THE FIVE DONALD TRUMPS — WHICH IS THE REAL ONE?

6/11/2018 

The Five Donald Trumps — Which is The Real One?

(c) Futurescapes21C, May 1, 2018, rev. May 3, 2018, All rights reserved 
 
Several years ago, a television show called To Tell the Truth invited guest panelists and the TV audience to figure out which of three people, each claiming to be the same person, was actually that person. The panelists took turns asking the three questions that might reveal who the impersonators were and who was telling the truth and made their best guesses. The climax of each episode came when the moderator asked. “Would the real (name of the individual) please stand up.”  It’s a game a lot of us have been playing with regard to Donald Trump. Is it too soon to ask, “Would the real Donald Trump please stand up.”
 
The difference between the TV show and our current reality is that we’re presented with five Donald Trumps. Five perceptions or possible Trumps have emerged during his term in office. These five personas have been perceived or at least portrayed by five camps spanning Trump observers, supporters and critics. Those in the five camps have, in turn, significantly different expectations for the future of Trump’s presidency. And they also  argue that very different responses to the Trump presidency are in order.  
 
In order to provide some basis for your further analyses, I have outlined a five-fold typology below. In describing the various camps, I have chosen to error on the side of duplication by using many of the often overlapping labels applied to members of the Trump camps. Keep in mind, of course, that typologies of this nature always involve generalizations, so there are always exceptions.
 
1. Donald Trump, the disgusting, criminal (fill in the blank — racist, bigot, misogynist etc) president. 
 
Camp: The Anti- Trumpers
This includes: Trump haters, the Never Trumpers, die hard Dems, die hard Hillary fans, members of the Clinton Resistance movement, establishment GOP, a major swath of left-learning Hollywood actors and entertainers, Rhinos (e.g. John McCain) many mainstream corporate media journalists and TV talk show hosts, Antifa, cultural Marxists, blue-haired progressives and social justice warriors, and partisans of the Soros-Clinton purple revolution.
 
Position/perspective:
Trump’s business and personal history, character and rhetoric reveal a dangerous demagogue. This corrupt individual, who stole the election from Hillary Clinton through collusion with Russia, is unfit for the office of President. As a criminal, he should, therefore be impeached or otherwise removed from office. Some of the descriptors of Trump applied by those in this camp, in addition to the popular “racist-bigot-misogynist” label are: “coarse,” “dense,” “outrageous,” “undignified” and “narcissistic.” R-rated comedian, Kathy Griffin, has described Trump as “President Piece of Shit.” 1
 
Example:
“The idea that I’m somehow the ‘Hollywood elite’ and this guy who takes a shit in a gold toilet is somehow the man of the people is laughable,” (George Clooney, actor) 2
 
But, you know, he gets into office and the first day he’s talking about crowd size when he’s got so many other problems. And every day it’s something else where you’re just pulling your hair out saying why? Why’s he [still] talking about Hillary now? Why is he saying there was no collusion with Russia, but then there’s an article in the Washington Post, so now he’s saying there was collusion but Barack Obama was responsible? It’s absolute insanity.” (Joe Scarborough, Co-host, Morning Joe, MSNBC) 3
 
“For me, that’s Trump and all things Trump. It’s not about trying to be an equal-opportunity offender anymore because Hillary got such a beat down. It’s his turn. So I’m happy to deliver beat down to Donald Trump — and also to Barron. You know a lot of comics are going to go hard for Donald, my edge is that I’ll go direct for Barron. I’m going to get in ahead of the game.” 4
 
“It’s pirates, whores and thieves holding every type every of resumé in this administration. But it can’t go on forever.” (Alec Baldwin, actor)5
 
Apparent tactics, strategies:

• mobilize the Trump resistance movement that makes the country ungovernable;
• push the Russia collusion investigation under special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, Trump’s impeachment;  
• publicly insult, smear his name (e.g. he’s not engaged, he’s mentally unstable, he sleeps too much)
• expose anything that might be considered out of bounds in terms of sexual conduct;
• cast spells against Trump (witches);
• expose Trump’s alleged crimes (one source alleges rape and murder);
• call for Trump’s assassination;
• boycott Trump products and corporate partners;
• launch petitions to counter Trump, obstruct;
• claim victimhood (e.g. snow flakes); and
• work toward a “Blue Wave” voter response in November mid-term elections.

 
2. Donald Trump, the threat to the (New) global world order. Trump is described as a reckless, amateur politician ill-suited for the challenges of the presidency and incapable of leading a superpower in today’s complex global arena.
 
Camp: Deep State 
This includes in general, members of the Deep State and global corporatocracy. This means members of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, Senior Executive Service, Washington Neocons, politically compromised elements and leaders of the intelligence community (e.g. James Clapper: NIA; John Brennan: CIA; James Comey: (FBI), George Soros, various think tanks, “Big Search/Info,” Silicon Valley super powers, global banksters, the “war party “ puppeteers (GOP and Demos). Their views are regularly advanced in such publications as the Washington Post and New York Times.
 
Position/perspective: Donald Trump lacks the temperament and the experience required for the job. He is likely to return America to an outdated model of geopolitical isolationism. This would inevitably lead to a diminished role for America in the global arena. And, this would also amount to abandoning American’s allies in the Middle East and elsewhere to the machinations of a resurgent Russia and increasingly powerful China.  
 
Example
“President Trump still has not personally called out Putin in the way he has assailed everyone from Alec Baldwin to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. Trump has begrudgingly allowed the sale of weapons to Ukraine but won’t enforce the sanctions passed by Congress. In 2012, Congress enacted the Magnitsky Act to sanction Russians involved in human rights abuses. Obama sanctioned 44 individuals under the law; Trump only five.
 
Trump’s unwillingness to criticize Putin makes you wonder what hold the Kremlin has over him; the Steele dossier looks more credible all the time. But no one is alleging that May has been compromised, and her actions are just as pusillanimous.” 6
 
Apparent tactics and strategy: In retrospect, members of the Deep State favour a combination of both legal means of securing change subterfuges that would cripple the Trump presidency and lead to his removal him from office. This includes:

• Illegal surveillance;
• manufactured evidence of Trump-Russia collusion (Russia dossier);
• high level White house leaks;
• opposition research; (dig deep for dirt);
• propaganda, disinformation and psy ops;
• personal public attacks (e.g. James Clapper, James Comey style)
• luring or goading Trump into entanglement in Middle East conflict; and
• seeking to trigger direct US-Russia and US China confrontations that could lead to WWIII.

   
3. Donald Trump, the clever and courageous champion of the Second American Revolution
 
Camp: True Believers
This camp is comprised of conservatives, patriots, some libertarians and independents, many in the alternative media, disillusioned Democrats, a large swath of evangelical Christians. A segment of the latter group considers Donald Trump to be ordained by God to lead the second American Revolution. Some evangelical Christians on the other hand, have abandoned Trump at various points over the course of the past year.
 
Posture/Perspective: Donald Trump is engaged in an epic battle to take down the Deep State/New World Order globalist Cabal, drain the Washington swamp and restore the Republic. He is surrounded by hostile adversaries and risking his life daily in service to this mission. 
 
This camp believes that the president, supported and protected by loyal members of the military, is playing 4D chess, rope-a-dope and other deceptive strategies in order to confuse, expose and ultimately defeat the enemies of the Republic. They look forward to a coming time of accountability when the criminal infesting and the American Empire will be brought to justice.
 
Example: 
“The White House mafia bosses that have come after Daddy Bush have all kowtowed to George senior as though he were King George of England. His deep cover C. I. A. leadership role in the assassination of J.F.K. has been thoroughly exposed as has his fleecing of the U.S.S.R. via his C.I.A. covert activities, the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, the Iran/Contra Scandal, the attacks on 911, and many, many other crimes that the corrupt FBI, DOJ, and Congress has refused to honestly investigate and swiftly prosecute.
 
They thought their evil would outlast We the People. But the Bush-Obama-Clinton criminal cartel has failed. Time is on our side, not theirs. Their entrenched and corrupt bureaucracies, agencies, and covert operations will be exposed, scaled back, defunded, and shut down over Trump’s eight years in office. The criminals will age, wither, and die, leaving only the carcass of their sins to be judged by history and a far higher power than our own.” 7   
 
Apparent tactics, strategies:

• sustained commitment, fervent prayer, meditation;
• political activism and engagement;
• active participation via the electoral process in mid term elections;
• relentless truth-telling/exposure of Washington Swamp creatures and their crimes via independent, alternative media; and
• pushing AG Jeff Sessions and the US Justice Department to prosecute members of the criminal cabal.

 
4. Donald Trump, defeated captive of the Deep State (Globalist Cabal, Neocons) 
 
Camp: Resigned Patriots
This camp consists of patriotic US citizens from a variety of political backgrounds who initially supported Trump based on his campaign promise to “drain the Swamp.” At some point, they abandoned the Trump Train based on their assessment that he betrayed his constituents and surrendered to the Deep State. This could have been for example, when Trump first retaliated against Syria in response to the claim that Bashar Assad launched a gas attack in Ghouta or more recently at Douma. Another event seem as a sign that the Deep State has Trump under its thumb is his decision to further postpone the release date for remaining classified JFK files to 2021.
 
Surrender to the Deep State means that Trump has little room to enact the sweeping changes he promised voters. Many believe that the Powers that Be (PTB) brought a compromised Trump under control using bribes or threats ranging in seriousness up to the “JFK option.” They believe the perceived Clinton-Obama coup has succeeded. Many in this camp are now deeply pessimistic about the future.
 
Posture/Perspective: A reform-minded, well-intentioned Donald Trump came into office planning to drain the proverbial swamp and implement the long overdue reforms. Trump under-estimated the powerful entrenched Deep State forces that have completely corrupted and now control America. The devious plans of new world order (NWO) globalists will proceed as planned. We are on our own and must largely fend for ourselves.
 
Example: 
“Ever since Trump made it to the White House, he has taken blow after blow from the Neocon-run Ziomedia, from Congress, from all the Hollywood doubleplusgoodthinking “stars” and even from European politicians.  And Trump took each blow without ever fighting back.  Nowhere was his famous “you are fired!” to be seen.  But I still had hope.  I wanted to hope.  I felt that it was my duty to hope.
But now Trump has betrayed us all.
 
Remember how Obama showed his true face when he hypocritically denounced his friend and pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.?  Today, Trump has shown us his true face.  Instead of refusing Flynn’s resignation and instead of firing those who dared cook up these ridiculous accusations against Flynn, Trump accepted the resignation.  This is not only an act of abject cowardice, it is also an amazingly stupid and self-defeating betrayal because now Trump will be alone, completely alone, facing the likes of Mattis and Pence – hard Cold Warrior types, ideological to the core, folks who want war and simply don’t care about reality.” 8
 
“I listened to Trump’s statement live last night. I was struck with the language. Who in the world writes this stuff? It reads like something written by Benjamin Netanyahu’s press secretary. It is an embarrassment to America that our leader should be so beholden to other state’s interests, and so willing to parrot their lies.
I keep asking myself, what could they possibly have on Trump that would compel him to do this? His delivery was a bit wooden, and he read off the teleprompter, somewhat resembling a hostage. We ran a story a few days ago from a body language analyst who argues that Trump is acting like he has been beaten this week. I’m starting to think she’s right.
 
…The full text of what he said follows below. I counted 23 lies, which I underlined. I cringed watching a president I voted for stand there and parrot them, acting like he had a gun to his head. I know he knows they are lies, and so do 10s of millions of Americans. A sad day indeed.”  9
 
Apparent tactics, strategies: Members of this group are deeply dismayed and no trying to figure out where to turn. They may be lacking coherent strategies beyond the following:    

• Hunker down in anticipation of the worst; and
• Call Trump out for his past and any future betrayals of his campaign promises and his base.

 
5. Donald Trump, the Trojan Horse servant of the Deep State/Cabal/New World Order Globalists 
 
Camp: Liberty movement
This group includes deeply committed, hard-core members of the liberty movement, survivalists and preppers.
 
Position/Perspective: From the outset, Donald Trumps has been an agent of the very Deep State Globalists he so vehemently condemns. There is no reason to expect Trump, as “one of them,” to try and reform the system he is a beneficiary of. Trump is a globalist –managed Trojan horse engaged in a masterful bait and switch strategy.
 
Note: Folks in this camp believe that the Trump versus Deep State narrative is a manufactured conflict or “theatre.” They quickly remind others that the Powers that Be (PTB) have been creating and controlling the false opposition for centuries. Manipulating both sides of a conflict is considered one of the most effective means of harnessing and steering the public demand for reform or change. Thus, Trump is simply more of the same in terms of a succession of US presidents installed to serve New World Order Globalists.
 
Example: 
“You’ll hear hundreds of theories and rationalizations on Trump’s miraculous victory, but a reason you will almost never hear is also the most likely one: Trump won the election because he serves the interests of the establishment. Trump won because he is a fake.

This is not an idea that many liberty activists want to entertain. They were so repulsed by the proposition of Hillary Clinton taking the helm at the White House that they would have invested themselves in almost ANYONE running against her, even if they thought that candidate might be controlled opposition. However, not just anyone was fielded as a candidate; Trump was fielded, and for good reason.

… The staging of the 2016 election might have appeared to some people to be absolute chaos, but to me, it could not have been more perfectly scripted. In later articles covering the election I went on to give Trump a chance. I stated that I had little doubt that he would win the election…

….The first and worst sign that Trump is not anywhere near “anti-establishment” has been his complete reversal of his original “drain the swamp” rhetoric. Trump is not only NOT draining the swamp that is the Washington D.C. and corporate elitist revolving door, he is adding even more creatures of varying ghoulishness.” 10  (Brandon Smith,
 
Apparent tactics, strategies:

• keep on prepping for the inevitable economic, environmental and/or societal collapse and the assault by a totalitarian government; 
• rigorously defend constitutional rights; and
• join forces to resist government assaults on the property and rights of US citizens (see Bundy Ranch standoff).

 
Through the haze 
To sum up, five perceptions or portrayals of President Donald Trump are discernable through the respective lenses of five categories of proponents. The resulting typology of the five Trumps and its proponents consists of Donald Trump the:

• disgusting criminal president (Proponent: Anti-Trumpers)
• threat to the (new) global world order (Proponent: Deep State)
• champion of the Second American Revolution (Proponent: True Believers)
• defeated captive of the Deep State (Proponent: (Resigned Patriots)
• born and bred globalist (Proponent: Anti-globalists, Hard core Liberty movement)

The above typology reflects the divided, fracturing state of the US Republic. In fairness to the five groups of proponents, the Trump presidency often looks chaotic from this distance and the signals emanating from the White House are often confusing. The inconsistencies have contributed to the conflicting perspectives.  

To be fair to the president, Trump on the other hand, warned Americans at the outset that he would never telegraph his strategies to his enemies. (It seems he was referring to both foreign and domestic enemies.) Again, in fairness to Trump, not all the perspectives are sincerely held views; some are better described as a political positions, postures or projections. We are, after all, in the midst of an intense information warfare. And Deep State puppet masters are veterans when it comes to the art and science of perception management.

There are other distortions that impair our view of events. Most people see the world through a lens that is skewed by a controlled corporate media consigned to propagating approved narratives on behalf of the Powers that Be. There has never been a time in history when more resources or sophisticated means were brought to bear in managing public perceptions.  

As I have reported elsewhere, propagandizing the domestic US population has been legal since 2012. Disinformation doesn’t stop at the US border of course. So, we Canadians have been submerged in the smog along with US citizens. Given these realities, we see dimly at the best of times. It’s a mark of the Age of Deception that five Trumps can co-exist. So, I have immense sympathy for those honestly seeking to discern the truth. One would think that by now, there would be some consensus as to the real Donald Trump. Nonetheless, I expect the subterfuges to continue. So, in the interim, until the smog lifts, I offer some guiding principles for navigating the Trump chapter as it plays out in the larger context of a Post Truth Age of Deception.

Put reason before reaction and evidence before verdict.
Propagandists are skilled at coating events and issues in emotion.  And emotion-laden subjects are somehow quickly deemed undiscussable. In the process, rational thought and reason are easily by passed. Thus otherwise intelligent people act with all the forethought of lynch mobs. The so-called Douma, Syria gassing incident has largely been dismissed as a hoax be those who looked at the evidence, yet how many major politicians in the West called for the US missile attack before an investigation was conducted?

Put principle before personality and partisanship. 
Politics often resembles major league sports. One segment of the population pledges support to its political champion and another segment lines up behind an opposing champion. Partisanship summons emotional reactions and attachments that too often oblige us to remain silent when our champion or our party crosses the line. Rather than pledging our undying allegiance to a particular politician or party, I encourage a commitment to principles of transparency, honest conduct and fundamental values. This kind of commitment provides a more reliable anchor in turbulent political times. A former Saskatchewan politician captured the issue. Upon leaving politics, she commented that once she removed her political glasses, it was easier to see things in objective terms. Intense partisanship blinds us to objective realities and narrows rather than widens our perspective.

Value actions over words and track record over trust
Talk is cheap, particularly the political variety composed by communications specialists and PR contractors. It is actions and outcomes that are the true measures of performance. Scripture says: “You can tell what they are by what they do.” (Matt: 7:16.) So, “Just trust me/us” is a non-starter. We do ourselves and our country a favour when we doggedly hold politicians to account.

Those that seek to divide us are not our friends 
It’s not difficult to see how wedge cultural issues have been used to divide America into increasingly smaller groups. It’s important to ask ourselves who benefits when a country is divided, and who is behind the magnification of issues to the point where people are prepared to do battle with fellow citizens in the streets. We live in an age of manufactured conflicts. You can be sure that whoever is behind them or amplifying them isn’t your friend or a friend of your country. (e.g. George Soros.)

The end doesn’t justify the means
Sometimes, when you scratch the surface of an argument that’s making you feel uneasy about the choices, you discover this is what is really being said. It might be, “We must fight this foreign war in order to bring about lasting peace in the region.” Or, “Enhanced interrogation (torture) is justified in order to prevent terrorism.” Really? It’s always good to pause in the heat of debate and ask yourself if someone is trying to sell you the falsehood that the end justifies the means.

Now, more than ever, we need to see world events clearly. Now, more than ever, we need to discern the motivations of those who presume to lead us. The distortions bombarding us in the Age of Deception are blinding — mind warping, in fact. We are simultaneously presented with five, shape-shifting Donald Trumps. But which of the five are illusions and which is real? My hope is that courageous citizen journalism will bring sufficient heat and light to dispel the fog in 2018. And as the fog lifts, it will become clearer as to which one is the real Donald Trump is. Bring it on. 

Endnotes:
1 Flashback; Kathy Griffin: “happy to deliver beat down’ to Barron Trump, Breitbart, June 2, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/06/02/flashback-kathy-griffin-happy-deliver-beat-barron-trump/

2 ‘F_ _ _ K you’: George Clooney hits back at Trump’s criticism of ‘Holly wood elites’, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 25, 2017, https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/f-you-george-clooney-hits-back-at-trumps-criticism-of-hollywood-elites-20170925-gyo0o7.html

3 Scarborough details Trump falling out: ‘He screamed at me”, Rolling Stone, June 29, 2017, https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/features/joe-scarborough-details-trump-falling-out-he-screamed-at-me-w490402  

4 Flashback; Kathy Griffin: “happy to deliver beat down’ to Barron Trump, Breitbart, June 2, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-Hollywood/2017/06/02/flashback-kathy-griffin-happy-deliver-beat-barron-trump/ 

5 Alec Baldwin: Trump White House fill of ‘whores’ and ‘thieves’, True Pundit, April 27, 2018, https://truepundit.com/alec-baldwin-trump-white-house-full-of-whores-and-thieves/     

6 Putin is throwing us a war, Is the West ever going to bother showing up?, The Washington Post, March 16, 2018, http://www.canada.com/opinion/putin+throwing+west+ever+going+bother+showing/17182490/story.html 

7 Trump conquers the New World Order, American Intelligence Media, Anonymous Patriots, November 5, 2017, https://aim4truth.org/2017/11/05/trump-conquers-the-new-world-order/

8 Neocons and the “Deep State” have neutered the Trump Presidency, It’s over folks, The Saker, Information Clearing House, February 14, 2017, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46444.htm

9 Trump lied to the American people last night, 23 times in 7 minutes destroying his presidency, Charles Bausman, Russia Insider, April 14, 2018, https://russia-insider.com/en/trump-lied-american-people-last-night-23-times-7-minutes-destroying-his-presidency/ri23133

10 Donald Trump is exactly where the elites want him, Brandon Smith, Alt Market, January 4, 2017, The  Daily  Sheeple, May 4, 2018, http://www.thedailysheeple.com/donald-trump-is-exactly-where-the-elites-want-him_012017

Futurescapes21C, 2018. All rights reserved.​

TRUMAN BURBANK AND CHRISTOF SYNDROME

2/28/2018

Truman Burbank and Christof Syndrome
 
Calvin Mulligan, original written April 20-2017 rev. March 13, 2018, Aug 24, 2023.
Posted Mar 18, 2018 Futurescapes 21C All Rights Reserved
 
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” (Anti-war activist, Rosa Luxemburg)

In the 1997 movie, The Truman Show, insurance salesman, Truman Burbank discovers that his idyllic hometown of Seahaven Island isn’t what it appears to be. There are simply too many anomalies. His curiosity is aroused one morning when something that looks like a TV camera falls from the sky to the street. The closer he looks, the more anomalies he sees. Truman is the unknowing star of a long running TV reality show set in Seahaven where his every move is captured by hidden cameras.
 
Once he awakens to the reality that he is a captive of Seahaven, Truman plots his escape. He has dreams of exploring the wider world. It isn’t easy however. The creator and director of the TV show, Christof, throws obstacles in his way each time he tries to leave the island. And his wife and best friend try to dissuade him. Finally, Truman takes a sailboat and attempts to flee in the dark of night. Christof spots him and unleashes a vicious storm on the water. Pursuing his dream of freedom has become a life and death struggle. 1 
 
Christof Syndrome
Before Truman ever realized that he was a prisoner of Seahaven, Christof, the director of reality TV series, was asked by a reporter why Truman never came close to discovering the true nature of his world. Christof’s explanation is a revealing comment on human nature and the premise underpinning his entertainment venture. He responds simply, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.”2 
 
This, it seems, is our perceptual Achilles’ heel — a natural inclination to uncritically assume that the world presented to us is real. I’ve dubbed this human tendency, Christof Syndrome.
 
For some, the movie likely offered no more than light entertainment. For the more reflective, it was a powerful allegory laden with symbolism, and perhaps ominous signs indicative of our emerging future. I’m one of those in the second category.
 
Seahaven’s parallels in the West today
Several comparisons can be made between Truman’s circumstances in Seahaven and our lives today in the West (Canada and the US in particular). I’ll begin with the premise that Christof Syndrome is a near universal human condition that predisposes us toward trusting acceptance of the majority worldview. As humans we are predisposed to embrace the world presented to us at birth, and potentially for the rest of our lives, as reality.
 
Truman Burbank grew up in the community of Seahaven Island. It looked like a typical town in almost every respect. Its activities mirrored the patterns of life and work one would see in any small town in America. The sun rose, people got up, ate breakfast, went to jobs downtown and returned to their homes and families at the end of the day. Everything looked normal, but it wasn’t. Life in Seahaven was a complete fabrication. The island town was actually a massive domed TV production set surrounded by water.
 
Christof, the director of The Truman Show, along with a staff of hundreds, controlled almost every detail of Truman’s life and life in Seahaven. Truman, the star of the show, went about his daily routines not knowing that his every move was captured on cameras and televised to an audience of millions. The devious Christof had gone to great lengths to ensure that his captive star was never tempted to leave the island. By staging a boating accident in which Truman’s father drowned, Christof infected a traumatized Truman with a life-long fear of water.
 
Clearly, deception was an integral feature of the entire enterprise. Truman’s family members and best friend were actors playing their roles. The people populating his neighbourhood and his workplace were actors. Many of the structures in the town setting were facades and studio props. And studio technicians engineered the weather, rain or shine.
 
Truman Show viewers comprised a dedicated international audience addicted to their daily fix of “reality” TV. Along with their entertainment, audience members were presented with an endless array of consumer products. The products were marketed via product placement, other forms of passive advertising and scripted pitches from the show’s actors. 
 
My research over the last three years has confirmed there are many parallels between The Truman Show and our lives in the West today. To begin with, much of what we consider real is manufactured  — a carefully managed illusion. And most of us are also unaware of our captivity within the illusion and complicity in the scheme. Westerners, willingly it seems, inhabit a social-political construct sustained by widely propagated myths.
 
An example of one such a myth is that of a benevolent America. We are constantly told that America is a powerful force for good in the world, bringing democracy and freedom to the world’s oppressed. The reality is far different. In reality, America is a terrorizing bully, intent of maintaining its one time status as the world’s sole super power. And, like it or not, we are captives of this sprawling American Empire sustained by military might. America’s political and economic hegemony is enforced world wide by NATO alliance members and 800 or more military bases occupying some 70 countries around the world. 
 
Powerful financial and political interests orchestrate the big show worldwide from behind a curtain of secrecy. These Powers that Be (PTB) select, groom and place men and women of their choosing in leadership roles as presidents and prime ministers. They are the king makers and puppet masters. And just as Truman’s every activity was monitored and guided, the PTB and their minions similarly monitor and manage the lives of the Empire’s citizens. (See Exposing the Empire of Lies in the blog archives) 
 
Thus, Truman had his Seahaven Island and we have our 21s century Matrix3 4 in the American Empire. Both are engineered realties and fully functioning prisons. These are the worlds with which we have been presented. The question is: “How long will we allow ours to hold us captive of a collective delusion”?  

Herding the sheeple
Christof Syndrome is disarming and debilitating. Like the naïve Truman, most in the West unquestioningly accept the reality of the world marketed to them. Our conditioning is such that we the “sheeple” seldom look beneath the surface of this world of managed perceptions. So, the anomalies and contradictions go largely unnoticed. And in time, we grow numb to the warnings coming from our internal alarm system – a gnawing gut sense that something is wrong with this picture
 
How are our perceptions “managed” by the PTB? Suffice to say, the PTB possess a wide variety of methods and tools for herding the populace within the bounds of official illusions. Some of the most common are:

• Censorship of (currently largely conservative) viewpoints in traditional and social media;
• Suppression of critique and dissent;
• Outright lies and deception and government-orchestrated “theatre”;
• Domestically-directed propaganda and disinformation;
• Public smearing and social media shaming of dissenters;
• Police state tactics by law enforcement (see USA);
• Manipulation of public policies and electoral processes;
• Manufacturing weather and weather–related disasters;
• Funding dissident groups (Black Lives Matter, Antifa) and social division and conflict;
• Inducing public fear and trauma via war, external threats (“it’s the Russians”) and false flag attacks. (See archives for 10 Disciplines of a Freedom Fighter)

Consider this exemplary false flag attack. On April 7, 2017, the President of the United States ordered the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Airfield in Syria. President Trump justified this aggression, a war crime in itself, as a move “to deter the use of deadly chemical weapons,” claiming Syrian President Assad used them against his own people in Idlib province.5
 
The Empire’s mainstream media dutifully aligned with the President and the US State Department condemning the “Assad regime” for the atrocity. Fawning MSNBC broadcaster, Brian Williams was moved to reference the Leonard Cohen lyric, “I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.”6 And the US Ambassador to the UN indulged in a self-righteous show-and-tell routine featuring pictures of injured children, the supposed victims of the gas attack.
 
This military aggression won Trump high praise from Washington Neocons and chicken hawks, Israel, European allies, and an assortment of US-supported jihadists.7 Remarkably, the summary conviction of Syria’s President Assad required no supporting evidence whatsoever.
 
There’s just one problem. There’s solid evidence that the gas attack, rather than implicating President Assad, pointed instead to the jihadis and their US-UK financed PR assets, the White Helmets. As of this writing, some analysts also point to evidence of US-Israeli and Turkish complicity. MIT professor emeritus of Science and Technology and National Security, Theodore Postal, has examined the evidence and concluded Assad wasn’t responsible for the attack.8 The most thoughtful analysis of what transpired has come from independent media.9 In short, the world witnessed another example of the West feigning sympathy for the victims of a false flag event that the Empire itself orchestrated. It’s 24 carat duplicity. And it’s another masked aggression in America’s long-running campaign to achieve regime change in Syria dating back as far as 1991.10

This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. (See Exposing the Empire of Lies, Parts A and B) It’s also hard evidence of a government manufactured deception and manipulation of credulous publics. And yet, it seems that despite America’s naked aggression, millions of its citizens remain blind to it. It’s as if they are trapped in a “see-no-evil — hear-no-evil” trance. The collective delusion defies reality. It’s as dystopian as the existence portrayed in George Orwell’s 1984. 11And it’s a powerful testimony to the captivating effect of The Christof Syndrome and the ease with which we are herded.
 
The ties that bind and blind
My guess is that a significant segment of the population is now somewhat aware it is being played, and yet it hasn’t abandoned the Matrix. Why not? I can think of several “good” — actually not so good reasons why the masses remain captive. They all have to do with human nature.   

We grow to love our corrals and pens too much
A life-time of observation has taught me that people, like sheep and other domesticated critters, readily adapt to the corals and pens into which they are herded. I grew up helping my family raise cattle on the Canadian Prairies. For several of our long cold winters, we housed our beef cows and their calves in an old horse barn. Groups of several nursing calves were enclosed continuously in pens measuring approximately 15 feet by 18 feet for four to five months of cold weather. Yet, when spring came, these same calves were hesitant to leave the confines of their pens and the barn for spring sunshine and green grass. We literally had to push them out the door of the barn.
 
It seem that otherwise perceptive and insightful human beings, like young calves, can grow too attached to their pens. Sometimes, in our readiness to adapt to our circumstances and be “good” citizens, we suspend critical thought. We suspend our objectivity regarding the nature of our circumstances, and we make unacceptable compromises. Denial sets in. Is it because we’ve long been taught to “count our blessings” and be grateful?
 
There are comforts in conformity
The citizens of the Empire derive tangible benefits from unquestioning conformity and compliance. And even briefly considering the possibility that what we think of as real may be fake can be very stressful. Cognitive dissonance hurts the head. It also explains why most people ignore the widening cracks in the Matrix. Their minds simply can’t go “there”; they are triggered.
 
As to the benefits of trusting acceptance, those who play along can make a living as employees within the confines of the Matrix. Conformity assures them of a paycheque. A paycheque in turn provides for food, clothing, a home, education, and if they are fortunate, an annual vacation. (Often this means assuming significant debt loads committing individuals to decades of mortgage payments into the future.) Their work confers a degree of respectability and status among peers and fellow citizens. And there’s always the prospect of moving up the hierarchy to greater status and income.
 
Perversely, however, these same benefits become the ties that bind and blind people to the reality of their confinement within the Matrix. It’s the same effect that the proverbial golden handcuffs exert over highly-paid executives. These benefits demand our allegiance to great myths like benevolent national governments and multinational corporations, a “free” market economy, and ever-upward human progress. Strangely, the more the evidence exposes these as agreed-upon fabrications, the more desperately adherents cling to them.

The risks in rebellion
There are real risks in rejecting the official narrative and its illusions. Most citizens are well aware that the Powers that be (PTB) are hostile to those who question the existing order. They may also have noticed that despite the denials, whistleblowers that attempt to expose abuses by the establishment are generally treated as traitors. They are not celebrated or protected as promised. More often, they are criminalized, ostracized and persecuted for their lack of loyalty. Just ask Bradley/Chelsea Manning12 and others who have exposed the overreach and abuses of the American Empire and its puppets.
 
Our lives within the Matrix are managed, often by brainwashed servants of the PTB. Sometimes dissident social groups are “manufactured” for specific roles in public “theatre” or inducing chaos. Millennials are said to be members of the most peer-oriented generation in history. Herein lies the key to their management. Millennials have been co-opted by Identity Politics with its third wave feminist-cultural Marxism mantras and faux social justice justice.

Author, Shadi Hamid, describes the behaviour-shaping influence of a form of political theology with its constituent elements of ritual, purity atonement and excommunication.13 As such, this faux religion serves as a powerful means of control. Apostates and those who stray from “the faith” can be targeted for harsh discipline. This could take the form of a public rebuke, smearing or shaming on social media for failure to check one’s “white privilege,” for example. And if that doesn’t bring repentance, the religious police or social justice warriors could condemn you to digital assassination or call for an all out assault on you and your family’s future via “doxing”14.
 
Our awakening is long overdue. It’s time to awaken to the reality of our captivity and the possibility that our overseers, like Christof, don’t have our best interests in mind. If they did genuinely care for us, do you think the array of tools and measures for covertly monitoring, shaping and controlling our behaviour would multiply by the day? Why, for example, have alert journalists discovered US patents filed on the subject of: Nervous system manipulation by electromagnetic fields from monitors.15 Why is censorship of conservative on-line citizen journalists increasing by the day on social media? Why is the demonizing of Christians and white-skinned people the sport du jour?
 
What if?  
There’s an important choice to be made by each one of us. We can meekly accept the imaginary world presented to us as real, thus demonstrating the power of Christof Syndrome. Or, we can deconstruct the state-promoted paradigm and craft an authentic worldview based on personal observation, experience and insight. The first is clearly more convenient. But the second, as demanding as it is, offers an alternative to the prison of enforced consensus. It’s the prospect of dignity and freedom.
 
I see the grip that the “managed” reality of the Matrix has on millions, including many members of my family and wonder, what if? What if this generation, like Truman, awakened to the true nature of its circumstances? What if it, like Truman, determined that it would redefine the boundaries of its conceptual world? What if it demanded a look behind the curtain? Would some glimpse the props and spot the puppet actors? Could this generation, like Truman, persevere and break free of Seahaven?
 
Would be resisters can expect their commitment to freedom to be severely tested by the devious and controlling PTB. Truman’s moment of truth unfolds in a scene reminiscent of Satan’s mountain top temptation of Christ. After surviving a vicious studio-engineered storm at sea, Truman confronts his tormentor, Christof, face to face in the latter’s control room atop the dome. Christof remains unapologetic and undeterred in his efforts to prevent Truman’s departure.
 
“There’s no more truth out there than in that world I crafted for you.”
 
“You can’t leave, Truman. You belong here with me.”
 
The tradeoff was clear. Truman could accept a questionable promise of security at Seahaven,  something amounting to continued enslavement, or pursue his freedom in the wider world with its inherent risks and uncertainties. The captive citizens of the American Empire face a similar choice. 
 
What Truman taught us
We all begin as Truman Burbanks, born into the cozy cocoon of a fabricated worldview handed down to us by the big people in our lives. The important question, however, is whether we will awaken as Truman did and find our way to freedom. If we do, we will also serve as a hopeful examples to others seeking daylight. It’s either that or help perpetuate the illusion.  
 
In moments of self-doubt, I wonder if I have somehow failed my children by inadvertently over-emphasizing obedience and conformity to the system. Could I have done a better job of teaching them the critical importance of skepticism and of strategic disobedience? We Christians, it seems, are  conditioned to obey from Day One. Historian, Howard Zinn, described our societal problem as one of civil obedience.
 
“Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem …people are obedient, all these herdlike people.” 16
 
Ultimately, family and friends will have to assume responsibility for their choices. I can only hope and pray that they find some inspiration in the example of Truman Burbank and his real world 21st century counterparts. It’s been more than twenty years since the release of the movie, and yet its lessons could hardly be more relevant. The movies seems to say we should never underestimate the importance of:  

• daily wakefulness regarding the nature of our situation;
• tenacity in holding to one’s vision through thick and thin;
• skepticism and strategic disobedience;
• discerning between truth and truth-tellers on one hand and lies and pretenders on the other; and
• hearing difficult truths coming from minority voices and true friends.

 Truman taught us something else about how to remain whole in our struggle against darkness and tyranny. In that final scene, when he confronts his nemesis, Truman may have wondered what response to Christof’s final, near-fatal attempt to thwart his escape was in order. If it were me, I might have gone for Christof’s throat. Remarkably, Truman remained uninfected by Christof’s predatory nature. He didn’t engage in debate and he didn’t hesitate. With characteristic good humour and a twinkle in his eye, Truman turned and blithely bid his  adieu in the same fashion he greeted his neighbours each morning.   
  
And if I don’t see you, good morning, good afternoon, and good night. 
 
Clearly Truman understood another, deeper truth. Had he adopted Christof’s aggressive tactics and responded in kind, he would always remain Christof’s captive. It was far better that he remain true to his better self and be a “true” man.
 

Endnotes
1 The Truman Show, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show
 
2 The Truman Show Quotes, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/quotes

3 Matrix, yourdictionary.com, matrix, http://www.yourdictionary.com/matrix
 
4 The Matrix, Wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
 
5 Live Updates: Trump orders missile strike on Syria military targets, CBS News, April 6, 2017,  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/live-updates-us-bombs-syria-missile-strikes/
 
6 Brian Williams marvels at how ‘beautiful’ the deadly missiles that struck Syria are, TheWeek, April 7, 2017, http://theweek.com/speedreads/690877/brian-williams-marvels-how-beautiful-deadly-missiles-that-struck-syria-are 
 
7 Radical Islamists cheer Trump administration’s missile strike, the Daily Caller, April 7, 2017, http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/07/radical-islamists-cheer-trump-administrations-missile-strike/
 
8 MIT professor debunks National Security Council “evidence” on Sarin attack, Intel Today, April 13, 2017, https://gosint.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/mit-professor-debunks-national-security-council-evidence-on-sarin-attack/
 
9 A multi-level analysis of the US cruise missile attack on Syria and its consequences, The Saker, April 11, 2017, https://thesaker.is/a-multi-level-analysis-of-the-us-cruise-missile-attack-on-syria-and-its-consequences/
 
10 The West created and perpetuates the Syrian civil war, Mint Press News, May 24, 2015, http://www.mintpressnews.com/MyMPN/the-west-created-perpetuates-the-syrian-civil-war/  
 
11 1984, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
 
12 United States V Manning, Wikileaks, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Manning
 
13 Bari Weiss and the Left-wing infatuation with taking offence, Shadi Hamid, The Atlantic, February 17, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/bari-weiss-immigrants/553550/

14 Doxing, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing
 
15 What you need to know about the end game, Youtube, February 27, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=411&v=snpt0SLbPNo
 
16 Howard Zinn on the problem of obedience and the folly of American exceptionalism, Words of dissent, January 29, 2015, http://wordsofdissent.com/howard-zinn-on-the-problem-of-obedience-and-the-folly-of-american-exceptionalism/
​
Futurescapes 21C, 2018, All rights reserved

2018: DECEPTION, DISCLOSURE AND DISRUPTION

1/7/2018

2018: Deception, Disclosure and Disruption 
Posted January 2, Revised January 4, 2018.
(C) Futurescapes21C, 2018 All rights reserved

​A musician friend of mine laments that we Canadians and North Americans in general are not a reflective people. We seldom pause to consider the significance or lessons to be found in our latest experiences or developments in our society before hurrying on and reacting to the next. If there was ever a time to pause and reflect, it is now as we leave 2017 behind and stand on the threshold of 2018. 

My line of work, futurism or foresight, is humbling work. The future seldom turns out as we thought it might or should. There are so many influences and variables in play — so many that we can’t anticipate in the realm of known unknowns and unknown unknowns. So the first assumption of foresight should be only God knows for sure. With that in mind, I suggest that the prognostications of prescient futurists for 2018 will be made with some some fear and trembling. Uncertainty, surprise and disruption are the orders of the day. And we stand no chance of getting anything right about the future of course without discerning the current context. 

Candidly, our lives are dominated by a flailing American Empire and have long been covertly shaped by hidden Powers that Be (collectively referred to as the New World Order, Illuminati, or the Cabal). As to the state of the Empire, my research over the last three years has found that the Empire can be broadly described as: Corrupt, Compromised, Captive and Controlled (by powerful foreign and domestic entities and interests). Thus, we Canadians have in this analysis some basis for reflecting on the nature of our own situation. I can tell you with some certainty, that the much celebrated freedoms considered to be essential features of our democracy have declined  measurably in the last two or three years in particular. This has occurred even as our politicians, gifted in double speak, piously pose as champions of the very freedoms that they are simultaneously curtailing. 

Against this backdrop of declining Western freedoms where extreme surveillance and controlled speech are the orders of the day, a clear theme emerged in 2017. Looking ahead a year ago, I framed it Deception and Disclosure. The deceptions weren’t new. Many had been entrenched but beyond the view of the mainstream for decades like CIA Operation Mockingbird infiltration of the corporate media. In other cases, it was hundreds of years, like the grip of Illuminati bloodline families over banking and financial systems (and thus the affairs of nations and the world). In 2017, if not the puppet masters themselves, then at least the strings whereby they controlled their slave puppets became more visible (including bribery, blackmail/honey pot seductions, coercion, and other tools of the trade for enforcing compliance). The tensions which arose over the course of the US election and in its wake certainly exposed more of methods of the Deep State.  

My guess however, is that most people, because of their reliance on mainstream media outlets, remain largely unaware of just how much was revealed in 2017. We also, for example, gained new insights into the Kennedy assassination, Hollywood sleaze, the fake War on Terror, the betrayal of the US republic to foreign interests/lobbies (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Israel), the West’s support for terrorism and  ISIS, the US’ proxy war on Syria and the Maidan Square-Ukraine coup. The fact that much of the public would still consider the above observations to be unbelievable is a tribute to the skills of the powers-that-be in the realm of perception management. Thus many continue to applaud the West’s naked emperors and their machinations. 

Nonetheless, I am expecting more such revelations in 2018. I expect more revelations about the oligarch puppeteers that control America and the EU, the dirty business operations of some multinationals and the bad behaviour of the “banksters.” The war between the so-called “Cabal” and the “Alliance” discussed daily within the alternative media community will either be exposed as a masterful (problem-reaction-solution) psy op or an historic real world struggle with enormous implications. In either case, we can expect some insights into why so many members of the US Congress (more than 30) have “decided” not to run again and why the CEO’s of so many major corporations stepped down in 2017. It’s a stretch to attribute it all to “coincidence.” Is there some link to the Trump Executive Order issued December 21, 2017 entitled: Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuses or Corruption? (https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-blocking-property-persons-involved-serious-human-rights-abuse-corruption/) 2018 is likely to answer these questions for us. The big question of course is what is driving the purge or exodus at this time? 

There are other questions overhanging 2018. Will the tyranny of globalist oligarchs like George Soros be curtailed? Will the Neocons pressure Trump into new conflicts or a war with Iran, Russia or China? Will America abandon its central policy of war-making and conquest in favour of a policy of societal, political and economic renewal and international collaboration? What further big chessboard moves will New World Order Globalists make in order to keep their plans for one world government on track? Will Brexit materialize? Will more EU member countries affirm their sovereignty by seizing control of their immigration policy or continue to submit to EU dictates and its weaponized immigration? Will NATO acknowledge  the consequences of its own destructiveness as in Libya and elsewhere? Will the celebration of all things satanic and the desecration or all things Christian (and demonization of Christians) taper or intensify? 

There are many more questions that 2018 could shed new light on. Will the CIA and FBI’s reign of terror and their false flags be curbed, the corruption of the justice system exposed, and some measure of criminal justice be restored? Will the corporate media, long in service of the Deep State, be overtaken by a new open-source system of news aggregation and communication? Will the global trade in humans/children, organs, weapons, and drugs be disrupted and crippled or continue to flourish? Will the reverence for post modernist technological determinism abate? And will a more thoughtful understanding of the place of technology in our society emerge? How many from the ranks of the unthinking masses are prepared to abandon their humanity, be chipped and worship in the church of Artificial Intelligence? What discoveries in the skies, within the earth, beneath the seas or in the Antarctic will be uncovered? What natural and not-so-natural disasters lie ahead? What breakthroughs in terms of new forms of energy production, transportation and health/medical treatments will be unveiled? What changes in the banking and international financial systems and in currencies will rise to prominence in 2018 as the centre of gravity of global economic activity shifts eastward?

I wonder if the tyrannical delusions of the social justice movement, gender fascism and warmed-up cultural Marxism will be seen for they are. Will the masses continue to be enamoured with spineless, photo-op-seeking politicians eager to exploit identity politics? Will the reign of the naked emperors continue or will their public delusions be reduced to grist in the mill of political satire? Who will emerge as bona fide whistleblowers with the courage to expose more of the vast reaches of corporate and government corruption and collusion? Will conservatives, betrayed by disingenuous leaders and overwhelmed with weaponized speech and the fake gospel of political correctness, learn to defend the things they hold precious? Where in the world will genuine leadership arise? Who will challenge the tyranny of the powers that be? 

For my part, a second year of unfolding Deception and Disclosure is sure to generate lots of grist for the mill in terms of research and writing in a Red Pill vein. The coming disclosures imply that there will be a whole lot of shakin’ going on in establishment circles. 2018 has explosive potential. Why? An Alcuin Bramerton article entitled, The Opening of Pandora’s Suitcase which appeared in the January 1 issue of The Event Chronicle suggests one reason.

“During 2018 more young people and old people will speak the truth with greater energy, greater clarity and less fear than ever before in human history. And their words will be heard, preserved and multiplied beyond the reach of establishment suppression.” 

I pray this will be the case. Truth is a disruptor. As Bramerton implies, truth will be the key to opening Pandora’s box or suitcase and exposing its contents. An additional theme can be framed as Beyond the bounds. Many of the developments emerging in the social and political realms and in science and tech will take us beyond safe, familiar and in some cases, historically-enforced boundaries. This is both exhilarating and sobering.

A segment of the public will be encouraged by the displacement of old tyrannies irrespective of what may lie ahead. Others who are attached to them will be deeply dismayed. So as some celebrate, others will declare it the end of the world. Some of us will find our mission and renewed purpose in this process — in examining disclosures, decoding the machinations of the Deep State and its puppets and discerning the implications of living and doing business in an upside-down world. It can be spiritually demanding work. For many working in the alternative media this work has become a labour of love. Courage is essential. Beyond this, it is work that I believe is best energized and guided by a higher love. 

I wish you Happy New Year and some of that higher love.

– Calvin (Rod) (editor), January 2, 2018

​Worlds are turning and we’re just hanging on
Facing our fear and standing out there alone
A yearning, and it’s real to me
There must be someone who’s feeling for me
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be

Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Where’s that higher love I keep thinking of?

– from Bring me a Higher Love,
Written by Steve Winwood, Will Jennings • Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

10 DISCIPLINES OF A FREEDOM FIGHTER — PART A

2/12/2018

Ten disciplines of a freedom fighter (Part A) 
written May 1, 2017
Posted February 13, 2018
© Futurescapes 21C 2018 All rights reserved
 
Freedom fighter: A fighter for freedom, especially a person who battles against established forces of tyranny and dictatorship. (Dictionary.com)
 
Resistance: Organized covert opposition to an occupying or ruling power. (Dictionary.com)
 
The members of the Illuminati, the cabal or the powers that be (PTB) as they are sometimes called believe that they are the anointed ones destined to rule the planet. Their hands have been tightly wrapped around the controls on planet Earth for centuries. And historically incumbents don’t abandon their position of power at the first signs of resistance and go peacefully into the night. You could say that their determination to hold power is in direct proportion to the perceived value of vested interests they seek to protect. 

The PTB have more than simply the power and assets conferred by their incumbency. They also possess an impressive array of weapons. Additionally, their skills in waging information warfare have been honed over centuries. Chief among these is their mastery of propaganda or more generally the art and science of perception management.1 Today, the PTB largely have the tools and propagandizing ability to cause the masses to perceive black as white and up as down, 

The resistance movement on the other hand is fragmented, lacks a unified strategy and skills, and relies to a large degree on untrained volunteers. It also seriously underestimate both the deviousness and the strategic capabilities of its adversaries. In fact, when it comes to waging info warfare, it looks like a case of “no contest.” This means there’s a lot of work to do in equipping today’s freedom fighter for battle. It can begin with something as basic as understanding the means whereby they are being manipulated and controlled. 
 
The father of modern PR, Edward Bernays, described how the PTB control the masses in a modern democracy. The public mind is controlled by an invisible government that manipulates us at will by their string or “wire” pulling as Bernays put it.
 
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”2
 
I was recently reminded just how empowering even a small amount of training or knowledge can be. My wife took her car to a dealership for an appointment to determine what trade in  price difference she would have to pay on each of the two vehicles she test drove. It was a straightforward question. But she was handed off to a sales manager intent on turning her casual inquiry into an on-the-spot sale. While we were awaiting the sales manager, I reminded her that the steps in the sales process would lead to the use of the close. An example might be: Would you like to pick it up on Tuesday or Thursday? (This salesman actually employed this very close, the same one recommended in an old school sales course that I taught 20 years earlier.) Thus equipped, my wife deflected the sales manager’s attempted close, and with the numbers in hand, left the dealership. 

My point is that once you have a basic understanding of a process or a war strategy, you may be able to recognize and anticipate its coming. The strategies and tactics of the PTB are subtler and more sophisticated than those of a car salesman of course, thus the strategic importance of understanding the game is that much greater. With that in mind, I have outlined what I  call Ten disciplines for freedom fighters. The first five are presented in Part A, and focus essentially on preparing the heart and mind for battle. The remaining five outlined in Part B, are action-oriented practices that build on the first five. Since every reader is at a different place, my advice to the experienced is the same as that of martial arts icon, Bruce Lee:  Absorb what is useful, discard with is useless and add what is specifically your own.3    
 
Ten disciplines for freedom fighter: Part A: 1-5
 1. Know your adversary (mindset, morality, motives, modus operandi).
The PTB or the Illuminati don’t think or act like the rest of us. Most humans operate within some fairly well-defined ethical and moral boundaries. Normal humans struggle to understand why the PTB pursue an agenda of endless war, given its horrific nature and devastating outcomes. Normal human beings are unable to grasp the mindset of entities that engage in child trafficking for the purpose of serving and ensnaring politicians with a predilection for pedophilia.4 Normal human beings can’t understand how others are so unfeeling that they have imposed a false flag reign of terror in order to keep citizens compliant, confused and in a constant state of fear.5
 
There’s a reason why the crimes of the PTB continue uninterrupted long after they have been first reported. It’s not simply that they are carried out in the shadows, but that they are beyond the comprehension of most normal people. Some analysts have concluded that we aren’t dealing with normal human beings; those at the top of the world’s hierarchy are psychopaths. Others, including those that have escaped their ranks, often report that those at the very top identify themselves as the illuminated ones (thus Illuminati) and worship Lucifer.6 The Bible offers some insights into Lucifer’s predisposition.
 
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1Peter, 5:8, King James 2000 translation)

The modus operandi of the PTB is also more devious than the average citizen might imagine. It’s typically described within the resistance movement in terms of Hegelian dialect with its three essential elements: thesis, antithesis and synthesis.7 A more common variant is a sequential process that progresses from: problem to reaction, to solution.8 Here’s how the Empire’s magicians apply the process in the larger social-political scheme of things.
 
a) Problem: The PTB orchestrates a state-sponsored terror attack in a domestic or foreign setting. It may involve big explosions, shootings, fake blood and crisis actors (or real blood and people or a combination of the two).
 
b) Reaction: The public reacts in fear and confusion, demanding that the government do something to protect people from any such incidents in the future.
 
c) Solution: The PTB proceed with their original plan to ratchet up control over the populace by a) instituting new emergency measures, curtailing public freedoms, and increasing public surveillance, or b) intensifying foreign war efforts falsely described as aimed at defeating Islamic terrorists or some other threat du jour (See France, Belgium, US, UK, etc.).
 
Veteran freedom fighters are fully aware that the approach and methods of the PTB are dark, devious and outside the ethical boundaries and behavioural norms of the average person. They also remind us that if we remain so afraid of those who operate in the darkness that we do nothing, we are complicit in their crimes.
 
2. Learn the methods and tactics of information warfare. 
 Modern military forces combine carefully developed strategies and deployment of state of the art weaponry. Sound strategies and effective weapons are every bit as crucial to success in the information war and battle for truth in the 21st century. If we wish to expose and counter the enemy’s tactics effectively, we must learn what they are and how to neutralize them. Here is an introduction to some of the methods and tactics employed in warfare today.
 
Astroturfing: manufacturing “a political movement designed to give the appearance of grass roots activism.”9
 
Bait and switch: gaining public support by saying you stand for positions favoured by a constituency, then doing a pivot once you have won their support or gotten into office and supporting the opposite (Some would say this is the approach that was employed by Donald Trump).
 
Cointelpro: COINTELPRO was a series of covert, and at times illegal, projects conducted by the …Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at surveying, infiltrating, discrediting and disrupting domestic political organizations.10
 
Note: These types of operations aren’t limited to the FBI.
 
Disinformation: a type of untrue communication that is purposely spread and represented as truth to elicit some response that serves the perpetrator’s purpose.11 H. Michael Sweeney’s The 25 Rules of Disinformation is a superb resource for those wanting further insights into the tactics used to stymie critics and defy logic.12 
 
False flag: covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.13
 
Note: In recent years, we have witnessed an abundance of supposed terrorist attacks in the US and abroad. Most, according to former CIA agent, Robert Steele, were false flags or situations where the perpetrators were encouraged and enabled by the CIA. Dr. Richard Dolan offers an excellent introduction to false flags and the players that have made them a specialty.14
 
Operation Gladio: could also be put in the general category of false flag operations. It is described as: “… a top secret, Europe-wide more or less extra-governmental terrorist enterprise established after WW2. It was originally inspired by fear of communism, specifically of an invasion of Europe by the Red Army, and its members were trained to ‘stay behind’ enemy lines, where they to carry out their terrorist missions. Officially non-existent, these networks were hard for NATO/MI6/Deep state officials to control, and carried out bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations to such an extent that the network was publicly exposed in Italy in the 1980s.
 
Note: “It has retrospectively called Operation Gladio A after the project was adapted as “Gladio B“, using radical Moslems as a substitute enemy image for communists.”15
 
Gas lighting: Gaslighting (someone) is a manipulative tactic that can be described in variations of three accusations or assertions: “That didn’t happen,” “You imagined it,” and “Are you crazy?”16 Gas lighting has been a success if/when the questions his or her sanity. 
 
Psyops (Psychological operations): are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behaviour of organizations, groups and individuals. Used in all aspects of war, it is a weapon whose effectiveness is limited only by the ingenuity of the commander using it.17
 
Smearing: to stain or attempt to destroy the reputation or vilify.18
 
Note: This can be done by planting false documents or incriminating materials in someone’s possession or on their computer.
 
A basic knowledge of some of the historic covert CIA programs would also be helpful. By understanding the objectives and outcomes of these programs, you will be better able to make sense of current developments that are otherwise hard to explain. Some of the more publicized are: Operation Paperclip, Operation Mockingbird, and MK Ultra.19
 
3. Protect and renew your mind and spirit. Build spiritual reserves.
 We are under daily assault. I recall hearing an individual who worked as a counselor with sex offenders, saying something to the effect that over time, the nature of his work just sucked the life out of him. After considering the nature of our enemy, its goals and its tactics, you will have a new appreciation of the draining effect that labouring in the truth movement can have on the human spirit.
 
It’s no accident that people are distressed. There’s a painful irony in those public service announcements encouraging members of the public to face their mental health problems and seek treatment. It lies in the fact that much of the distress that weighs on people these days is caused by the machinations of Big Brother, the sponsor of those same ads. Just how much government-induced conflict and war, how many lies, how many intrusions and how many false flag terror attacks is the average human able to endure?
 
My default skeptic says that Big Pharma and its friends aren’t troubled in the least by the spectre of declining public health. Widespread addiction to painkillers and antidepressants is good for business. The important thing we need to remember in all of this is that it’s the PTB that are insane, not us.
 
The goal of the PTB is complete control over the minds and bodies of the citizens of the Empire. The assault on minds and bodies is intensifying and the tactics becoming more devious and intrusive. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that elements of the Deep State (think CIA) have been working on mind control methods and technologies for some time. The CIA’s Project MK Ultra was a research and development program aimed at developing chemical, biological and radiological capable of controlling human behaviour in clandestine operations.20
 
This week I read of two more troubling developments. I read that Facebook has been quietly working on technology to read people’s minds so they can ‘type directly from the brain.’21 And while the benefits are always framed in practical or humanitarian terms (e.g. like assisting the disabled), applications of such powerful technologies are seldom limited to that. I also read a report that “directed energy weapons” are being used to target humans and groups. These weapons are capable of directing radio waves or electromagnetic waves onto areas of a targeted individual’s brain. This can produce auditory and visual hallucinations or other artificially-induced experiences. The weapons lend themselves to mind control operations in psyops and strikes on targeted individuals, considered to be enemies of the state.22  While I can’t confirm the report, such forms of warfare aren’t beyond the imagination or the l boundaries of the PTB.
 
Given the nature and frequency of the assaults on our minds, bodies and spirits by the PTB, self-defense is more important that ever. Preserving your serenity is essential. This following piece of Biblical poetry, for example has taken on new meaning for me of late. The reference to the “darkest valley” seems particularly pertinent to our life in the Empire today.
 
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.23
 
There are days that I know I will be digging into dark subjects like child trafficking or Luciferian sacrificial practices. On these occasions, it’s especially important for me to start my day with prayer. When I’m in the thick of such subjects, I make a point of playing uplifting music to help keep me from slipping into despair. Prolonged exposure to the dark workings of the Illuminati can weigh heavily on the spirit and employing such countermeasures can be health sustaining. I also recommend regular breaks, deep breathing, short walks outdoors, interaction with family or friends, and a change of subject matter from time to time.  
 
There’s also a practical reason for safeguarding and monitoring our mental and spiritual health. Yes, there are times when we need to vent and rage against the darkness. And there are times to weep. On other occasions however, a clear mind and some detachment from the emotional dimension of our struggle is required. This is when strategic thinking, analysis and planning are required.
 
In summary, practicing some forms of spiritual and mental self-defense is necessary given that our struggle is both spiritual and political. Countermeasures like those described, can help ward off crippling attacks and develop the endurance of the freedom fighter.
 
4.0 Cultivate and practice discernment – this includes developing a powerful Nonsense-BS detector.
Your first line of defence against the daily barrage of propaganda is what I call default skepticism. Nothing Big Brother says today should go unfiltered. We’ve seen the movie many times before. A political party seeking election, for example, often conjures up a convenient belief that flat or even declining economies are “turning a corner” and “renewed growth” lies just ahead. I politely refer to this as “happy talk.” It’s the sunny, sweet rhetorical marmalade would be governments liberally spread over their campaign messaging. It could also be described as “Mary Poppins” economics, because a lot of sugar is often needed to get  taxpayers to swallow the harsher economic medicine that may follow.  
 
The politician who sets the benchmark for honesty and transparency is the legendary Dane, King Canute.24 As a version of the story goes, Canute was determined to shed the illusions his subjects had about his ability as King to alter reality. He demonstrated his limitations to his subjects by having his throne placed at the ocean’s edge and commanded the incoming tide to stop. It didn’t, thus demonstrating his point that secular power was nothing compared to the supreme power of God. I wonder where all the King Canutes have gone?
 
It’s also important to develop discernment regarding Big Brother’s “coded” speech, or what George Orwell called Newspeak. Today’s politicians have a fondness for playing identity politics. It expresses itself in language that smugly embeds “dog whistles” to special interest groups, les chou chou du jour. The politically unaware often miss the rhetorical winks and nods directed at favoured constituencies be it feminists, transgender lobbyists or particular ethnic or religious groups. It seems to be an integral technique in the modern political handbook. Governments manage the masses by playing off aggrieved minorities, protected by a shield of political correctness, against the majority. It’s a variant of the old “divide and conquer” strategy. 
 
A feature of this school of politics employs militarized speech or “word bombs” to suppress criticism or debate. Such terms typically have a stigmatizing “ist” or ‘phobia” suffix attached to them and are designed to silence critics. Failing that, these rhetorical hand grenades can unleash an on-line lynch mob upon the bewildered target who dared to offer honest criticism or an alternative view point.
 
“Islamophobia,” is a current example of one such control word. Its nebulous nature means it can be readily used to conflate honest critique and discussion regarding Islam with socially abhorrent “isms.” Andrew Cummins describes, “Islamophobia as, “a term created by fascists, and used by cowards to control morons.” Salman Rushdie described the term as: …an addition to the vocabulary of Humpty Dumpty Newspeak. It took the language of analysis, reason and dispute, and stood it on its head.”
 
Activist, writer and politician, Ayaan Hirsi Ali exposes the faulty logic underlying adoption of such terms:
 
“It’s nonsense to claim that a person hates or is prejudiced toward a set of ideas. This is a category mistake since, by definition, we do not owe competing ‘ideas’ any sense of fair play or equity. By logical necessity we are forced to choose one over the other, and this is as true of our metaphysical beliefs as it is of our political, social, or economic beliefs.”25
 
The Canadian federal government resolution passed in parliament in 2017 and condemning Islamophobia is a clear example of such word warfare. How’s this for an exquisite irony? A government that has supported the US- NATO led regime change wars that brought death and destruction to millions of Muslims in the Middle East passes a resolution presumably designed to protect Muslims? Your Nonsense-BS detector should vibrate rigorously every time you hear this free speech suppressing term or the political rationale for it.
 
Sometimes your default skepticism will pick up on a telltale silence. What isn’t being said can speak volumes. One of the more glaring examples of late is the loud silence concerning the war crimes Saudi Arabia’s is committing in its US-supported bombings of Yemen.26 When was the last time you heard a Western politician issue an unequivocal condemnation of this outrage? If the Empire’s conscience is capable of moral outrage, it appears it has been trumped by the prospect of more arms sales to the Saudis. Or is it the promise of continued support for the petro dollar?
 
Jon Stewart performed a useful public service in his reading of the news on Comedy Central’s Daily Show for many years.27 The show’s cauldron boiled the day’s lies, inconsistencies and ironies to the surface and served it up as satire. Freedom fighters are well advised to develop a similar satirical bent. It will enable them convert low-grade propaganda into higher value entertainment. Besides, humour and laughter are essential to good mental health.
 
5. Develp your political literacy and political savvy.
Freedom fighters need to achieve a degree of political literacy. It’s not sufficient to know the traditional categories like Republication, Democrat, Libertarian, Conservative, NDP and Liberal. Such political labels can also be misleading. Americans should know by now that voting Democrat or Republican hasn’t made much difference for the last 16 or so years. Both parties have guaranteed America a bottom line of more war, more debt and widening economic disparity across society. Author and political analyst, Kevin Barrett has identified what may be the most powerful political amalgam shaping Washington and thus Western policies in this era, describing it as “Neocon-American- Zionist-Imperialist or NAZI”.28
 
Similarly, Canadian voters would be justified in asking how the foreign policy of Justin Trudeau differs from that of Stephen Harper. Puppet MPs in both of their parties dutifully recite lines like, “Assad must go,” and short hand smears, like “the butcher, Assad,” for example. And there’s few signs that Trudeau is any less deferential than Harper to the Israel lobby. And, both conveniently brand Putin’s embrace of Crimea as “Russian aggression”, despite the fact that the West first set the conflict in motion by orchestrating a false flag regime change in Kiev.29
 
Totalitarianism is the fashion du jour and intolerance is the new tolerance. Those wishing to understand the suppression of free speech on campuses will find some explanation in the confluence of third wave feminism, cultural Marxism and the social justice movement.30 Only recently have a few universities recognized the dangers inherent in betraying their central purpose and recommitted to defence of free speech.31
 
Before the tyranny of political correctness reached its fanatical fever pitch, comedian, George Carlin flagged it for what it is: “Political correctness is America’s newest form of intolerance and it’s especially pernicious because it comes disguised as tolerance.” Consistent with Carlin’s critique, another astute observer commented that some of the most racist people he knew were self-described anti-racists. The shackles of human enslavement come in many forms, political correctness being one of the more insidious.
 
In this chapter, I have outlined my first five disciplines for the development of freedom fighters. They are in brief:

1. Know your adversary.
2. Learn the methods and tactics of information warfare
3. Protect and renew mind and spirit. 
4. Cultivate discernment (including a good nonsense-BS detector).
5. Develop your political literacy and political savvy.

 
Mastery of warcraft isn’t achieved over night. It comes with training, learning from the masters, and from personal experiences — sometimes painful ones at that. Some understanding of this material however, can help reduce the slope of the learning curve. In Part B, I prescribe an additional five disciplines with more of an action orientation. Again, as with all the disciplines, the real learning comes in their application.
 

Endnotes
 
1 Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_management
 
2 Goodreads. Edward L. Bernay, Quotes,
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/203430-the-conscious-and-intelligent-manipulation-of-the-organized-habits-and
 
3 Goodreads, Bruce Lee Quotes, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/910217-absorb-what-is-useful-discard-what-is-useless-and-add    
 
4 Pedophile terrorism is running rampant in America, Veterans Today, September 29, 2016, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/09/29/pedophile-terrorism-is-running-rampant-in-america/ 
 
5 Former intelligence officer Robert Steele: Most terrorist incidents in the US are false flags, Fellowship of the minds, May 23, 2015, https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2015/05/23/former-intelligence-officer-robert-steele-every-single-terrorist-incident-in-u-s-was-a-false-flag/
 
6 The Satanic elite: American mind control and world government, newswithviews, Paul McGuire, Dec 10, 2012, http://www.newswithviews.com/McGuire/paul151.htm  
 
7 The Hegelian dialectic formula, Truthtalknews, September 10, 2014, http://www.howardnema.com/2014/09/10/understanding-the-hegelian-dialectic-principle/
 
8 The Hegelian dialect – Problem, reaction, solution, Youtube, July 11, 2013,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE94KUYcglk
 
9 Political dictionary.com, http://politicaldictionary.com/words/astroturf/
 
10 Definitions.net, http://www.definitions.net/definition/COINTELPRO
 
11 Whatistechtarget.com, http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/disinformation
 
12 The 25 rules of disinformation, Geoengineering Watch, June 14, 2013, http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/the-25-rules-of-disinformation/ 
 
13 Dictionary.babylon, http://dictionary.babylon-software.com/false%20flag/   
 
14 False flags: a history of deception, YouTube, August 18, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Gy-Dr50j4  
 
15 Operation Gladio, Wikipedia, https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Operation_Gladio
 
16 The numerous tactics that narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths use to manipulate and silence you, SOTT, June 30, 2016, https://www.sott.net/article/348999-The-numerous-tactics-that-narcissists-sociopaths-and-psychopaths-use-to-manipulate-and-silence-you
 
17 Understanding false flags, PSYOPS, and media fakery, The Event Chronicle, May 8, 2015, http://www.theeventchronicle.com/study/understanding-false-flags-psyops-media-fakery/
 
18 Thefreedictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/smearing
 
19 Conspiracy: Top five covert operations you should know about, HeavyNews, June 3, 2013, http://heavy.com/news/2013/06/conspiracy-covert-operations-video-cia/
 
20 Project MK Ultra, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra
 
21 Facebook out to read minds, Technology.Inquirer.net, April 20, 2017, http://technology.inquirer.net/61524/facebook-read-minds
 
22 Gang stalking: Directed energy weapon mind control technology, The Event Chronicle, April 23, 2017, http://www.theeventchronicle.com/study/gang-stalking-directed-energy-weapon-mind-control-technology/#
 
23 Psalm 23, New International Version, Bible study tools, http://www.biblestudytools.com/psalms/23.html
 
24 King Canute and the waves, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_waves
 
25 Islamophobia – nonsense term and political hand grenade, Atheist Republic, June 8, 2015, http://www.atheistrepublic.com/blog/hugh-harris/islamophobia-nonsense-term-political-hand-grenade
 
26 US abets Saudi war crimes in Yemen, Consortiumnews, January 25, 2016, https://consortiumnews.com/2016/01/25/us-abets-saudi-war-crimes-in-yemen/  
 
27 Jon Stewart, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Stewart  
 
28 On-going and accelerating Neocon-American-Zionist-Imperialist (NAZI) destruction of USA and the world, Veterans Today, April 30, 2017, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/04/30/ongoing/ 
 
29 Ukraine: This isn’t a revolution – it’s regime change, Spiked, February 25, 2014, http://www.spiked-online.com/spikedplus/article/ukraine-this-isnt-a-revolution-its-regime-change#.WQdTL4nyulM
 
30 The totalitarian doctrine of ‘Social Justice Warriors,” the Observer, February 2, 2016, http://observer.com/2016/02/the-totalitarian-doctrine-of-social-justice-warriors/ 

31 University of Chicago strikes back against campus political correctness, New York Times, August 26, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/us/university-of-chicago-strikes-back-against-campus-political-correctness.html
 
 (c) Futurescapes21C 2018. All rights reserved

10 DISCIPLINES OF A FREEDOM FIGHTER — PART B

2/20/2018

Ten disciplines of a freedom fighter —  Part B
Written May 5, 2017 
Posted February 20, 2018
© Futurescapes 21C 2018 All rights reserved
 
 
This chapter outlines five additional disciplines or practices for freedom fighters or members of the resistance in the war against truth. Forgive the repetition, but let me again say that the value of these practices is found in their doing. To restate the Bruce Lee dictum, “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own.”1
 
Disciplines 6-10
 
6.0 Turn off the propaganda coming from the Orwellian Ministry of Truth via mainstream media (MSM) and tune out the propagandists 
 
The American Empire’s Ministry of Truth broadcasts its propaganda non-stop worldwide, but citizens aren’t compelled to listen. And small acts of resistance are essential. One of them is turning off the mainstream media (MSM) version of “the news.” I also intentionally avoid day time talk show babble and CIA-propaganda movies like Zero Dark Thirty. The exceptions are those occasions when I wish to track the propaganda of the day.
 
I gave only occasional, glancing attention to MSM reporting during the course of the US presidential election campaign cycle relying instead on alternative sources. By largely ignoring the messaging from the MSM, I deduced that Trump had been selected by the Powers the Be (PTB) to assume the presidency. Those who relied on MSM as their primary news source were long assured that Hillary was going to be the next president; consequently her loss came as a shock.2 Hard core skeptics believe believe the Trump election was a charade scripted years ago. Thus, an old episode of the Simpsons had no difficulty “predicting” a Trump presidency.
 
During this writing, I deliberately monitored the analyses of the Syria conflict offered by our mainstream media. I discovered that for the most part our MSM functions as an echo chamber for the US State Department. Its collective faithfulness to the government’s talking points is remarkable. MSM analysts echo the political memes of the day (like “Russia did it,” “Assad must go” and “Iran” is an existential threat”) on cue. What can you say about the willingness of Canadian taxpayers to finance their own brainwashing via the CBC. The same can be said of course regarding our response to a complicit federal government. Filtering out Big Brother’s propaganda can be every bit as essential in that we are simultaneously bombarded with government propaganda from a battery of departments and agencies on a daily basis. Tune out Big Brother’s Ministry of Truth. 
 
7. Adopt an “open source” approach to gathering information and intelligence 
The MSM has been outed as the faithful servant of the Deep State.3 It’s essential, therefore, that resisters develop alternative news sources. I prefer a form of open-source intelligence gathering that draws on legacy, Internet/digital and trusted private/personal sources with preference given to academic and independent sources wherever they are available. Since the CIA has infiltrated social media and has created and funded fake independent news websites as part of its disinformation strategy, it can be difficult to know with certainty which sources are trustworthy. There’s also the matter of the punks who exploit the accessibility of social media by publishing fake news stories for fun and profit. For these reasons, I look for convergence or triangulation across multiple sources when seeking to establish the authenticity of a story or source. Clearly, no one can ever declare him or herself “fool proof”  as we’re living in a post-truth era.4

Some in the “truther” community contend that the majority of established high profile on-line sources in the “alternative media content” are engaged in disinformation. My son sent me a New Yorker cartoon last year that played on the fact that propaganda in a feature of everyone’s daily life in the West. As I recall the content, it was thanksgiving, and a man was seated in front of his computer in his living room. He is looking up at his wife and says something to the effect, I guess we can all be grateful that we live in a society where there’s no shortage of disinformation. Black humour is the preferred genre for truthers in the Age of Deception. 
 
8. Develop your circle of trusted allies and a following among truth seekers 
It’s easy to get tired and discouraged if you come to believe you’re alone in your struggle. Sometimes, you  wonder, Am I alone in my frustration with the lies coming from the Western governments? Am I alone in my frustration with the US stance as the world’s policeman? Am I the only one angry at the presence of the US in the Middle East and interfering in the affairs of Syria?”5 And, “Isn’t Saudi Arabia, assisted by Turkey and Israel from time to time, the biggest source of terrorism in the Middle East?”6 The answer of course, is “no,” you’re not alone, and “yes,” it’s true. and “yes” that’s the case.
 
To defeat the “loneliness” or isolation factor, it is helpful to cultivate a circle of trusted allies. One of my friends is part of a skeptics circle that has been meeting regularly for over twenty years to discern what really going on.  Your circle serves several purposes. Potential it can serve as: 

• an intellectual and emotion refuge from the propaganda blitzkrieg;
• a forum for discussing world events and debating and discerning the truth; and
• a forum for testing theories and forging strategies if your group has an action orientation.  

 
If you’re a blogger or writer, your goals is developing  a following.  Your following can be:

• a conduit for sharing and spreading your insights to a wider audience;
• a critic keeping you “honest” by challenging analysis and objectivity; 
• a potential market in the event you have commercial offerings (e.g. books, speaking) 
• a source of intel; and
• a potentially potent force for influencing change in the larger social-political context.  the 

An example from the world of food activism comes to mind regarding the last bullet. Vani Hari, an activist food blogger known as, “Food Babe”, started researching the ingredients in Subway’s bread in 2012, and became concerned about its use of a bleaching ingredient in its flower called azodiacarbonamide. When the company ignored her requests for its removal, Hari mobilized 57,000 petition signatures. In 2014, Subway agreed to remove the ingredient.7
 
Ultimately, however, defeating the Cabal or the PTB won’t be solely a matter of numbers. Every revolutionary or activist should find encouragement in the observation of anthropologist, Margaret Meade who famously declared: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”8
 
9. Speak up. Resist intimidation and encroachments upon your freedoms and refute the BS 
 In the two years of intense research leading up to this writing, I was struck by the fact that the attacks on our basic freedoms are a daily occurrence. The other surprise is the deafening silence, particularly on the part of political leaders presumably responsible for the protection of our freedoms. Citizens, for their part are slowly awakening, but the vast majority remains unaware, unconcerned or asleep.
 
Yes, we’re all busy with jobs, families and various community obligations. But, standing and loudly singing “O Canada” or “The Star Spangled Banner” at professional hockey games does nothing to advance the cause of freedom. And even as we sing, our freedoms are being stolen. Nor will recalling the horrors of previous wars every Remembrance Day or Patriots Day. Those wars were orchestrated by the PTB pursuing a larger agenda. The inconvenient truth Westerners must face today is that freedom’s ramparts are largely undefended.
 
There’s the problem of sleepy indifference, and there’s the challenge of subtle social conditioning. Many of us were raised to trust those in positions of authority. Unfortunately, our assumption regarding the trustworthiness of authorities isn’t helping our cause; it’s contributing to our enslavement. Now is the time to speak up. It’s time to stop being over-awed by state-anointed or self-proclaimed experts, and over respectful of our so-called leaders. Now is the time to suppress the knee jerk impulses to clap for vacuous political speeches, “salute the troops,” and defer to the pretenders squandering our hard won freedoms. It’s time to rebel against the invasive rule and daily intrusions of Big Brother into every facets of our lives. It’s time to expose the double-talk and the lies. It’s time to declare you won’t go without a fight.
 
The Empire tirelessly promotes the gospel of militarism. The apparent goal is the militarization of every facet of culture and society. It’s citizen-friendly PR gestures look innocent on the surface, but the goal should be clear. Yes, come on down, bring the whole family for an afternoon of hot dogs, face painting, balloons, a band and family fun playing with military hardware down at the mall. The kids will love it. The unspoken rationale is that the kids may be sufficiently fascinated to sign on after high school or join the cadets or JROTC in the mean time.
 
Professional sport is a favourite vehicle for advancing the cause of militarism. The public has demonstrated just how vulnerable it is to emotion-laden “support the troops” appeals to patriotism. Thankfully, my adult children don’t reflexively rise from their seats at football games to salute soldiers as jets zoom overhead. They care deeply about their country and equally so for soldiers brainwashed regarding the virtues of muscular militarism. But, that doesn’t translate into a compulsion to march to the drum beat of the military industrial complex into another war. We can speak up by remaining seated. If we can somehow collectively deny the Deep State warmongers WWIII, it will spare humanity more death and destruction than any of us can imagine.   
 
Resistance can take any number of forms. One freedom fighter described his technique for jamming the gears of the Cabal. His strategy is a kind of preventive defence wherein he plays the role of the magician’s heckler. He uses his insider intelligence to subtly alert the public to what could be the next false flag attack staged by the PTB. His logic is that if he, as the heckler in the crowd, publicly reveals the magician’s next trick before it is performed, the magician will likely forgo it.9
 
Challenging the deception of the day can be a creative undertaking. And, you are likely to win more people to the cause if your approach is humorous or creative. Satire is powerful. Consider for example, that the propagandists have sold the Western public on the supposedly virtuous role of the White Helmets in the Syria conflict. In reality, independent journalists on the ground in Syria have exposed the group as a US-UK funded propaganda asset working along side Al Qaeda in Syria. The West was quick to blame latest White Helmet false flag gas attack on Syria’s President, Bashsar Assad. When their deceit was exposed recently, I responded with a tweet:  
 
“And the Oscar nominees for best actor in a regime change propaganda drama are…” (with link to article citing the White Helmets complicity in the attack)
 
Again, your sense of humour is an important asset. Nurture yours daily.
 
10. Think and act strategically 
I have encountered two common deficiencies in the strategies that I have seen over the course of my consulting career. They are primarily: a) failure to adequately take less visible influences in the external environment, or “big picture”, into account, and b) a lack of upstream forward thinking or foresight. For these reasons, organizational strategies are often too shallow or too  short-sighted to achieve the desired result.
 
As Luke Miller, points out in an article in The Event Chronicle: “Sometimes it can be hard to see what is happening with the constant distractions from media, advertising and constant disinformation put out by the propaganda machine.” As a strategy consultant, I would say that too often we get fixated on the trees when we really need a look at the changing shape of the forest.
 
I routinely take clients “up” to a 30,000 foot “helicopter” view of the proverbial forest before they get drawn into the swirling vortex of details plaguing annual planning exercises. Miller says his work allows him to see the world from a different vantage point and he sees signs of a mass awakening on a local and global scale. He adds that there are small, mid scale and high scale rebellions underway.10
 
The high level, big picture view is likely to suggest how the resistance can be more strategic. In some cases, too much effort may be focused on exposing minor players rather than the puppet masters making them dance. At what point, for example does the resistance shift its focus from exposing compromised members of the US Congress, to exposing the higher level  puppet masters pulling their strings?  We sometimes forget that the controllers at the top of the pyramid of power control both sides of the dialectic. E.g. Democrats and Republicans; Conservatives and Liberals.
 
A look at the big picture may also reveal if and where the resistance has lapsed into fighting rear guard actions – essentially yesterday’s battles. Are there opportunities to figuratively move upstream and launch preemptive strikes from higher ground? Some resisters, for example, are attempting to forecast where and when the next major false flag potentially the scale of 9/11 is likely to be launched.
 
I recommend that freedom fighters take “strategic pauses” to reflect on progress, renew their vision and recalibrate their efforts accordingly. The strategic pause is also your opportunity to confirm your “why” or purpose. Frederick Nietzsche famously declared: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”11 This undoubtedly applies to those who are part of this movement. What is your calling? The exercise at the end of the chapter invites you to articulate your why. Perhaps it was the dream of a future where your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren could think and live freely on a more peaceful and greener planet.
 
Let’s review. Over the course of the last two chapters, I have outlined 10 disciplines or practices that can be considered a part of the training and development of a freedom fighter. Here’s the entire list.

1. Know your adversary;
2. Learn the methods and tactics of info warfare;
3. Protect and renew the inner you; 
4. Cultivate discernment (including a BS-nonsense detector);
5. Develop your political literacy and political savvy;
6. Turn off the propaganda and tune out the propagandists;
7. Adopt an open source approach to information gathering;
8. Develop your circle of trusted allies of and following;
9. Speak up. Resist intimidation and encroachments; and 

   10. Think and act strategically.
 
Two perennial risks confront any resistance movement. One is the risk of underestimating one’s adversaries and the other is overestimating the capabilities of the resistance. Failure to take the incumbent’s advantage into account is a serious miscalculation. The incumbent has multiple advantages — the unquestioning loyalty of its minions, familiarity with the terrain, control of the machinery of governance, and ready access to the Empire’s resources. The battle to dislodge incumbents from power, in turn then, is inherently an unequal contest fought on an uphill plane.
 
Applying the ten disciplines of a freedom fighter can help put you on a more even footing with those seeking to control you. The ten can be applied immediately. The minute you shine the light of truth on a deception, you have taken action toward making a positive difference. When you point out the ventriloquists in the corporate media mouthing their scripted lines, you’re making a difference. When you expose the magician’s sleight of hand, you make a difference. When you call attention to the emperors prancing naked on the public stage, you make a difference.  
 
We can draw inspiration from a gallery of resisters that includes: Jesus, JFK, MLK, Gandhi, Bonheoffer and many others. You may even find inspiring examples of resisters and freedom fighters within your family tree. I will conclude this chapter with the bold call to arms issued by some courageous freedom fighters of Hitler’s day. The group of friends who formed the White Rose Society made it their mission to awaken the German people to the monstrous evil growing in their midst. I doubt that I could express the urgency of our cause in the 21st century any more passionately than they did theirs.
 
“But our present “state” is the dictatorship of evil. “Oh, we’ve known that for a long time,” I hear you object, “and it isn’t necessary to bring that to our attention again.” But, I ask you, if you know that, why do you not bestir yourselves, why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanized state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right – or rather, your moral duty – to eliminate this system? 

But if a man no longer can summon the strength to demand his right, then it is absolutely certain that he will perish. We would deserve to be dispersed through the earth like dust before the wind if we do not muster our powers at this late hour and finally find the courage that up to now we have lacked. Do not hide your cowardice behind a cloak of expediency, for with every new day that you hesitate, failing to oppose this offspring of Hell, your guilt, as in a parabolic curve, grows higher and higher.”12 
 
I can only hope the courage of the members of the White Rose Society is capable of infecting us two generations later.
 
 
Defining purpose and personal contribution to the freedom movement
“The reality is that when you finally find your life purpose and feed energy into that so as to develop the skills to carry it out – nothing else matters. When you have found your passion and what you do is filled with inspiration, all of your beingness is profoundly stimulated and satisfied simply be doing what you love to do.” (Justin Deschamps)
 
You will, by now have developed a better understanding of your adversary, its goals, strategy and methods, as well as the nature of the warfare continuing around us. You now have some basic tools for resisting the adversary’s onslaught. This places you in a better position to consider my call to arms. Take some time to work through the questions below in order to clarify your personal position and purpose. You may wish to do this in stages as you progress through the book.
 
1. Who am I? What defines my unique identity? What are the core beliefs and values that I cherish and that will sustain me in the future irrespective of what it may hold?
 
2. Why is the cause of freedom important to me? What is at stake? What compels me to challenge the Cabal’s rule? (Consider what is it about the Cabal’s rule that I find toxic, oppressive or debilitating?)
  
3. What is my vision or mental picture of the destination of the “truth” movement?
 
4. How would I describe my personal mission or contribution to the resistance or the freedom movement considering my particular talents and capabilities?
 
 
 Sources
1 Bruce Lee, goodreads.com, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/910217-absorb-what-is-useful-discard-what-is-useless-and-add
 
2 Survey finds Hillary Clinton has ‘more than 99% chance of winning election over Donald Trump, Independent, November 5, 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sam-wang-princeton-election-consortium-poll-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-victory-a7399671.html
 
3 MOCKINGBIRD MIRROR: Declassified docs depict deeper link between the CIA and American media, 21st Century Wire, March 1, 2017, http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/03/01/mockingbird-mirror-declassified-docs-depict-deeper-link-between-the-cia-and-american-media/
 
4 The post-truth-era: Welcome to the Age of Dishonesty, Albert Mohler, July 9, 20015, http://www.albertmohler.com/2005/07/19/the-post-truth-era-welcome-to-the-age-of-dishonesty/
 
5 Rep Tulsi Gabbard: End illegal war against Syrian government of Assad, focus on ISIS, November 21, 2015, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=329TFfPxZBU
 
6 How Saudi Wahhabism is the fountainhead of Islamic terrorism, New Age Islam, January 21, 2015, http://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/how-saudi-wahhabism-is-the-fountainhead-of-islamist-terrorism/d/101139
 
7 Subway takes chemical out of sandwich bread after protest, ABC News, February 5, 2014, http://abcnews.go.com/Health/subway-takes-chemical-sandwich-bread-protest/story?id=22373414
 
8 Margaret Meade Quotes, Brainy Quote, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/margaretme100502.html
 
9 The Magician and the heckler, Redefininggod.com, a resource for the awakening human, July, 2015,  http://redefininggod.com/2015/07/the-magician-and-the-heckler/
 
10 5 signs that we are going through a global mass awakening, The Event Chronicle, April 24, 2017,
http://redefininggod.com/2015/07/the-magician-and-the-heckler/
 
11 Friedrich Nietzsche, goodreads.com, quotes, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/137-he-who-has-a-why-to-live-for-can-bear
 
12 Third pamphlet of the White Rose Society, History is a weapon, http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/whiterose.html

WHY CAN’T SAM LEARN?

12/22/2017

On the importance of allegory, parody and political satire
Throughout history, when those seeking change discover that straight talk and honest dialogue are suppressed or shouted down, writers, artists and playwrights have resorted to more subtle forms of expression and protest. They might have turned to parody, political allegory or satire. For various reasons, Jesus often spoke in parables laden with meaning and spiked with messages for his intended audience. This was also the tactic of the joker or court jester in medieval times. According to some, the court jester’s role was that of a professional provocateur. The jester subtly skewered the delusions and inanities of the King or the establishment.

​I’ve come to a deeper appreciation for the jesters and their satirical words and ways in the last decade or so. Perhaps it can be attributed in part to Comedy Central and Jon Stewart. The Jester’s gift is telling truth to power in a way that few others can. For a great example, search YouTube for Bob Dylan entertaining a fancy pants audience including some former US politicians seated near the front. To appreciate the deliciousness of the the situation, he’s singing “(You) Gotta serve somebody” (the Devil or the Lord) to at least one US president and alumni of Yale’s dark secret society, the Skull and Crossbones. The skilled jester can make his performance simultaneously palatable, entertaining and thought-provoking. Often, in the process, the best of jesters decodes the hidden messages behind the behaviours of the Powers that Be, revealing the truth to those among the masses with discerning eyes and ears. 

Perhaps the role of provocateur is one that futurists can play when necessary. I recall reading that our family served as bards to one of the kings of ancient Ireland. I wonder if any of them injected a touch of political satire into their verse. On that note, Why can’t Sam learn?, is another in the Red Pill Essays series (See blog). It is my political allegory of the US (“Sam”) and its foreign policy. It was written in early February of 2016, but remains timely. (The Editor, December 22, 2017)

Why Can’t Sam Learn? – A political allegory regarding the sheer madness of US  foreign policy and the collective mind behind it 
Feb 6, 2017, rev. Posted December 22, 2017© Futurescapes21C
 
For a part of my career I was an educator serving in the K-12 and college level systems. For the educator, the mission is unleashing human learning capabilities, so people can fulfill their life potential. In basic terms, learning is the ability of an organism to respond intelligently to stimuli in its environment. So, when people touch the proverbial hot stove, withdraw their hands and refrain from repeating the mistake, they have demonstrated an ability to learn. The desire and ability to learn is considered natural in healthy, well-adjusted human beings.
 
When a student develops bad grades, or engages in destructive behaviour, or is frequently caught fighting with others, the problem is sometimes traced to a learning disability. If the child’s condition can be diagnosed on a timely basis, corrective therapies or medical treatment can be undertaken. In some cases however, the roots of a behavioral problem may run deeper and can be attributed to some type of personality disorder or other form of mental illness.
 
But what if that schoolchild creating havoc on the figurative schoolyard or playground is really a nation, (the United States or “Sam” for our purposes)? And what if Sam’s gang (NATO) has taken control of most of the playground? Who, in this case will intervene, restore peace and seek to determine what ails Sam and his bullying buddies? It seems that it falls to independent analysts and journalists to sound the alarm and call attention to the misbehaviours. It’s clearly time to ask, Why can’t Sam learn?
 
It’s worth noting at the outset that Sam has many positive attributes. In the past he has demonstrated that he can be industrious, creative, generous and sometimes even a visionary leader. Sam is, in many ways, a gifted child. His unique combination of personality traits and abilities makes him very influential among his peers and greatly feared by others on the playground. For many years now, however, part of Sam has been at war with his better self, and the dark side of his personality has been winning.
 
This manifests itself in incoherent and destructive foreign policy ventures, few more destructive than his ill-conceived war on terror (WOT). A timely intervention is required before Sam does further injury to himself and/or those around him. Newly elected US president, Donald Trump himself has called for an end to the catastrophic foreign policy of the US. In the course of his election campaign, he declared the country is going to change course.
 
“We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past…We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments…. Our goal is stability not chaos, because we want to rebuild our country [the United States]… We will partner with any nation that is willing to join us in the effort to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism …In our dealings with other countries, we will seek shared interests wherever possible and pursue a new era of peace, understanding, and good will.”1
 
It’s a remarkable speech, if for no other reason than because it stands in such sharp contrast to today’s reality. If President Trump is serious about changing US thinking and behaviour, a logical place to start would be Sam’s case file. The foreign policy failures go back decades. I first began to seriously wonder about Sammy’s learning ability in the 1980’s following the War in Lebanon.
 
I clearly recall the leaden feeling in my gut when I read in October of 1984 that the barracks of US marines serving in Lebanon as part of a peace keeping mission had been blown up killing more than 200 US marines. The message was clear: Whether you are labeled ‘peace keepers’ or not, you’re not welcome in Lebanon. On Feb 26, 1984, the bulk of the US troops withdrew. I remember feeling relieved. I naively concluded this was a costly lesson and one that would no doubt lead to the end of American involvement in the Middle East.2
 
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Sam was undeterred. One summary lists 25 US interventions in the Middle East between 1984 and 2001.3  So looking back on the Beirut bombing, it appears no lessons sufficient to reshape US foreign policy in the Middle East were learned. If anything was learned, it was merely that the US needed to better fortify US troops barracks and embassies. The deadly outcomes of subsequent attacks around the world, however, left me wondering if even that was learned.
 
The George W. Bush era brought a new chapter in aggressive US foreign policy with the launch of the so-called WOT in the wake of the attacks on 9/11. Over the course of the subsequent 16 years, the US invaded, attacked and supported conflict in seven countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa. In his final year in office, Obama’s military dropped a record 26,121 bombs on seven countries.4 It’s worth noting that the US still maintains a military presence in Afghanistan after 15 years, is engaged in its third Iraq conflict, while silent regarding the mess NATO created in Libya in 2011.5 The US is also engaged in a proxy war in Syria and covertly supporting Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.
 
A growing segment of the US public, along with disaffected members of the US military are voicing their alarm regarding their nation’s dysfunctional behaviour. Former soldier Mike Prysner, for example, looking back on his military service, stated he tried to be proud of his service, but confessed, remorsefully that “the real terrorist was me”.6 Ex-Bush official, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, is quoted as saying that he is “tired of the corporate interests that we go abroad to slay monsters for” and labels his country the “death merchant of the world”.7 As for Sam’s gang, critics of its regime change wars label NATO the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization.8
 
Sam’s aggressive behaviour is routinely encouraged by the country’s policy think tanks. Michael Ledeen, holder of the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute offered US leadership a memorable nugget of advice. Ledeen suggested that, “Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.”9 Brilliant! If only that were the extent of its bullying.

Again a closer look at Sam’s file provides a revealing picture of how his brain (Congress) and its decision process works. Investigative journalist, Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept describes how Congress reached a foreign policy decision with far reaching consequences and catastrophic repercussions for the world. In the wake of 9/11, President George Bush demanded Congress grant the president the authority to use military force against those responsible for the attack.
 
The resolution stated: “the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.”
 
Greenwald reports that the House of Representatives approved the resolution on Sept 14 by a vote of 420-1 and the Senate the same day by a vote of 98-0. The single dissenting vote came from Democratic rep., Barbara Lee of California. Lee explained that her vote was based on a concern that passing the resolution would amount to giving “a blank check to the president to attack anyone involved in September 11 events –anywhere, in any country, without regard to our nation’s long-term foreign policy, economic and national security interests, and without time limit.” She added: “A rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent men, women, children will be killed.” 10
 
Lee’s response to the resolution was remarkably prescient, but it fell on deaf ears. Out of a total of 519 members of Congress, only one had the good judgment to made the case for restraint. Only one foresaw the longer-term risks and possible consequences likely to follow a decision reached three days after the 9/11 attacks. Common sense would suggest a cooling off period was in order. Equally revealing of Sam’s illness is the fact that Senator Lee was smeared and demonized by politicos for her courageous stand.
 
Sam’s history of promoting wars on the basis of lies didn’t begin with the first Iraq war, but it is, nonetheless, instructive. Ultimately, to sell the first Iraq war to a skeptical public, the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador was coached to offer a poignant (but false) testimony. Her story that Iraqi soldiers had invaded Kuwaiti hospitals and had tossed babies from their incubators unto the floor provided an emotional hook for a yet-skeptical public.11 The subsequent WOT was similarly sold to the public and sustained on the basis of lies.
 
The George W. Bush administration misled the public in wrongly blaming Saddam Hussein for the attack on the Twin Towers. It also advanced the lie that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, making him an imminent threat to the US.12 Today, the very pretext for the war on terror, the official 9/11 narrative wobbles on shaky footings. A 2013 survey found that most Americans are open to an alternative explanation.13
 
Sam maintains a pattern of lying and deceit to this day. If anything, he and his NATO gang have become increasingly devious in their attempts to hide their behind-the-scenes roles in regime change wars in the Middle East. In his Syrian regime change campaign, for example, Sam has employed a combination of NATO members, mercenaries, regional allies and support for terrorist groups to pursue his goal of regime change.14 This is why it is described as a proxy war. This proxy war has been sustained by a massive on-going campaign of denial and misdirection.15
 
In 2016, a propaganda campaign was launched to demonize Vladimir Putin and infect the Western publics with a case of Russia-phobia. Even as NATO troops and weaponry are arrayed on Russia’s border, and the Ukraine engages in periodic provocations, we are told that it’s the Russian bear that is the aggressor.16 Meanwhile, it’s Sam and his NATO buddies that continue lying about Russia and Crimea.17 And when the world’s attention is fixed on Russia and the Ukraine, Sam’s alter egos, the CIA and USAID are busily seeking to extend US hegemony elsewhere across the world.18
 
Sam has become a specialist in deception. During Obama’s last term, psy ops including false flags were frequently employed to ensure American citizens remained supportive of the WOT. This tactic is said to date back to Nero.19 Former Marine Corps intelligence officer, Robert Steele contends that most terrorist attacks are government-orchestrated false flags.20 Seemingly, they are successful, as citizens have yet to demand accountability from their government for the US role in the WOT. They also reveal of course, the pathological mindset of a tyrant.
 
The costs and consequences arising from Congress’ decision to grant the war-making authority to the president are immense and still mounting. The financial cost of the war on terror to American taxpayers alone is estimated at $5 trillion dollars and counting.21 It has been pointed out, this bill has been run up on the credit card of a country that is essentially bankrupt. Estimates of the number of lives lost as a result range from 1.3 million upward.22
 
This cost accounting vastly understates the reality. It doesn’t consider the damage to targeted nations in relation to their physical infrastructure, natural environment, human health and well-being, social stability and historic artifacts. It also fails to take the damage to the reputation of the United States into account.
 
Given the damage and losses inflicted on seven countries in seven years by Sam’s duplicitous WOT, one would imagine he might show some pang of conscience. I have not, however seen any signs of guilt or remorse to date. He also demonstrates no sense of responsibility or interest in making amends. It’s the absence of empathy that concerns me the most. Sam just doesn’t seem to care.
 
Whenever someone calls attention to his behaviour, Sam goes on the offence accusing others of the very things he is guilty of doing (projection was a Nazi tactic). He constantly attempts to diminish the seriousness of his crimes. The reaction is the same whether it’s the use of torture on political prisoners or the killing of innocent men, women and children in countries targeted for regime change. For Sam, it’s always a matter of the primacy of American interests over all else.
 
Sam continues to engage in rambling self-talk about American exceptionalism. In the 2016 US election, losing candidate, Hilary Clinton offered the delusional slogan, “We’re great, because we’re good.” Such notions reveal a massive disconnect with reality.
 
Looking ahead, I see no signs that the risk Sam represents to others will abate. There are signs that it will grow. The US’s military advanced research agency, DARPA, is continuing the development of robotic war machines and potentially something even more alarming, genetically modified, “Super Soldiers.” It is said that such soldiers will have advantages over human soldiers in several respects.
 
By eliminating empathy, the Department of Defense (DoD) hopes to “enhance” a soldier’s ability to “kill without care or remorse, shows no fear, can fight battle after battle without fatigue and generally behave more like a machine than a man.”23
 
It’s clear that such technological advances will do nothing to make the world any safer or more secure. Sam’s tendency to invent new enemies in order to justify his aggression make this a certainty.
 
In summary, a cursory look at Sam’s file reveals some disturbing patterns. They include the following:

• Devious– repeated lying and deception

• Inflated ego, delusions of grandeur

• Impaired memory

• Impulsive decisions

• An obliviousness to danger and inability to weights risks

• Lack of acceptance of responsibility

• Failure to take consequences of actions into account

• Lack of empathy and remorse

• Strong tendency to be manipulative and coercive

• Skilled at drawing others into conflict

• Often relies on bullying versus negotiation to solve problems or secure agreement

 
While the record clearly reveals that Sam has a learning disability, it also points to a much more serious problem. A casual comparison of Sam’s behaviours with Dr. Hare’s psychopathy checklist reveals a remarkable correlation.24 In short, Sam checks many of the boxes right from superficial charm, grandiosity and pathological lying, to manipulativeness, impulsivity and failure to accept responsibility. In light of this, some recommendations are in order.
 
First, Sam’s condition demands an intervention and immediate attention. It’s important to determine specifically what is impairing Sam’s thinking and decision-making. Nothing can be ruled out at this point, including the possibility of a brain tumour resulting from exotic parasites. (Some have suggested it could be Neoconus fascisti.) This in turn could be causing pressure on the control or (moral) judgment centres of the brain. 
 
Second, the NATO gang should be immediately broken up and each of its members given a similar assessment. Their aggressive behaviours and their enabling of Sam’s intimidation and bullying suggest that some of them may also suffering from a similar condition. To some extent however, they are also Sam’s victims. (Canada, is no exception.)
 
Third, intensive monitoring and reporting by vigilant independent media and concerned citizens is essential. This is all the more important now as it’s clear that corporate media has been co-opted by the military-security complex (MSC).
 
President Trump implies that Sam can learn from his past foreign policy failures and change that nation’s behaviour. It’s an extremely optimistic position. While I hope he is right, I am a realist, and realistically the challenge is monumental. Historically, neither the US nor actual psychopaths have demonstrated much ability to learn from their past failures and reform on their own. Sadly, Sam may be beyond our help.
 
If Sam and his buddies pause long enough to digest the lessons from their past foreign policy failures and adopt a more benevolent posture, it will be nothing short of a miracle. It will, in fact, be a new day for humanity. We must continue to pray and work toward such a miracle; the alternative is simply too dark to contemplate.

​All rights reserved, Futurescapes21C 2017.
 
Endnotes
1 The trump speech that no one heard, Counterpunch, January 19, 2017.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/19/the-trump-speech-that-no-one-heard/
 
2 Beirut Barracks blown up (History.com)
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/beirut-barracks-blown-up
 
3 US interventions in the Middle East
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6308.htm
 
4 America dropped 26, 171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama’s reign, The Guardian, January 9, 2017.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
 
5NATO’s humanitarian intervention in Syria exacerbated “human suffering” (New Eastern Outlook, Oct 17-2015)
http://journal-neo.org/2015/10/17/nato-s-humanitarian-intervention-in-libya-exacerbated-humanitarian-suffering/
 
6 Michael Prysner: ‘The real terrorist was me…’, Oriental Review, December 16, 2012.
http://orientalreview.org/2012/12/16/michael-prysner-the-real-terrorist-was-me/
 
7 “We are the death merchant of the world”: Ex-Bush official Lawrence Wilkerson condemns military-industrial complex, Salon, March 29, 2016.
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/29/we_are_the_death_merchant_of_the_world_ex_bush_official_lawrence_wilkerson_condemns_military_industrial_complex/
 
8 Stop the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization – NATO, Youtube, October 3, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4XLDt1qWYc
 
9 Controversial theories, Michael Ledeen, Wikipedia
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ledeen
 
10 Barbara Lee’s lone vote on September 14, 2001, was as prescient as it was  
 brave and heroic, The Intercept, September 11, 2016.
 https://theintercept.com/2016/09/11/barbara-lees-lone-vote-on-sept-14-2001-was-as-prescient-as-it-was-brave-and-heroic/
 
11 Nayirah testimony, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_(testimony)
 
12 George W Bush didn’t just lie about the Iraq war. What he did was much worse, The Week, May 20, 2015.
http://theweek.com/articles/555921/george-w-bush-didnt-just-lie-about-iraq-war-what-did-much-worse
 
13 New poll finds most Americans open to alternative 9/11 theories, 9/11Truth.org, September 10, 2013.
http://www.911truth.org/new-poll-finds-americans-open-alternative-911-theories/
 
14 NATO’s playbook of proxy wars in the Middle East (Blacklisted News, January 1, 2017.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/NATO%E2%80%99s_Playbook_of_Proxy_Wars_in_the_Middle_East/56109/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
15 US and NATO launch disinformation terror war, New Eastern Outlook, October 10, 2015.
http://journal-neo.org/2015/10/10/us-and-nato-launch-disinformation-terror-war/
 
16 Germany slams NATO ‘warmongering” on Russia, Yahoo, June 18, 2016.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/germany-slams-nato-warmongering-russia-115515814.html
 
17 Things will get worse until the US stops lying about Crimea, Strategic Culture, February 7, 2017.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/02/07/things-will-get-worse-until-us-stops-lying-about-crimea.html
 
18 A primer: USAID and US hegemony, New Eastern Outlook, July 8, 2016.
http://journal-neo.org/2016/07/08/a-primer-usaid-us-hegemony/
 
19 More Obama false flags on the horizon, Dave Hodges, The Common Sense Show, August 31, 2013.
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/08/31/more-obama-false-flag-events-on-the-near-horizon/
 
20 Intelligence officer: Every single terrorist attack in the US was a false flag – or egged on by the government, Infowars, Mach 15-15.
http://www.infowars.com/intelligence-officer-every-single-terrorist-attack-in-u-s-was-a-false-flag-attack-or-egged-on-by-the-government/
 

21 Post-9/11 wars have cost nearly $5 trillion and counting: Report, Common Dreams, September 13, 2016.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/13/post-911-wars-have-cost-nearly-5-trillion-and-counting-report
 
22 Body Count report reveals at least 1.3 million lives lost to the US-led war on terror, Common Dreams, March 26, 2015.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/26/body-count-report-reveals-least-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror   

23 DARPA continues human experiments to create military super soldiers, Occupy Corporatism, April 10, 2013.
https://www.occupycorporatism.com/darpa-continues-human-experiments-to-create-military-super-soldiers/
 
24 Encyclopedia of mental disorders forum, Hare psychopathy checklist,
http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html
(c) Futurescapes21C All rights reserved. 

CONNECTING THE DOTS — PROXY JIHADI WARS, MASS MIGRATION AND CULTURAL CLASHES IN EUROPE

12/4/2018

Home page post, October 2018
Futurescapes21C (c) All rights reserved

I suspect that a lot of folks are feeing rather disoriented these days. Major developments in the geopolitical, technological and cultural realms of late have been sending tremors through our world as it seemingly stumbles from one crisis to the next. It’s left the average person without sufficient breathing space to process the latest happenings and their implications. And collectively the picture is distorted and incoherent, so sense-making is exhausting. So, I can understand why many have given up on making sense of their world and adopted a “whatever” attitude. At times like this, when things are blurring past us,  it’s important to step back, confirm essential landmarks, and try to grasp how the pieces fit together. With a better understanding of what is really transpiring, we’re in a position to make sounder, longer term decisions including which policies we should support. This is urgently needed when it comes to the matters of proxy jihaidi armies, regime change wars in Middle East, mass migration to Europe and cultures clashes in the West. We need to figure out what’s really going on. 

People struggle to see the big picture
A capacity for big picture thinking doesn’t come naturally. It’s a bit like that image of the six blind men, each with their hand on a different part of an elephant’s anatomy from trunk to tail and each describing what they perceive an elephant looks like. None of them has the full picture. None could describe an elephant. And that’s often the way the mainstream media presents the news to us. We are bombarded with bits and pieces — the “issues” du jour, but few sources provide a meaningful analysis of how the pieces intersect and their overall significance. This is one reason so many of the proverbial “elephants in the room” or in our society are left undisturbed. It also explains why so many people and organizations are caught off-base, tilting at windmills (symptoms of a problem) and others, unawares and easily blindsided by new developments. Do we really want to be concerned with paving our driveway if an earthquake is building under our feet or our local Mount Vesuvius is about to erupt.  

Big picture blindness is often self-imposed
Why don’t we get better at grasping big picture stuff and anticipating what’s coming?  Often the constraints are self-imposed. For starters, it often involves the unfamiliar and that in itself can cause discomfort.  And then, those who pride themselves on being “practical,” often have a distaste for anything that seems like a distant abstraction.  A former colleague responded that big picture stuff was the responsibility of his managers — the folks being “paid the big bucks.” He was, in effect saying,”it’s none of my business.” The problem is that sometimes those very senior managers are insulated from the tremors which folks with their feet on the ground have already sensed. And, let’s be honest, there’s another category of people that simply don’t care and still another that wishes to preserve its innocence. So, the  cognitive dissonance associated with potentially unpleasant subjects quickly repels them. Who, for example, wants to believe that the reason some things don’t add up is because their government regularly lies to them? 

Crisis reactions inhibit clear thinking
Let’s take a real world example of some major activities recently dominating the news. I’m thinking of global terrorism, a succession of regime change wars in the Middle East, and disruptive mass migration into Europe. Those with a narrow “issues” mindset will likely see these as distinctly separate developments, producing different sets of problems and warranting particular responses or solutions. Thus when our national government presents us with a “refugee crisis,” we react to “the problem” as presented in the moment, rather than ask what’s behind the so called crisis or probe what the underlying problem is. Besides, many people  are eager to prove to their political masters that they are capable of rising to the challenge just handed to them by their government. (Isn’t that how Europeans reacted to the migrant wave and how Canadian’s responded to the Trudeau-McCallum challenge of accommodating 30,000 or so immigrants.). Thus the emotional urgency of “crises” presented by governments, can suppress critical thinking and reasoning. 

The puzzle pieces fit together 
Former US diplomat and author, Michael Springmann, peered behind the curtain. Springmann connected a lot of dots and assembled the pieces of a big puzzle in his two books, Visas for Al Qaeda (2014) and Goodbye Europe?, Hello Chaos,? Merkel’s Migrant Bomb (2017). The former diplomat demonstrates there are links between US-backed jihadi activity and proxy wars, destruction of Arab countries, displacement of native populations, the migration of millions to non-Arab countries, the covert role of migrant enablers, the disruptive impacts felt by  host countries, and the destructive influence on the cultures of both host countries and migrants. Springmann examines the divisive effect that mass immigration has on the population of the host country. This is pretty much a given considering that host western countries tend  to fracture y into two camps — those supporting large scale immigration and those concerned with  protecting the native culture. Springmann believes that those behind this kind of daisy chain of destruction and disruption are aware of the consequences. 

One conclusion then is that the “bomb” of mass immigration was deployed as a deliberate part of a larger plan. Another conclusion that’s even easier to reach is that “The best way to avoid a refugee crisis is to not create one in the first place. So, no more regime change wars.” It’s something I’ve been saying  for some time. Now, I’m wondering if anyone is listening or looking at the big picture. In retrospect, it all makes sense from a Machiavellian globalist perspective.

Those wanting to expand their capacity for big picture dot connection may wish to read Springmann’s interview or put his book on their suggested Christmas gift list. See: Weapon’s of mass migration: Interview with Michael Springmann on Europe’s migrant crisis (SOTT, Aug 13, 2017) in the Society and Demographics section below. 

​In peace,
— Rod (October, 2018) 

PRAYERS FOR CANADA’S “POGO” MOMENT IN 2017

12/15/2017

I wrote this essay on January 23, 2017 hoping that sometime during its 150th anniversary year Canada would have a moment of truth. Perhaps its leaders would acknowledge the falsity of war-making in general, and the war on terror in particular including Canada’s own criminal role in destabilizing Libya. Alas, Canada’s leadership has not yet been convinced that it’s time to admit its duplicity and criminality in participating in the farcical war on terror. Our opportunity to demonstrate genuine leadership has almost slipped away.  (the editor, December 15, 2017).

                Prayers for Canada’s “Pogo” Moment in 2017
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes 21C (c) January, 23, 2017, All rights reserved
 
“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” (Luke 8:17)

Canada’s moment of truth, or what I would call its “Pogo moment” is coming, and while it won’t be pleasant, it is necessary to our future well-being. Pogo, some may recall, was a central character is a 1960s to mid-seventies American comic strip with a gift for political and social satire. Its most enduring punch line is, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The witticism is particularly applicable to the US’s so-called “war on terror” (WOT) and Canada’s role in it. 
 
The WOT was launched in the wake of the reported 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon. The Bush administration then declared a worldwide “war on terror.”  Among other things, the war on terror took the form of a combination of open and covert military operations, new security legislation and efforts to block the financing of terrorism.1 By any measure, the toll exacted through these measuress has been immense.
 
Over a span of six of the 15 plus years since 9/11, the United States and its allies have launched attacks in seven countries.2  The cost of the campaign to U.S. taxpayers alone is estimated to be nearly $5 trillion dollars and counting.3 And, an estimated 1.3 million lives have been lost as a result of this policy.4 Other sources meanwhile put the death toll as high as 4 or more million.5
 
Newly elected President Trump has signaled his intention to bring an end to US regime change wars. That said, there was certainly no sign of that in the final year of the Obama administration when it registered a new high in aggressive action. The number of bombs dropped on foreign countries in 2016 surpassed that of 2015 totaling 26,171. This amounts to three bombs per hour, 24 hours per day.6 One wonders whether, as observer-participants in the WOT, we have become numbed to the magnitude and global consequences of these numbers. Could our humanity itself have become a casualty of this brutal war?
 
A line in the Leonard Cohen’ song, Anthem reads, “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”7 Perhaps, the light is slowly penetrating the cracks in the war on terror. From time to time, I read of individuals who have “awakened” to the inconvenient truth regarding the WOT. In the process, their understanding of its dark realities is abruptly turned on its head and the truth is clear. They discover that the situation wasn’t what they thought, nor was the enemy who they thought it was. It isn’t “them”; it’s “us.” It’s what I call their Pogo moment.
 
Guy Parmeter, a US soldier deployed in Iraq in 2004, experienced such a revelation in an interaction with an Iraqi farmer near Samarra in Salahuddin province. Then-Major Guy Parmeter recalled asking a farmer if he’d “seen any foreign fighters” lurking about. The farmer’s reply was direct and telling: “Yes, you.” 8
 
The Iraqi farmer’s, “Yes, you”, triggered an epiphany for Parmeter. He was seeking a window of intelligence into the identity and whereabouts of an elusive enemy. He was handed a mirror instead. And the image of the dark and dangerous invader he glimpsed in the mirror was his. In an instant, his white hat turned black.
 
More than a decade later, the Pogo moment of another former Iraqi soldier led him to the same conclusion regarding the identity of the real enemy. An extract of a speech by ex-US soldier Mike Prysner conveys his profound remorse tinged with anger at the deceptions pushed by his commanders. The tone of Prysner’s confession stands in sharp contrast with the hegemonic chant, “We’re number one!”
 
And I tried hard to be proud of my service. But all I could feel was shame. Racism could no longer mask the reality of the occupation. These were people, these were human beings …We were told we were fighting terrorists. The real terrorist was me, and the real terrorism is this occupation.” 9
 
More recently, US Virginia State senator, Richard Black, curious about the deeper motives behind the US military campaign in the Middle East, went to Syria to see the situation firsthand. In a May 5, 2016 interview with Jeffrey Steinberg (Executive Intelligence Review Magazine) following his return, Senator Black’s observations reveal the extent of his mind shift.
 
But when you go there and you actually walk the grounds and you shake hands with the soldiers and meet with the refugees and people like that, it turns black and white into Technicolor. And I’m going to tell you: Syria is one of the most incredibly wonderful nations on Earth. And the fact that America set out to topple the government and destroy it, long before there was the faintest hint of civil unrest, it’s really one of the great stains on American honor.
 
The veil was lifted. Senator Black’s amazement at what he had witnessed in terms of Syrian unity and resilience doesn’t hide his outrage regarding the role of the US in the conflict. “We have never done anything more loathsome or despicable than what we are doing in Syria,” he concludes.10
 
Much of the WOT has been covert and conducted via regional allies, contractors and mercenaries. Thus, the conflict in Syria is widely described as a proxy war. In 2016, Wikileaks released a Hillary Clinton email that acknowledged that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were providing financial and logistical support to ISIS and other extremist Sunni groups. The email doesn’t mention the fact however, that both these terrorist-funding states were big league donors to the Clinton Foundation. The hypocrisy in the US decision to sell aircraft, munitions, spare parts training, maintenance and logistics to the Saudis is apparent.11
 
The analysis of American comic and political commentator, Jimmy Dore, is every bit as critical as that of Senator Black. It’s also irreverent, expletive-laden plain speak. Dore condemns the duplicity of US President Obama and Secretary of State, John Kerry for their false narrative regarding the role of the US in Syria. His commentary is delivered against the backdrop of a video of an Obama press conference. The US president portrays the US as a deeply concerned force for good attempting to bring about peace and relieve suffering in Syria. Dore doesn’t buy it. (Language caution).
 
We’re inflicting (not relieving) human suffering in Syria. …We should get the “F” out of there.
 
And somebody else is the bad guy…somebody else is the bad guy? We can’t bring clean water to Flint Michigan, to our own (expletive) people…but we’re going to straighten shit out in Syria? 12
 
Dore’s critique of UN Ambassador Samatha Powers is equally scathing. He focuses on her disingenuous condemnation of President Bashar Assad for killings allegedly carried out by the Syrian army during its liberation of the residents of East Aleppo. (Thus far no evidence of such an event has been provided.) Dore is clear that the real villains in Syria are US-supported terrorist proxies.
 
We’re doing it. That’s why Tulsi Gabbard had to put a… a bill in congress that says… the United States should stop funding terrorists today. So that’s what going on in Syria… just so you know what’s going on in Syria. We’re the bad guys… as usual. We need to get the (expletive) out of Syria… and stop the fighting in Syria. 13
 
These dissenters are far from alone in rejecting a misguided US foreign policy and exposing the deceptions of the WOT. Dozens of independent journalists and analysts have come to the same uncomfortable conclusions. A small sample of other dissenters includes: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (Former Assistant Secretary of State, Reagan administration); Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Phil Butler, Robert Parry (Consortium News); Patrick Henningsen (21st Century Wire); and F. William Engdahl (New Eastern Outlook). Ironically, their analysis has either been ignored or hypocritically dismissed to date by the mainstream corporate media as “fake news.”
 
It’s sobering to consider that it’s taken 80 years for a relatively small minority to voice the same conclusion regarding the WOT that US Marine Corps General Smedley Butler reached in 1935 regarding the wars of his day. Butler, in his 1935 book, War is a Racket declared, in effect, that he had seen the enemy and that enemy was “us” or, in that case, the United States.
 
“I served in all commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during that time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.” 14

How is it that the hard-earned wisdom of such a man and the cautions of the dissenters since his day go unheeded by Western Nations? Must every generation start from zero and re-learn the lessons of the previous one? Where’s the celebrated ability of the leaders of advanced societies to stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before? And, why have so few chosen to stand on the shoulders of Smedley Butler and enlightened successors who learned that war is a racket?
 
I have to attribute this failure in large part to what could be called the smog of war. This isn’t to be confused with the fog of war. Typically the latter term is used to describe the hazy, confused state of affairs that develops within the military in the heat of battle and the theatre of war. Thus, when a military death results from friendly fire for example, it is often attributed to the fog of war. The smog (fog plus pollutants) of war is different. It’s the manufactured distortions, misinformation and other forms of propaganda directed at an ususpecting citizenry in order to first gain, and then maintain public support for the cause.
 
The Deep State and (and the shadow government) directing the elected government) are the dark force behind the call for war. War-makers within the Deep State have mastered the art and science of manufacturing pro-war propaganda or “smog”. In the run- up to war and over the course of war, their smog-making public relations machines run full throttle. The goal is to envelop an unsuspecting populace within a thick blanket of informational smog cloaking the unpalatable realities of war from the eyes of the public.
 
War smog serves multiple purposes. It impairs logic and obscures our moral and ethical markers.  Effective campaigns embed a justification for war while camouflaging the identity of the real aggressors and their motives. Properly applied, it also effectively marginalizes dissenters by smearing them as unpatriotic or disloyal to a necessary or even noble cause. With mind-numbing daily repetition, the public acquiesces.
 
CJ Hopkins provides a further explanation as to why official propaganda continues to work despite is absurdity, including the current “Russian hacking” hysteria.15 Hopkins points to the work of Edward Bernays, the father of modern day public relations whose greatest contribution it was said, was convincing the American public to join the First World War. Bernays was remarkably candid about the goal of PR: the deliberate manipulation of the public mind.
 
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.16
 
Vijhay Prashad, Professor of International Affairs at Trinity College, Connecticut, explains how wars are dressed up in order to hide the facts. Note: subterfuge is essential.
 
No Great Power claims to exercise authority for its own interests or for the interests of those businesses that dominate its institutions. They like to speak about humanitarian obligations – whether to protect civilians from other humans or from natural disasters. They put on the cloak of protection to suggest that they are above crass monetary interests, whether theft of resources or control of markets.
 
… In our liberal age, it is hard to define wars in terms of self-interest. …We are told that they are the bitter medicine for the good of the planet, when in fact they are the use of force – by gun or by pen – for the betterment of very small numbers of people against the collective interest of the working-people of the planet. Our bewilderment comes from the thick cloak of ideology that covers over the real motivations of the powerful. 17
 
It seems little has changed over the years. War-makers, assisted by their faithful servants in the corporate media have repeatedly sold us regime-change wars over the last 15 years using well-honed, Bernays – inspired PR practices. Journalist, John Pilger describes the critical role played by corporate media and their persuasive star talent in engineering consent in support of war.
 
Propaganda is most effective when our consent is engineered by those with a fine education – Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia – and with careers on the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post.
 
These organizations are known as the “liberal media.” They present themselves as enlightened, progressive tribunes of the moral zeitgeist. They are anti-racist, pro-feminist and pro-LGBT. And they love war. While they speak up for feminism, they support rapacious wars that deny the rights of countless women, including the right to life.18
 
The screw continues to turn as of the researching of this paper in January of 2017. The majority of the public has not yet come to a full understanding of the role of the US, NATO and non-NATO allies in regime-change wars in the Middle East. This is particularly true regarding the latest attempt at regime-change in Syria. Nonetheless, even as the Deep State’s campaign in Syria floundered in 2016, it was diligently fabricating and marketing a new boogeyman.
 
There’s an argument that this strategy was undertaken because the now 15-year-old terrorist threat was losing its potency. What if it was no longer capable of inducing sufficient fear to mobilize public support for increasing defense department budgets and military campaigns? Perhaps terrorism’s value as a psychological hot button had reached its best-before-date. If so, a dark new villain would be needed. Voila, a new enemy in the form of “resurgent Russia” under Putin was introduced. Accordingly, the dials on the propaganda machines in Washington, London and Brussels were turned up to “high” regarding the Russian threat.
 
But, there is a problem. The “Russia-phobia” campaign is so blatantly obvious and lacking in credibility that has become something of a joke within the independent alternative media. The Deep State-CIA appears undeterred, however. Joseph Goebbels taught that with sufficient repetition, the public can be persuaded to swallow the biggest of lies. So, give it time. And just in case Russiaphobia isn’t sufficient to grip the public psyche, new provocations are at the ready to be used to cultivate hostility with China and Iran.
 
Seemingly, an unsuspecting citizenry isn’t equipped to see through the theatre offered by the magicians of war. To understand some of the moves on the geopolitical chessboard, we return to the analysis of Professor Prashad. And, once again, some of Smedley Butler’s sentiments are reflected in his observations.
 
Those U.S. ships that sail in the South-China Sea are not there to protect Taiwan or South Korea. They are there to protect the Global Commodity Chain. With the emergence of Russia and China – in particular – as regional powers, the US has tried to hem them in.
 
The tension between the United States and Russia-China is not because the former is benevolent and the latter are malevolent, but because they are in the midst of a geo-strategic battle over whether the United States and its allies should be the only ones to control the supply lines and the commodity chain, as well as how money is moved around (the SWIFT network) and how money is valued (whether the Dollar remains the main currency).19
 
Pervasive deception is central to effective war-making. It finds expression in sophisticated media propaganda and false flags involving orchestrated theatre on the geopolitical chessboard. It’s sobering to consider, but when the Deep State goes to war, it declares an informational war against its civilian population in addition to any external enemy.
 
The equipping of citizens for the onslaught must begin long before the propaganda campaign is launched. It requires more than casually listening to “the news” from co-opted corporate media. It means consciously absorbing the instructive experiences of individuals like Major Parmeter’s in his moment of truth in Iraq in 2004. Parmeter recognized the warring predisposition of his country, and recommended that his fellow Americans take a collective look in the mirror.
 
We are the empire of US military interventions, alien disaster movies and Star Wars.
 
We Americans, proud denizens of the land of the gun and of the only superpower left standing, don’t, of course, want to think of ourselves as aliens. Who does? We go to movies like Independence Day or Star Wars to identify with the outgunned rebels. Evidence to the contrary, we still think of ourselves as the underdogs, the rebels, the liberators.
 
We need to take a long hard look at ourselves. Like Pogo, we need to be willing to see the evidence of our own invasive nature. Only then can we begin to become the kind of land we say we want to be. 20
 
On the occasion of our country’s 150th anniversary, Canadians would be well advised to do the same. Outside the bubble, Canada is described as a vassal of the United States? It is such a long way from a “True North” strong and free. How is such a role consistent in any way with our aspirations to become an island of hope and opportunity in a troubled and often chaotic world? The disconnect from reality is eye- watering.
 
The disconnects and delusions abound. I recall viewing in 2011, a Canadian TV news segment polishing the country’s military brass for an admirable NATO contribution in Libya. In a similar vein, Salman Rafi Sheikh reports that in 2013, he heard NATO declare that the mission in Libya had been one of the most successful in NATO’s history. Really? Perhaps it’s time we took a closer look and evaluated the fruits of our labours.
 
A report from the British foreign affairs committee challenges NATO’s positive assessment of its performance. The report acknowledges that the Western intervention in Libya in 2011 was “not only based on false intelligence (sound familiar) but also directly paved the way for an insurgence of Islamist terror groups in the country.” 21 It’s a remarkable indictment, given the humanitarian framing and rosy evaluation of the intervention.
 
Journalist, John Pilger adds some additional detail regarding the outcome of what he calls the “catastrophe in Libya.”
 
In 2011, Obama said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was planning “genocide” against his own people. “We knew … that if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.”
 
This was the known lie of Islamist militias facing defeat by Libyan government forces. It became the media story; and NATO – led by Obama and Hillary Clinton – launched 9,700 “strike sorties” against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at civilian targets. Uranium warheads were used; the cities of Misurata and Sirte were carpet-bombed. The Red Cross identified mass graves, and Unicef reported “most [of the children killed] were under the age of ten.” 22
 
So, scrape off the self-congratulatory veneer and lies and we’re left with the objective reality that Canada and fellow-NATO members murdered the leader of a non-aggressor nation, created acres of rubble, degraded a highly functioning country in political, social and economic terms and paved the way for encroachment by Islamist terrorists. And, in the process, we also contributed to the chaotic immigrant crisis of the last two to three years and committed war crimes.
 
The scale of the Libya fiasco can be put into clearer perspective with a capsule description of it before and after the NATO intervention.
 
In 1967 Colonel Gaddafi inherited one of the poorest nations in Africa; however, by the time he was assassinated, Gaddafi had turned Libya into Africa’s wealthiest nation. Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy on the continent. Less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.
 
After NATO’s intervention in 2011, Libya is now a failed state and its economy is in shambles. As the government’s control slips through their fingers and into to the militia fighters’ hands, oil production has all but stopped.23 You can top it off with Barack Obama’s description of post- Gaddafi Libya as a “shit show”, something he blamed on British PM, David Cameron.24 Libyans have seen the enemy and it is us.
 
Given the global power shifts underway, there’s no better time than now for a review of Canada’s recent foreign policy and specifically, our role in the WOT. Canada and its leaders really only have two choices and the sand is quickly running out of the glass on the first. Their first option is to step back and take a long, honest look in the mirror and evaluate our role in the WOT. It’s project management 101: Document the lessons learned.
 
This is likely to unearth some useful lessons and provide a basis for a timely re-think of our foreign policy including the matter of our responsibilities to allies. It could give new meaning to the current Responsibility to Protect (R2P) policy. A popular anti-drunk driving message is: Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. A corollary for a military ally might be, Friends don’t let friends needlessly destroy other countries and their populations while intoxicated with delusions of exceptionalism.
 
The second choice is an avoidance strategy. It’s one where Canada keeps its head down and tries to run out the clock on any WOT post mortem. It means continuing to seek cover in a frayed terrorism script while hoping the world is soon distracted by the next global threat. Oh yes, Canada would of course have to continue playing along with any the false flag psy ops designed keep the public cowed and compliant. Oh look…it’s a bird, it’s a drone…”it’s a terrorist attack…or is a Russian or a Chinese invasion…?
 
As tempting as an avoidance strategy might be, it would also be cowardly and shortsighted, limiting Canada’s prospects on several fronts. Here are five reasons why an honest look in the mirror is would be a better choice. 
 
1. It’s important for the nation’s mental health and spiritual well-being. It’s said the confession is good for the soul. As Canada’s complicity in the WOT is fully understood reported and the seriousness of our crimes sinks in, cognitive dissonance is likely. Some will likely have difficulty reconciling our White Hat self image with reality. Other Canadians may experience a form of Macbeth syndrome, a condition that is called Perpetration Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS). Coming clean could be a meaningful part in our collective national therapy. 
 
2. It can be a time of re-visioning a more independent Canada. I’ve noted earlier that Colonel Parmeter has described his country as “the Empire of US military interventions.” Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson has described his country as “Death Merchant of the World.” Canada’s association with and support for the wars led by a nation described by members of its military in these dark terms means they no doubt cloud our future. Can we envision a future free of these weights?
 
3. The review can inform a move on Canada’s part to repair damaged international relationships and reorienting Canadian foreign policy in a positive direction. Our allegiance to the US and its misguided WOT has skewed our foreign policy and international relationships. Disentangling ourselves would mean more than simply rejecting the premise and duplicity of the WOT and ending our military support for it. We would of necessity also need to bring our self-destructive economic, diplomatic and information wars with other nations to an end and pursue rapprochement.
 
The implications of the rise of Eurasia and corresponding shift to a multi-polar world invite a more thorough examination unobscured by the distortions of the WOT. This means taking into account the development of new security alliances, trade relationships, infrastructure development, financial institutions and monetary systems. See F. William Engdahl’s article on the rise of Eurasia.25
 
4. It would naturally segway into a review of our membership in NATO and a review of NATO itself. The following questions might be considered in our review of Canada’s participation in NATO.
 
In what ways has Canadian participation in foreign conflicts as a NATO member contributed to or exacerbated conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world?
 
In what ways has Canada as a NATO member with the backing of the military industrial complex, contributed to a more dangerous and less secure world?
 
Which of our current NATO obligations predispose our acting wither now or in the future in ways at odds with Canadian values and our vision for the future?
 
It what ways does our participation in NATO undercut our understanding of what is essential for the long-term global good and our desired contribution to it?
 
Many critics regard NATO as a cold war relic that has outlived its purpose. The criticisms aren’t solely coming from outside NATO membership. President Donald Trump has said it’s obsolete.26 Marine Le Pen has said that if she wins the French presidential election this year, she will take the country out of the EU and NATO. 27And the leader of Germany’s Left is calling for the dissolution and replacement of NATO.27 28
 
5. Ultimately, Canada’s complicity in the misguided WOT will be fully exposed. It is the Age of Disclosure, and a full airing of our support for and participation in the WOT is coming. Citizen journalism and rise an independent media-led truth movement ensure it.  
 
Consider that with each passing year, more and more Americans are concluding that the official 9/11 narrative isn’t credible. When the 9/11 narrative collapses, it will bring down the entire web of lies and deceptions used to sustain more than 15 years of brutal conflicts. In the process, the full cast of enablers and perpetrators will be exposed. Even now, new witnesses are emerging from the rubble of US-led regime change wars bearing testimony to what they have seen and experienced. The light seeps in and the truth seeps out.  
 
Like Pogo, Major Parmeter, Mike Prysner, Jim Dore, Eva Bartlett and Paul Craig Roberts, and others, I have met the enemy and struggled with its delusions. Our victims have, of course known the identity and dark motives of the real terrorists for some time. Unlike us, they need no awakening. It is we who need to take a critical look at the enemy in the mirror. The only question at that point will be whether we will allow it to continue holding us captive.
 
© Futurescapes21C, 2017 All rights reserved.
 
Endnotes

1 War on terrorism, Global Policy Forum, https://www.globalpolicy.org/war-on-terrorism.html#a2011
 
2 ‘Peace’ president? How Obama came to bomb seven countries in six years, Independent, September 24, 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/peace-president-how-obama-came-to-bomb-seven-countries-in-six-years-9753131.html
 
3 Syrian wars have cost nearly $5 trillion (and counting): Report, Common Dreams, September 13, 2016. http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/13/post-911-wars-have-cost-nearly-5-trillion-and-counting-report
 
4 Body count report reveals at least 1.3 million lives lost to the US-led war on terror, Common Dreams, March 26, 2015.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/26/body-count-report-reveals-least-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror
 
5 Do the math: Global war on terror has killed 4 million Muslims or more, Mint Press News, August 3, 2015. http://www.mintpressnews.com/do-the-math-global-war-on-terror-has-killed-4-million-muslims-or-more/208225/
 
6 America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama’s reign, The Guardian, January 9, 2017.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
 
7 Anthem, Leonard Cohen lyrics. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardcohen/anthem.html
 
8 We are the empire: Of US military interventions, aliens disaster movies and “Star Wars”, Veterans Truth Network, July 14, 2016. http://veteranstruthnetwork.com/index.php/2016/07/14/we-are-the-empire-of-us-military-interventions-alien-disaster-movies-and-star-wars/
 
9 Mike Prysner testimony: The real terrorist was the real terrorism and this occupation, November 2, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uKt9orWlnQ
 
10 US Senator: “We have never done anything more loathsome that what we’re doing in Syria, Fort Russ, July 9, 2016.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/07/us-senator-we-have-never-done-anything.html
 
11 “The terrorists R us”: Hillary Clinton admits Clinton Foundation Donors Fund ISIS-Daesh. Global Research, October 29, 2016. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-terrorists-r-us-hillary-admits-clinton-foundation-donors-fund-isis-daesh/5553722 
 
12 President Obama offers hilarious reasons for why we are Syria, Jimmy Dore Show, YouTube, December 22, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiqwqP_iXsc
 
13 You’re being lied to on Syria/United States the real terrorists, Jimmy Dore Show, YouTube, December 16, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj7yzpeXWEw  
 
14 Smedley Butler quotes, Brainy Quotes https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/smedley_butler.html
 
15 Why ridiculous official propaganda still works, Counterpunch, January 13, 2017.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/13/why-ridiculous-official-propaganda-still-works/
 
16 The manipulation of the American mind – Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations, Phys.Org, July 9, 2015.
https://phys.org/news/2015-07-american-mindedward-bernays-birth.html
 
17 When will the US confront its role in fueling terror attack across the planet?, Alternet, January 4, 2017.
http://www.alternet.org/world/when-will-us-confront-its-role-fueling-terror-attacks-across-planet 
 
18 Inside the invisible government: War, propaganda, Clinton & Trump, John Pilger.com, October 27, 2016.
http://johnpilger.com/articles/inside-the-invisible-government-war-propaganda-clinton-trump
 
19 When will the US confront its role in fueling terror attack across the planet?, Alternet, January 4, 2017. http://www.alternet.org/world/when-will-us-confront-its-role-fueling-terror-attacks-across-planet 
 
20 We are the empire: Of US military interventions, aliens disaster movies and “Star Wars”, Veterans Truth Network, July 14, 2016. http://veteranstruthnetwork.com/index.php/2016/07/14/we-are-the-empire-of-us-military-interventions-alien-disaster-movies-and-star-wars/
 
21 Libya is a complete Western disaster finds a British parliamentary report, New Eastern Outlook, October 28, 2016.
http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/28/libya-is-a-complete-western-disaster-finds-a-british-parliamentary-report/ 

22 The rise of a ‘democratic fascism, Consortiumnews.com, March 2, 2015.
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/03/02/the-rise-of-a-democratic-fascism/
 
23 Libya, from Africa’s richest state under Gaddafi, to failed state under NATO intervention, Global Research, September 14, 2016.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-from-africas-richest-state-under-gaddafi-to-failed-state-after-nato-intervention/5408740  
 
24 Barack Obama says David Cameron allowed Libya to become a ‘sh** show’, Independent, March 10, 2016.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/barack-obama-says-david-cameron-allowed-libya-to-become-a-s-show-a6923976.html
 
25 The Eurasian Century is now unstoppable, New Eastern Outlook, October 4, 2016. http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/04/the-eurasian-century-is-now-unstoppable-2/
 
26 Donald Trump causing NATO ‘anxiety’ after saying alliance is ‘obsolete’. SkyNews, January 20,2017.http://news.sky.com/story/germany-donald-trump-causing-anxiety-in-nato-after-saying-alliance-obsolete-10730886    

27  Frexit: Le Pen promises to take France out of EU and NATO, RT, December 24, 2016. https://www.rt.com/news/371611-frexit-le-pen-promises-nato/    

28 Breaking: German opposition leader calls for collective security union with Russia, Dissolution of NATO. Global Research, January 20, 2017.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/breaking-german-opposition-leader-calls-for-security-union-with-russia-dissolution-of-nato/5569929   

OH CANADA, JUST WHO IS STANDING “ON GUARD FOR THEE”?

7/30/2018

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C, All rights reserved, Posted July 25, 2018, rev. July 28, 2018

​Treason: The betrayal of one’s own country by waging war against it or by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies. (Free On-line dictionary)

It’s one of those things that makes you think you may be caught in a bad dream. I’m talking about the unabashed betrayal of our country’s interests in our government’s decision to provide a safe haven in Canada for a number of the Al Qaeda-linked “White Helmets.” 

On July 22, 2018, Israel’s foreign minister, Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted: “Upon request of the US, Canada and European states Israel has completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization (“ White Helmets”) and families. They were evacuated from the war zone in Southern Syria to a neighbouring country.”

That same day, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, Chrystia Freeland tweeted: “The White Helmets are courageous volunteers and first responders who risk their lives to help their fellow Syrians. Our thanks to Israel, Jordan, US, UK, Germany and our other partners who have worked closely with Canada to make the evacuation of WH possible.”

The evidence suggests that this isn’t exactly the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Gordon Duff, writing in Veteran’s Today, ​says: “The White Helmets are a self-described rescue organization founded by former British Army officer James Le Mesurier in 2014, and officially tasked with saving civilian lives in militant-controlled areas of Syria. Damascus and Moscow accuse the group of being a propaganda arm for the Nusra Front terror group**, and have provided extensive evidence and witness testimony of the group’s propensity for staging fake attacks.” 

Independent journalist, Rick Sterling, writing in Consortium News back in October of 2016, had this to say about war propaganda. “The saturation of propaganda from massive investments by Western interests in NGOs like the ‘White Helmets’ has skewed the public’s understanding of foreign crises, such as Iraq in 2003 and Syria today.” Yes, war propaganda regarding the war in Syria has reached the saturation point. But the truth seeps out. 

Sterling’s assessment of the White Helmets was consistent with that of Gordon Duff.  “…(they) are not just some well-meaning Syrians who emerged to help all civilians suffering from the five years of war. Not only do they only operate in rebel-controlled areas, but they are a source of propaganda about the war, indeed their very existence is an element in the larger propaganda campaign to rally international support for a ‘regime change’ war in Syria. The White Helmets brand was conceived and directed by a New York-based marketing company named ‘The Syria Campaign’, which itself was “incubated” by a larger politically oriented marketing company called Purpose.” It’s not the first time we find a PR agency behind a regime-change campaign is it? Let’s not forget it was the PR agency, Hill and Knowlton, that coached a fake hospital volunteer to testify that Iraqi soldiers had taken Kuwaiti babies from their incubators leaving them to die on the cold floor of the hospital where she volunteered. It was just the kind of atrocity story the figurative doctor ordered in order to convince American citizens to support the first Iraq war. 

Even back in 2016, Sterling states that White Helmets’ claims about the Syrian military’s use of barrel bombs and chlorine gas attacks were suspect. In fact, he suggests it was likely that the WHs played a part in the staging of the chlorine gas attacks. Today, Syrian citizens are offering first hand testimony regarding false flag deceptions of this nature engineered by the White Helmets. (For a closer look at the shadowy forces behind the creation and operation of the WH’s, see Sterling’s “Seven Steps of Highly Effective Manipulators.“) Sterling’s article cites other individuals who have exposed the fake civilian rescue agency. Max Blumenthal wrote a two part series in Alternet (Oct 2 and 3, 2016) entitled: ‘How the White Helmets became International Heroes while Pushing US Intervention and Regime Change in Syria‘ and ‘Inside the Shadowy PR Firm that’s Lobbying for Regime Change in Syria‘.

UK journalist, Vanessa Beeley wrote about both the fake White Helmets civil defense agency  and the real Syrian Civil Defense Agency founded six decades ago. Beeley explains: “The real Syrian Civil Defense works on a shoestring budget with real volunteers without video teams accompanying and promoting them. Most in the West are unaware the real Syrian Civil Defense even exist. The situation is similar for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which is a genuinely neutral and independent relief organization…”  

Beeley’s May 21 2018 article in 21st Century Wire provides the assessments of some of those citizens who lived through the hell of the 6 year proxy war waged by Western regime changers and their Middle Eastern allies. Their opinions about the White Helmets are at complete odds with that of Canada’s Chrystia Freeland. Summing up her interviewees’ comments, Beeley writes:

“Some are shocking in their content, some are harrowing, all are condemnatory. If only a percentage of these testimonies were to be taken into account by the so-called International Community we should be seeing outrage and a demand for justice for civilians who were forced to witness and who were profoundly affected by the appalling atrocities they report as committed by the White Helmets in collaboration with the armed groups.” 

Beeley in turn cites the analysis of international criminal lawyer, Christopher Black regarding White Helmet criminality. Black  states: “the other actions of White Helmets –  (as testified to by Syrian civilians) –abuse, torture, kidnapping, murder of captured combatants and non-combatants are crimes under the ICC statute dealing with war-crimes and crimes against humanity, Articles 6 through 8.”

Independent Canadian journalist, Eva Bartlett also interviewed citizens in Eastern Ghouta following its nightmarish occupation by terrorist forces. She asked the locals if the White Helmets were helping them. One survivor, Toufik Zahra replied:

“The civil defence was only for the terrorist groups, only for them, for Jaysh al-Islam.” This was reiterated by Mahmoud Mahmoud al-Hammouri, working in a shop down the street, who said: “The White Helmets are called civil defence. They were supposedly for the civilians but they were the contrary, they were for Jaysh al-Islam.” 

Marwan Qreisheh described their brutal mode of operation.

“When the White Helmets wanted to go somewhere, terrorists used to go with them and open the roads for them. The moment they would arrive at a place where they wanted to fake an attack, they threw 10 smoke bombs, causing heavy smoke, you couldn’t see anything. They used to shoot people, and after the smoke cleared, they start filming. It was impossible to say a word because they would kill you, they would empty their gun on you immediately. 

If someone’s arm veins were cut, they would amputate immediately and stitch the wound, while filming. If someone’s leg was injured because of bullet, a piece of glass, or anything, their first treatment was amputation.”

Syria’s grand mufti has also expressed his opinion regarding the White Helmets and it couldn’t be farther from Minister Chrytia Freeland’s view. Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun contends: “These people are not refugees. They are war criminals.” Hassoun went on to describe the WHs are “terrorists” and blamed them for the use of chemical weapons against civilians.

These aren’t the only observers who have exposed the West’s beloved Al Qaeda affiliates for what they are. The alternative media has been trying to alert the public to the truth for some time. Clearly our PM and Minister Freeland are fully aware that they are importing alleged war criminals into our country. In June of 2017, the PM stated that Canadians expected their government to protect their communities and protect their freedoms. When did Canadians ever say we expected our government to offer safe haven to the PR assets of those engaged in brutal, foreign regime change wars? Honest Canadians who are able to penetrate the many deceptions they have been subjected to will have a hard time describing the White Helmets manoeuvre, being passed off  as a “humanitarian gesture,” as anything less than treasonous. So I have to ask, “When we sing those words in our national anthem, ‘we stand on guard for thee,’ who is it exactly that is standing on guard for Canada”? It’s pretty clear it isn’t our government. 
 
Endnotes
IDF evacuates Syrian ‘White Helmets’ civil defence members fearing for their lives to Jordan (Jewish Press, July 22, 2018)
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/global/idf-evacuates-syrian-civil-defense-members-fearing-for-their-lives-to-jordan/2018/07/22/

Trump bringing ISIS to America as “White Helmets” (Veteran’s Today, July 20, 2018)
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/07/20/trump-bringing-isis-to-america-as-white-helmets/

The White Helmets controversy (Strategic Culture, October 25, 2018)
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/10/25/the-white-helmets-controversy.html

How PR sold the war in the Gulf (PR Watch, Excerpted from Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Chapter 10.)
https://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html

Seven steps of highly effective manipulators (Dissident Voice, April 9, 2015)
​https://dissidentvoice.org/2015/04/seven-steps-of-highly-effective-manipulators/

The real Syria Civil Defence exposes NATO’s ‘White Helmets’ as terrorist linked imposters (Global Research, September 24, 2016)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-real-syria-civil-defence-exposes-natos-white-helmets-as-terrorist-linked-imposters/5547528

Eastern Ghouta: Syrian voices raised in condemnation of White Helmets (The Wall Will Fall, June 3, 2018)
https://thewallwillfall.org/2018/06/03/eastern-ghouta-syrian-voices-raised-in-condemnation-of-white-helmets/Syria war diary: 

Eva Bartlett speaks with Ghouta civilians about life under terrorist rule (SOTT, RT, June 3, 2018)
https://www.sott.net/article/387819-Syria-War-Diary-Eva-Bartlett-Speaks-With-Ghouta-Civilians-About-Life-Under-Terrorist-Rule

White Helmets must be tracked down and brought to justice for ‘war crimes’ – Syria’s grand mufti (SOTT, RT, July 23, 2018)
https://www.sott.net/article/391721-White-Helmets-must-be-tracked-down-brought-to-justice-for-war-crimes-Syrias-Grand-Mufti

NATO IS PSYCHO — A PRELIMINARY, UNOFFICIAL DIAGNOSIS
Posted December 4, 2018, revised Dec 5, 17, 2018
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C (c) 2018, All rights reserved

I see that NATO ministers of Foreign Affairs met in Brussels, Belgium from December 4-5, 2018. While NATO wasn’t the focus of the agenda, an earlier meeting in Brussels referenced NATO from a very different perspective. I’m referring to the 12th European-Russian Forum held in the European Parliament in Brussels on November 26, 2018. Gilbert Doctorow, a Brussels-based political analyst and author, reported on the forum. Doctorow says the forum, “brought sobering realism to bear on the questions of whether we are headed into war with Russia, whether it can be limited in destructiveness and regional in scope or will quickly escalate to the global level with nuclear exchanges, and appraising what kind of outcomes we may anticipate.”

​With the West’s relations with Russia at an historic low, and military tensions at a dangerous new high, it’s important to ask how we got here. What went wrong? Doctorow’s report was clear as to where forum speakers laid the blame.

“There was a near consensus of all speakers regarding who is to blame for the deterioration in Russia’s relations with the West ever since the halcyon days following signing of the Paris Charter in November 1990 that formally ended the Cold War. This deterioration has moved with particular speed over the past decade bringing us today to the lowest point in relations since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

We heard from speaker after speaker that the US was and is to blame, starting with NATO expansion to the East in the mid-1990s and running through the US-managed coup d’état in Kiev on 22 February 2014 that installed an aggressively anti-Russian government in Ukraine. That crossed all of Moscow’s red lines and precipitated the re-incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation the following month, leading in turn to the Western response we see to this day: sanctions, nonstop information war and exacerbation of conflicts in Europe and in the Middle East, where Russia and the West have been backing proxies that are in conflict.”(1) 

The record shows that NATO, the so-called “system of collective defence” (2), has been playing offence, violating the Gorbachev-Reagan agreement and poking the bear. But why? Patrick Armstrong, former analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia, attempts to psychoanalyze NATO. He concludes the alliance “demonstrates a dangerous level of ‘confirmation bias.'”  

He points out the brazen pro NATO New York Times propaganda and nature of NATO news speak. 

“Could there be a better illustration of the truth of Kennan’s percipience than this headline from the New York Times in July 2017: “Russia’s Military Drills Near NATO Border Raise Fears of Aggression“? The chutzpah of the headline is hard to swallow: Russia hasn’t moved anywhere. “The troops are conducting military maneuvers known as Zapad, Russian for ‘west,’ in Belarus, the Baltic Sea, western Russia and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.” Belarus is an ally of Russia, Russia has a Baltic coastline of more than 400 kilometres, Kaliningrad is part of Russia. So what exactly is the reason what Russia can’t do whatever military things it wants to at home? Imagine the reaction if Moscow dared question an American military exercise in the USA. But this reversal of truth is now the propagandistic norm.” (3)  
 
In a subsequent article, Armstrong takes his analysis a step further. After examining the scope of fanciful and conflicting pro NATO war rhetoric (propaganda) regarding Russia, he concludes members are suffering from something more serious than simply confirmation bias. He states:  “There is a striking schizophrenia among NATO’s members: Russia is, at one and the same time, so weak it’s “doomed” and so strong that it’s demolishing NATOLand.” (4)

Another Canadian, lawyer-author, Christopher Black, also examined NATO behaviour. In short order, Black calls out NATO “saviour of democracy” propaganda, its diabolically inverted mission and the psychopathy of the leaders of the nations behind it.
 
“The US and its NATO allies treat international law with contempt, use intense propaganda on their own peoples to brainwash them to support this criminality, and try to intimidate them with their ‘war on terror’ as they savaged civil liberties. Law means nothing to the psychopaths who rule these nations and whose slogan is ‘peace through strength’ or, to penetrate the euphemism, ‘peace through war.'”(5) 
 
I’ve also attempted to make sense of the inexplicable behaviour of the organization known to many of its critics as the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. It’s clear that one NATO propaganda tactic is psychological projection. It resembles that employed by antifa activists who are fond of aggressively  threatening any who oppose them and then branding their opponents as “haters” and “Nazis” among other things. It’s a style not unlike that of the playground bully who approaches and then repeatedly pushes the skinny kid wearing glasses while shouting “don’t touch me.” The bully then promptly leverages his own aggression by accusing the skinny kid of “hiting” him, thus justifying a beat down.
 
In a satirical essay on US foreign policy called Why can’t Sam learn?, I argued:
 
“… the NATO gang should be immediately broken up and each of its members given a similar assessment. Their aggressive behaviours and their enabling of (Uncle) Sam’s intimidation and bullying suggest that some of them may also suffering from a similar condition (psychopathology). To some extent however, they are also Sam’s victims. (Canada, is no exception.) (6) 
 
It’s sometimes said in management circles that the pathologies of organizations are the pathologies of their leadership. So we shouldn’t be surprised that NATO is demonstrating psychopathic behaviour. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist is a useful diagnostic tool. The checklist describes one of this condition’s essential characteristics as “selfish and unfeeling victimization of other people.” Substitute “foreign nations” for “other people” and it is descriptive of NATO. At a glance, 15 of the 20 traits on the checklist are further descriptive of NATO ethos and conduct. They are:

• glib and superficial charm (we’re your humanitarian rescuers bringing democracy)
• grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
• need for stimulation
• pathological lying
• cunning and manipulativeness
• lack of remorse or guilt
• shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
• callousness and lack of empathy
• parasitic lifestyle
• poor behavioral controls
• lack of realistic long-term goals
• impulsivity
• irresponsibility
• failure to accept responsibility for own actions
• criminal versatility (7)  

And in an essay entitled: Prayers for Canada’s Pogo Moment in 2017, I  argued that it was time for Canada to review its membership in NATO, considering the following questions: 
Which of our current NATO obligations predispose our acting, now or in the future, in ways at odds with Canadian values and our vision for the future?

In what ways has Canadian participation in foreign conflicts as a NATO member contributed to or exacerbated conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world?
 
In what ways has Canada as a NATO member with the backing of the military industrial complex, contributed to a more dangerous and less secure world? 
 
It what ways does our participation in NATO undercut our understanding of what is essential for the long-term global good and our desired contribution to it? (8) 
 
Do we need another reason to rethink our NATO commitment beyond that of its criminal pathology?. How about its incompetent management? The seventh anniversary of Gaddafi’s murder and a NATO-assisted regime change was October 20. If NATO practiced the most basic form of project management, it would have evaluated the Libya “democracy” intervention. The actual  result was that a prosperous and stable state was reduced to a chaotic and divided country with a depressed standard of living. I could add that some analysts also attribute the uncontrolled flood of North African migrants to Europe to the collapse of a strong central Libyan government. So the damage from that military escapade is still mounting.

​I have to conclude there was no honest evaluation of the Libya project and its rippling consequences. If there had been, it’s unlikely an intelligently-managed organization, supposedly dedicated to the good of humanity, would have plunged ahead with another disastrous regime change project in Syria (9). Again, the damage estimate associated with NAT0’s involvements in the Syrian war is still being tallied. So, from the an organizational management standpoint, NATO is an abject failure. I might add that in another world, one where international justice prevailed and NATO was accountable for its performance, NATO countries would be paying war reparations to both Libya and Syria to name just two recent victims of the alliance’s war crimes.   

Canada has other good reasons to re-evaluate its contributions to military spending and NATO in particular. This country spent $32 billion on military spending in the last year (10). Mark Taliano contends that this was “largely to bolster US imperialism abroad, to the detriment of humanity.” And Canada did this while running a deficit and lacking sufficient funds for infrastructure renewal, health care and other social programs. So here’s a modest suggestion. Why don’t we limit our “defence” expenditures to those items which are genuinely matters of Canada’s defence, tell the armaments industry lobbyists to take a hike and redirect precious resources to more peaceful and productive purposes. I promise you, it would generate a much “healthier” return than our current investment in the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. 

Note: Add the name of one more of us (Jan Oberg) who thinks NATO has a serious psychological problem.
https://transnational.live/2019/04/02/nato-at-70-an-unlawful-organisation-with-serious-psychological-problems/
 
References:
1. Experts and activists offer a sober evaluation of the risks of a major war between Russia and the West, Gilbert Doctorow, Anti-War Blog, Nov 30, 2018, https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2018/11/30/experts-and-activists-offer-a-sober-evaluation-of-the-risks-of-a-major-war-between-russia-and-the-west/

2. NATO, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO
​
3. Psychoanalyzing NATO, Patrick Armstrong, Strategic Culture, November 9, 2018, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/07/03/psychoanalysing-nato-projection.html
 
4. Psychoanalyzing NATO: Schizophrenia, Patrick Armstrong, Strategic Culture, December 15, 2018.https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/12/15/psychoanalysing-nato-schizophrenia.html

5. On capitalism and eternal war: NATO as “world government,” Christopher Black, Global Research, October 3, 2018,
https://www.globalresearch.ca/on-capitalism-and-eternal-war-nato-as-a-world-government/5656113

6. Why can’t Sam learn? Futurescapes21C, November 22, 2017, http://www.futurescapes21c.com/blog/why-cant-sam-learn

7. Encyclopedia of mental disorders forum, Hare’s psychopathy checklist, http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html

8. Prayers for Canada’s Pogo moment in 2017, Futurescapes21C, January 32, 2017, ​http://www.futurescapes21c.com/blog/prayers-for-canadas-pogo-moment-in-2017

9. Anniversary of Gaddaffi’s death and the current situation in Libya, Yuriy Zinin, New Eastern Outlook, October 18, 2018, 
journal-neo.org/2018/10/18/anniversary-of-gaddafi-s-death-and-the-current-situation-in-libya/https://

10. NATO economic straightjackets: Military spending drains public coffers, triggers collapse of social programs, Mark Taliano, Global Research, November 26, 2018. https://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-economic-straightjackets-military-spending-drains-public-coffers-triggers-collapse-of-social-programs/5660995?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles