Conspiracy Roundup

[nacho]

So, RC...I'm a little bit disappointed in you. Not only is today the day of the "Leap Second," but Venus and Jupiter are lining up. I thought you'd be in here with links to the millions of internet conspiracy holes saying that the apocalypse starts at 11:59:60 tonight!

[RottingCorpse]

I'm too busy tracking all the international trade deregulation laws that have ben passed while everyone has been freaking out over gay marriage.

[nacho]

Are you still fixated on criminal shit our government has been trying to sneak through Congress since 1970?

[RottingCorpse]

1870, Nacho.

[nacho]

Nobody wanted to trade with us in 1870.

The deregulation history starts in 1970 with the Brookings Institution. This gained momentum with Carter, when he deregulated the transportation industry (Nixon's brainchild, and directly resulting in the "trucker movie" boom). (This is why you often see the BI talking about the TPP -- big victory for them that they've been preaching since 1970. In fact, Obama is able to do this because of the TPA passed around then as well.)

Obama's TPP won't do any more damage than what's already been done in the last 20 years. Since Reaganomics, America has been a shallow lake. We've never fixed or even addressed the wound that was so ably shown to us in Roger & Me -- the ultimate warning of what's coming.

The secrecy and underhandedness surrounding the TPP is hardly surprising -- we've cheerfully elected and re-elected a man who's been running a secret machine war in the skies of half a dozen countries, after all. Why are we surprised that he's no good for us domestically? I mean, golly gee, Jethro.

[nacho]

Let me know when you start to realize that I'm an active proponent of the apocalypse.

[RottingCorpse]

"1870" was supposed to be a conspiracy joke. (Big Industry/Gilded Age in America kicks up, New York Gold Conspiracy, etc.)

I've only paid moderate attention to the TPP, mostly because the conspiracy press is freaking the fuck out over it. To me, it's just business as usual and likely coincidental that it went down while the Supreme Court was in session. (Though it's interesting timing, no?)

Politically, and this is just me, I think we're due for a Teddy Roosevelt style trust-busting overhaul that will reign in some of this shit. If nothing else, economic disparity will reach a violent tipping point and I think the oligarchy is smart enough to not let that happen. Also, I just think the political shift is moving that way. The problem of course is that the corruption is too ingrained (or integrated might be the better word) in the system at this point. It's like bone marrow cancer. There's no curing it.

Let me know when you start to realize that I'm an active proponent of the apocalypse.

I think it's coming too, but not for another thirty or so years. And it'll be water and food shortages that cause it not some goofy cosmic something or other.

[nacho]

You can't make history jokes without the Dance Hitler smiley! New rule!

[nacho]

A lightbulb that has been burning since 1901 (with only a few exceptions -- a week in the 30s, and a few hours here and there):

http://mentalfloss.com/article/66009/light-bulb-has-been-burning-114-years-will-it-ever-stop

I'm posting it in this thread because the Phoebus Cartel is mentioned and, though they broke up (allegedly) in the 30s, they are one fucking huge conspiracy wormhole. Ripe for RC's plucking! (Though, as the article notes, pop culture has already seized the world-dominating aspects of the Cartel's more nefarious acts.)

Oh, and here's the livecam:

http://www.centennialbulb.org/cam.htm

[RottingCorpse]

Jade Helm 15 is the Red Dawn reboot we should have gotten. WOLVERINES!!

I love every aspect of this story, but most especially the plan ritual kicking it off and third act Russian reveal. I'm actually jealous I didn't come up with this myself.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/jade-helm-15-begins-wednesday

Wake Up, Sheeple! The Military Exercise That Drove Texas Insane Is Finally Here

The multi-state U.S. military training exercise dubbed "Jade Helm 15," which has spawned myriad conspiracy theories and vexed public officials who struggled to allay the concerns of constituents, is finally here.

The "unconventional warfare" exercise is scheduled to begin Wednesday and run until Sept. 15. Training is planned for certain areas of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. California, Colorado and Nevada had originally been listed as areas where the training was to take place but have since been left out.

Conspiracy theory websites and InfoWars' Alex Jones suggested that the operation could be a cover for the implementation of martial law. One site even alleged that troops were converting shuttered Wal-Mart stores into covert military bases. But the paranoia surrounding "Jade Helm 15" really became headline news in May, after enough concerned Texans convinced Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to take action to protect their civil liberties. Abbott requested that the State Guard monitor the training exercise, asserting that the move was only meant to facilitate communication between the military and residents of the Lone Star state.

Outlandish theories about "Jade Helm 15" are likely to continue to proliferate in the coming weeks. As The Washington Post reported, the military has decided not to allow media to observe the exercise, which curtails efforts to better explain the training exercise to the public. In that information vacuum, a citizen surveillance group calling itself "Counter Jade Helm" has sprung up with plans to monitor the operation for any potential funny business.

Now that the start of the exercise is upon us, here is what fringe blogs say Americans can expect, from Russian interference in southern states to retaliation against Christian opponents of the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The "cremation of America"

Next News Network, a conspiracy theory website co-founded by Gary Franchi, the former chair of Rep. Ron Paul's (R-TX) super PAC, noted that the start of the "Jade Helm 15" exercise coincides with a Druidic cremation ceremony performed by a secret society of America's Republican elite.
The Bohemian Club, which has counted former Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan among its members, meets every year in early July at a Redwood grove in Monte Rio, California. There, the club performs a ritual known as the "Cremation of the Care" where members burn a coffin effigy in a show of forest-worship.

Next News Network stated in a YouTube video that July 15 not only marks the start of "Jade Helm 15," but also the cremation ritual. The outlet speculated that the ritual "actually represents the physical manifestation of the cremation of America."

Coordination with NATO

The same Next News Network "report" claimed that the military training exercise already began quietly in the form of a U.S. military exercise in Europe. The outlet called the exercise, which was carried out with other NATO allies, a "show of force on public display unlike anything we’ve seen since World War II." It also speculated that the training may be in preparation to attack Russia or China.

The military shot those theories down, however. But then again, of course they would. Spokeswoman Suzanne Nagel told The Las Vegas Review-Journal last week that "the reports from Next News Network are not accurate. There is no connection between the two exercises.”

An attempt to silence Christians

Right Wing Watch recently flagged a segment from an outlet called TruNews Christian radio in which host Rick Wiles said he believed that the government would go as far as deploying an "EMP" attack -- an electromagnetic pulse generated by the detonation of a nuclear weapon in orbit -- against states that resist the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
"Washington has no intentions of giving up any power to any state," Wiles said. "And certainly not to the common citizens."

"That may explain why Jade Helm 15 is taking place in the South and the Western states this summer, because they know that people are starting to rise up and saying ‘something’s got to happen,’" he added. "Either we take a stand, or it’s over. It’s finished.”

Helping Russia return southern states to Mexico

Casey Michel recently detailed in Politico Magazine how the Russian state propaganda machine gives support to and amplifies the message of that fringe of Texans who still want the state to secede from the United States. Conspiracy theory website All News Pipeline ran with that report to suggest that "Jade Helm 15" actually may be a cover to aid Russia in seizing southern states.
"Is JH15 about PREVENTING Russia from assisting 'secessionists' across America or is it more about HELPING the Russians return that land to Mexico?" the outlet wondered.

The Politico Magazine report also noted that the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament, Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov, warned this spring that Russia would "resume debate on the legal status of the territories annexed by the United States, which are now the U.S. states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming" if the U.S. ramped up its transfer of weapons to Ukraine.

"Is it JUST a coincidence that the states named by Abdurakhmanov line up almost PERFECTLY with the map above of JH15 as well as the map of the Atzlan [sic] territories that Mexico has demanded be returned to them?" All News Pipeline asked. "In fact, only Wyoming is missing."

[RottingCorpse]

Wow, I just fell hard down the "Alex Jones is Bill Hicks" rabbit hole.

[nacho]

Yeah...been around forever, though. I'm sure you saw this breakdown:

https://skeptoid.com/blog/2015/03/03/is-alex-jones-actually-bill-hicks/

[RottingCorpse]

I did find that breakdown.

I had never heard the rumor before today, but I avoid Jones despite my conspiratorial leanings. Creepy though.

[nacho]

We need new conspiracy theories! History channel had a three hour special on MH370 last night and it was like, jeez, Bigfoot's more interesting at this point.

[RottingCorpse]

The problem is that we live in this weird age of conspiracy *and* access to information at our fingertips, so we can hear about aliens controlling Kansas one minute and then debunk it five minutes later.