#Anti-FBI TV Series

[gwydionmisha]

Please contact your senators and ask them to reject dangerous and unqualified cabinet picks. There is still a chance to stop RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel.

Usually they just log for or against. If they want a reason, I've listed some below. Use reason for Democrats. For Republicans: national security, law and order, etc..

If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

"Congress. gov:" https://www.congress.gov/

ACLU advice for writing to your Critters: https://www.aclu.org/writing-your-elected-representatives

[idkwhathatmeans]

why is the take-home message from the Bones JFK episode like,,,, "yes there was a second shooter. BUT. more importantly. its okay to be susceptible to propaganda <3 booth is wrong and intentionally hiding from the truth and that’s valid somehow <3". idek what to make of that !

[saywhat-politics]

Last year, Kash Patel, the MAGA provocateur whom Donald Trump has nominated to head the FBI, received $25,000 from a Russia-linked production company to participate in a documentary in which he assailed the FBI and called for closing its headquarters.

In November, Tucker Carlson’s online network released a six-part series called All the President’s Men: The Conspiracy Against Trump that purported to chronicle the familiar MAGA conspiracy theory that a Deep State plotted against Donald Trump while he was a presidential candidate in 2016 and when he was president. The fourth episode focused on Patel and his years-long crusade to depict the Trump-Russia scandal—Moscow’s attack on the 2016 election and Donald Trump’s efforts to cover up its existence—as nothing but a total hoax orchestrated by nefarious Democrats and rogue government operatives.

In this film—which credits Patel as an executive producer—he offers a blistering attack on the FBI. He calls it a “corrupt” enterprise and claims it has been on the Democratic Party’s “payroll.” He says, “I’m the guy that’s going to tell you they need major reforms. I’m going to tell you to shut down the FBI headquarters building and open it up as a museum of the Deep State the next day. Seriously, you need 50 guys in Washington running the FBI.” He pushes the false claim that the FBI launched its Russia investigation in 2016 on the basis of the infamous and unconfirmed Steele memos. And he insists that the FBI and the rest of the US intelligence community that investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election “knew it didn’t exist.” He also asserts that “globalists” have been working with Al Qaeda to make a profit.

[envysparkler]

who in the world is Neal Caffrey??? i see him in so many Batman fics but I genuinely don’t understand who he is 😭

Neal Caffrey is the main character in the TV series White Collar, which is about a con-artist turned consultant for the white collar crime division of the FBI. Much of the show is about Neal solving white collar crimes (usually by deliberately getting himself into situations where the bad guy tries to kill him), trying to get his GPS tracker anklet off (he's technically on a work-release from prison), and having a weird pseudo-dad/son relationship with his FBI handler and the only guy who's ever caught him (Peter Burke, the other main character).

This is probably the most accurate representation of Neal Caffrey:

(It's also a pretty accurate description of the batkids. You can see the connection.)

He's charming, anti-gun and anti-violence, and the only person who can really rein in his chaos is Peter, who Neal dislikes disappointing. You can see some more parallels to the batkids. Also, Neal's past is a mystery--Neal is probably not his real name and the show leaves plenty of space for you to throw out everything Neal has ever revealed about himself, since he is a very good liar. (Purportedly Peter is the only person he's never lied to, but I haven't done an in-depth rewatch of the series to see if I can catch him in an outright lie to Peter.)

This is a pretty good sense of the general dynamic:

It's a very fun show and I'd absolutely recommend it. However, I think there are some fundamental differences in character between Neal and any of the batkids (Neal's nonviolent stance, his problem-solving method being impulsive chaos and not meticulous planning, etc.) that I just can't get behind the 'Batkid as Neal Caffrey' trope.

[cyberpunkonline]

The Intriguing Intersection of Grand UFO Conspiracies and Cyberpunk Media

Introduction

As subcultures with countercultural leanings and an insatiable thirst for what lies beyond the known, the grand UFO conspiracy theories and the cyberpunk genre share an intriguing relationship. Both captivate their audiences with tales of hidden agendas, shadowy organizations, and elusive truths. This essay aims to dig deep into the interplay between these two fascinating realms by discussing notable examples across various media forms such as films, television series, books, and anime.

The Allure of Conspiracies and Dystopia

Before diving into specific examples, it's crucial to understand the appeal that draws people towards conspiracy theories and cyberpunk. UFO conspiracy theories paint a picture of a world where clandestine operations are at play, knowledge is withheld, and the public is deceived. Cyberpunk, on the other hand, portrays near-future dystopias with grim landscapes, where technological advancements often come at the expense of human connection and morality. These themes overlap, creating a narrative breeding ground ripe for cross-over stories and theories.

Films that Blur the Lines

"Blade Runner" & Project Blue Book

Although Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" doesn't directly delve into UFOs, it plays on the idea of life beyond Earth with its bioengineered beings, known as Replicants. The film's hidden agendas and secret projects remind us of real-world government initiatives like Project Blue Book, designed to investigate UFO sightings.

"The Matrix" & The Men in Black

"The Matrix" captures the essence of hidden truths and the battle to reveal them, much like the general sentiment in UFO conspiracy circles about 'The Men in Black.' These government agents are rumored to suppress UFO eyewitnesses, an idea that resonates with the Matrix's human-suppressing sentient machines.

TV Shows that Touch the Nerve

"The X-Files"

No discussion of this topic would be complete without mentioning "The X-Files," a show that masterfully combines elements of UFO conspiracy theories and cyberpunk. FBI agents Mulder and Scully navigate a world of deceit, much like a cyberpunk protagonist would, questioning what is real in their quest for the truth about extraterrestrial life.

"Black Mirror" & The Majestic 12

"Black Mirror" delves deep into technology's dark side, but some episodes subtly touch upon themes that UFO enthusiasts would find interesting. The secrecy surrounding advanced technology in the show mirrors the conspiracy theory of the Majestic 12, a rumored secret committee of scientists and military leaders supposedly managing extraterrestrial affairs.

Books and Literature

"Neuromancer" & The Roswell Incident

William Gibson's "Neuromancer" isn't about UFOs, but it was revolutionary in defining the cyberpunk genre. It embodies the cyberpunk ethos of anti-authoritarianism, a sentiment also shared by those who believe that the Roswell Incident was a cover-up.

Anime Crossovers

"Serial Experiments Lain"

This anime explores complex themes of reality, identity, and the internet. While not explicitly related to UFOs, its narrative could easily be interpreted as an allegory for the quest to understand what governments might be hiding about extraterrestrial life.

"Cowboy Bebop"

An iconic example of a cyberpunk-infused world, "Cowboy Bebop" includes an episode titled "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui," which subtly incorporates themes of ancient alien theories, a staple in UFO conspiracy thought.

Conclusion

The overlapping themes of hidden truths, anti-authoritarian tendencies, and unexplained phenomena make the relationship between UFO conspiracy theories and the cyberpunk genre a particularly rich subject matter. Both tap into the human desire to uncover suppressed knowledge and challenge the status quo, whether it's government cover-ups about extraterrestrials or dystopian futures shaped by technology.

And now, don't get us started on how the UFO conspiracy theories have surprising similarities with Faerie myth pre-Roswell. That's a rabbit hole for another time.

- Raz

[spacemagicandlaserswords]

The Clone Wars 5.17 ‘Sabotage' Reaction

aka FORESHADOWING KLAXON

There is so much foreshadowing in this episode. The entire thing is basically just foreshadowing. You could just hold down the foreshadowing klaxon for 20 minutes and it’d do the same thing. There are so many lines in this episode that need a foreshadowing klaxon played after them. In fact, if I did that, my imaginary foreshadowing klaxon would probably be broken from over use by the end of the episode. I’m probably going to need a foreshadowing gong as well. 

Cato Nemoidia?! Isn’t that where Obi-Wan jokingly told Cody that Cody had let him down in Revenge of the Sith? (How dare, Cody would never) What happened on Cato Nemoidia? I must know. Is this another thing that’s going to be like what happened in Budapest? 

Hello to Barriss, who oh so conveniently appears in the background when Anakin first goes to question Leeta. Fancy seeing you here Barriss! I wonder what you could possibly be doing suddenly appearing lurking in the background after being completely forgotten for 74 episodes.

Why are the temple workers Russian?

I always thought Ahsoka was framed for the bombing of the Jedi temple but it turns out that’s not the case. I’m guessing she gets framed for killing Leeta; who fed the nano-droids to Jackar (her husband) and then blew him up in the Jedi temple hanger. 

Jackar’s last name is Bowmani, which isn’t that far removed from sounding like ‘bomb’. It’s even got most of the letters from the word as well, all it’s missing is the second ‘b’. It’s not on the same level as General Ima-Gun Di but it’s also not subtle.

In the same vein, I realised that Saw Gerrera sounds awfully similar to Che Guevara. A rebel in a jungle? Wow, I wonder who that could’ve been inspired by. They even have the same number of letters in their first and last names. I know this is an “animated kids tv show” but that is not subtle either. 

On the other side of the whole “animated kids tv show” thing, there is a lot of depth in this episode. I think this is one of those episodes that I’m going to have to come back to and write a much longer analysis about. That theme about the underpayment of workers for a large organisation was fairly clear. As was the other theme about public perception and anti-war sentiments, especially the anti-Jedi public opinion, which I’m sure is being orchestrated by Palps in the background. Curious that the anti-war/Jedi protestors used a symbol of the clones' helmets crossed out to convey their point of view, rather than an image of the Jedi that they’re protesting against. Though I suppose the clone's helmets are a more recognisable, closely associated, and repeatable symbol of the war than some random Jedi or a lightsaber. 

Hello to whatever monitoring thing is picking up my recaps of these episodes. With the amount of times I have to include the word ‘bomb’ in these, I’m sure it’s flagging something. To the nice CIA/FBI/NSA/<insert government agency acronym of your choice here> agent who has to read all of my ramblings, I hope you’re not too bored, are comfy and have some tea or coffee and some snacks. If it isn’t already painfully clear, I’m rambling on about Star Wars and The Clone Wars tv series. May the Force be with you and all that.

Not much else to say about this episode. I’ve already rambled on about it for too long. I’m so nervous about watching the rest that I feel all shaky and jittery. I know what happens in the end and it is all just awful. Dammit, why is TCW just full of pain?   

[erstwhilesparrow]

any book or tv show recommendations mayhaps?

oh! hello! (had a second of "WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU FIND ME" and then i checked your blog and was like, "ah, okay, never mind, you are entirely aware i am in the midst of being really pretentious about mcyt right now." welcome!)

under a cut for I Talk A Lot crimes:

hm. okay, tv shows first because i know that'll be short:

NBC's Hannibal (2013) - Huge massive content warning for cannibalism and gore but also the prettiest murders you've ever seen. Feels weird recommending this one because it feels so widely known, but I do love it and I don't watch a lot of other TV. Borrowed from Wikipedia: "FBI profiler Will Graham is recruited by Jack Crawford, [...] to help investigate a serial killer in Minnesota. With the investigation weighing heavily on Graham, Crawford decides to have him supervised by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter." Things only get worse for him from there.

Mars Red - Deeply cerebral anime about vampires. Full of theatre references, musings on life and time and death and what it means to sit on the edge / outside that as a vampire. Very very pretty. Plot-wise, it's about a group of not-particularly-connected vampires in 1920s Japan who've been recruited to a special military unit working to protect humans from other vampires.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - It's free on YouTube both dubbed and subbed. So much is happening. I am nowhere near done unravelling it and I may well be casting longing glances toward the project of unravelling it for the rest of my life. Utena Tenjou is a student at Ohtori Academy with dreams of being a prince straight out of a fairytale. She is drawn into a mysterious duelling tournament with Ohtori Academy's Student Council for the hand of the Rose Bride.

books:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Utterly enchanting. A man called Piranesi wanders the House, a functionally infinite building so enormous its upper levels are filled with clouds and its lower levels are flooded and have tides. There is a plot, but most of my love of this book comes from how we as readers get to explore and luxuriate in the House alongside Piranesi. I've seen this called 'anti-horror' because it takes a premise that would be really easy to do as horror (forever lost in an enormous impossible structure with almost no human contact) and makes it something looked with wonder and joy.

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi - Fun! Funny? Playful for sure. Almost a fairy tale. It feels distinctly like sometimes the narrator is winking at you. A woman from a country that doesn't seem to exist on any map attempts to tell her daughter about where she came from, and about their family's history with gingerbread.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - A fairly significant part of the reason for my obsession with architectural / spatial horror. What if the thing that made a house haunted was not any particular ghost, but simply that something had gone wrong in the house itself? Eleanor Vance is invited to stay at the eponymous house while it is being investigated for supernatural occurrences, and attempts to navigate connecting with the other inhabitants of the house and escaping from the demands of caring for her mother.

My Own Devices by Dessa - I love Dessa's writing in whatever form it takes. I've seen plenty of writing described as 'sharp' or 'smart' but Dessa's one of the few people for whom I feel this is truly an apt description of her work. Her writing sounds like she talks fast, is terrifically smart, and knows what she's doing, and most terrifying of all, I think that impression is right. This is a series of essays, or it is, as the subtitle suggests, "True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love". It's delicious to read.

How A Poem Moves by Adam Sol - I love poetry; I am so bad at reading and talking about it. This is a way into reading / talking about poetry better! It's a series of mini-essays by a professor at the University of Toronto who teaches poetry! He takes a fairly varied collection of contemporary poems and talks about a few things that each poem does particularly well. It's designed to be accessible and even inviting to people who do not read much poetry. For a taste of his work, his blog here.

When Fox Is A Thousand by Larissa Lai - A retelling of a Chinese folktale. A fox spirit haunts a young woman living in (roughly) contemporary Vancouver and a poet of the T’ang Dynasty. I remember reading this, going, "Oh, that was Good," and never figuring out how to say why.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt - Six deeply isolated classics students at a liberal arts college in New England murder one of their friends. Apparently a pretty big part of popularizing dark academia. I think it would be fair to describe this as gripping / compelling / convincing. I can't quite figure out what else to say, though I loved it while I was reading it.

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden - Graphic novel. Makes me ache in a way that reminds me of summer. I described it to a friend once as "full of that feeling of having to do something very frightening, and being reassured by the thought that you will be able to return to people you love for hugs and snacks afterward." A young woman named Mia joins the crew of a ship in charge of restoring ruins in outer space, while also searching for the girl she fell in love with years ago at boarding school. Available online free here, though physical copies do exist and can be bought.

[fic-history]

90's Fic Fandoms: The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This post, we’re exploring the advent of online fandom in the 90’s! 

Without further ado,

The X-Files

First premiering in 1993, The X-Files was in a league of its own in the television sphere as it was both a supernatural thriller and a will-they-won’t-they investigative procedural. Well, it was mostly a won’t they since show creator Chris Carter himself was very anti Scully/Mulder (NoRomo). Speaking of the main pairing in the show, The X-Philes (X-Files fans) invented the term “shipping” to describe their support for Scully/Mulder, or any relationship pairing in the show. Thus, the term was shortened to “ship” both as a verb to describe the act of shipping and as a noun to describe a particular romantic pairing. As anyone who is vaguely familiar with fandom culture is aware, the “ship” family of terms is now used across fandom.

Digital fan activity surrounding The X-Files began primarily on Usenet, with two major mailing lists (one for general fan activity and another for creative works) that spawned many others specific to certain subtopics. Over time, this expanded into mailing lists, specialized fic archives, blogs, websites, and more, all dedicated to one show about two FBI agents and the possibility of alien life. Of this fan activity, a large percentage of it was dedicated to fanfiction, and which ships (or lack thereof in the case of NoRomos) were superior. The most popular ship was obviously Mulder/Scully, but other popular pairings include Mulder/Krycek, Mulder/Skinner, and Scully/Skinner. Another unique feature of the X-Philes is that they decidedly did not embrace RPF.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Buffy TV series first premiered in 1997, and like The X-Files, it was unique due to its severe genre bending and role reversals. Buffy was the only show where you could watch horror, high school drama, and supernatural romance all in one place, complete with a tiny blonde valley girl who happened to have immense power and immense responsibility. 

In terms of fandom activity, the Buffy fandom was unique because it was one of the first TV fandoms to be active on the internet, and because of the unusually high amount of interaction between the show creators and fans. The official website for the show had an interactive comment space named after the club in Sunnydale, The Bronze, where fans could discuss the show. The thing was, the show’s creators and staff also had access to this page, so fans sharing their opinions and theories were sharing them with the people whose opinions determined the source material, most notably including Joss Whedon himself (Jamison 2013). 

At the beginning of the Buffy fandom, the show creators and FOX were fine with the fansites and other fan activities happening on the internet, but as time went on, many fanworks were lost due to the network’s crackdown on fansites in the early 2000’s.

What’s so special about these shows is how hard they work to disrupt the gender norms that are attached to our society to this day. Mulder is the touchy-feely believer, while Scully is the clinical skeptic. Buffy is a stereotypically girly valley girl who is also incredibly strong, dedicated, and competent; all things not normally associated with traditionally feminine girls and women. These traits, plus the unique things fans brought to the table, created the dominant fandoms of the 90’s that shaped fannish culture and activity forever.

Happy reading,

-KP

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

Kash Patel Took $25,000 From Russia-Linked Firm to Appear on an Anti-FBI TV Series

Last year, Kash Patel, the MAGA provocateur whom Donald Trump has nominated to head the FBI, received $25,000 from a Russia-linked production company to participate in a documentary in which he assailed the FBI and called for closing its headquarters. 

In November, Tucker Carlson’s online network released a six-part series called All the President’s Men: The Conspiracy Against Trump that purported to chronicle the familiar MAGA conspiracy theory that a Deep State plotted against Donald Trump while he was a presidential candidate in 2016 and when he was president. The fourth episode focused on Patel and his years-long crusade to depict the Trump-Russia scandal—Moscow’s attack on the 2016 election and Donald Trump’s efforts to cover up its existence—as nothing but a total hoax orchestrated by nefarious Democrats and rogue government operatives.

In this film—which credits Patel as an executive producer—he offers a blistering attack on the FBI. He calls it a “corrupt” enterprise and claims it has been on the Democratic Party’s “payroll.” He says, “I’m the guy that’s going to tell you they need major reforms. I’m going to tell you to shut down the FBI headquarters building and open it up as a museum of the Deep State the next day. Seriously, you need 50 guys in Washington running the FBI.” He pushes the false claim that the FBI launched its Russia investigation in 2016 on the basis of the infamous and unconfirmed Steele memos. And he insists that the FBI and the rest of the US intelligence community that investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election “knew it didn’t exist.” He also asserts that “globalists” have been working with Al Qaeda to make a profit.

The series was produced for Carlson, who is featured in the final episode, by Global Tree Pictures, a Los Angeles-based firm run by Ukrainian-American-Russian filmmaker Igor Lopatonok. He and Russian-born film director Vera Tomilova, the chief financial officer of Global Tree Pictures, who holds a US green card, are listed in the film’s credits as its producers. Global Tree raised the financing for the series, according to a contract filed in Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy proceedings. (Giuliani also starred in the documentary.)

Lopatonok has ties to Russian propaganda and disinformation efforts. 

In recent years, he has helped lead a Kremlin-financed effort to persuade Westerners to move to Russia. In 2023, he chaired a competition dubbed “To Russia With Love” that invited bloggers to produce content that would show the “most appealing side of Russia” and encourage people to emigrate there. This project was funded by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, a state entity that Putin created in 2021 to “support projects in the field of culture, art and the creative industries.”

One of Lopatonok’s colleagues in this project was John Mark Dougan, a former deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, Florida, who received political asylum in Russia and who has been a key player in Russia’s disinformation operations against the West. In May, the New York Timesreported, “Dougan has built an ever-growing network of more than 160 fake websites that mimic news outlets in the United States, Britain and France.” Dougan was listed on material as a member of the “Expert Council” of the “To Russia with Love” project and as a “mentor” for the winners.

Lopatonok has worked with famed director Oliver Stone on two documentaries on Ukraine that were widely described as pro-Kremlin, One of these films, titled Revealing Ukraine and released in 2019, was apparently financed in part by Ukrainian oligarch and pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Vlast.kz, an independent media outlet in Kazakhstan. The film prominently featured Medvedchuk, a long-time ally of Vladimir Putin who was sanctioned by the United States in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. (Medvedchuk was arrested in Ukraine in 2021 and charged with treason; he was later traded to Russia in a prisoner swap.)

So, according to Patel’s own financial disclosure statement, he pocketed $25,000 from a production company operated by a filmmaker associated with a Kremlin-subsidized propaganda project, a pro-Putin oligarch, and a pro-Kremlin disinformation agent.

Lopatonok also appears to have been doing business—or trying to do business— in Russia. Last year, he and Tomilova set up a company there called Global 3 Pictures, according to Russian corporate records. This is the same name as a corporation they established in California in 2011. The Russian firm, according to the records, intended to produce films and television shows. The corporate listings note that the firm maintained a bank account at state-owned VTB, a bank subject to US sanctions. The records also note that Global 3 Pictures failed to submit a tax return. 

Mother Jones sent Lopatonok and Patel each a list of questions and a request for comment. Neither responded.

The All The President’s Men series was loaded with Russian connections. Its director, Sean Stone, a son of Oliver Stone, hosted a show on RT America, the Russian state-funded network until it was shut down in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For this docuseries, Stone conducted the on-air interviews with Simona Mangiante, the wife of George Papadopoulos, a Trump foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents during the Russia investigation and served 12 days in federal prison.

In another Global Tree Picture film released last year, Hunter’s Laptop—Requiem for Ukraine, a documentary about alleged Biden corruption in Ukraine, Mangiante interviewed Andrii Derkach, whom the US Treasury Department sanctioned in 2020 for serving as a “Russian agent” and spreading disinformation to influence the American election that year—that is, disseminating false stories about then-candidate Joe Biden. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence later notedthat Putin “had purview over” Derkach’s activities, meaning Moscow was running an operation to discredit Biden and help Trump. With this film, Lopatonok and Mangiante amplified the phony assertions peddled by an identified Russian agent.

The scriptwriting team for All the President’s Men included Lopatonok, Tomilova, and George Eliason, an editor at a website called Intelligencerthat posts conservative and Putin-friendly material. Lopatonok and Tomilova are on its editorial board.

All the President’s Men featured the usual assortment of Trump champions who have for years pushed the Deep-State-is-after-Trump conspiracy tale, including Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and Papadopoulos. It’s full of paranoia and debunked claims.

Despite Carlson’s backing, Lopatonok and Tomilova’s series didn’t register much on the media landscape. But it has one intriguing piece of information: Patel’s financial relationship with a production company tied to Russian propaganda and disinformation activity. That is hardly a reassuring credential for an FBI chief.

[drjacquescoulardeau]

THIRD UNDERGROUND HELL’S LOUNGE

THE DESCENT TO HELL IN THREE STAGES – 2003-2015-2019

I brought together three films and series presented here both in English and French in anti-chronological order.

The film 7500, 2019.

The series Blindspot, 2015-2020.

The film The Dreamers, 2003

If you take them in this backward order, you may understand that today’s world is not at all different from the one in 1968 when the Vietnam War was going on full blast, the Chinese Cultural Revolution was in full swing and the West per se was living its first full sexual revolution with the arrival of the baby-boomers to the full unquenchable desire to hormonally and fully enjoy life. Have some interesting reading.

FIRST STAGE – AMAZON STUDIOS – 7500 – 2019

There is little to say about such a film. It is just artificial entertainment that shows nothing and proves nothing. It is all stressing detail to keep the audience glued to the screen.

SECOND STAGE – BLINDSPOT – FULL SERIES – FIVE SEASONS – 2015-2020

A very long series for very little apart from stressed and stressful situations that always end well anyway, meaning leading to a worse situation in the next episode.

THIRD STAGE – BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI – THE DREAMERS – 2003

Paris Spring 1968. We all know what happened then in France. The victory of the unions, the defeat of the left, and the impossibility for the left to understand that any “events” of that sort will always lead to the victory of the right in the next elections, and today we have to update the data and say the victory of the extreme right. It might be slightly more complex, but basically, that’s what it is and when the left wins this social-minded left will become conservative within at the most two years and it might even turn reactionary within these two years, at times even less. They like power so much.

It's interesting to bring Paris 1968 in lilne with modern hijacking of planes and a five-year long series on plotting in the USA against the US government, first of all FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, etc. Terrorism always starts within the borders of the country concerned. Homeland Conspirational Terrorism.

Éditions La Dondaine, Medium.com, 2024

10 Pages

Terrorism,  *  Conspiracy Theories, *  Cinema,  *  TV Series,  *  History, cinema, literature and theory in and around May 1968 in Paris.

[ear-worthy]

New iHeart Series About The Conviction of Black Activist To Debut

Like many, H. Rap Brown has a complicated legacy. He was a human rights activist, Muslim cleric, black separatist, a convicted robber, and convicted murderer who was the fifth chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s. He served as the Black Panther Party's minister of justice during a short-lived (six months) alliance between SNCC and the Black Panther Party.

Yet over 20 years later, questions still linger about his arrest, trial, and conviction. Perhaps the biggest piece of exculpatory evidence is the confession by Otis Jackson of the murders before Brown's trial. At the time, the court did not consider Jackson's statement as evidence.

 Premiering December 5, 2023, the podcast tells the story of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a Muslim leader who was convicted of shooting two sheriff’s deputies — one fatally —in 2000, outside a mosque in one of Atlanta’s oldest neighborhoods. Prior to converting to Islam, Al-Amin was known as the Black Power activist H. Rap Brown, and was one of the most polarizing figures of the movement, gaining a reputation as a charismatic orator and passionate revolutionary. H. Rap Brown was an honorary officer in the Black Panther Party, and like his peers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King JR., and Stokely Carmichael, was a target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO surveillance program.

The trial for the shootings took place just months after the September 11 attacks — a time of unprecedented anti-Muslim fervor in the United States — and Jamil Al-Amin was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.  Al-Amin, in prison to this day, has maintained his innocence, and by 2020, a glimmer of hope emerges as a “conviction integrity unit” begins to reexamine the case.

Leading Atlanta-based independent content production company Tenderfoot TV, and award-winning podcast studio Campside Media, have announced a multi-show partnership agreement. Both of the first-announced series sit at the intersection of social justice, true crime, and journalism, focused on stories from Atlanta, Georgia, where both companies have roots.

“Radical” is hosted by Mosi Secret, a former reporter for The New York Times and ProPublica who grew up in Atlanta’s African-American Muslim community. Secret takes listeners through this odyssey that spans the Jim Crow South, the Civil Rights Movement, the War on Drugs, and post-9/11 America, unraveling a story that transcends a murder trial to explore the impact on a community of Black Muslims in the South, revealing something deeper about violence in America, and who deserves to be called radical.

“Jamil Al-Amin was a crucial figure in Black history, and a vibrant leader who played an integral role in establishing a religious community in one of Atlanta’s oldest neighborhoods, yet many people do not know his story,” said “Radical” host, Mosi Secret. “This podcast is not just a story of a brutal murder and a manhunt, but a complex historical and political story, and one that showcases the consequences of violence for a small community of African American Muslims in the South.”

On the heels of the recently announced Cop City documentary with award-winning production company Ventureland, Tenderfoot TV and Campside Media will release an investigative podcast surrounding Atlanta’s controversial proposed police training facility. The indie podcast will cover the protests, violence, arrests and accusations of domestic terrorism erupted last year in response to the proposed $90M, 85-acre ‘Cop City,’ which is set to become one of the largest militarized police training centers in the United States. Told in eight episodes, the narrative will center specifically on the death of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, a young activist killed by police in January 2023.

“Atlanta’s cultural and political influence is unmatched both nationwide and globally. The stories and figures that have shaped Atlanta — both historical and present-day — are as complex as the city itself,” said Donald Albright, CEO of Tenderfoot TV. “We’re proud to partner with Campside Media to take a deeper dive into the events taking place in our own backyard and told through the voices of our neighbors.”

[xtruss]

More Honest, Rational People Now Speaking-up Against Big Brother US' Monitoring, Surveillance

— Giancarlo Elia Valori | May 18 2023

Photo: VCG

Both Julian Assange (since 2010) and Edward Joseph Snowden (precisely 10 years ago) revealed secret information revealing that the US used the internet to steal secrets and also monitor its allies. Many countries - especially those most friendly to the White House - are unable to escape Big Brother's monitoring and surveillance.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) acts covertly and it can even be said that there is no limit to its capabilities. By the end of 2016, there were already over 5,000 hackers in the hacking division - the Center for Cyber Intelligence under CIA alone.

The reason why such a complex branch is set up is because CIA's "tailor-made" monitoring and surveillance tools are adapted for various very common devices that would go unnoticed and never attract attention. In the case of household appliances, the CIA's Embedded Devices Branch (EDB) created a hack called Weeping Angel, which targets Samsung smart TVs and puts them in a "fake off" state. People think the TV set is off, but a bug is actually on and records conversations in the room and sends them over the Internet to the CIA servers.

The CIA's Mobile Device Branch (MDB) has also developed a variety of attack "weapons" against smartphones. Infected mobile devices send the user's geographic location, as well as audio and text information to CIA and, without the users knowing it, secretly activating the phone's camera and microphone. In a nutshell, these things are seen every day in movies, TV series, etc., but naïve audiences consider them to be mere science fiction.

Many people might wonder why CIA needs so much information even from the life of ordinary people. One of the noticeable CIA aims is to instigate "color revolutions" in the sense of searching for and finding groups of people in advance, helping in the dissemination of fake information, promoting protests and continuously escalating internal conflicts in the chosen country. For decades CIA has at least overthrown or attempted to overthrow the legitimate governments of more than 50 countries. Also, the US also wants to strengthen its control over its allies.

On June 16, 2020, The Washington Post reported that the CIA's hacking tools were stolen in 2016. According to an internal report drafted for then-director Mike Pompeo and his deputy, Gina Haspel, the CIA's theft of top-secret computer hacking tools in 2016 was the result of a workplace culture in which the agency's elite computer hackers "prioritised building cyber weapons at the expense of protecting their own systems."

The breach - allegedly committed by a CIA employee - was discovered a year later, when the information was published by WikiLeaks in March 2017. The anti-secrecy group dubbed the release Vault 7, and US officials said it was the largest unauthorized disclosure of classified information in CIA history, forcing the agency to shut down some intelligence operations and thus alerting foreign opponents to the spy agency's methods and techniques.

Just consider that the breach occurred almost three years after Edward Snowden - at the time a contractor for the National Security Agency - stole and leaked classified information on the surveillance operations of the aforementioned agency.

After the incident was disclosed, the US was condemned by all walks of life in the country. The US continues to create hacking tools to attack others, but has never thought that one day it might be attacked by its own tools. This backlash causes not only economic damage, but also a loss of national credibility.

In April 2023, following an investigation into the removal and disclosure of hundreds of classified Pentagon documents, 21-year-old Jack Douglas Teixeira, an airman in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested by FBI agents and charged with unauthorized appropriation and transmission of national defence information in breach of the Espionage Act of 1917 and with unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents or material.

From Assange to Snowden and Jack Teixeira, those exposing the truth about US surveillance around the world are getting ever younger. At the same time, an increasing number of former US officials such as Ms Karen Unger Kwiatkowski - a former lieutenant-colonel in the US Air Force - are coming forward to tell the truth, precisely because the values in which they used to believe are beginning to falter.

Internationally, the US is receiving increasing condemnation and even the United Nations has formally expressed its concerns. In the dispute between "reason of State" and democracy, we see an increasing number of honest and rational people continuing to stand up and speak the truth, starting with US citizens.

As increasing evidence is revealed, we should also be more vigilant not to enable technology to take its course and bring the world to the brink of danger.

European leaders have also been targets of US spying. The European ruling classes are fully aware that they are under US control, and the fear of retaliation - should they take a different direction from the one indicated by the US - turn them into the aforementioned assistant referees in football matches or servants to the national leader in power. Their only responsibilities are petty matters of domestic policy, and the struggle to protect, strengthen and extend their political terms of offices as guarantees of excellent economic prebends, sinecures and rewards.

— The author is President of the Foundation for International Studies and Geopolitics and Honorary Professor of Peking University.

[mourningmaybells]

should i recommend succession to my dad?

i saw that one post about what happened to the guy after he watched succession and i don’t want that to happen

[pretty-boys-book-club]

— about me.

Welcome to my page, I have always loved to write during my free time, so I just thought I might share my writing with the rest of the internet. I currently work as a PR account executive, but I write on my spare time and blog during my breaks :)

This blog is dedicated to all things Criminal Minds, I'm currently writing a series about Spencer Reid, but please do feel free to send in requests for other characters too, as my inbox is wide open!

basic info.

my name is Cat

I’m from Latin America

I'm an immigrant

I’m 25 years old

my birthday is in May

my zodiac big three are gemini ☼, taurus ☾, aquarius ↑

my height is 171 cm (5′6″)

my personality type is ENTP

I’m straight-ish?

my pronouns are she/her

the languages I speak are English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese (currently learning French)

Requests are currently closed.

masterlist

my AO3 account

taglist

fic recommendations

nsfw side blog

this user: believes black lives matter, thinks women's rights are humans rights, believes no human being is illegal, listens to scientific evidence, believes that trans women are women, believes trans men are men, is pro-choice, pro-LGBTQIA+, BLM, ACAB, anti-colonialism and anti-U.S. imperialism.

please keep in mind that shows like Criminal Minds are actual FBI/U.S. government propaganda (thank you @reidactually for pointing out this helpful blog post on the matter)

more under the cut

favorites.

characters I love ♡ : Spencer Reid, Penelope Garcia, Emily Prentiss, Dale Cooper, Stiles Stilinksi, Lydia Martin, Remus Lupin, Ben Wyatt and more.

movies: my favorite movie is probably The Shining, but I really enjoy a wide variety of films, from Hitchcock's Rear Window, all things David Lynch, The Dreamers (2003), Pride and Prejudice (2005), Studio Ghibli animations and much more. I'm a film buff, what can I say? I enjoy all types of movies! Star Wars, MCU, Harry Potter and all that geeky things too.

tv shows: so many! Criminal Minds, True Blood, Twin Peaks, Teen Wolf, The X-Files, Westworld, Supernatural, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Good Omens, The Crown, Killing Eve, Mindhunter, The Americans, Fresh Off the Boat, Fleabag, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, My Mad Fat Diary, Community, The Office, Parks and Rec, Mad Men, House, Sense8, The Mandalorian & many more.

music: I'm probably the BIGGEST fan of the band Bastille you'll ever meet, but some artists I really like are Hozier, Florence + The Machine, Dodie, The Lumineers, Fall Out Boy & more. I'm also a big fan of musical theater!

hobbies: writing, drawing (digital art), journaling, podcasting, going to the movies, reading, and cooking

food and snacks: I'm a real foodie, but I specially love tea and all kinds of ice cream. I'm also really into sushi and lamen.

alcohol: apple martini, the classic gin & tonic, rosé and basic white girl stuff (nothing too strong!)

other interests: I have an unnecessarily large collection of candles, I identify as natural witch, know how to read the tarot (love to talk about this!) and, of course, I love all things Halloween.

And that's pretty much all there is to learn about me. Feel free to ask me questions if you are interested in anything else!