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Saturday, May 9, 2026

"U.S. Empire Dies in the Strait of Hormuz"

"U.S. Empire Dies in the Strait of Hormuz"
by State Of The Nation

"No other relevant proverb or ancient saying or words of wisdom captures better the current state of international affairs where it concerns the Iran War than the one posted above. It ought to be readily apparent to every analyst by now that both Trump and Netanyahu have created their own Gordian Knot; and one that cannot be resolved with the “slicing through of Alexander the Great’s sword”. Which is exactly what both of those war criminals and genocidal maniacs would like to do as we have seen by their juvenile (read: irrational) reactions to their respective predicaments. But what’s of paramount importance to correctly understand is that it took two certified mad men, as in 2 utterly insane bad actors, to tie such a contorted and thorny and gnarled knot in the first place.

What’s the crucial point? The entire Iran War fiasco could not have been planned out to be a bigger catastrophe for the U.S. Empire and greater disaster for the Zionist state of Israel as it has thus far become. Even worse are the multifarious and calamitous outcomes now being experienced and witnessed worldwide.

In other words, whenever a military disaster of such epic proportions takes place, especially when the ensuing consequences to the entire world community of nations are so far-reaching and dire, two extremely significant conclusions can be drawn.

First, that the dark side of the military adventure was set up as an exceedingly dangerous trap for those two leaders who got themselves entrapped. Both were driven mad by the drugs of power and money, hubris and arrogance, religious zealotry and self-delusion, etc. Which is exactly how: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”.

Not only are those drugs routinely employed by the gods, so are the Big Pharma drugs utilized to further soften up the deranged leader(s) over many years to the point that they can no longer think straight, or even keep their eyes open long enough to make rational decisions. See: BEWARE! THE POTUS IS A STONE-COLD DRUG ADDICT
Secondly, there is always the much higher divine plan unfolding through each and every daffy move and daft maneuver that those two Zionist clucks foolishly made and continue to make. In other words, it appears that the end of American Empire has been divinely ordained, and a very complicated yet perfect plot was put into motion to make sure that empire collapsed on a divine timeline.

No, the Zio-Anglo-American Axis has not yet suffered an obvious collapse but the apocalyptic omen was seen by the whole world nearly 25 years ago when the iconic Twin Towers located in the Empire State of New York fell into their own footprints and the very heart of the U.S. Military Industrial Complex - the Pentagon - was penetrated by a cruise missile fired by the U.S. Navy.

The critical point for the wise among US to consider is that nothing - nothing - ever transpires on planet Earth except by the will of Almighty God. But how exactly has divine intervention ensured the final end of the U.S. Empire of Lies? Easy peasy - simply render obsolete the once ubiquitous presence of the US naval power.

How easy was that for Iran to do? As follows: “Iran possess the largest arsenal of hypersonic ballistic missiles as well as the most advanced and sophisticated drone weaponry on the planet. That large nation has vast underground caverns and gargantuan mountainside tunnels full of powerful missiles and lethal drones ready to be rapidly deployed across the Middle East today. The world has never seen anything like it; and the world has yet to see even the most powerful Iranian weapons in action.” (Source: ARCANA IMPERII: The Secret NWO Plan Reveals Itself Via The Iran War)

Which really means that every single aircraft carrier, guided-missile destroyers, amphibious warfare ship, littoral combat ship, cruiser and frigate launched by the US Navy is nothing but a sitting duck henceforth. The U.S. control of the world’s oceans is over.

In point of fact, Tehran has consistently exercised unheard of restraint with regard to not sinking a whole flotilla of American warships within range of their missiles and drones. Clearly, the sage Persian leadership does not want to give the Trump regime a “Pearl Harbor moment” by which to push the American people into a war fever mode against Iran.

KEY POINT: The Twelve-Day War in June of 2025 provided all the evidence needed to both the Trump regime and Netanyahu junta regarding the self-evident futility of invading Iran. Both the CIA/U.S military and Mossad/IDF were fully aware that any attempt to conquer Iran would be met with widespread devastation throughout Israel as well as the complete destruction of U.S. military bases throughout the Middle East (as the world recently witnessed). And yet those war cabinets proceeded with their transparently suicidal attack plans anyway. Only a very serious case of collective insanity would produce such a calamitous outcome for themselves and the world-at-large.

Now listen to this penetrating and astute analysis to understand why “U.S. Empire Dies in the Strait of Hormuz”: Trump Regime is Trapped and Defeated."

Friday, May 8, 2026

"Russia Victory Day Parade, Nukes Roll Out, Xi Backs Putin in Show of Power!"

Full screen recommended.
"Russia Victory Day Parade, Nukes Roll Out, 
Xi Backs Putin in Show of Power!"
"Russia unleashed a breathtaking display of military power in Red Square to mark the 71st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. With over 16,000 troops, 200+ military vehicles, and nuclear missiles thundering through Moscow, the parade showcased the might of the Russian Armed Forces like never before. But what truly stunned the West was the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping, standing proudly beside Vladimir Putin - a powerful symbol of a growing alliance. As Western leaders boycotted the event, Russia sent a loud message to the world: its strength is real, its allies are watching, and its enemies should take note."

"Staring Into The Abyss..."

"We work in the dark. We do what we can to battle the evil that would otherwise destroy us. But if a man's character is his fate, it's not a choice but a calling. Sometimes the weight of this burden causes us to falter from the fragile fortress of our mind, allowing the monster without to turn within. We are left alone staring into the abyss, into the laughing face of madness."
- Fox Mulder, "X-Files"

"Plandemic 2.0? The Horrible and Hideous, Horrendous and Hairy Hantavirus Has Escaped a Cruise Ship And..."

"Plandemic 2.0? The Horrible and Hideous, Horrendous
 and Hairy Hantavirus Has Escaped a Cruise Ship And..."
by State Of The Nation

"Now we’re all in danger of a deadly virus that’s been around as long as rats and mice have roamed planet Earth? What they want you to know and be afraid of:
Full screen recommended.
"Deadly Virus Hits Home, Prepare To Quarantine"

Excerpt: "Anyone practicing in the Health and Wellness space today cannot even believe what we are seeing and hearing about the cruise ship Hantavirus outbreak. Even our peers throughout the highly controlled American Healthcare System are incredulous at the absurd hype around this so-called global Hantavirus scare. But why are we laughing so hard at this particular Khazarian-directed psyop? As follows:
For some more vital perspective on this daffy conspiracy to lock down the entire planetary civilization - AGAIN - let’s pay close attention to the good doctor: Listen to Dr. Drew dish out some essential truth about the Hantavirus scare. Talk about a completely manufactured public health scare!!! You just can’t make this stuff up; except that’s exactly what they’re doing.

One thing is for sure, unless the New World Order globalist cabal has a billion infected rats to unleash across the planet, this ridiculously fake and potential Plandemic ain’t goin nowhere. And you can take that to the bank … and the hospital … and any other place that proclaims a full-blown fraudulent medical alert.

Incidentally, if this thing does develop into something way beyond a simple cruise ship event, then we know we are all witnessing a totally staged Plandemic 2.0. As follows:
Oh, and by the way, the evidence is now stacking up that points directly to another weaponized vaccination program as a government response to the Hantavirus. HOW CONVENIENT! A Patent for Hantavirus mRNA ‘Vaccine’ Filed in 2025. All of which means that it’s quite plausible that the Big Pharma-Big Medical-Big Govt Complex is planning a public health disaster that’s BIG enough for the Trump administration to declare full-scale “Medical Martial Law”.
After all, OPERATION COVID-19 was executed during Trump’s first term…and during an election year as well. Not only that, but the Trump regime is desperate to the extreme to determine the electoral outcomes for the midterms. For Trump knows that the GOP cannot lose both congressional majorities lest he be impeached multiple times for some very serious high crimes and misdemeanors (unlike the spurious impeachments during his first term)."
View this complete, most highly recommended article here:
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Food for thought... connect the dots.
Full screen recommended.
X-Files, Season 10

"Millions Are Living In Tents And Cars Because Working America Can't Afford Rent Anymore"

Full screen recommended.
Epic Economist, 5/8/26
"Millions Are Living In Tents And Cars 
Because Working America Can't Afford Rent Anymore"
"Millions of working Americans are sleeping in tents tonight. Millions more are sleeping in their cars. Not because they stopped working. Because rent stopped letting them in. The federal minimum wage hasn't moved since 2009. Median rent has nearly doubled in the same window. That gap doesn't close - it widens, every quarter, every algorithmic rent-pricing cycle. This is what 15 working tenants describe in their own words. They paid rent on time for years. They had jobs. They had kids. Then one notice, one raise, one car payment broke them - and the wall they fell against had been built quietly while nobody was looking. Listen to who is actually under the tarp."
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: Yanni, "The Storm"

Full screen recommended.
Yanni, "The Storm"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"Dwarf galaxies NGC 147 (left) and NGC 185 stand side by side in this sharp telescopic portrait. The two are not-often-imaged satellites of M31, the great spiral Andromeda Galaxy, some 2.5 million light-years away. Their separation on the sky, less than one degree across a pretty field of view, translates to only about 35 thousand light-years at Andromeda's distance, but Andromeda itself is found well outside this frame. 
Brighter and more famous satellite galaxies of Andromeda, M32 and M110, are seen closer to the great spiral. NGC 147 and NGC 185 have been identified as binary galaxies, forming a gravitationally stable binary system. But recently discovered faint dwarf galaxy Cassiopeia II also seems to be part of their system, forming a gravitationally bound group within Andromeda's intriguing population of small satellite galaxies."
o
“I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here I can pretend... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come and Gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend...”
- Olethros, in “Sandman”

The Poet: Langston Hughes, “Life Is Fine”

“Life Is Fine”

“I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn’t,
So I jumped in and sank.
I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn’t a-been so cold
I might’ve sunk and died.
But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!

I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I would jump down.
I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn’t a-been so high
I might’ve jumped and died.
But it was High up there! It was high!

So since I’m still here livin’,
I guess I will live on.
I could’ve died for love -
But for livin’ I was born.
Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry -
I’ll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”

- Langston Hughes

"When We Have Time..."

“How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy. In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backwards to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear indeed to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day, when we have time.” - Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”

“The problem is, you believe you have time.”
- Buddha

"How The GloboLeft Uses Your Virtue Against You And Why It’s Killing The West"

"How The GloboLeft Uses Your Virtue Against 
You And Why It’s Killing The West"
by John Wilder

“Then what makes a beautiful person? Isn’t it the presence of excellence? Young friend, if you wish to be beautiful then work diligently at human excellence. And what is that? Observe those who you praise without prejudice. The just or the unjust? The just. The even-tempered or the undisciplined? The even-tempered. The self-controlled or the uncontrolled? The self-controlled. In making yourself that kind of person, you will become beautiful. But to the extent you ignore these qualities, you’ll be ugly, even if you use every clever trick to appear beautiful.” - Epictetus

Epictetus may have had some ulterior motives when he said this, since if history is correct he was lame, was missing an eye and an ear, and had hair only in patches on his skull. Did I mention the burn scars? I kid. But Epictetus was lame. I mean, not 1980s “lame” but rather had a limp. The point he makes is a good one, though. We are fundamentally the genes we are born with. If I wanted to be taller, I suppose there is surgery I could get to lengthen my legs. Yeah. Really.

If I wanted to avoid being a blinding hazard when the Sun shines off of my scalp, well, I could get hair plugs or a toupee. Neither of those, however, would make me a better person. And I don’t know about you, but when I find out about the vile beliefs and practices of some Hollywood™ starlets, well, they start to lose a lot of their attractiveness to me. In fact, I start to see ugly, just like the ugly I see with Jeff Bezos’ wife.

I mean, really. Wow. That’s a lot of plastic surgery. Seriously, does she not look like an alien that was constructed out of a scaffold of lizard DNA in a Tupperware® factory? If she and Bezos have kids I don’t know which they’ll look like: dime-store rubber geckos or a tube of Saranwrap©.

I do think that Epictetus, despite the handicap of being dead as well as gimpy, has done a good job at sketching out some of the things that have made Western Civilization great. There was a time that we nearly universally admired being just. Our culture is one that’s based on guilt, rather than shame, so being just comes from within.

Shame comes from without. In a shame-based culture (which describes most third world cultures) the idea is that cheating an old widow in Iowa out of her family fortune is acceptable unless you get caught. It’s clever, and they feel guilt only in being caught. Ever see any video of a foreigner getting caught doing something wrong on video? I know you have.

What happens is that the shame kicks in. They can’t and don’t feel guilt over doing evil, only shame for getting caught doing evil. This explains why India looks like India and Nigeria looks like Nigeria. Good actions aren’t valued.

Next, Epictetus talks about the virtue of being even-tempered. Again, this is something that society selected for through its very construction. People who impetuously committed crime were systematically executed in Great Britain for nearly a thousand years. Don’t think that has something to with keeping tempers in a bottle? It certainly does. And when men like that become warriors, well, Heaven help you if you push one over the edge into rage and wrath. That is something mythic, something that makes entire continents burn.

Lastly, Epictetus talks about self-controlled versus, well, not. Again, this is a virtue that Western Civilization has lauded in its stoic male heroes who experience hardship yet come away stronger for the effort. Our very fables talk about men who never cry because they understand that they are masters of their emotions and can select which ones they let to the surface when the stress is running high. This is not a bug like Hollywood© would try to make us think: this is a feature.

To one extent Epictetus is right: these are all necessary values for beauty, at least for me. They are also necessary values for everything that is required to move society upward, to keep us from being crabs in a bucket, drawing each other down for our own temporary gain.

And, Epictetus notes that these virtues are within our control, each and every one of them. Sure, if you come from a place that’s not been selecting for these behaviors for nearly a thousand years (and I could argue that Europe as a whole has been selecting for these behaviors for thousands of years) then it might be difficult. But not impossible. And if it is impossible, then that person could rightly be called a savage.

All of Western Civilization is ultimately built on the idea that these are things that individuals can do, right here, right now through being virtuous. They are True. They are Beauty in themselves. And they are Good.

This is, in my mind, a major disconnect and why Western Civilization is hated by so many in the third world. They look at this wonderful cultural set of values of which we are exemplars (on our best days) through our own choices and feel envy. They want a world that looks like ours, but yet don’t want to change their behaviors. This is why they don’t build. This is why we do.

Are there other cultures with similar values? Certainly. Japan appears to have undergone a similar winnowing with respect to honor. Feel free to opine in the comments about other places that make the grade.

Like Western Civilization, though, cultures that have a large focus on just outcomes are susceptible to propaganda that plays on cultural guilt. Ever wonder why GloboLeftists pimped the 1619 Project? Like the entire Civil Rights movement, it was based on creating guilt in people who had committed no crime or offense. And it was effective. On white people. But it wouldn’t be on them.

I think that there still exists a strong fear on the part of white people to say, “Hey, I’d rather live among other white people.” It sounds scary to them. Yet, those same people wouldn’t bat an eye if black people wanted their own dorms that excluded whites.

It’s guilt. Our virtues have been weaponized against us. It’s so effective that even British people feel guilt over slavery, even when they effectively ended the international trade in slaves. Those who do this are, like Epictetus said, using every trick to be Beautiful to try to hide their true ugliness.

My guess is that’s why they really want the statues to come down. To see Western Civilization and all it has created is the biggest slap in the face to them and fills them with shame, so they have to either destroy it, or come up with some reason why they have failed to assuage their shame.

Continue in your quest for excellence, and understand those that will try to drag you down or fill you with guilt. Ignore them. And, in the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, “Party on, dudes!”

Travelling With Russell, "Walking in the World-Famous Gorky Park in Russia"

Meanwhile, elsewhere...
Full screen recommended.
Travelling With Russell, 5/8/26
"Walking in the World-Famous Gorky Park in Russia"
Come for a walk with me around the World-Famous Gorky Park in Moscow, Russia. Locally known as Park Kultury, or The Park of Culture. Discover what it's like on a beautiful sunny Monday evening, right at Sunset time in Gorky Park. Simply amazing."
Comments here:

Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern, and Scott Ritter"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 5/8/26
"INTEL Roundtable w/Johnson & McGovern, and Scott Ritter:
Weekly Wrap 8 May"
Comments here:

The Daily "Near You?"

Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.
Thanks for stopping by!

"A Parade Of Fools..."

"Humanity is a parade of fools,
and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton."
- Dean Koontz

"Bread And Circuses..."

Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis", in English:
"Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt."
- Juvenal

"Take away my bread and circuses and all I have left is my pitchfork..."

"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:

Joel Bowman, "Love Taps and Reckless Attacks"

"Love Taps and Reckless Attacks"
by Joel Bowman

"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses." ~ Juvenal, "Satires X"

Buenos Aires, Argentina - "First up, the same olds...From Reuters: "Trump says ceasefire still holds after fighting between the US and Iran flares." From the New York Times: "Tehran Accuses U.S. of “Reckless Attack” in Strait as Trump Insists Ceasefire Holds." And from Fox News: "Trump calls US strikes on Iran a ‘love tap’ after destroyers targeted in Strait of Hormuz." And there you have it, dear reader. Clean as an oil spill. Now, is the situation improving… or deteriorating? Are attacks flaring… or the ceasefire holding? Are we talking reckless attacks… or love taps? Hmm...

Death by Democracy: As we’ve seen in these Notes many times before, modern man can be made to go along with just about anything. Given the right circumstances… some narrative framing… and enough time for it all to marinate in his soft, mammalian brain… there is almost nothing Homo Credulus will not learn to embrace.

Just take a look at the historical record; you’ll soon wonder how we even got this far. Sure, you’ll discover gizmos and flying contraptions… art and agriculture… music and mathematics. You’ll witness spectacular scientific breakthroughs, the number “0” and a man’s footprint on the moon. But you’ll also scratch your head. Perhaps you’ll even weep. And if you reckon hard enough, you’ll put a few assumptions in the firing line…

The Divine Right of Kings? Strongman rule? Modern democracy? How has mankind survived such crude contrivances? Self inflicted, no less! And why, moreover, does he rush so earnestly to repeat and replay his own worst mistakes? Ah, let us not be too hard on our fellow creatures. After all, repetition is nothing new…

You’ll recall that it was the Greeks who first gave the world democracy – from the Greek, dÄ“mokratía, literally “Rule by ‘People’”. (And yes, as an astute reader reminded us recently, it was those very same Greeks who put their own beloved Socrates to death… by a majority vote of 361-140.)

Today, democracy is a cherished tenet of “the West.” It is woven into the civic religion, sewn into the social fabric, and inked on our hallowed mastheads. Men march off eagerly to fight for it, to proselytize it… and to die in forgotten ditches defending it. At least, that’s what they believe they’re doing. As usual, the devil is in the details. Herewith, a little historical context…

The Father of Propaganda: The phrase “Making the world safe for democracy” was actually a marketing slogan, coined back in the 1910s, as a way to sell “The Great War” to America. Weary from their own grueling Civil War just a few decades earlier, in which hundreds of thousands of young men gave up the ghost, Americans were mostly inward looking at the time. That is to say, they wanted little to do with what they largely saw as a “European affair.”

Polls might have indicated no appetite for battle, but the nation’s politicians were nonetheless starved for military misadventure. They sensed big profits abroad, both in manufacturing armaments and making onerous loans to foreign powers. Sure, “the nation” would have to fill “tank and trench” with warm young bodies, but very few soldiers would carry senatorial surnames along with their rifles. And so, after a public relations campaign of truly epic proportions, America’s sons marched off to war… wrapped in the delusion they had freshly been sold.

Eddie Bernays, the man who coined the phrase and, thus, peddled the war to his nation, made a personal fortune for his efforts. He was even invited by Woodrow Wilson to attend the ill-fated Paris Peace Conference, in 1919, as a show of gratitude for his services. There, Bernays learned the full impact of his “democracy” slogan. An obviously bright fellow, the surreal experience caused him to think… If people would be willing to kill one another under the influence of a mere marketing campaign, surely they could be convinced to do, say and buy just about anything!

Bernays was right. In fact, he wrote a series of books, detailing his insights. They included "Crystallizing Public Opinion" (1923), "A Public Relations Counsel" (1927) and a neat little number titled "Propaganda" (1928), in which the author laid out the blueprint for mass social and psychological manipulation. The collected works went on to become a huge success and a favorite of none other than Joseph Goebbles, Reich Minister for Propaganda in Nazi Germany between 1933-45.

Bernays himself, writing in his 1965 autobiography, recalls a dinner at home in 1933 where…Karl von Wiegand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Wiegand his propaganda library, the best Wiegand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Wiegand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. [...] Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign. It is indeed chilling to think of such a heinous undertaking as being engineered, blueprinted, premeditated and carried out according to some kind of script. And yet, there it is… in Bernays’ own words, the “Father of Propaganda.”

The Show Must Go On: Having acquired somewhat of a tainted reputation-by-association, propaganda, itself, underwent a “strategic rebranding” after WWII. Needless to say, the very same métier thrives to this day, under the more socially palatable designation, “Public Relations.” Still, a ruse by any other name…

“Could we be so stupid again?” wonders the gentle reader. “Might the mob still be swayed by what Charles Mackay termed ‘extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds?’” Why, of course! Such is the nature of the mob! Whether in love, literature, politics or any other matter, man is wont to be convinced, assured, persuaded, often against his own best interests. Few are the absurdities in which he will not take refuge, invest his finite time or squander his morality. All he needs is a good story, something to arrest his imagination and cauterize his capacity for reason. A distraction from his lonely, quotidian existence, and a few crumbs to pass his lips.

The Roman poet, Juvenal, recognized as much when he mocked the panem et circenses (bread and circuses) stratagem almost two millennia ago. In his "Satire X", he referred to the annona (a kind of grain dole) and the famous circus games, held in the Colosseum and elsewhere, as designed to keep the unthinking population fed and happy. And lo!

So many moons later, a quarter century into the new millennium, we’ve got trending headlines and streaming infotainment, the pretense of safety and a surrender of liberty, soaring national debt at home foreign entanglements abroad, mindless TV debates and partisan hack electioneering. Now, as then, the show goes on!"

"How It Really Is"

 

Adventures With Danno, "Stocking Up At Aldi Before Price Increases"

Full screen recommended.
Adventures With Danno, 5/8/26
"Stocking Up At Aldi Before Price Increases"
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Chris Hedges, "America’s Suicide Pact"

"America’s Suicide Pact"
by Chris Hedges

"Civilizations, as the historian Arnold J. Toynbee famously argued, “die from suicide, not by murder.” They collapse from within. They fall prey to moral, social and spiritual decay. They are seized by a parasitic ruling class. Democratic institutions seize up. The citizenry is immiserated, wealth is funneled upwards to the ruling class and coercion is the principle form of control.

Our suicidal march began long before Donald Trump and his bizarre court of buffoons, sycophants, grifters and Christian fascists took power. It began when the ruling class, especially under the Reagan and Clinton administrations, set out to harvest the country and empire for personal profit.

There is a word for these people. Traitors. These traitors, ensconced in the leadership of the two ruling parties, stripped us of assets and power slowly. They used subterfuge, lies and legalized bribery. They pretended to honor electoral politics, checks and balances, a free press and the rule of law while subverting all of these democratic pillars. That old system, however flawed, was hollowed out. It was turned over to the amoral and the idiotic - look at the Supreme Court or Congress - those willing to do the bidding of the billionaire class.

Armed with billions by the mortal enemy of the demos - the oligarchs and corporations - the political elites, Republicans and Democrats, destroyed the careers of those politicians who resisted. They crushed labor unions. They blacklisted honest journalists and consolidated the press into the hands of a handful of corporations and oligarchs. They slashed regulations that constrained unfettered greed and protected the population from predatory corporations and environmental toxins. They passed legislation that created a de facto tax boycott for the rich - Trump famously paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the 15 years prior to his presidency - while stripping the country of its industry and throwing some 30 million people out of work. Wealth is no longer created by producing or manufacturing. It is created by manipulating the prices of stocks and commodities and imposing a crippling debt peonage on the public.

These parasites cut or abolished social programs, militarized the police, built the largest prison system in the world and pumped funds into a bloated and out-of-control war industry. German socialist and politician Karl Liebknecht, on the eve of the suicidal folly of World War I, called German imperialists “the enemy at home.” Our rulers, our enemies at home, mounted a series of futile wars that degraded the empire’s global hegemony and poured trillions of dollars of taxpayer money into their bank accounts. Iran is the most recent example.

Trump is not an outlier. He is the naked, stripped-down expression of this suicidal pact. He does not pretend the system he inherited works. He lies with less finesse. He crassly enriches himself and his family. He speaks in crude vulgarities. He dismantles any government agency dedicated to the common good, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and the U.S. Postal Service. But he embodies what came before him, albeit without the liberal façade.

“Trump is not an anomaly,” I wrote in “America: The Farewell Tour” He is the grotesque visage of a collapsed democracy. Trump and his coterie of billionaires, generals, half-wits, Christian fascists, criminals, racists, and moral deviants play the role of the Snopes clan in some of William Faulkner’s novels. The Snopeses filled the power vacuum of the decayed South and ruthlessly seized control from the degenerated, former slaveholding aristocratic elites. Flem Snopes and his extended family - which includes a killer, a pedophile, a bigamist, an arsonist, a mentally disabled man who copulates with a cow, and a relative who sells tickets to witness the bestiality - are fictional representations of the scum now elevated to the highest level of the federal government. They embody the moral rot unleashed by unfettered capitalism.

The Epstein files, a window into the degeneracy of our ruling class, included not only Trump, but former U.S. president Bill Clinton - who allegedly took a trip to Thailand with Epstein - Prince Andrew, Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates, hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, the former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, former secretary of the treasury and former president of Harvard University Larry Summers, cognitive psychologist and author Stephen Pinker, Epstein’s lawyer and arch Zionist Alan Dershowitz, billionaire and Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner, the former Barclays banker Jes Staley, former Israel prime minister Ehud Barak, magician David Copperfield, actor Kevin Spacey, former CIA director William Burns, real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, former Maine senator George Mitchell and disgraced Hollywood producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. They all orbited Epstein’s perpetual Bacchanalia.

Anand Giridharadas, who wrote “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” notes that the circle of powerful men, and a handful of women who surrounded Epstein, are emblematic of a privileged caste that lack empathy in the suffering and abuse of others, whether that is sexual abuse, including that of children, financial meltdowns they orchestrate, wars they back, addictions and overdose they enable, the monopolies they defend, the inequality they turbocharge, the housing crisis they milk and the intrusive technologies they refuse to protect people against:

People are right to sense that as the emails lay bare, there is a highly private merito-aristocracy at the intersection of government and business, lobbying, philanthropy, start-ups, academia, science, high finance and media, that all too often takes care of its own more than the common good. They are right to resent that there are infinite second chances for members of this group even as so many Americans are deprived of first chances. They are right that their pleas often go unheard, whether they are being evicted, gouged, foreclosed on, A.I.-obsolesced - or, yes, raped.

“The Epstein emails, in my view,” Giridharadas writes, “together sketch a devastating epistolary portrait of how our social order functions, and for whom. Saying that isn’t extreme. The way this elite operates is.” “If this neoliberal-era power elite remains poorly understood,” he continues, “it may be because it is not just a financial elite or an educated elite, a noblesse-oblige elite, a political elite or a narrative-making elite; it straddles all of these, lucratively and persuaded of its own good intentions.”

“These people are,” Giridharadas reminds us, “on the same team. On air, they might clash. They promote opposite policies. Some in the network profess anguish over what others in the network are doing. But the emails depict a group whose highest commitment is to their own permanence in the class that decides things. When principles conflict with staying in the network, the network wins.” You can see my interview with Giridharadas here.

The entire system is rotten. It will not reform itself. The Democratic Party has hit on the novel campaign issue of reducing taxes to win this year’s midterm elections. It will, no doubt, anoint another vapid, issue-less and genocide-supporting presidential nominee. Democratic donors pumped a staggering $1.5 billion into Kamala Harris’s abridged 15-week celebrity-fueled presidential campaign. She became the first Democratic presidential candidate to lose the national popular vote in two decades and be defeated in every battleground state.

The Democratic Party is not a functioning political party. It is a corporate mirage. Its members can, at best, select preapproved candidates and act as props in choreographed conventions and rallies. Party members have zero influence on party politics.

The more the diminishing power of the empire becomes apparent, evidenced in Trump’s debacle with Iran, the more a confused population retreats into a fantasy world, a world where hard and unpleasant facts do not intrude.

In the final days of a civilization, a population wallows in self-delusional hubris and trumpets false virtues. It looks for scapegoats to explain its failures - Muslims, undocumented workers, Mexicans, African-Americans, feminists, intellectuals, artists and dissidents. Magical thinking and the myth of American exceptionalism dominate public discourse and are taught in schools. Art and culture are degraded to nationalist kitsch. Science is dismissed, even in the midst of the environmental crisis. Cultural and intellectual disciplines that allow us to see the world from the perspective of the other, that foster empathy, understanding and compassion, are replaced by a grotesque and cruel hypermasculinity and hypermilitarism. Trump is perfectly tailored for these death throes. He is not a freak or an anomaly. He is the naked visage of our pathological sickness."