The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Conspiracy Theories are Fun and Magical

    Great title for a long term thread, so I am stealing it with this first example:

    Comments

    Wow. "these children are being tortured... murdered and eaten." The important question here is how are they cooked? I was hanging out with a couple of cannibals and one said, "I caught one of those black robed guys and he wasn't very tasty." "How did you cook him?" "I boiled him in a pot with some potatoes and vegetables." "Ah, that was your problem. He was a fry-er (friar)."


    Quit asking so many questions. Forget the dead and eaten for now, we gotta save those still alive. If you would just sign the petition, the White House would get on it and the Marines forensics would figure it all out.


    How can people eat pizza in a time like this - no compassion for victims?


    Well if it's a traditional pizza it's probably ok. But then you'd have to only use the meat from Italian children.


    But Italy's down to <2 children per family - it's not like the old days when 1 or 2 wouldn't be missed - prosciutto in short supply.


    Conspiracy theorists keep their Ginsburg death claims alive

    By Jacqueline Thomsen @ TheHill.com, April 6

    Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been keeping busy since her cancer surgery in late December: She has returned to the bench to hear oral arguments, authored opinions and even made a few public appearances outside the courtroom.

    But conspiracy theorists aren’t buying it, with some arguing that the 86-year-old justice has been dead for weeks and that Democrats are covering it up to stop President Trump from filling her seat.

    The Supreme Court has been bombarded with Twitter users demanding evidence that Ginsburg is still alive, while some online videos allege her public appearances have been manufactured.

    There are also claims that audio of her from recent Supreme Court oral arguments has been doctored and is nothing more than phrases pieced together from earlier recordings of her remarks [....]


    It's so ridiculous. I found this picture of Ginsberg at work in her office. Alive and well.

     


    you so bad. devil


    That's not fair - I found an old picture of her and she's aged pretty well:


    Where is #RuthBaderGinsburg? pic.twitter.com/6fP78sWs9e

    — James (@FloGrownPatriot) April 28, 2019

    More excuses. Where’s Ruth? #qanon https://t.co/RNaD6uGn9Z

    — Patriot Lady Loves METAL (@Microsingular) April 29, 2019

    Where in the flying fuck is Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

    — HillaryClinton.net [AE] (@HCDotNet) May 5, 2019

     


    Last I heard she's on maternity leave - think she gets 3 months, though if like Europe, could get up to 2 years for 1st child.


    this fits your theory: she has scheduled to shuffle off to Buffalo in August. Of course that could also all be part of the ruse.

    Edit to add: whatever they are hiding, the Swedish minister of foreign affairs appears to be in on it.


    That's it - they're deciding where to extradite Assange first, Sweden or US.


    Meanwhile under the White House (which is not real but a hologram for Area 51) there are Japanese dogs, cats and baboons cooking rice....


    American Chronicles: What’s New About Conspiracy Theories?

    Outsiders have always had a weakness for paranoid fantasies. Now our leaders are conspiracists, too. 

    By Elizabeth Kolbert @ NewYorker.com, April 15

    [....] America has always had a weakness for paranoid fantasies. According to some historians, the Founding Fathers were moved to write the Declaration of Independence by groundless fears of a British plot. “Conspiracy Theories in American History,” a two-volume encyclopedia, runs from “Abolitionism” to “zog.” (zog, an acronym used by survivalists, is shorthand for the “Zionist Occupied Government,” which, the encyclopedia explains, refers to an “international Jewish conspiracy to undermine U.S. sovereignty and true Christianity.”) In between are some three hundred entries, including “Black Helicopters,” “Contrails,” “Illuminati,” “Moon Landings,” “Pan Am 103,” and “Roswell.”

    In this context, Pizzagate and QAnon could be considered madness as usual—just two late-alphabet entries in the annals of national crankdom. But is that all there is to it? Or are deeper, darker forces at work? A confirmed conspiracist now occupies the White House and, “no collusion” notwithstanding, there’s evidence that an international conspiracy put him there. Coincidence? To paraphrase Q, perhaps it’s time to “expand our thinking.”

    Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum are professors of government at, respectively, Dartmouth and Harvard. A few years ago, they found themselves, in their words, “startled into thought.” Yes, they knew, crazy ideas were a fixture of American life. But not this crazy. “The subject required more detailed and thoughtful interpretation,” the two write at the beginning of “A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy.”

    “Classic” conspiracy theories, according to Muirhead and Rosenblum, arise in response to real events—the assassination of John F. Kennedy, say, or the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Such theories, they argue, constitute a form of explanation, however inaccurate they may be. What sets theories like QAnon apart is a lack of interest in explanation. Indeed, as with the nonexistent child-trafficking ring being run out of the nonexistent basement, “there is often nothing to explain.” The professors observe, “The new conspiracism sometimes seems to arise out of thin air.”

    The constituency, too, has shifted. Historically, Muirhead and Rosenblum maintain, it’s been out-of-power groups that have been drawn to tales of secret plots. Today, it’s those in power who insist the game is rigged, and no one more insistently than the so-called leader of the free world [.....]

    the piece continues at length including reviews and summaries of several other books on topic. 



    This is actually a very interesting piece not just on an inspirational white supremacy wingnut conspiracy, but also the commonalities of "magical thinking" between recent anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim nut cases:


    Not sure what makes this a "wingnut conspiracy theory" - US liberals have been touting that magical moment when minorities replace obsolete white folk for 20 something years now, curiously equating "diverse" with "overwhelmingly Mexican", though that's extended to "plus Central American" the last few years. Never has been quite plain where blacks will come out in this equation, though Asians have largely fit in as "acceptable, but too smart", probably requiring some adjustment of school admissions. White women have a bit of an edge over white men, but there's a fair bit of "white bitches know what's going on and enable white men", kind of a woozy hugely extrapolated "Hillary dissed Bill's sluts" reasoning, but after all, we're talking conspiracy and unhinged thought.

    So oops, white peeps didn't just roll into their graves/meander off into space/hand over the keys, and as the movie line goes, "I'm still here!" though when you try to kill a poltergeist and fail, things turn really ugly.

    (white pipple also wonder about the logic that darker skinned immigrants will help America grow based on the skills they developed in Haiti, Venezuela, yes Somalia and other famed "shithole countries" if let in in large enough quantities. For those of us with some math and science training, "saturation", "diminishing returns", "overload" or the common phrase "killing the goose that lays the golden eggs" all come to mind. Never ever ever will you hear someone refer to "maximum carrying capacity" even as we ask white pipple to have fewer kids (which in case anyone's oblivious to it, we started several decades ago, leading to collapsing European population and a greatly diminishing US white population, while other societies watch the slow turn of the still growing bubble they caused 20 years ago (and parts of Africa still pumping it up), but I'm sure we can go kill ourselves if the pace isn't satisfactory). 

    Replacement? Yeah, it's happening. Fortunately some of the replacements are taking on the culture that produces and innovates.


    Ebola is always good to turn to when you're low on inspiration and Ruth Bader Ginsburg turns up in the flesh spouting her own conspiracy ideas:

    The We Build The Wall founder Brian Kolfage has been spreading false rumors for weeks that immigrants w Ebola were crossing the border. Infowars picked it up today, and San Antonio had to address it all in a press conference today:
    “Patently false” https://t.co/gPpn3Z45sH

    — Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) June 12, 2019

    Or Lucifer is always a safe bet:


    And Soros is just as good as Lucifer, especially when you need to cover up the fact that conservatives are taking over the Judiciary:


    This QAnon believer at the 4th of July parade thinks JFK Jr might reveal himself today: “it would be wonderful if he did.” Other QAnon fans have said they’ll wear JFK Jr masks today. pic.twitter.com/mc5MslHOrc

    — Will Sommer (@willsommer) July 4, 2019

    heh heh Bezos drives him nuts:



    all fun and magical until the FBI labels you a terror threat, that is:



    Whoa, the devil be tweaking on high-energy drinks!!!
    Hope no one gives him* an assault rifle, not that he doesn't have the right to carry one.

    *how come some rush to label God as she, but I've never seen a big hurry to make Satan a woman. Ok, Beelzebub doesn't sound very feminine in any language, but just sayin'...


    I was raised in the church. Not fundamentalism, just main stream Luthern, but I know the bible. I studied it Sunday school and Confirmation classes and on my own I read the whole thing a few times. If I still believed in that bullshit I could easily make a very good case that Falwell, Pat Robertson, Trump, most of the leaders of the Christian movement are all tools of the anti-Christ. Just start with the end times prophecy Matthew 24:24.

    For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.

    What I always find so amusing is when liberals choose a quote from the bible, even atheist liberals like me, it's almost always Matthew 25:31-46. When conservative Christians choose to quote is usually something from Leviticus. Something from the old testament instead of from the New Testament.


     Something from the old testament instead of from the New Testament.

    As in: not Christ-ian.  Reading that shit too, you Lutherans were heretics, after all. None of your business looking at those old books without expert interpretation, especially as a kid, that's for priest and scholars. Jesus is the one you are sposed to be listening to.wink


    Yeah, but the purty durty pieces are all in the O.T.


    The conservative Christians justify their obsession with the Old Testament law and then, just the few Old Testament laws they picked to enforce, with one quote from the New Testament.

    17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


    going for the prize, Best in Epstein:

    ICYMI: Why "Jeffrey Epstein faked his death" is the hot conspiracy theory in the QAnon set.https://t.co/pWei7Frs6y

    — Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd) August 13, 2019


    The everybody is eventually related to everybody method:


    and this guy is waaay ahead of him:


    At least not Henry Lee

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/henry-lee-how-many-murder-cases-did-the-ce...

    Or maybe equivalent? Baden office "extremely sloppy":
    https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/17/nyregion/morgenthau-testifies-in-tria...
     

    But Baden’s success has not been without controversy. In 1979, after just 11-months as the chief medical examiner of New York Mayor Ed Koch fired Baden. He claimed that the hot-shot examiner had lost evidence and worked poorly with prosecutors. Baden later won $100,000 in a wrongful termination case, but he was pushed out of the office nonetheless.

    “He is very bright, but he has a propensity for giving out statements and testimony which are not entirely accurate.”

    A few years later, Baden was fired again, when he worked as the deputy medical examiner in Suffolk County on Long Island, according to the Los Angeles Times. An article in Oui Magazine quoted him giving advice for getting away with “high tech murder.” He later denied the quote, but one of his fellow pathologists grumbled about the ethics of a medical examiner giving “advice on how to kill people,” and Baden was forced out.

    In 2007, Baden was again in the news for questionable conduct, this time as he took the stand in the Phil Spector murder trial. He had a fresh theory of how Spector's alleged victim had died, one that provided room for the defense to explain some blood on Spector’s jacket. During cross examination, the prosecutor asked Baden if he had any conflict of interest in this case.

    “None that I can think of,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. Moments later it was revealed his wife was one of Spector’s main attorneys.

    “He is very bright,” said a former classmate of Baden’s, who ran a big city medical examiner’s office around the same time Baden did. “But he has a propensity for giving out statements and testimony which are not entirely accurate.”

    This pathologist, who requested anonymity because of the extraordinary controversy of the Brown case, was particularly critical of Baden’s work in Missouri. He said Brown [typo for Baden? - PP] was way too confident for someone who hadn’t seen x-rays, clothing, or lab reports, “all of which can be important.” It was also worrying that Brown had been embalmed, because that would alter the color of the wounds, potentially throwing off Baden’s analysis of entry and exit wounds, and his count of six bullets.

    “It could be that only three bullets made those wounds,” the pathologist said.

    In 2007, Baden was again in the news for questionable conduct, this time as he took the stand in the Phil Spector murder trial. He had a fresh theory of how Spector's alleged victim had died, one that provided room for the defense to explain some blood on Spector’s jacket. During cross examination, the prosecutor asked Baden if he had any conflict of interest in this case.

    “None that I can think of,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. Moments later it was revealed his wife was one of Spector’s main attorneys.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/who-dr-michael-...

    And then for some asphyxiation-related testimony:

    In his 2005 testimony Baden was asked to present his formal findings regarding the cause of death.

    According to the court transcript he replied, “Blunt force injuries to the face, head and brain, and traumatic compression of the neck. Traumatic compression of neck with asphyxia, inability to breathe. Homicidal assault.”

    However, during Thursday’s hearing Baden said he’d made a mistake and the statement was not completely accurate. Baden said he’d used the phrase “inability to breathe” as a way of characterizing asphyxia to a lay audience even though in this particular case “asphyxia” referred to the interruption of blood flow to the brain and not air flow.

    “It was an unnecessarily gratuitous comment,” Baden said.

    Judge Geoffrey Crawford. File photo.

    Judge Geoffrey Crawford. File photo

    Judge Geoffrey Crawford said his primary interest relative to the Daubert challenge was not to determine the cause of death but whether the methodology explaining the cause of death was sound.

    “I’m interested in making sure the scientific process lines up,” he told the courtroom. “If I get it wrong,” he added, “one of the possible outcomes is a third trial.”

    A witness for the defense, Dr. Charles Wetli, deputy chief medical examiner for Florida’s Dade County for nearly 20 years and later Suffolk County in New York, argued there was a single cause of death: “blunt cranial cerebral trauma.” Wetli said there was no evidence to support Baden’s conclusion that the neck injuries were lethal.

    “It doesn’t make any sense that there would be an asphyxial component here,” he testified.

    Wetli also faulted Baden for not performing a layer-wise neck dissection during the autopsy, for failing to include body diagrams, and not attaching a toxicology report to the final document, which he said was standard practice. According to Wetli, the more comprehensive neck dissection could’ve revealed additional information relevant to determining the cause of death.

    U.S. Attorney William Darrow said Wetli and Baden agreed on the majority of relevant matters and that their differences should be decided by a jury. The defense argued that the two men agreed on only one cause of death — the traumatic brain injury — and the assertion that the neck injuries were lethal would not meet the Daubert standard.

    https://vtdigger.org/2016/09/25/medical-examiner-recants-testimony-alleg...

    And during the Derek Medina trial, Baden asserted that the wife victim was standing (presumably hitting her husband?) while being shot, whereas the prosecution had prevented graphic reconstruction showing the wife cowering/kneeling when her husband began shooting after which he posted photos of her rivited body to Facebook. Medina was convicted & life sentence upheld. Sorry, Michael.

    I'm so sure some professional will put this Epstein confusion to rest.

     


    when even Trump rally planners don't  want to be associated with you: