
and I've eaten my share of lotus.
Now I give praise and thanks
for what could not be avoided,
and for every foolhardy choice.
I cherish my wounds and their cures,
and the sweet enervations of bliss.
My book is an open life.
I wave goodbye to the absolutes,
and send my regards to infinity.
I'd rather be blithe than correct.
Until something transcendent turns up,
I splash in my poetry puddle,
and try to keep God amused."
- James Broughton
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