Today is the 18th anniversary of 9/11, and lots of people are memeing “Never forget!” That got me thinking about things we are told we should never forget.
Never forget that it was Osama bin Laden & 19 Arab hijackers who were entirely responsible for 9/11. There was a bi-partisan government investigation, which examined the evidence of 9/11, and came to this conclusion, which matched the narrative the media & the Bush administration pushed from the start. We are in a life-and-death struggle against “Arab terrorists” who want to destroy our way of life, so don’t ever forget that.
If you are a white male, then don’t ever forget that you are a racist lackey of white supremacy. This means you are not allowed to write, speak, or express yourself publicly on any issues concerning people of color & women– due to your racial & sexist bias. You can’t possibly understand the agony which women & blacks have gone through, so don’t even go there. You are white, and thus implicitly responsible for all their misery, so don’t ever forget that.
Never (ever!) forget that the Russians are our enemy. The Russians meddled with our elections, which gave the American people President Trump. Of course, there has never been any hard proof of this story, but we always have to remain vigilant– and never forget!
Never forget that there’s a lot of “fake news” out there. Watching exclusively CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and/or Fox means you only approve of “authorized news.” Printed articles, photos, and videos from other sources, which contradict “official news,” must be treated with the utmost skepticism, as the internet has become a haven for “fake news.”
This applies particularly to social media. The CEO’s of Facebook, Twitter, et all have your best interests in mind, but they are overwhelmed by Russian troll bots & left-wing extremists who spread “fake news” into your feed. Fakebook executives and the rest are working diligently to protect you from these nefarious forms of manipulation, by using artificial intelligence & human monitors (not censors) to make sure you only see stuff that is “correct.” Never forget that.
While you may see news stories of high-level corruption on a daily basis, never forget that this is America, the greatest democracy in the world. Our leaders are working to keep America great– or make it great again– depending on which political party you cheer for. The point is they work for all our best interests, so don’t ever forget their sacrifices.
“I don’t see that we have any choice, but to kill that son-of-a-bitch– Jeffery Epstein.
“We could do it in prison, as the security cameras are rolling. It would make a terrific season premiere for The Mao Tse-tung Hour…”
Tagline: An inside look at the propaganda behind the campaign
Actress, model & activist Pamela Anderson went on The View last Friday (Sept. 6) to defend Julian Assange. Russia Today reported on this story, and one of their top comments was, “Meghan McCain looks like a tellytubby.”
This leads to two points: 1) people are very contemptuous of Meghan McCain’s feminist attitude & narrative, and 2) Pamela Anderson gets attention.
A small point on women’s fashion is that Pamela Anderson is the most buttoned-up dressed of all of them when she appears on The View. The queen of the Playboy centerfold takes them ALL down with her composure & thought-out responses. These feminist phonies have NOTHING in response, which is why they normally don’t allow the original “Tool Time Girl” on prime-time television anymore. The point is that nothing beats beauty & brains.
In summary: reactionary #MeToo feminism is being used as a weapon for silencing men, and separating them from beautiful & secure women, in order to perpetuate establishment lies.
Faye Dunaway & Pamela Anderson are amazing, as they, and others like them represent the best of what’s possible for women. The rest here are bitchy, man-hating, teletubby trash. Those are but a few of the many faces of feminism.
“They took our power, and incorporated it into their system.”
Does this above quote from ESPN’s Football is US: The College Game Documentary, directed by Jonathan Hock, imply a Marxist perspective of labor power being co-opted for capitalist exploitation?
No, this is (again) a racialist narrative of “black power” being rolled into the “white system.” Rich black people who exploit (as well as poor white folks) don’t count in this distorted equation.
Football is US: The College Game Documentary, is to begin “five months of original content dedicated to recognizing college football’s place in history and society.”
This initial installment focuses heavily on historically black colleges & universities (HBCUs) as institutions of higher education in the United States, established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In college football, they served the same purpose as the Negro Leagues in baseball, giving black athletes an opportunity to compete at a high level, as well as an audience.
When de-segregation was introduced in the 1960’s, the enrollment of top black athletes at HBCUs declined, the same way the Negro Leagues did in the 1950’s, after Jackie Robinson entered MLB in 1947.
Generally among those who are educated & enlightened, these milestone achievements of integration are celebrated as progress, but not for today’s revisionist racialists.
To them, integration (sadly) hurt these all-black institutions, as the “white” NCAA stole their talent in order to re-enforce “Jim Crow dominance” in college football. These deluded racialists instead prefer to idealize the era of the Negro Leagues & HBCUs as mythical representations of “black power.”
The rest of this romanticized documentary is divided into several chapters. It begins with a look at the origins of the college game, discussing the many violent deaths that occurred on the field in its early years, and the formation of the regulatory institution that would later be known as the NCAA in 1905.
What’s missing is any discussion of football’s deep links to gambling & organized crime. Concussions, brain injuries & CTE are also glossed over, while words like “teamwork” & “sacrifice” are thrown around freely. Terms such as militarism, conformity, nationalism, domestic violence & PEDs are never mentioned.
In total, this concealment is meant to make football palatable & nostalgic, in response to those who have been turned off by recent revelations of its true ugliness. ESPN’s whitewash (with black stripes) tells us football is still a beautiful game– an indelible part of our culture & fabric of our society.
Just look at all the vicarious fans who wear football jerseys every weekend! Football is here to stay, because it is as American as Ford cars made by under-paid/over-extended, two-tiered workers, and as wholesome as GMO apple pie. Bon appétit!
It never ceases to amaze me, how many ignorant people support such a corrupt & ugly individual? But then again, money & fame are everything in today’s media. Having meaningful content & delivering results are not highly considered, and so we have the Bizarro world of bourgeois politics. This is a problem working people need to fix– and soon.
Pundits ask, “How could a 2020 Democrat attack Donald Trump on the economy?” Most “political expertise” in this field quickly disappears in the responses, as the entire establishment can’t seem to come up with anything of substance.
We’re talking about a US President who has called for repeated Fed rate cuts, while consumer interest rates & the cost-of-living have skyrocketed. Rent & mortgages cost more, food is more, and student loans are oppressive debt; but none of this registers with official talking heads.
That trade war the Trumpster & Co. have started with everybody– China, Iran, Venezuela, EU– isn’t helping any real American businesses or workers. Cuts to the EPA, education, Medicaid, et al. aren’t popular either. Neither is this ICE war on Hispanic immigrants, initiated by the Trumpster’s penchant for whipping up racial hate.
But the Democrats don’t really object, so they won’t bring it up– for as long as possible. That’s why the Blue Dog Democrats keep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the fringes– and a tight leash. It’s all anti-Russian & MeToo campaigning from their side of the aisle. They’ll stick with that weak stuff, even though it has been widely exposed as deep state lies & propaganda. Something about old dogs…
So now basically all federal discretionary spending is controlled by the Trumpster for the next year-and-a-half. Most of it will go towards the police-military-intelligence apparatus. How this helps regular folks & student youth, is never explained. Instead it’s the Russians, and/or racist/sexist white men as the root of all evil. All this to keep their fascist conman (and the public) in check.
This is tied-in with social media censorship. Search engines filter content on the internet through algorithms, artificial intelligence, & an army of human censors. Much of it is controlled by the anti-Trump element of the ruling establishment, but all of them act against the interests of democracy & the working classes.
The fact is the Trumpster lost the popular vote by ~3 million in 2016, but he won the Electoral College, critically by capturing three battleground states (PA, MI & WI) with razor-thin margins in each. He won’t get that support he needs again, with an economy in the toilet & about to collapse. For most workers, the cost of living is far out-pacing wages. Good jobs are too few and hard-to-find anymore.
The US President typically takes the blame for that during an election year. It’s a slam dunk campaign for the Democrats, and that’s why their most conservative candidate, Joe Biden, has already been assured the nomination. The real race among the rest is for the VP nomination. Kamala Harris is a black woman in Congress, which check a lot of boxes. That’s why she’s been such a media darling of the early Democratic contenders. Look for someone like her to fill the 2020 ticket. It’s the Democrats’ version of Mike Pence.
We know this political fixing happens, like in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was handed the nomination, despite the over-powering popularity of Bernie Sanders, who ran as a “socialist” alternative within the Democratic party. It was WikiLeaks that revealed these facts & mechanisms to the world, through leaks from a DNC staffer– most likely Seth Rich. Certainly not the Russians– as even the Mueller Report proved, finding no criminal conspiracies, despite endless official “theories” on “Russian interference” from Democrats & their media boosters.
Trump supporters love to spin their leader as bulletproof, because that’s what he wants to hear. They are generally brain-dead when it comes to politics, just like the ego-maniacal Trumpster himself, so don’t expect clear answers from them. As far as the Trumpster’s “liberal” critics, they are a bit less deluded in mind, but more cowardly in heart. They hate Trump, but can’t muster the will to do anything more than post memes on social media & petition their congresswomen. Marxists label this phenomenon as lobotomizing oneself into political impotence.
After being mostly out of the news cycle for a week (necessarily so!) during the mysterious Jeffery Epstein death saga, the Trumpster has thrust himself back into the headlines by tweeting that he is working on a deal to buy the nation of Greenland! Here’s a good question. Does the Trumpster keep any of his promises?
Greenland has a population of ~60,000, and a government, which can be seen as an obstacle to acquisition. Importantly, Denmark provides economic & military aid to Greenland. The idea has been dismissed by world leaders as ludicrous, which it is. Greenland’s Foreign Minister, Ane Lone Bagger told Reuters flatly, “We’re not for sale.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen also pointed out that Greenland is not Denmark’s property to sell, which throws another wrench in the Trumpster grand vision. In a tit-for tat diplomacy move, with the style of a crude gangster, US President Donald Trump then cancelled his meeting with the Danish PM, scheduled two weeks from now. The reason was either a tantrum, or “national security.”
The following in italics is a satirical rendition of the Trumpster attempting to acquire Antarctica, since this is the logical sequel to the Greenland affair.
It’s been a slow news week, censorship as usual, and we desperately need a media distraction so I’m announcing my intention to buy Antarctica. I’m not sure it’s for sale, but my team & I are seriously looking into purchasing this valuable piece of real estate for “national security” reasons. Global warming, which is a myth, has opened up new real estate opportunities.
The original signatories of the Antarctic Treaty are seven countries – Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom – each with overlapping territorial claims to parts of the continent. It must cost them all lots of money to maintain, so why not buy it? We’ll have the Federal Reserve print up more fake money to pay for it, and in return I’ll take Antarctica off everybody hands.
The art of the deal– brilliant huh? In the meantime, I’ll be canceling state visits & cutting diplomatic relations, while applying economic sanctions & “maximum pressure” to those governments who refuse to play ball.
Signed– your fearless leader
These are the methods of a gangster. This is a “businessman” who always lies, then defaults. The Trumpster occupies the White House because his methods are those of the ruling class. Savage & insatiable greed are its characteristics. Hate & fear are its motives.
The deep state, with all its control over the police-military-intelligence apparatus, is its weapon. The corporate media, Wall Street, Silicon Valley & Hollywood all work together to protect their privileged class status. Inequality is what they want: the best for themselves & scraps for the rest– if even that.
When the Trumpster goes into battle, he doesn’t say to his opponents, “I’ll see you in hell,” like conquerors of the past. Instead this modern & privileged sociopath tweets, “I’ll see you in court.” Then his lawyers and other “associates” come into the picture– to handle his dirty laundry. If anyone says one thing out-of-line about him (by his judgment), then “You’re fired!” The truth is the Trumpster is nothing but a chumpster without his legions of hired help, yes-men & go-fers.
These bourgeois leaders are sick in every sense. Deluded by their own egos, too afraid to face hard truths with meaningful words & action. This entire global ruling aristocracy, led by the US, is about to topple upon itself in insolvency. It will then loudly & brazenly declare that it must be saved, because what would working people & our future be without them?
Introduction: This is a self-analysis of my twelve most-viewed blog posts over the past year, dated as of this publication. This is what my fans (& haters) are viewing, so if you want to get up-to-speed, this is where to start.
These aren’t necessarily all of my best writings, just the most popular. I now have over 340 posts on this site, and there are several on politics which I consider to be my best, but aren’t among the most-viewed. This is strictly how my readers have judged the writings.
These essays span a period of over 5 years, from August 2014, up to last week. This proves these writings have weight & substance, which makes them not only timely reporting, but classics which last into posterity– unlike the garbage propaganda produced by corporate fake news media.
Final note: I excluded FREE Music Downloads (the coolest original downloads page, anywhere!) from this list. Pages with my music content are different from written publications, which are posted as a blog. FREE Music Downloads would have ranked 12th on this list, just ahead of the MST3K piece.
1)Why Does Danica Patrick Wreck So Often in NASCAR? Published March 14, 2016, this is still my number-one, most-viewed article– by a 3:1 margin over the runner-up. This piece made me infamous as a blogger for lots of reasons. The subject is both beautiful & controversial. The content & style was revolutionary. A few of the damning YouTube videos I originally linked have been taken down, which only proves the case further. Danica Patrick retired from racing over a year ago, and yet she still remains relevant to the public. Many right-wing gun nuts link this piece around their forums. You don’t have fans without gaining haters too– that’s the lesson here.
2)NFL History: The Super Bowl Era Published August 16, 2014 along with American Football & Early NFL History, my intention was to kill the NFL. I played football on the playground as a kid, and loved the game. But for a long time the NFL has been allowed to mask its ugliness & violent nature in glory, and that is dangerous. I care mostly about current football players who have to deal with this, and if this two-part historical essay discouraged one kid from joining this mad parade of concussions & conformity (or encouraged a player to leave), then it served its purpose.
3)Taipan! (1982): Gameplay Basics & Tips Published May 10, 2015, and I’ll confess this is my all-time favorite– for several reasons. Firstly for me, it is the most personal in spirit. This game is elegant, thrilling & difficult– it simply kicks ass. I re-discovered something beautiful here which had been lost, and shared its secrets with everybody. The programmer of Taipan! is brilliant, as this ancient computer game has layers of nuances which need to be peeled back like an onion in order to discern its essence. There are life lessons here and if you don’t understand the game, then you don’t have a chance of succeeding.
4) Patient Refunds at Aspen Dental Published August 30, 2017 as a discussion on dental ethics. I am still a dentist by profession, since I can’t make money at music or writing– due to blacklisting censorship. The videos I posted of Aspen Dental’s then-latest advertising campaign have all been taken down by their owners. Aspen Dental is a joke, a disgrace to the profession. Hedge-fund investors, Wall Street, and multi-national corporations have ruined the professions of medicine in the 1980’s & 1990’s, and then dentistry in the 2000’s.
5) The Ambidextrous Athlete Published November 26, 2016, this piece references medical essays previously written on hip & back injuries. This article is more of a layman approach, discussing the benefits of becoming ambidextrous. The originality of this is that it targets people of all age. Most sports training essays are written for young athletes or professionals, but the healing & energizing power of ambidexterity applies to all ages. So whether it’s training oneself to be the dominant Next-Gen athlete in a sport, orrehabilitating old injuries, this piece has revolutionary ideas & overflows with pearls of wisdom.
6)Where Were You When…? Published January 1, 2016 because I had just seen Soaked in Bleach (2015) on Netflix. It turns out Kurt Cobain was most-likely murdered by his wife Courtney Love & her accomplice Michael “Cali” Dewitt. This conspiracy is not to be discussed in the music industry, nor mainstream media, but by this point the fans already know. I was a big Nirvana fan back in the day, and Kurt Cobain was a huge influence on my performing & songwriting style. Being murdered is better than suicide, but someday this case needs to be re-opened so an honest investigation can proceed. I included many photos of what’s left of the evidence. These pictures of the crime scene & suicide note, as well as Cobain’s personal notes, have become harder to find over the years on the internet. People come here to get them.
7) Lieutenant Columbo on the Jeffery Epstein case Published August 10, 2019, just 9 days ago [!]– this became an instant classic. This event took up precisely one week’s news cycle, and has already been flushed by the media. Where is the CC video of Jeffery Epstein’s cell during his death? One can’t even make a case for cause-of-death, much less close it, without that crucial & definitive evidence. My follow-up titled Conspiring to squelch conspiracy theories published on August 14, 2019 completes my thoughts for now. The photo above is Jeffery Epstein walking with Prince Andrew in Central Park, NYC. There are still lots of loose ends to tie up here, if you know what I mean.
8) Marquette: What’s in a Name? Published February 23, 2015, this essay is from the perspective of an alumnus. It deals with racism, jingoism, and loyalty to an institution. It deals with “selling one’s likeness,” in a way few people have considered. This piece was difficult yet fascinating to write, because of the emotions one has towards a university one attended for seven years. Marquette University alumni have passed this essay around extensively, but no one from MU ever asks me to speak there, nor mentions this article publicly.
9) San Diego Padres: Gay Pride Night, Smokeless Tobacco & Losing Published May 26, 2016, I had to re-read this piece to remember what I’d written. It is one, in a long line of Padres reports during a most-interesting season, where their GM traded away their entire pitching rotation, closer, and overpaid veteran position players– changing the rules-of-the-game in the process. Baseball is about handling losing, so maybe that’s what resonates here. Or maybe it’s my censored comment to ‘MLB satisfied with Padres’ response to chorus mix-up’ on mlb.com/padres. “Unfortunate, but well-handled, Padres. Bring the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus back to sing the national anthem on a military Sunday. Now that would be interesting!”
10)Lone Ranger Norris: Beer, Guns & Stupidity Published July 22, 2016 as a narrative on Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), which stars Chuck Norris. I took pictures of this movie playing on DVD, which really helps. Otherwise the reader might not believe what’s written. This is an awful movie, but to be fair, I do like A Force of One (1979),The Octagon (1980), An Eye for an Eye (1981), and Invasion U.S.A. (1985) as guilty indulgences. Also note that Breaker, Breaker (1977) is so bad, it has extreme camp value. Everything else from the reactionary actor Chuck Norris is pretty much unwatchable, IMO.
12) The Circus of Dr. Lao & the Satellite of Love Published December 19, 2014 this references Mystery Science Theater 3000, my favorite television series ever. Episodes (experiments) ran two hours for 10 seasons on cable during the 1990’s, and MST3K was brilliant in concept & execution– until most of the talent departed after Season 7. Joel Hodgson leaving during Season 5 was the beginning of that demise.
Con·spir·a·cy (noun): a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
This is what the media is doing now, to cover up unexplained events around the mysterious death of Jeffery Epstein on Saturday, August 10.
According to the Associated Pressyesterday, “Attorney General William Barr ordered warden Lamine N’Diaye temporarily re-assigned to the Bureau of Prisons’ regional office while the FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general investigate. The two guards were placed on leave, but not identified.”
Placing warden Lamine N’Diaye & the two anonymous guards who were supposed to be watching Jeffery Epstein on leave, while federal authorities “investigate” this death, can be seen as a way of keeping independent investigators from questioning these suspects and/or witnesses. I tried to find a photo of Lamine N’Diaye to post, but one doesn’t seem to be available in the internet. Very curious…
Also every quote in the media concerning details in this case seem to come from an “anonymous source,” making them worthless. It’s playbook black-ops cover-up here, with the political establishment & corporate media as accomplices. It’s in all their interests. Who benefits?
The Jeffery Epstein killing evokes the deaths of Seth Rich in motivation, and Jamal Khashoggi in style. Trump Attorney General William Barr (above) assigning the FBI to investigate this suspicious death, is the proverbial fox guarding the hen house. The public will not be allowed to see the body, any video evidence, autopsy report, or any witnesses during this cover-up before it is officially declared a “suicide.”
The fake news media has been obliterated by reader comments & social media discussions which are pointing out all the inconsistencies in the “suicide narrative.” It’s the contents & specifics of Epstein’s infamous “black book” that has elites worried.
Here’s the 2015 redacted release of the black book, for your perusal & download. I will summarize its contents below. Here are also the flight logs for the notorious “Lolita Express,” which show Bill Clinton to be a frequent flier.
There’s lots of global royalty here: princes & princesses, barons & baronesses, the duchess & dukes, etc. I don’t recognize many of the names because I’m neither a jet-setter, nor star-gazing voyeur. It appears Epstein catered to all tastes in sex. I notice a lot of high-end law firms, Rothchilds, etc…
The names I recognized going through these black book scans included: Alec Baldwin, Tony Blair, Mike Bloomberg, Jimmy Buffet, Steve Forbes, George Hamilton, Dustin Hoffman, Lauren Hutton, Mick Jagger, Edward Kennedy (and the rest of the family), Henry Kissinger, David Koch, Simon Le Bon, Courtney Love, George Mitchell, Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Bill Richardson, David Rockefeller, Jeffery Sachs, Maria Shriver, Peter Soros, Kevin Spacey, Donald Trump, Ivana Trump, Ivanka Trump, Blaine & Robert Trump, Chris Tucker, Christy Turlington, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters, Dr. Ruth Westheimer & Steve Winn.
That’s quite a cross-section of the ruling class & its representatives! I certainly betrayed my age in recognizing the lead singer of 1980’s pop band Djuran Djuran. But everyone knew Jeffery Epstein was a convicted pedophile & sex trafficker, so what are these people doing in his black book? That question must be asked to every person & institution listed in his black book, otherwise it isn’t a serious investigation into his death.
They all have a motive, that’s for sure. Any of these people could have been party to, or willing accomplices in a conspiracy to murder Jeffery Epstein. That’s a legal application of the term “conspiracy,” which has weight & meaning in a court-of-law, as opposed to “hate crime,” domestic terrorism, or being made to feel “uncomfortable.”
All the finest hotels, restaurants, & global luxury retailers seem to be in Jeffery Epstein’s black book, along with all the top financial institutions. All kinds of airline, charter & airport information, along with courier services, ground transportation, etc. All kinds of doctors, hospitals & insurance companies are listed under ‘Medical.’ Even the ‘White House’ appears in it (page 81).
‘Florida Massage’ has listings that go on for two-and-a-half columns on page 86. “Police PB” (Palm Beach) is listed next to it, with many contacts. There’s also listings for ‘Massage New Mexico’ & ‘Massage California.’ Under ‘Security’ at the end of page 87, “Scotland Yard” is listed.
Conclusion: There’s a lot of peculiarities that bother me with the medical examiner’s autopsy “report” to the public. They claim they need “further information” to be able to determine the cause-of-death, and that may be so. But they have released no summaries, not even findings, nor any photos which could be helpful in solving this unexplained death, which officially remains an “apparent suicide.”
NBC reported this on Sunday, “At this point, the ongoing law enforcement investigation led by the FBI will help inform the medical examiner’s determination and it is not uncommon for the two sides to work together.”
FBI agents also raided Jeffrey Epstein’s hideaway on the island of Little St. James, Tuesday morning– August 12. The evidence in this case is rapidly disappearing, with the media attacking “conspiracy theorists” on all sides– and discrediting themselves irreparably. There are too many people who have been prescient & on-target all along– even predicting events, with the staged-managed reactions that follow. At what point is a conspiracy theory proven?
Fri 16 Aug 2019 01:45 AM EDT
Thursday (8-15) the Washington Post, anonymously [!] cited two people familiar with the autopsy report, who said Epstein sustained multiple breaks in his neck bones, including his hyoid bone. According to forensic experts, such breaks can occur in those who hang themselves, but they are much more common in victims of homicide by strangulation.
At this point I am done with this case, as it is essentially proven as far as any outside objective observer can see. I confidently predict that every piece of verifiable evidence that comes to light in the future will point towards a murder conspiracy.
I asked an important question at the original end of this piece, which I will answer here. A conspiracy theory is proven in two stages. First is when the people who question the official narrative are so far ahead of the conspirators, that they can’t keep up and have to resort to cover-ups & media censorship. In this sense the conspiracies of JFK’s assassination & 9/11 have been proven. The second stage in validating conspiracy theories is when a revolution occurs. This is when all the physical evidence & proof of ruling class conspiracies is exposed to the world. This is the only means to final verification of a conspiracy theory.
Introduction: “May God bless the memory of those who perished in Toledo, may god protect them.” — President Donald Trump, August 5, 2019 at the White House press conference he called for in the video below.
There were two tragic mass shootings over the weekend, approximately 12 hours apart. In Texas, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, drove hundreds of miles to a Walmart in El Paso to carry out his assault. As of this publication: 20 dead, and 26 injured. He targeted Hispanics, and the site of this shooting makes it political.
“This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.” These are Patrick Crusius words, which are part of his fascist four-page manifesto published on the internet. Crusius surrendered to the police. This brings the death penalty into play, if found guilty.
In Dayton, Ohio, Connor Betts, age 24, fired dozens of shots, killing 9, and wounding 16 others. He was killed by the Dayton police, in a brief shootout. No motive for this massacre has been established yet.
The video embedded above is Donald Trump’s press conference yesterday (Sunday), in which he begins by praising & thanking the police at length. This is his way of taking credit for a tragedy, while solidifying support for the police state, which contains much of his fascist base. Notice how the President of the United States can barely summon any sympathy for the victims, as he stumbles from one talking point to the next.
“It could have been so much worse… the people of these two great cities El Paso & Dayton (in the important electoral states of Texas & Ohio) are wonderful…” He’s spoken with many bureaucrats, etc… “I’ll be making a statement tomorrow at 10:00 AM (after my advisors brief me on what to say). Thank you very much, and I’ll see you there…”
First lady Melania Trump stands silently by his side on the runway in a bullet-proof corset with a forlorn face. Her eyes masked by dark sunglasses, as she stands uncomfortably. It seems a relief for her when they go the “Q&A,” as the camera pulls in tight on Donald Trump and stays there. There’s so much to understand here…
Both of these gunmen appear to have long histories of anti-social behavior, going back to high-school & before. Both were obviously filled with hate, during their rampages. So why is one labeled a “hate crime,” and the other isn’t?
“Hate crime” has no legal meaning, and therefore no place in law. But this is precisely what is being introduced by politicians through the media for propaganda reasons. The same with only labeling the El Paso shooting as a case of “domestic terrorism.” The cold hard truth is that any time someone fires a fully-loaded assault rifle into a civilian crowd, it terrorizes the domestic population. It is all motivated by hate.
Those in Dayton mostly feel the same way the people in El Paso do right now– shocked & disgusted. These vague, legally undefined terms such as “hate crime” & “domestic terrorism” have no real meaning, as they could apply to virtually any of these cases one cares to look at. Yet these terms are hyped as legitimate talking points by the corporate media fake news. The question is: why?
The “domestic terrorism” label evokes 9/11, and the official need for a stronger military-police-intelligence apparatus. We’ve seen & heard this before, and it’s mostly beating a dead horse by now. Most rational people who follow politics understand that 9/11 was an inside job– all the way to the top. The “war on terror” is a Big Lie, from before the start. These ideas, arguments, facts & evidence have been widely exposed & discussed among the population through the internet– despite blanket censorship in the mainstream media. A new arrow is needed in the US propaganda quiver, and thus “hate crimes” are our latest national crisis, from which we require our elected leaders to save us.
Applying the extra emphasis of “hate crime,” amplifies its racial aspect– by design. This works for both Republicans & Democrats, but against the people. For conservative Democrats, the deep state represents the interests of Wall Street, Hollywood & the intelligence apparatus. The “liberal” plank of the Democratic party is now entirely identity politics; which are the reactionary racialism of Black Lives Matter, the hysterical witch-hunting feminism of the #MeToo campaign, and impotent LGBT activism. These snowflakes, ex-radicals & social justice warriors of the upper middle-class, all favor harsher penalties for “hate crimes.”
Donald Trump’s tweets & speeches always reflect the ideology of his consigliere, Stephen Bannon (above) who correctly states, “As long as the Democrats play racial politics, we win.” That’s because the fascists on the far right are much more passionate & militant, than these limp-noodle liberals on the “left.” Trump held his press conference this morning, and besides already forgetting the victims in Dayton, he proposed a two-pronged “solution” to gun violence.
He advocated for the Democrats to sponsor some new anti-gun legislation, and see how it goes in Congress. He urged Republicans to support this initiative (a sure loser), and hand a political victory to Trump when it fails in the end. We’ll see if the Democrats bite on it. It depends on how much Donald Trump needs Blue Dog Democrats to hand him a political victory. The more the Don needs it, the more likely he’ll get conservative Democrat support– even if it costs them the 2020 election. No one cares that much about Joe Biden. Permanent interests.
Trump’s second proposal was to enhance funding for law enforcement & military integration, along with internet censorship. We knew that was coming, right? He’s already been handed a blank check from the Democrats, and can now spend US taxpayer money any way he wants for the next year-and-a-half. There are no more threats of a government shutdown, which made Trump deeply unpopular, and he can build his promised boondoggle wall at the Mexican border. The threat of impeachment, which began in earnest with Trump’s government shutdown, is now gone due to Democratic party capitulation.
Even rising-star liberal (oxymoron) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez played her part in making it all happen. As you can see in her staged immigration camp “protest” at the fence of an empty parking lot, she’s a pretty good actress for a politician. But house majority whip Nancy Pelosi sat her down privately, and explained the rules-of-the-game. AOC clearly got the message, and last month supplied a crucial vote in getting the initiative to come to the floor. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez then tried to covered her political tracks, by voting “No” on a bill she knew would easily pass both houses. It did, and it couldn’t have happened without her help.
Donald Trump and a tiny cabal of fascists now control much of the allocation of the US federal budget, measured in trillions of dollars. This used to be the primary function of Congress, so what’s left for them? A US President hasn’t needed Congress to declare war for a long time now, and they won’t impeach– so seriously, what’s left?
Trump & top Republicans are sociopathic criminals who control much of the military & police apparatus. They have encouraged & enabled countless lone-wolf sociopaths & armed militia goon squads, which they consider to hold in reserve as “shock troops.” This is the Nazi stormtrooper mentality, and it’s no joke when tacitly unleashed upon society.
The flaccid resistance of liberalism has no chance against this fascist machinery & its tools of violence. Unlike fascists, “peaceniks” are paralyzed with fear when it comes to real guns & serious events. The only social force that can resist & defeat this toxic ideology of bankrupt capitalism is an internationally united working class.
The truth is that everything Donald Trump says & does as President is a “hate crime” and “terrorism.” The same applies to the rest of the Republicans, Democrats & ultra-rich. These people are all haters & criminals. The fake media lies for them on all sides, from CNN & MSNBC to Fox & Breitbart. The propaganda they broadcast, poisons the public mind with lies & hate. These are “specialist hate criminals.” They come in all varieties, and always proclaim their innocence. This is the Black Hand, the true master of the Big Lie.
Losing one’s self-consciousness is not easy. Self-consciousness is what distracts us from what we are doing. It is peer pressure. It tells us to be aware of other interests & conform to expectations. Self-consciousness is group-think in each of us.
To lose this self-defeating impulse, one must have a strong mind & body. Otherwise doubts arise, which is self-consciousness creeping in. Only if you truly know in your heart & mind that what you are doing is correct, can you act without self-consciousness. When this happens, boundaries no longer apply and mountains can be moved, because there are no external or internal interferences.
True leaders learn to act without self-consciousness, because they correctly recognize the survival of civilization and our planet supersedes any personal issues. People who take things personally act with too much self-consciousness (ie- personal interest) to be effective leaders of men & women.
The entire political & financial spheres of humanity are controlled by self-conscious autocrats, who place themselves above the law, and deem their interests too big to fail. This is self-consciousness run amok. It’s an inherent feature of capitalism, which emphasizes individual gain.
The ability to forget oneself is a useful & powerful skill. We are all born with extreme self-consciousness, demanding everything as infants. The idea is that as we grow, we learn to be independent and take care of ourselves, while developing the skills to eventually take care of others.
When you watch a mother properly take care of her baby, there is no self-consciousness in her actions. All she cares about is her baby. When you see an insecure mother making a show of her baby, to the degree that she’s acting self-consciously, she’s less of a mom.
I mentioned being strong in body. If you are carrying extra fat, then you have pain— most likely in your spine & hips. Pain is a brake on physical action. When you attempt to do something and pain strikes, it stops you. You are now self-conscious that it hurts, and your actions are limited. At root, self-consciousness is personal insecurity which ultimately disables the individual.
How you look physically is important. People make judgments, which can help or hurt your situation. Can you ignore all that? Can you just do what you want, when you want? Personal hygiene should be approached scientifically. This is a norm people can recognize & respect, without acting self-consciously. We have social hygiene problems of self-consciousness in both direction– too little & too much.
The same is true with beauty, which has objective & subjective elements. Objective parts include a lean body, nice smile, pretty eyes, healthy skin & hair. If you have that at any age, then you will be considered attractive by all. Beauty gets a variety striking reactions, so remaining open-minded to what comes is the best approach, as compared to self-consciousness.
Humor is another area where it’s best to lose one’s self-consciousness. When referring to yourself, it should be self-depreciating and/or ironic. For a long time now, I’ve typically added photos to my writings. This helps to deliver points, ideas, etc, while giving the article color & visualization. It helps with searches too. But self-consciousness is a difficult concept, almost impossible to depict in images, so I didn’t use any in this essay. It was a very self-conscious decision.
Preface: Of all the impressions I have from going back and re-watching these cartoon classics on the internet, it’s my memories of the time that affect me most. Cartoons & teen programming stays with us, because it’s what we chose to like when we had a choice. As kids of Generation X, we were honest in our selections in all media. We had choices, and either liked it or didn’t. Our reaction was swift & merciless. We were smart, so if you sucked, you got yanked off-the-air quickly, because there was little room for that with the networks & sponsors. These corporate stiffs had no clue, and always used Generation X kids as a barometer for what was cool– in all mass media.
Back in the 1970’s, this was the best time of the week for kids. Television had saturated America, but there was no programming for kids until this time slot was developed. This was pre-cable TV, where viewing options were CBS, NBC, ABC or PBS– roughly in that order. Every other time slot was for adults.
Weekday mornings were always 2-hour news show such as Today & Good Morning America. Then it went into game shows until around noon. Then three-to-four hours of soap operas. Evenings were for adults too, and then many stations went off-the-air from midnight to 6 AM. There was maybe an hour (or two) of kids after-school programming per day during the week, which was mostly syndicated 1960’s & 1970’s sit-coms & Star Trek (1966-69).
Syndicated cartoons were often ancient, with too much lameness such as Woody Woodpecker and Tom & Jerry. Mel Blanc’s Merrie Melodies were in rotation, but you couldn’t get enough of them. Beyond Hanna-Barbera & Bugs Bunny, the best 1960’s cartoons were Underdog (1964-67) and Rocky & Bullwinkle (1959-64), but they were also hard for kids to find.
Hence the need to create a Saturday morning cartoon time slot. As a kid, it felt great to wake up and know there was no school, just fun TV watching ahead. Sunday mornings were exclusively religious programming, and the rest of the daytime weekend was sports, so this was it for cartoons.
Non-animated fare for children was PBS’s Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, Sesame Street, and The Electric Company. More adventurously for kids, ABC ran a variety of Sid & Marty Krofft series, most prominently: Land of the Lost, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, the Bugaloos & H.R. Pufnstuf.
Krofft Productions is difficult is explain (or even justify) to those who weren’t there, but here it goes. The lack of competition during this era really stifled innovation, as the boardrooms of the three major networks made every decision regarding what television audiences would see. Hanna-Barbera had taken the lead in kids programming, and they were making money for their affiliates on all three networks. Hanna-Barbera owned 80% of the Saturday morning market. The problem was, by the middle of the decade Hanna-Barbera cartoons were either old, or looked old. We’ll return to this point later.
Sid & Marty Krofft had worked for Hanna-Barbera in the late 1960’s. They left to move in their own direction, creating live action series for kids. During the 1970’s, Sid & Marty Krofft created dozens of new series, many lasting just a few episodes, that constantly ran on Saturday morning & after school.
Each Sid & Marty Krofft creation seemed to have the same strengths & weaknesses, which made them delightful & maddening at the same time. Land of the Lost (1974-76) was their flagship series, running three seasons. It was a stretch making it that far, as the acting is really bad, and there is too-little inspired writing. Every plotline seemingly stagnates into inaction, as characters endlessly talk about what to do, or whatever else.
Land of the Lost is a great concept, with a great theme song (and rockin’ closing song), with some semi-cool dinosaur animation. The sleestack is a great monster idea. Fun fact: a young Bill Laimbeer (C/PF Detroit Pistons, NBA) was a sleestack. No one knew who he was at the time, but watching this show in retrospect, one can always tell which sleestack is Bill Laimbeer. It’s the biggest and most-aggressive one.
Sleestack were a far-out idea, but kinda lame too. Typical example: multiple sleestack closing in on Will & Holly, who are trapped in a stryofoam cavern, just about to be caught. Then it’s— cut to a commercial for messages from McDonald’s, Trix, Captain Crunch, Eggo, Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, Light Brite & Coco Puffs. After that it’s back to the “action,” where the sleestack have been moved back ten feet. Holly will then cry out in fright, “They’re getting closer!,” as the entire sequence plays out again– until Will & Holly escape.
Land of the Lost also had a usable vehicle with its time machine and the solitary friendly sleestack named Enik, who aids the castaways. They shuffle different-colored boulder marbles around a stone board– and things happen. Cool concept, but only a few stories actually hold up, which really hurts the overall plotline.
I’m neutral on Chaka. As I mentioned, this is the BEST show from the Krofft brothers, and it has serious flaws. It’s considered to be a low-budget version of Gilligan’s Island by those who watched.
The original desert island castaways had Tina Louise & Dawn Wells going for them, which is nice. The rest were too inept to find a way off, for all the reasons we know. That’s how Hollywood goes two hit seasons with that concept & budget.
Both shows hooked viewers with a terrific opening title sequence & catchy song (& outro version). Land of the Lost had a fascinating concept beyond that, which made it a cult hit with GenX.
Second place for cool in the Krofft series probably goes to Electra Woman & Dyna Girl, a live action series from 1976. It ran 16 episodes in a single season as part of the Krofft Supershow (1976-79). Electra Woman & Dyna Girl was dropped during it’s second season, along with Dr. Shrinker. Electra Woman & Dyna Girl ran in syndication on Saturday mornings & after school, and was well-received by the kids. So, what happened?
Once again, Electra Woman & Dyna Girl is a great idea, two super-hero babes with a hooky title song– which ALWAYS helps. All the mainstream had in that genre at the time was Wonder Woman (1975-79), and a limited amount of Batgirl. Competition was needed, and Krofft Productions recognized this. But once again, there was no money put into this series, as the episodes were stretched thin, with too many lulls. You need writers to sustain a series.
Sid & Marty Krofft were good at knowing what the kids wanted, and deserve credit for that. But too often they axed ideas which had more potential in them, because they didn’t have the resources to develop them properly. It was cheaper & easier to move onto something else, and that’s what they mostly did.
Everyone knows that Land of the Lost was brought back for a bad movie in 2009. Few know that Electra Woman & Dyna Girl was brought back as a pilot for television in 2001, with Electra Woman played by Markie Post. This is hilarious stuff, as it nails the original concept perfectly while updating it. It should have gone to series– but Warner Brothers killed it. Idiots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5M1IB5URJw
Back to Sid & Marty Krofft, as Dr. Shrinker is the last original series I’ll mention specifically. It’s the same deal here as the rest, as this show barely made it through its only season, yet lives on in so many memories of GenX-ers, because of its theme song.
Dr. Shrinker is a case of the title song being the best part of the show. For the record, this also happened with Barney Miller (1975-82). Dr. Shrinker held up for a few episodes, until one realized this was a constant loop of capture & escape, with no resolution in sight. One or two episodes of Dr. Shrinker could be maddeningly hilarious in its time, and still is in retrospect. Anything more is suicidal lunacy. The title song sticks in your head forever.
The collective works of Sid & Marty Krofft are a mixed bag of interesting & crazy ideas, marred by lack of execution. In so many ways their concepts influenced GenX, while most viewers were smart enough to recognize their limitations. This is why just about all of their series only ran one season, but the impression they made remains deep in the memory banks of those who watched.
When kids tuned in to whatever version of Krofft productions was on at the time, we were looking for ideas & creativity. Sid & Marty Krofft thought outside-the-box, and took chances. This was low budget and it showed, but they found ways to make it work for years, and when you’re discussing the kids TV demographic, that’s saying something. In terms of the popular influence of Krofft productions, and the advertising money they created for their network– it was huge on all sides.
In the 1970’s, Hanna-Barbera had become a behemoth, nearly monopolizing Saturday morning cartoons. At first this was for the better with Scooby Doo, and everything they built around that iconic great dane. The great Hanna-Barbera cartoons of this era included: Harlem Globetrotters, The Scooby-Doo Show, The Yogi Bear Show, Hong Kong Phooey, Laff-A-Lympics & Challenge of the Super Friends.
Eventually, as with any monopoly, lack of innovation became their downfall, as their legendary stable of iconic cartoon characters, going all the way back to Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear & the Flintstones had become dated. Hanna-Barbera cut corners in animation, using the same scrolling backgrounds over & over, which eventually caught up with them.
By the time cable TV & Nickelodeon came along in the 1980’s, Hanna-Barbera quickly became an industry relic, which Ted Turner bought up and used to launch the Cartoon Network in 1992. For straight boys who cut their teeth on sugar-coated cereals during 1970’s, The Smurfs were the jumping-off point for Hanna-Barbera.
As a side note, The runaway success of The Smurfs cartoon spawned a video game which was platformed exclusively on ColecoVision. The dominant home console platform of the day was the Atari 2600, and newly introduced Atari 5200– in late 1982. With such exclusive licensing, Atari console owners couldn’t play the Smurfs video game because it wasn’t allowed to be available on any other platform.
This was a major salvo in the infamous “video game wars” that eventually crashed the video game industry in 1983-84. Atari and all the rest went bankrupt, with Japan’s Nintendo capturing the market with its NES & Super Mario in 1985. Nintendo had been huge in video games since Donkey Kong in 1981, which was also exclusively licensed by ColecoVision as their original pack-in game.
The best of the rest on Saturday morning included the following:
Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975) was an action animated series based upon the novel Planet of the Apes (1963) by Pierre Boulle. It ran 13 half-hour episodes, and is better than any of the movies or other adaptations. Return to the Planet of the Apes is animation that approaches art, with it’s minimalist storyboarding & intelligent themes.
The plot moves along quickly with purpose, and the scoring is outstanding. Ethical issues such as imprisonment, intolerance, sympathy, science, and love are explored in creative & subliminal ways. This remains a first-rate cartoon, easily one of the best ever.
The Pink Panther Show aired on NBC in all kinds of versions during the decade. Great cartoon characters included the Ant & the Aardvark– one of my all-time favorites. This cartoon has serious durability, used in the Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther movies starring Peter Sellers back in the day, it remains funny & engaging up to today. Classics never die.
Filmation became a big cartoon production competitor to Hanna-Barbera in the 1970’s. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids ran for most of the decade, and was their biggest hit. No matter what became of Bill Cosby and his sexual predations, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids still has an undeniable charm & reach towards kids. It ranks with The Cosby Show as his greatest artistic achievement, and in many ways outstrips that blockbuster 1980’s sit-com which came after.
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle was a half-hour action cartoon that ran four seasons, from 1976–1980 on CBS. It’s probably the best version of Tarzan on any screen, as it portrays the title character as not only strong, but also intelligent & caring towards all. A great way to strengthen your voice (and irritate your parents) is to imitate his call of the jungle.
The New Adventures of Batman was successfully brought back as an animated series that aired on CBS. The was another Filmation production, featuring the DC Comics superheroes Batman & Robin with Batgirl, and it was terrific. All the kids watched it, along with Hanna-Barbera’s SuperFriends series.
It’s natural for kids to identify with superheroes. It’s also natural for teens & adults to outgrow this phenomenon. With that said, the best version of Flash Gordon was the 1979 animated series, shown as a Saturday morning cartoon. It had excellent animation for its time, and took major influence from Star Wars— in its Empire Strikes Back (1980) era.
Now re-titled as The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979), Season 1 is sixteen chapters, and is all you need to see. Season 2 (1982) is domesticated & silly in comparison. This series had a major influence on Japanimation as an art form with commercial possibilities. Peter Chung’s Æon Flux (1991-95) is a good example of this.
Conclusion: Cartoons aren’t mindless entertainment, as so many “responsible” parents insisted back in these days. It’s what kids are interested in, therefore it becomes a competitive market. Generation X was the “Saturday morning cartoons” generation. Along with video games, MTV, and early home computers, their embracing of these innovations would change popular culture forever.
The most divisive line between modern and old popular culture is Generation X. Like it or not, most kids today consider the Beatles to be old, and they’re right. That’s hurtful to an older generation of baby boomers & classic rockers who have been left behind culturally & intellectually.
Generation X doesn’t think that way. They understand the Beatles were geniuses in their time, but rock music & art has long since modernized past their influence. Hip-hop & rap, along with the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, and electronica have more influence today.
The first adult animation feature film for Generation X was Heavy Metal (1981), a sex-up space conquest fantasy trip, with a R-rating. It features a killer double album soundtrack– an essential record for any rock fan. Play it loud!!
Æon Flux was an animated action series of shorts, and eventually half-hour episodes featured on MTV, the same network that broadcast Beavis & Butthead. This, along with The Simpsons is late teen & young adult cartoon content for Generation X.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is the adult version of cartoons, with their puppeteering & incisive hilarity. Content on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon & the Cartoon Network of this era slanted younger, meaning Generation Y. The same became true with video games, music & computers.
As we can see, cartoons can be stimulant for a young imagination. They will never go away, because people don’t want to get old. Cartoons can be a fantasy that takes you away on an adventure, and that has value– if it’s creative & well done. Cartoons make people laugh, and remind them of when they were young. Nothing is more valuable than that.
