“I read the news today, oh boy…”
Ever since John Lennon sang those words on Sgt. Pepper‘s (and likely long before that) the news has had the power to depress us.
The power to shock.
The power to put our day into a tailspin.
But can we avoid the news?
And, perhaps more importantly, what is news?
As for avoidance.
Sometimes it is recommended.
To unplug. To disconnect.
We all hit our saturation points concerning the dissemination of details.
Just what is deemed newsworthy accounts for much of our discomfort in keeping ourselves abreast.
Even as private citizens.
We want to know the goings-on of the world.
Out of a sense of self-preservation. To protect our families.
To be prepared. Informed. Able to make better decisions (we hope).
Today I made the mistake of digging a little deeper than recently.
And I came across several pieces on the ongoing pizzagate controversy.
I must start by saying that I have not followed this story much since the election.
Indeed, if the allegations are true, it is unfathomably revolting.
But there comes a time when waffling has its benefits.
I will just say that I don’t know what the truth is concerning pizzagate.
I’ve seen the pictures. I’ve read the names. I’ve connected the dots.
And now the ball is (back) in the FBI’s court.
[And perhaps that of the NYPD as well]
But it is germane to discuss a parallel matter which bears upon pizzagate.
And that is the coup which Dr. Steve Pieczenik described as having been undertaken by Hillary Clinton and her cabal around the first of November.
Just what was this coup?
Dr. Pieczenik was scant on details.
But perhaps it was the absolving statement of FBI Director James Comey.
And, if we give Mr. Comey the benefit of the doubt (which I’m not sure he deserves), then we might assume that the Clinton coup was largely activated from within the Department of Justice. In essence, Comey’s boss (Loretta Lynch) could very well have compelled the Director to issue that statement at that particular time.
That would, in some ways, be a significant manifestation of a coup in progress.
Contrary to this was the countercoup of which Dr. Pieczenik spoke.
As I have written previously, this countercoup appears to have been initiated by other branches of the U.S. government (particularly the 16 intelligence agencies). Dr. Pieczenik seemed to intimate that it was military intelligence in particular which was taking a lead on countering Clinton’s attempted coup.
Beyond these details (and they are vague), I know not much.
But we should return to pizzagate.
We should consider it as a phenomenon which might have several explanations.
Putting all our cards on the table, it is not out of the question that pizzagate was in itself the countercoup.
Which is not to say the allegations are false.
Indeed, it appears that the instigators of the countercoup were working closely with WikiLeaks to prevent Hillary Clinton from stealing an election by leveraging the Department of Justice (and other parts of the executive branch) improperly.
But there is a further possibility.
And I will pose it as a question.
Have we been the targets of a very sophisticated psychological operation?
And even muddier…did this operation save our country?
Investigating a child kidnapping Satanic ritualistic murder pedophile ring is certainly the purview of federal authorities.
The FBI.
But how much has the FBI been compromised?
Any American with at least two brain cells to rub together lost immense confidence in the Bureau in the years following 9/11.
And so history keeps repeating itself.
Sham investigations. Issues too big to cover.
JFK. 9/11. A litany forwards and backwards.
But I am beating around the bush.
I want to apologize if I have been less-than-stellar in citing my sources in the practice of my film criticism.
This is not an academic site.
I do not seek peer review.
But I do not lie.
I may jump to conclusions.
And yet, I would fancy myself a fairly astute observer.
Apologizing further, I do not seek to defame anyone.
That would be something too horrible to do (especially with the gravity of the pizzagate allegations).
But information will organically find its level as long as law enforcement is neutered by insiders.
Which brings us to a wonderful film by director Clint Eastwood.
This film covers just what we are talking about.
What is right. What is wrong.
What methods are appropriate. What methods are effective.
But at the heart of this controversial film (about a controversial personage) is the idea of serving one’s country.
However, we encounter much here which could fall into the “noble lie” category.
All of that aside, the idea of government service is put in its proper light.
A dirty game, sometimes. But a noble pursuit.
And so this is less a review of the film J. Edgar and more a letter of THANK YOU to the men and women of the FBI.
Thank you for taking upon yourselves the stress of seeing unspeakable atrocities.
Thank you for taking upon yourselves the stress of following every lead.
But we thank you one further:
thank you for remaining humans.
You know the right thing to do.
Do the right thing.
And we will too.
From the depths of our hearts,
we salute you.
A bit late for all your thankless tasks gone by.
And in advance of your excellence…your leading by example…your adherence to the highest ethics…which we know will be evident in your future work.
-PD
Tomorow I am going to see a romanian film called Bacalaureat I can’t wait watch for the review.
Awesome 🙂 I love Romanian films! Have a good time, my friend!! –Paul
I live by this principle: See something. Say something.
Yeah, our Department of Homeland Security went with that as an advertising campaign for awhile. In fact, I think they are still employing that verbiage. A good portion of the backlash against it seemed to stem from the U.S. gov installing (or at least paying for ad time) in checkout lines at Walmart. Unfortunately, the DHS was a bit daft and heavy-handed in this effort to encourage vigilance. The pushback from citizens has been the perception that this campaign encourages a snitch state. I believe surveillance is necessary for safety (something on which I previously disagreed with you). The problem comes when massively powerful surveillance tools are abused. Wall Street Journal today had an article about the DHS attempting to hack the U.S. state of Georgia’s elections office on Nov. 15. The governor of that state sent a letter in the past days to DHS head Jeh Johnson. Intelligence agencies don’t seem to have grasped the macro social skills necessary to implement their safety programs with the blessing of the general populace in the U.S. The technology seems ahead of the philosophy and social science nuances. Safety will suffer as long as the perception persists that a good number of surveillance activities are of an unnecessarily intrusive, brute force type. –Paul
Yes; mass surveillance is a controversial topic. I do support it, as long as the government doesn’t behave like The Joker.
I was using the quote in a different context: See something: an injustice. Say something about it. That’s what we bloggers do.
Indeed 🙂 Thank you Chris! Me too!! I appreciate your candor in your writings even if I don’t always agree with your conclusions. I learn a great deal from your perspective! Thank you!!! –Paul