I just read Pogue's 2022 Vanity Fair piece. Fascinating. Some of it seems already anachronistic--but your presentation of Vance's statements near the end is certainly prophetic:
"'I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left,' he (Vance) said. 'And turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification program, a de-woke-ification program.'
'I think Trump is going to run again in 2024,' he said. 'I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.' *. *. *. *. This is a description, essentially, of a coup."
Question: Since Trump has single-handedly created the biggest economic catastrophe since the Depression, still unfolding at the rate of 11m barrels a day, is there an opportunity to throw the switch on this and send them into oblivion?
Some amazing insights in this piece! I found several elements illuminating and very potent. Others came with surprise and the need to process more discerningly. The opening is pure gold with particular attention to conspiracies and conspiracy theories. The truly skilled manipulator has a grasp on both, unfortunately. Best distinction I have seen! Keep writing!
What better way to hide a child sex trafficking conspiracy, than to create a bonkers conspiracy theory about it and add blood libel, a common antisemitic trope, just for good measure.
In addition to Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money”, please read Peter Janney’s book “Mary’s Mosaic”. It seems Mike placed JFK’s photo at the top of this article for a reason. Janney’s book is extensively researched. His own father was a CIA agent at the time of JFK’s assassination. Three key points from his book:
- The CIA implemented “Operation Mockingbird” in the 1950’s which put prominent American journalists on the CIA payroll with the directive to only report positive news about the CIA. For example, Ben Bradlee, Katherine Graham and WaPo were intertwined with CIA’s Jim Angleton.
- In 1967 the CIA deliberately inserted a term into American culture - that a “conspiracy theorist” was a lunatic, a wacko, an extremist not to be believed, but rather to be shunned and shamed. Please consider how many times this term has been used to instantly dismiss anything a person may say - such as about JFK’s assassination? The social engineering has been deliberate and quite successful in making Americans ignorant.
- Brave attorneys who persisted over time successfully won court cases with unanimous jury verdicts - one against Howard Hunt for his role in the assassination of JFK, and later a verdict against the Memphis sheriff who assassinated MLK Jr. NEITHER one of these verdicts was reported by any major newspaper to the American public because of the success of Operation Mockingbird.
I have been saying for years, tongue-in-cheek, mostly to various acquaintances who fell prey to conspiracy thinking, that conspiracy theorists were invented by us, conspiracy practitioners, so that we could spend more time doing the real work. :)
In literature, the thin line between conspiracy thinking and conspiracy reality was best and most thoroughly explored by Umberto Ecco, one of my favorite writers, whom I can heartily recommend to your attention.
Excellent and important piece, one I’ve been waiting and hoping for you to write. I’m picking up my own pen to disseminate it and the Vanity Fair article in France (if I succeed of course). There is much bewilderment and misinformation here as to what’s happening in the US and how it came about. Thanks for the recent related spate of articles.
Mike, I think you’re giving them a little too much credit. Yes, Thiel is truly dangerous. But Vance is a political lightweight with zero charisma, Yarvin is an amateur with stupid ideas, and the other leading lights of this circus of unamericanism have various fatal flaws. They certainly need to be watched, though, because they’re up to no good.
Point taken! I felt this was too much mental energy to spend on them…but in retrospect, I realize you have plenty of energy and mental capacity to spare. You’re right in both respects—they warrant keeping an eye on and they’re failing.
Yes, I agree. I admire and appreciate your diligence and discipline. Prolific and profound seem like they should be inversely proportional, but your writing is both. And thanks for taking the time to explain things to little old me.
Jane Mayer’s Dark Money is scarier. The PACs controlling the elections are on the same page as the conspirators described here. Heading toward a second constitutional conference…
Thank you Mike, I will read Pogue’s piece later tonight.
Another brilliant newsletter that puts all of this manufactured chaos into perspective; and exactly what I thought was taking place with Project 2025 and an invisible hand guiding us into fascism—yet thought I must be losing my mind! Don’t forget, none of this works without SCOTUS.
They have been essential with the shadow docket and allowing Trump to dismantle our republic in real-time without ever ruling on the merits of these cases. Bravo!👏
Sadly, this does not sound far fetched. This administration is following the playbook. I am hoping that our democratic institutions can withstand Trumpism, if so, it will still leave much damage in its wake. Otherwise, why the picture of JFK?
I just read Pogue's 2022 Vanity Fair piece. Fascinating. Some of it seems already anachronistic--but your presentation of Vance's statements near the end is certainly prophetic:
"'I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left,' he (Vance) said. 'And turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification program, a de-woke-ification program.'
'I think Trump is going to run again in 2024,' he said. 'I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.' *. *. *. *. This is a description, essentially, of a coup."
There was also Jane Meyer’s Dark Money, another exposure of the main conspiracy.
The amazing part of the present moment is that the warmongers don’t even bother with a cover story. ‘We bomb because we could’
Question: Since Trump has single-handedly created the biggest economic catastrophe since the Depression, still unfolding at the rate of 11m barrels a day, is there an opportunity to throw the switch on this and send them into oblivion?
Some amazing insights in this piece! I found several elements illuminating and very potent. Others came with surprise and the need to process more discerningly. The opening is pure gold with particular attention to conspiracies and conspiracy theories. The truly skilled manipulator has a grasp on both, unfortunately. Best distinction I have seen! Keep writing!
Some things never change.
With you on everything except 9/11. The idea that it is the ONLY war entered into by the US that didn’t involve a FF strains the bounds of credulity.
What better way to hide a child sex trafficking conspiracy, than to create a bonkers conspiracy theory about it and add blood libel, a common antisemitic trope, just for good measure.
In addition to Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money”, please read Peter Janney’s book “Mary’s Mosaic”. It seems Mike placed JFK’s photo at the top of this article for a reason. Janney’s book is extensively researched. His own father was a CIA agent at the time of JFK’s assassination. Three key points from his book:
- The CIA implemented “Operation Mockingbird” in the 1950’s which put prominent American journalists on the CIA payroll with the directive to only report positive news about the CIA. For example, Ben Bradlee, Katherine Graham and WaPo were intertwined with CIA’s Jim Angleton.
- In 1967 the CIA deliberately inserted a term into American culture - that a “conspiracy theorist” was a lunatic, a wacko, an extremist not to be believed, but rather to be shunned and shamed. Please consider how many times this term has been used to instantly dismiss anything a person may say - such as about JFK’s assassination? The social engineering has been deliberate and quite successful in making Americans ignorant.
- Brave attorneys who persisted over time successfully won court cases with unanimous jury verdicts - one against Howard Hunt for his role in the assassination of JFK, and later a verdict against the Memphis sheriff who assassinated MLK Jr. NEITHER one of these verdicts was reported by any major newspaper to the American public because of the success of Operation Mockingbird.
Please read Janney’s book.
Wow. Nice work.
I have been saying for years, tongue-in-cheek, mostly to various acquaintances who fell prey to conspiracy thinking, that conspiracy theorists were invented by us, conspiracy practitioners, so that we could spend more time doing the real work. :)
In literature, the thin line between conspiracy thinking and conspiracy reality was best and most thoroughly explored by Umberto Ecco, one of my favorite writers, whom I can heartily recommend to your attention.
Excellent and important piece, one I’ve been waiting and hoping for you to write. I’m picking up my own pen to disseminate it and the Vanity Fair article in France (if I succeed of course). There is much bewilderment and misinformation here as to what’s happening in the US and how it came about. Thanks for the recent related spate of articles.
Mike, I think you’re giving them a little too much credit. Yes, Thiel is truly dangerous. But Vance is a political lightweight with zero charisma, Yarvin is an amateur with stupid ideas, and the other leading lights of this circus of unamericanism have various fatal flaws. They certainly need to be watched, though, because they’re up to no good.
Did I leave you with the impression that they're going to succeed? I have predicted quite the contrary in these pages.
Point taken! I felt this was too much mental energy to spend on them…but in retrospect, I realize you have plenty of energy and mental capacity to spare. You’re right in both respects—they warrant keeping an eye on and they’re failing.
It is a dastardly thing they are attempting. Intent is nine-tenths of the law, as they say.
Yes, I agree. I admire and appreciate your diligence and discipline. Prolific and profound seem like they should be inversely proportional, but your writing is both. And thanks for taking the time to explain things to little old me.
Jane Mayer’s Dark Money is scarier. The PACs controlling the elections are on the same page as the conspirators described here. Heading toward a second constitutional conference…
Thank you Mike, I will read Pogue’s piece later tonight.
Another brilliant newsletter that puts all of this manufactured chaos into perspective; and exactly what I thought was taking place with Project 2025 and an invisible hand guiding us into fascism—yet thought I must be losing my mind! Don’t forget, none of this works without SCOTUS.
They have been essential with the shadow docket and allowing Trump to dismantle our republic in real-time without ever ruling on the merits of these cases. Bravo!👏
Yes how quickly we forget
Sadly, this does not sound far fetched. This administration is following the playbook. I am hoping that our democratic institutions can withstand Trumpism, if so, it will still leave much damage in its wake. Otherwise, why the picture of JFK?