Opinion

Where, oh where, is the United States of America — global leader, creator of democracy, hope of humankind? It certainly wasn’t up there on the debate stage last night.

When 9-year-olds start slinging insults at each other — “Is not!” “Is too!” — it’s hard for platitudes to step in and re-establish a sense of situation normal. Indeed, the almost total absence of platitudinous rhetoric during the debate may be the one positive takeaway from this bizarre event, which otherwise put a naked president on display before the world, showing off his dystopian immaturity.

The unofficial term for Donald Trump’s condition may well be “hubris syndrome,” as discussed several years ago in an Atlantic article by Jerry Useem, titled “Power Causes Brain Damage.”

If you tell a lie, tell a big one.

If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.

Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, 1933 to 1945

Transhumanism is a set of beliefs based on the premise that human beings can be improved by genetic manipulation and/or implanting technologies into the brain and body to achieve enhanced capacities. Transhumanism has a long history as an idea but since 1990 it has attracted serious attention from an increasing number of technology-lovers and early advocates are readily identified. See ‘What is Transhumanism?’

“A Positive RT-PCR is not synonymous with COVID-19 disease! PCR specialists make it clear that a test must always be compared with the clinical record of the patient being tested, with the patient’s state of health to confirm its value [reliability]. The media frightens everyone with new positive PCR tests, without any nuance or context, wrongly assimilating this information with a second wave of COVID-19.” -- Dr. Pascal Sacré, Belgian physician critical care specialist, author and renowned public health analyst.

“So if we do a PCR corona test on an immune person, it is not a virus that is detected, but a small shattered part of the viral genome. The test comes back positive for as long as there are tiny shattered parts of the virus left. Even if the infectious viri are long dead, a corona test can come back positive, because the PCR method multiplies even a tiny fraction of the viral genetic material enough [to be detected].” – Dr B Stadler, renowned Swiss immunologist

The vast majority of people who experience war directly, first-hand, rather than through Hollywood movies or politicians’ speeches, are the people who live where wars are waged. In wars involving distant wealthy nations on one-side, some 95% of those killed or injured or traumatized, and 100% of those bombed out of their homes are people against whom war is waged, most of them civilians and the rest of them people doing exactly what any Hollywood movie or politician would tell them — have told them — to do: fight back.

If you do a web search for images of “Nazi salute” you find old photos from Germany and recent photos from the United States. But if you search for images of “Bellamy salute” you find countless black-and-white photographs of U.S. children and adults with their right arms raised stiffly out in front of them in what will strike most people as a Nazi salute. From the early 1890s through 1942 the United States used the Bellamy salute to accompany the words written by Francis Bellamy and known as the Pledge of Allegiance. In 1942, the U.S.

As events swiftly spiral out of control and the capitalist system teeters on the brink of collapse, Americans must plan ahead for completely unprecedented, uncertain times. It’s clear that Trump, who is obviously responsible for the mass murder of 200,000-plus Americans and economic disaster, can’t win a majority vote in the presidential race – and that he knows this. So he’s desperately setting the stage to steal the election, ranting and raving about “voter fraud” and how “mail-in ballots” are rigged. Rigging, of course, is de rigueur for the “rigger-in-chief,” and desperate to stay in power – in order to avoid being charged with a variety of crimes, not payoff hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, et al – sober people must expect this frantic conman to pull any dirty trick on (and off) the books to remain president.

As Election Day creeps ever nearer, we’ve been inundated with nonfiction books and films telling us just how dangerous and inept the current occupant of the Oval Office is. In the last month or so alone, I’ve seen and reviewed documentaries persuasively arguing that Donald J. Trump is psychologically handicapped (#Unfit) and environmentally hostile (Public Trust).

Combine these with the almost daily threats to our democracy that emanate from 45’s own lips, and you have a situation that leaves our nerves frayed and longing for a break. Fortunately, I found one in the form of a satirical novel that is as politically astute as it is viciously funny.

Released at the end of August, Carl Hiaasen’s Squeeze Me takes place roughly now in the part of north Florida that serves as Trump’s second home. After pulling us in the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy society matron, Hiaasen keeps us turning pages with a plot that involves giant reptiles, jingoistic attacks and one woman’s stubborn search for the truth.

Dear President Kristina Johnson:

I am writing to urge you to change the "Buckeye Ways" that are harming the relationship between Ohio's flagship university and its most important constituents, the 11.7 million Ohioans.

First, I must persuade you that the university is not supposed to be a playground for its well-connected trustees -- who come from the upper strata of society  and are hardly representative of Ohioans --, the rich and influential, the athletic department, and the Ohio political class.

Rather, OSU should be reflecting the needs and wants of the state's residents. It is the past and present Ohio taxpayers who put up the lion's share of the money and credit to build and maintain this colossus of higher education, yet many of the sons and daughters of those taxpayers have been getting the shaft because they cannot gain admission to the main campus as freshmen.

With large fires still raging around the West, we can all feel empathy for those who lost their homes and even entire communities, as well as the suffering we all have experienced from the smoke.

Still, there is a tremendous amount of smoke and mirrors about the blazes and their cause.

The timber industry, Forest Service and some forestry schools are quick to suggest that logging can reduce large blazes. Rushing to log more of the forest will not solve the problem, indeed, it can worsen it.

1. Climate change is driving the larger blazes we are experiencing in the West. Higher daily temperatures, extreme drought, low humidity, and high winds resulting from climate change exacerbate the flammability of the vegetation. Extreme fire weather is driving large blazes, not fuels. We need to address the causes of global climate change and make this a national priority.

An earlier version of this article can be found at: https://www.globalresearch.ca/weaponizing-the-term-conspiracy-theory-disinformation-agents-and-the-cia/5524552