Do you ever get the feeling we're being pranked?

One of my favorite TV shows is the "Carbonaro Effect" (I live in a motel and they force me to have a TV -- that's the only reason I watch it, honest!). It's a hidden camera, magic TV show where the impish magician, Michael Carbonaro, pranks unsuspecting people with smoke, mirrors, and bullshit. It's fun to watch how ordinary people react when faced with situations that defy logic.

There comes a point when some of the smarter people, frustrated by the assault to their common sense, get this suspicious look on their face and start to look around for cameras. That's where I am right now.

Watching the TV news is like listening to Michael Carbonaro's bullshit explanations regarding the logic-defying event that just happened. There is some seriously Orwellian doublethink those guys are selling and I'm not buying. I don't know how or why the trick was performed but I know it's a trick. What do you do when faced with this situation? What should you do?

The NPC Meme (videos by Black Pigeon and Truth Cat)

[Note from Jody: Listen, I'm no Drumpf supporter. I don't consider myself to be on the right. I personally think the whole right/left paradigm is a trick designed to divide and conquer the people who are being robbed blind by the global elite. But I can recognize Orwell's sheep from "Animal Farm." You know, the ones who say, "Four legs good, two legs baaaaaad ..."]

American Anthrax (one of my old radio scripts)

(This was written over 10 years ago, but recent events make it seem relevant again ...)

Script/Transcript for program: American Anthrax

Exactly one week after September 11th, 2001, the first of what were to be several letters containing Anthrax were mailed out. They were sent to several news media offices and two Democratic Senators, and five people died as a result. Letters sent to the New York Post and NBC News contained these words:

09-11-01
THIS IS NEXT
TAKE PENACILIN NOW
DEATH TO AMERICA
DEATH TO ISRAEL
ALLAH IS GREAT

But we now know that the anthrax contained in these letters came from a US Army base. However, four years later, this crime remains unsolved.

Now, in recent news, it has been revealed that the US plans to buy large quantities of Anthrax. Newscientist.com reports that Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project, and organization committed to preventing the use of biological and chemical weapons, discovered contracts relating to the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, asking companies to tender production for huge quantities of a non-virulent strain of anthrax, and equipment to produce other bio-agents.

Alan Pearson, program director for biological and chemical weapons at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, D.C. says "It raises a serious question over how the US is going to demonstrate its compliance with obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention if it brings these tanks online. If one can grow the Sterne strain in these units, one could also grow the Ames strain, which is quite lethal."

I'm Jody Paulson, and I just thought you should know.

Conspiracy Guy: Qanon (JoyCamp Video)

Has Man Ever Set Foot on the Moon??

Hat tip: Nomadic Everyman

The Truth About Cultural Appropriation (Truth Cat video)

The Global Warming Pause Explained (Corbett video)

(Hat tip: Nomadic Everyman)

New Joy Camp Podcast!

These guys are really funny. If you're new to my website and haven't heard of them before, you should go to their youtube channel and check out their old stuff (they do lots of skits about conspiracy theories). Their last podcast was a couple years ago.

My favorite line from this one is "The ones that are calling themselves antifascists are fascists ..." around 30 minutes in.

We're Back!

17 Years of Pointless War in Afghanistan

Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan. Does anyone remember why the US invaded? I do. Less than a month before, America was attacked in a false flag operation that was blamed on Osama bin Laden (a CIA asset) and a group of mostly Saudi box-cutter wielding terrorists, many of whom were later shown to be alive. There wasn't a single Afghan named among the terrorists, but that didn't matter because George Bush said "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

So I thought at the time the whole point of the war was to get Osama bin Laden. Clearly now that's not the case. Osama bin Laden was pretty much "captured" and thrown into the sea, sight unseen, when you'd think that if he were really in charge of Al-quaeda they'd at least question his ass. But the fact of the matter is, Osama bin Laden was known to be on dialysis at the time of the September 11th attacks and the only people who were allowed to fly out of the country in the immediate aftermath of those attacks, again unquestioned, were the bin Laden family. One of whom just happened to have been meeting with the Bush Sr. and his Carlyle Group at the time.

10 Bush-Bin Laden Connections That Raised A Few Eyebrows

The Peter Principle in Politics

One of the most unique books I've ever encountered is the Peter Principle. As I remember it saying in the introduction, it kind of defied any specific category or genre. Was it humor or meant to be taken seriously? Was it about social science, business, self-help, or what? It was kind of all those things. What the Peter Principle says is this: People tend to rise to their own level of incompetence.

Which is basically true. Think about it. People get promoted until they don't deserve to get promoted anymore. So after a while, you can imagine what this means ... everyone in a promotional hierarchy becomes incompetent. Of course people retire and there's going to be some amount of turnover as people move away, get sick or die for some reson, but barring those things the natural tendency for any such organization is towards a growing level of incompetence.

I read this book as a child because I thought it was funny. There were cartoons in it and it attempted to explain "the big picture" of an organization with pithy formulas that a socially backward kid like me could appreciate.

Is that what happened to American politics? I don't think so because what's going on with those guys has more to do with criminality and corruption than honest-to-goodness incompetence. But in a way, criminality and corruption do represent some form of incompetence, don't they?

At any rate both theories present a good argument for term limits.

More Mandela Effect poll results

Yes, I've done more polling about the Mandela Effect on Twitter ... here are some of the more recent ones ...

#MandelaEffect #Poll #Polls #TwitterPoll
Did the Sun on Raisin Bran cereal ever wear sunglasses?

— Jody Paulson (@JodyPaulson) March 15, 2018

#Polls #Poll #Twitterpoll #MandelaEffect
Do you remember the "Home Alone" star as Macaulay

— Jody Paulson (@JodyPaulson) September 28, 2018

#Poll #Polls #TwitterPoll #MandelaEffect
What color are American "Yield" signs?

— Jody Paulson (@JodyPaulson) August 24, 2018

#MandelaEffect #Poll #Polls #TwitterPoll
For those of you who remember the 80's TV Show the A-Team, what was the nickname of the crazy guy?

— Jody Paulson (@JodyPaulson) May 30, 2018

#Poll #TwitterPoll #MandelaEffect #BruceSpringsteen
Do you remember the cover of "Born in the USA" having a red bandana in the the back pocket?

— Jody Paulson (@JodyPaulson) September 5, 2018

FYI, according to the Internet, the sun on the Raisin Bran package never had sunglasses. The actor's name is Macaulay Culkin. The American "Yield" sign has been red and white since 1972. The nickname of the crazy guy on the A-Team was "Howling Mad," never "Mad Dog." Bruce Springsteen's iconic cover featured a red baseball cap in his back pocket. BTW, does anyone else remember Mario from the video games having black hair? Because now it's brown, even though his mustache isn't. I guess I better start a new poll ...