W. Niederhut

I wonder if the recent blitz of threads whitewashing Ruth Paine's history with the CIA might be an example of Cass Sunstein's "cognitive infiltration" strategy for "conspiracy theory" forums-- similar to the Fred Litwin nonsense. Cognitive Infiltration: An Obama Appointee's Plan to Undermine the 9/11 Conspiracy Theory: Griffin, David Ray: 9781566568210: Books - Amazon

Stop the presses, folks... This is a political earthquake. Supreme Court Live Updates: Leaked Draft Would Overturn Roe v. Wade - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Where would we hapless mass media dupes be without Ben and Chris to help us overcome our naivete about patriot purges, the nefarious Dr. Fauci, white replacement theory, nasty women in politics, and liberal mind control? 🤥

Here's hoping the under is at least six feet. 🤥

Remember when we all thought Putin was merely bluffing in February about invading Ukraine? It makes me wonder about his latest, bizarre nuclear saber-rattling. He's starting to remind me of one of those James Bond SPECTRE villains who liquidates his bungling advisors while engaging in a nuclear blackmail scheme. Does Putin possibly have a white Persian cat sitting in his lap while he consults with a chess master about strategies for achieving world domination? 🤥

Q. What was Allen Dulles's favorite fruit? A. United Fruit. 🤥

Geez... Ben's latest obsession is with the Wuhan lab leak theory and the persecution of long-suffering "straight white men" in 'Murica. Not as unhealthy as brooding about Tucker Carlson's testicle tanning shtick, but reminiscent of his deflective "patriot purge" narrative about January 6th. The real issue with Musk, of course, has to do with our feeble corporate measures to mitigate toxic disinformation in the age of Trump and Ivermectin use to treat COVID, etc. Apparently, Tennessee has just enacted a law permitting their residents to de-worm themselves without a prescription. MAGA! 😗

Yes, Ron, with all of these recent threads promoting false narratives about Ruth and Michael Paine, it was helpful today to study James DiEugenio's old commentaries on this 2015 thread. According to the scriptures, a tree is known by its fruit, and, in the case of the Paines, it was United Fruit. 🤪

This old Education Forum thread is a veritable gold mine of information about Ruth and Michael Paines' Quakerism. Their blue-blooded relatives were, apparently, involved in humanitarian work in Guatemala long before Ruth's Quaker activity in NIcaragua... 🤥

Hmmmm.... Now Ben is, apparently, concerned about state-controlled media? 🤥

Agreed. And how did the Paine's "good Quaker principles" work out for Bell Helicopter profit margins after 11/22/63? Honestly, DiEugenio has the patience of Job to repeatedly take the time to debunk all of the incessant gibberish posted on this forum by the resident Lone Nutter "cognitive infiltration" tag team. Basta per Dio... IMO, anyone who claims that Ruth Paine wasn't working for the Company is living on Planet Posner.

Everything that could be allowed on Elon Musk’s free-speech Twitter (axios.com) April 28, 2022

Toxic disinformation is a very serious, even deadly, problem for humanity. The examples are legion. Who among us advocates false advertising? Toxic snake oil sales? Can we rely on self-interested capitalist profiteers to adequately police it? The concept is laughable. Look at Rupert Murdoch, Robert Mercer, Phil Anschutz, et.al. Industrial and media tycoons have never been motivated chiefly by concern for the public welfare. They want profits, low tax rates, and government de-regulation of fraudulence, pollution, etc. How many times must we re-experience the societal destruction of Gilded Age Robber Baron-ism before we finally acknowledge that unregulated, laissez faire capitalism-- in any business, including media-- can potentially damage the public welfare? Only constructive governance-- in the public interest-- can protect the public from unscrupulous profiteers, including media moguls. Some Republicans have been outraged recently about the belated, feeble attempts by a few social media corporations to protect the American public from toxic disinformation-- e.g., false information undermining public health interventions during the deadly COVID pandemic, and Trump's dishonest rabble-rousing after losing the 2020 election. Let's recall that Trump was only kicked off of Twitter after he incited his delusional fans to attack the U.S. Congress on January 6th, to "Stop the Steal." The man told 30,000 documented lies during his White House tenure. If I understand it correctly, Elon Musk was kicked off of Twitter for posting misleading information to defraud investors. Tucker Carlson was kicked off of Twitter for publicly attacking a transgender public official. Is for-profit fraudulence, hate speech, and incitement of violence supposed to be protected?

Elon Musk wants to own Twitter to protect his ‘freedom’, not everyone else’s | Robert Reich | The Guardian Excerpt “Free speech” is another freedom that turns on wealth. As a practical matter, your ability to be heard turns on the size of the megaphone you can buy. If you’re extremely rich you can buy the Washington Post or own Fox News. If you’re the wealthiest person in the world you can buy one of the biggest megaphones in the world, called Twitter – and then decide who can use it, what its algorithms are going to be, and how it either invites or filters out big lies.

Dopaminergic agonists, used to treat Parkinsonian symptoms, can aggravate paranoia. Purely speculative, but I wonder if that accounts for Putin sitting (and standing) far away from visitors, and feeling so paranoid about the West.

Yes, Matt, Ben's credulity and capacity for denial never cease to amaze. We can learn a great deal about Trumplican "logic" and selective avoidance of facts by reading Ben's posts. He's an erstwhile cognitive barometer of the alternate MAGA-verse.

There's a new history book, edited at Princeton, about the Trump presidency. They're charging university textbook prices, but Paul Rosenberg's Salon review was posted at Raw Story today. Historians to Trump: You're fired! - Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism

Putin-ism (in 4 photos)

Ben, I apologize for joking about your testicles today. In terms of perspectives, it was, admittedly, a low blow.

I confess that most of what I know about Snowden comes from watching Oliver Stone's movie, which I trust somewhat implicitly. If the screenplay is accurate, Snowden is a bona fide tragic hero who sacrificed himself to tell Americans the truth about our illegal Deep State surveillance of the public. (I was disappointed with Obama for denouncing him.) Then he had nowhere to turn for sanctuary, (in Hong Kong) except the Russian Federation. One of my former patients worked for the Department of Defense, and I once made the mistake of expressing some sympathy for Snowden in one of our sessions. He looked at me coldly and said, "He's a traitor!" I quickly shut up and said, "Tell me more about this." 🤥

On a more serious note, I'm wondering if Tucker Carlson has convinced Ben to start tanning his testicles this week. 🤥 Tucker Carlson Pushes Testicle Tanning in 'End of Men' Special - Rolling Stone

In addition to Hitler's birthday, April 20th is also the anniversary of; 1) The Ludlow Massacre of 1914, when the Colorado National Guard murdered 17 striking miners and their families on behalf of the Rockefeller's Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. 2) The Columbine High School massacre of 1999.

In honor of this Oklahoma post, I'm posting my recording of my second favorite socialist, Dust Bowl folk song (after This Land Is Your Land.) This song, My Oklahoma Home, was written by Woody Guthrie's black-listed friends Bill and Sis Cunningham back in the day. (I borrowed Bruce Springsteen's arrangement, adding a 5-string banjo track.) My Oklahoma Home by Guillermo Ambrose | SoundClick