Wednesday, December 10, 2014

TORTURE REPORT BEGS THE QUESTION...


This roundup of most of the relevant findings in summary statement of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's use of (occasionally deadly) torture during so-called "enhanced interrogations" is required reading for every American, be they liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, or whatever other false dichotomies you can point a dead cat's tail at.

However, while reading this severely redacted, extremely curtailed summary of a severely redacted, extremely curtailed report, one should also keep in mind that it covers only a tiny sliver of the vile violence inflicted on often totally innocent people, saying nothing about crimes committed by other agencies, such as the various branches of the armed forces - not to mention their own, completely separate, military intelligence apparatuses - as well as the myriad "private security" firms like Blackwater that were operating in the regions without any kind of operational oversight whatsoever... with often disgusting results.

And so, the question is begged... at what point do we accept that some behavior goes beyond mere procedural overreach, beyond even the idea of profound psycho-sexual negativity manifesting itself via individual interrogators' twisted psyches, and strays perilously close to the same diabolical territory as, let's say, for instance... some kind of massive, federally sanctioned Satanic Black Mass super-ritual?

It's a question one should keep in mind as more and more of these revelations invade our collective consciousness over the next little while.

DDD SUGGESTED READING LIST ~ DEC 10, 2014

1. This article from Dangerous Minds might be the most frustrating thing I've come across today, because it's all about a "jaw-dropping" German documentary about the preeminent Luciferian/Thelemite experimental filmmaker/artist/writer of our age, Kenneth Anger. But the video that it sets up so beautifully - Kenneth Anger: Film as Magical Ritual - has been removed from Youtube, and I can't find it anywhere else, for the life of me. All I can find is this tiny excerpt:


Considering what the article has to say about this documentary, this inability to link to the film is proving frustrating in the extreme. So if any of you reading this know where I can see it, by all means contact me and let me know. I mean, if it serves as "as direct an explanation of Anger’s cinemagical modus operandi as I have ever heard him articulate anywhere", and is "a must see for anyone interested in his work and showcases the Magus of cinema at the very height of his artistic powers", then goddamnit, I wanna see it, and share it! Keep your eyes peeled for future updates.

2. While we're waiting for someone to dig up the Anger doc, why not spend some time learning about what Flavorwire considers to be the 50 Weirdest Movies Ever Made? Personally, I've seen 20, with most of the ones I've missed being from various Asian nations (Thailand, the Philippines), and some of them don't really deserve to be listed here. For instance, Zardoz, Crimewave and Boxing Helena are odd, no doubt... but among the weirdest films ever made? With such baffling offerings as Holy Motors, Amer, and Upstream Color not making the list, perhaps it is in need of a rethink. Anyway, if the films listed in Flavorwire's article aren't obscure enough for you, here's Games Radar's list of 50 Amazing Films You've Never Seen. I found a lot more strange pickings there, including a few I'd never even heard of before, much less seen. And I try to see a LOT. The lo-fi, super-hostile French anti-American 70's satire Mr. Freedom was a particularly odd revelation. You can watch the first part, below, and pick up the rest on Youtube.


3. And what better way to finish things off than by linking to an ass-load of Totally EVIL Paintings?! Many of the usual suspects - and a great many who were influenced by these usual suspects - are represented here, as there is a great focus on Lovecraftian, apocalyptic horrors. However, any such gallery that chooses to omit even a single piece by Thomas "Painter of Light" Kinkade is kind of missing the boat, if you ask me.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

DDD SUGGESTED READING LIST ~ DEC 9, 2014


1. According to this eye-popping article from the Independent UK, using "magic mushrooms" can change one's personality... for the better! The article states:
The study, at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore, found that a single dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, was enough to cause positive effects for up to a year. "Psilocybin can facilitate experiences that change how people perceive themselves and their environment," said Roland Griffiths, a study author and professor of psychiatry and behavioural science at Johns Hopkins. "That's unprecedented."
Users who had a "mystical experience" while taking the drug showed increases in a personality trait dubbed "openness", one of the five major traits used in psychology to describe human personality. Openness is associated with imagination, artistic appreciation, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness. None of the other four traits – extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness – was altered.
The study further shows that those who did NOT receive a beneficial boost of openness from ingesting shrooms didn't show any negative responses, either. Not a single "bad trip", and not a single negative result throughout the study. That's a damn sight better than most pharmaceutical tests, I can assure you.

2. If you're the kind of reader who enjoys a giggle or a titter to go along with your shivers, then look no further than artist Patrick Dean's ongoing blog series featuring Underwhelming Lovecraft Monsters! The example below is just a sketch pad scan. Most of the posts involved somewhat involved, multi-paneled stories that are sure to give great delight to even the most glancing of Lovecraft fans. Enjoy! And, by all means, Bookmark it as a favorite! When I put together that Daily Dirt Diaspora Ultimate Online Comics Page (coming soon), Underwhelming Lovecraft is sure to be a member strip!


3. Read this detailed overview of the Cicada 3301 online mystery that baffled the net's best code-breakers for the better part of a year. Then read this detailed overview of one group's collective attempts at solving that mystery. Then read this gripping account of Joel Eriksson, who "solved" Cicada 3301... but not really. Although I do appreciate his guesstimate about who might be behind the now annual hacker's delight puzzle game:
"It is most likely an underground organization, not related to any government or intelligence agency," he says. "Based on the references in their challenges—the Agrippa poem by William Gibson, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake, The Book of The Law by Aleister Crowley — and their constant references to prime numbers and the like, they are likely intellectual, anti-establishment, ideologically driven and they seem to be valuing logical/analytical thinking highly. They seem to share a lot of ideology with the cryptoanarchy movement, and old-school hackers."
Personally, although I find the references kind of interesting - and in hindsight, I would have easily guessed the answer to the first clue right away - "a book dictated to a beast?" Nigga please - the whole enterprise strikes me as a huge waste of time. But then again, what isn't these days? Still worth a read, that's for sure.

Monday, November 24, 2014

IS COAST TO COAST A.M. A "CULT" OF NATIONAL SECURITY TROLLS?

In this rigorous, definitive and ongoing survey of the guests who have appeared on the overnight AM radio ratings juggernaut Coast to Coast AM conducted by parapolitical researcher Joël van der Reijden, a rather convincing argument is made that...
...the CIA, NSA and Pentagon, whose leaders are all part of a civilian establishment, have created a complete "alternative" community consisting of news websites, forums, skeptical groups, radical activists and authors, as well as a vast stream of trolls in the form of forum, website and Youtube video posters that target anyone in favor of a sensitive conspiracy with a blitzkrieg of skepticism or extreme irrationality. The nexus in the "believers" category is Coast to Coast AM, followed by the closely-allied Alex Jones.
The entire WikiSpooks site is well worth bookmarking. I think that anyone interested in seeing honest scholarship and civilized discourse return to our money and ratings-hungry world of parapolitical investigation  should read this particular page in its entirety.

As the graphic reproduced bellow begins to illustrate, there exists a rather large nexus of well-connected power brokers who have a veritable army of "useful idiots", heartless shills, and willing dupes ready to help spread mis-and-disinformation in exchange for a purse full of silver... or, in some cases, nothing more than a paternalistic pat on the head. This alone is reason enough to be wary of anything you learn via the new so-called "counterestablishment" or "alternative" sources - what I call "conspiritainment" - which, their vociferous protests to the contrary notwithstanding, is where you'll find the woolliest "sheeple" of them all these days.


Monday, November 10, 2014

WTF?! IT'S A GODDAMN "EVIL STICK"!!!

Gee willickers, you guys! Do you sometimes feel like you've basically seen it all? Well, for all you's guys in the "Been There, Done That" brigades, check out this new Satanic toddler toy from... um... from China, I'm guessing, as it's a dollar store toy Dayton, Ohio.

At first glance, the so-called Evil Stick doesn't seem to be too strange. Just your typical magic wand (of the variety used in virtually ever O.T.O. lodge during their rituals...

 

But when you peel away the foil on the toy, hidden beneath is...


AAWWGGHH!!! What the bloody shitty fuck?!? Is that a demon-faced girl slicing into her arm with a butcher knife? On a kid's toy? Hidden behind the foil where nobody can see it without destroying the toy's functionality?!?

Somebodly please, stop me before I kill again!!!


Monday, October 27, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY: MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014

“If you put fresh cucumbers into a barrel of pickles, they will soon turn into pickles.”

- The new mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, uses a colorful metaphor to explain the gravity of the situation in post-revolutionary Ukraine.

Friday, October 24, 2014

TESLA CEO COMPARES A.I. TO "SUMMONING THE DEMON"




Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc, has a history of warning society about the potential dangers posed by research into artificial intelligence, once tweeting that AI could become "more dangerous than nuclear weapons." At today's Centennial Symposium at MIT, Musk expanded on his previous comments, stating:
If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence. Increasingly scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like yeah he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out.
These comments make me wonder whether Musk is just resorting to a popular metaphor - along the lines of calling AI a "Frankenstein's Monster" - or if he grasps the very real parallels between what today's cutting edge scientists are doing when they work towards creating AI, and what sorcerers, alchemists, and ceremonial magicians have always done when attempting to communicate with or conjure up the powerful dark and primal forces that have haunted our universe since before we were even a twinkle in God (or the Demiurge's) titanic, all-seeing eye.

Readers of sf master Alfred Bester's unjustly neglected novel Golem100 know what I'm talkin' 'bout. That's the cover art, above, btw.

PHYSICIST WORKING ON TIME MACHINE JUST MIGHT SUCCEED...

The more I read from and/or about Dr Ronald Mallett, the University of Connecticut physics professor who wrote the 2006 memoir Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality, the more that the man seems to me to emanate the kind of potentially world-historic, game-changing light that shines off so many other, ostensibly off-the-wall, world-historic, game-changing super-geniuses. People like Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Francis Crick, Buckminster Fuller , John C. Lilly, and Werner von Braun. 


If anyone else out there has any thoughts on Mallett or his work, please post it in the comments section, below.


Monday, October 13, 2014

THE BEST END OF THE WORLD MOVIE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE



With 1998's Last Night, Canadian director Don McKellar created a work of transcendent beauty and almost unbearably intense emotional poignancy. The end of the world has never felt so intimate, so possible, so viscerally present as it does in this film.

If you consider yourself an aficionado of apocalyptic cinema and you have yet to see this film, be prepared to make room in your personal Top Ten list. It's incredible to me that McKellar was still in his 30's when he directed this. 

The thing that he seems to get, and convey so eloquently, is that, in such a global endgame scenario, regret would loom just as large as dread, and that all our emotions - bad and good - will be heightened to an almost supernatural degree. 

Anyway, I've said too much already. Watch, experience, share. This film deserves to be seen by everyone... starting with you.


COURT CASE ACCIDENTALLY UNCOVERS DARK PENTAGON SECRETS

According to this Washington Post article, a probe and court case stemming from an illegal "insider" deal relating to the manufacture and sale of hundreds of on-spec automatic rifle silencers to a tiny Pentagon planning office is leading investigators down some very dark and spooky hallways. Consider:

The mysterious workings of a Pentagon office that oversees clandestine operations are unraveling in federal court, where a criminal investigation has exposed a secret weapons program entwined with allegations of a sweetheart contract, fake badges and trails of destroyed evidence.
Capping an investigation that began almost two years ago, separate trials are scheduled this month in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for a civilian Navy intelligence official and a hot-rod auto mechanic from California who prosecutors allege conspired to manufacture an untraceable batch of automatic-rifle silencers. 
The exact purpose of the silencers remains hazy, but court filings and pretrial testimony suggest they were part of a top-secret operation that would help arm guerrillas or commandos overseas. 
The silencers — 349 of them — were ordered by a little-known Navy intelligence office at the Pentagon known as the Directorate for Plans, Policy, Oversight and Integration, according to charging documents. The directorate is composed of fewer than 10 civilian employees, most of them retired military personnel.
To anyone with even a modicum of imagination, the potential implications of this accidentally uncovered secret weapons deal are staggering. A tiny Pentagon back-office (with upwards of ten employees) orders nearly half a thousand silencers for automatic rifles... why? For whom? The article implies, without much evidence, that these weapons might have been intended for use "overseas" by illegal (but American-supported) paramilitaries, or, as they're more commonly known by their victims, death squads. But why not consider the possibility that these "Made in America" munitions were meant for a far more... domestic purpose?

This story, of course, will require a great deal more research and thought. For instance, what's the deal with this Directorate for Plans, Policy, Oversight and Integration? What is its history? Who has been involved with it? I'll be keeping an eye on this story as it develops, as will the participants at the Rigorous Intuition message board (the thread about this particular case can be found here).

You can learn more at the topmost link, obviously.

FOLLOWUP RE: KSM INTERROGATOR'S MURDER IN FLA

More information has begun trickling out about the final weeks and months in the life of Navy intelligence commander Alphonso Doss, the man whose tortures extracted Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession re: masterminding the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. You will recall that I first reported on his murder in February of this year in an October 12 posting on this very blog.

Over the last couple of days, more information has come to light, and is being shared by the community of participants at the discussion board for Jeff Wells' (sadly dormant) Rigorous Intuition website, which is where I first learned of this story before reporting on it. For instance, on top of his marital woes (his wife of 22 years was divorcing him), sources have now revealed that Doss was suffering from substance abuse issues... perhaps not surprising considering the time he spent in Central America and the Caribbean working on (ahem) "anti-drug" ops in the field.

Keep watching this space - and the Rigorous Intuition thread - for more information.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED'S INTERROGATOR MURDERED IN FLA HOTEL


Mainstream media sources were curiously, suspiciously silent about the news that Navy Commander Alphonso Mortimer Doss - the man who waterboarded al-Qaeda operative and alleged 9/11 "mastermind" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed upwards of two hundred times, among other tortures - was murdered in a Florida hotel room this past February. For instance, there is no mention of Doss's eminently noteworthy career highlights in this Florida Times-Union report on his murder, which instead focuses on the details of how his estranged wife and two others conspired to murder him for, allegedly, a million dollars in insurance money.

Indeed, one must dig deep to find information about Doss's exploits. For instance, in this Economic Policy Journal article, which reports in part:
In 2006 Doss was ordered by the Deputy Secretary of the Navy to assist in conducting the Annual Review Boards for suspected enemy-combatants held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
There, Doss’ team was charged with interviewing detainees and conducting boards to determine if the detainee in question should be released, transferred to another facility or be recommended for continued detention at Guantanamo Bay.
It was during this tour that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted to Doss’ team that he was one of the masterminds behind 9/11.
The same article, using military and military journalistic sources, details how, earlier in his career, Doss was stationed in the Caribbean and Central America as part of a military operation targeting the narcotics trade, "completing two secret counter-drug missions" while "stationed onboard USS Connolly (1997/1998)".

Because we all know how much the American military just loves to say no to drugs, right?

A CHRONICLE OF ONE MAN'S AWAKENING

This is an interesting video documenting one man's awakening re: the terrorist attacks of 9/11 not being entirely what the mainstream media and Powers That Be would like us to believe. If you're a regular reader of Conspiracy Culture or Useless Eater Blog, nothing here will be new to you, except maybe for the admirable attitude of the narrator, who has some wise words for all Truth Seekers towards the end of this video.


Saturday, October 11, 2014

ADAM CURTIS IS BLOGGING AGAIN

BBC documentarian Adam Curtis is, in this blogger's opinion, one of the most important public intellectuals of the first half of the 21st century. The fact that he is blogging again is cause for rejoicing, and perhaps evidence that he's hard at work on yet another amazing extended philosophical examination of one of the core problems that lurk at the heart of these dangerous, Apocalyptic times.

Bookmark his blog page, and expect a full rundown of his amazing career and works, which I will publish both here and at my "house blog", the Daily Dirt Diaspora, (see link at right) in coming months.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

WHO NEEDS HELL? WE ALREADY HAVE AFRICA

War, AIDS, poverty, ebola, and...
...the people it targets have reportedly committed: mass rape (of men and women, by rebels and government soldiers) often in front of communities and families, or forcing people to rape each other, as a weapon of war; inventive torture (forcing men to copulate with holes in the ground lined with razor blades, forcing women to eat excrement or flesh of relatives); casual and varied forms of murder (including firing weapons up women's vaginas); use of child soldiers; and ethnic cleansing.
It's almost as though The Powers That Be are engaged in some sort of generation-spanning, continent-wide genocidal clearing away of the planet's most resource rich real estate or something. Of course, you'd have to be absolutely bonkers to believe anything so... so... downright conspiratorial as that.

Anyhoo, you can read the rest of this particular collection of atrocities, here. Not that it'll help, or anything.

Friday, September 19, 2014

RIVAL SATANIC CHURCHES DUKE IT OUT IN DETROIT!


In a development reminiscent of the feud between the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea in Monty Python's classic satire The Life of Brian, two rival "Satanic" churches laying claim to the post-Apocalyptic necropolis of Detroit - the Satanic Temple and the Temples of Satan - are engaged in a public hissy fit over a number of doctrinal controversies. In particular, representatives for the Temples of Satan contend that the Satanic Temple are just a bunch of atheistic poseurs who have unfairly co-opted the bad-ass iconography that most of the world at large rightly associates with their Main Man, the Great Deceiver Himself, SATAN!
"They are not Satanists," Cindy Fleming of the Oxford, Mich.-based Temples of Satan told the Free Press regarding the Satanic Temple. "If they want to speak on behalf of a political agenda, they need to do it as the atheists they are. They do not need to use a religion. They don’t believe in anything, any religion — so why are they using a religion to do it? That is hypocritical, it’s an oxymoron and it’s not even credible."
In other Satanic news, the Orlando Weekly reports that "the Satanic Temple announced it will distribute literature in Florida public schools in response to the school board's decision to allow Evangelical materials to be distributed on school grounds."

Of course, there's no way of knowing which of these "churches" the Devil prefers... but it's pretty clear which of them is Number One as far as getting their "bad works" written about in the mainstream media.

A NEW AND MORE ACCURATE VISUALIZATION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Apparently, the way in which we modern day folk visualize the Solar System is all ass-backwards. At least, according to this here website...

While [it] isn’t entirely wrong, it’s omitting one very important fact. The sun isn’t stationary. The sun is actually travelling at extremely fast speeds, upward of 828,000 km/hr, or 514,000 miles an hour.
Our whole Solar System is orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy. In fact it takes 220-Million Years for the Sun to orbit our Galaxy.
Knowing this to be true, our visual model of the Solar System needs to change, and has been inaccurate this whole time. In fact, our planets are barreling through space with the sun, and literally creating a giant Cosmic DNA Helix, and a vortex similar to our Milky Way Galaxy.
Check out this groovy video for a peek at what's really going down in the Great Big Nothing.



Monday, September 15, 2014

CONNECTICUT HIGH SCHOOL DEATH COVEN EXPOSED?

Have you heard the story about the Connecticut couple who are alleging that a "death-obsessed martyrdom cult" fronted by a foursome of high school teachers snared two of their three daughters in its dastardly clutches before they realized something sinister was up?

According to the Daily Mail:
A couple have claimed that their three daughters were indoctrinated into a religious cult by their school teachers leaving them with suicidal thoughts and alienated from their loving family, according to a new lawsuit. 
The couple, from Avon, Connecticut, filed the civil lawsuit in federal court on Monday against the Avon school district, three teachers and a guidance counselor at Avon High School and Wellesley College in Massachusetts. 
The parents alleged that their older daughters, now aged 22 and 19, became 'reclusive, secretive and distant' after they began taking Spanish classes at Avon High. 
The named defendants are Connecticut residents Tanya Mastoloni (also known as Tanya Romero), Rebecca Kessler; Laura Sullivan and California resident Christopher Esposito.
You know, it pains me to send eyeballs their way, but after hours of fruitless searching, it turns out the Daily Mail rundown of this perplexing case is the most complete and thorough coverage that I have so far been able to find. I urge you to read the entire story. It's really quite fascinating, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

In fact, I am so personally intrigued that I will be making my own inquiries in the coming days, and reporting on the results in this very blog. So keep your eyes peeled!

VIDEO DISCUSSION: PROBLEMS WITH THE CONSPIRACIST WORLDVIEW

From ZapOracle comes an online video that is well worth watching, no matter what side of the paracultural divide you currently find yourself living in. He explains...
The conspiratist world view—the belief that a unified cabal of elitists is manipulating world events, mind controlling the population,that the main stream media is nothing but lies and that we already live in a police state and a New World Order, etc. has become ubiquitous in global culture. It is the premise of so many Facebook posts, viral memes, websites, radio shows and movies. It transcends red and blue and is as likely to be heard amongst the far right and the far left. It is a perspective widely held in Europe, Central and South America, the Arab world, Australia, New Zealand and almost any place you can think of. Typically, the purveyors of this point of view think they are daring revolutionaries waking up the sheeple, etc. and don’t seem to notice that they are actually just one more of a vast and growing multitude who hold this perspective. Many of these people are close friends of mine. My challenge to them is to listen to this talk and consider whether this worldview actually represents an awakening rather than a distorted perspective riddled with problematic assumptions and reality testing issues.
Here's the video. I urge you to watch the whole thing and really try to engage with the concepts brought up therein.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

MIND CONTROL BRAIN TORTURE SCI-FI SCIENCE BREAKTHROUGH!

Intriguing and somewhat troubling news has emerged from the world of mind control science. According to this report in Mother Jones...
In experiments on mice, scientists rewired the circuits of the brain and changed the animals' bad memories into good ones. The rewriting of the memory wasn't done with drugs but by using light to control the activity of brain cells. While science is a long way from achieving a similar feat in people, it adds to a body of research that is starting to uncover the physiological basis of memory.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering about the most obvious question that the above seems to raise, the answer is...
The researchers said they were able to do the opposite as well—change a pleasurable memory in mice into one associated with fear.
Room 101, here we come, friends.