Just a thread to try to figure out what's going on with the newest most popular conspiracies, to post items over time. Because I recently saw these things that blew my mind:

A DC lawmaker has apologized for saying Jewish people control the weather

By P.R. Lockhart @ Vox.com, March 19, 2018

[....] Trayon White, who is currently in his first term on the council, posted a video to his Facebook account on Friday of a snowy sky. White can be heard narrating in the background about the cold weather.

“It just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” White says in the video, which was first reported on by the Washington Post on March 18. “That’s a model based off the Rothschilds, controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.” [....]

 

At first I thought maybe he was doing a terrible anti-Semitic joke, but no, if ones goes to the March 18 Washington Post article by Peter Jamison and Valerie Straus, it doesn't sound like that:

[....] White did not return calls for comment. In a series of text messages, he confirmed the voice in the video is his but expressed surprise that his remarks might be construed as anti-Semitic. Asked to clarify what he meant, he wrote, “The video says what it says.”

However, about four hours after The Washington Post published this story online Sunday, White sent a statement of apology via text message.

“I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended,” he said. “The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues.” [....]

White’s video statements appear to echo beliefs, found lurking in corners of the Internet, that the Rockefeller Foundation’s Resilient Cities initiative — which provides grants to cities, including the District, to address environmental and economic problems — is actually part of a secret scheme to control and reduce the population of North America. 

Some conspiracy theorists also think the Rothschilds, acting in conjunction with the Rockefeller family, have technology to manipulate the weather — for example, by causing freak storms that wreak havoc on people, farms and livestock.

In a video posted to YouTube this year titled “Kill Cities — Designed by Rothschild and Rockefeller: Resilient Cities Are Human Death Zones,” Internet commentator Deborah Tavares — a Northern California resident who argues, among other things, that climate change and wireless electricity meters are tools in a plot of global domination — calls the Resilient Cities program a “diabolical” effort to manipulate people.

“This a genocide program,” she says. “We are being moved now into what they call ‘resilient cities.’ And it’s important to get this word out, start looking it up: Resilient cities. Understand what this is: This is a plan brought in by Rothschild and Rockefeller.”

She adds, “We’re being categorized as lunatics, but we know that the weather is massively and completely, artificially controlled.” [....]

Well, okay, another handful of conspiracy nuts. Who will always be with us.

BUT THEN, I just read this, my underlining:

Americans skeptical of government, more politically engaged, poll finds

By David Wright @ CNN.com, March 19

Majorities of Americans expressed concern about government surveillance and the influence of unelected officials on government policy in a new poll released Monday by Monmouth University [....]

Monmouth found that 23% of Americans are very worried and 30% are somewhat worried about government monitoring and invasion of privacy, and that concern cuts across partisan lines. Majorities of independents (57%), Republicans (51%) and Democrats (50%) expressed some level of worry. Overall, 46% said they weren't too worried or weren't worried at all.

Regardless of concern, a vast majority -- 8 in 10 -- believe that the US government does currently monitor the activities of American citizens, with 53% saying it's widespread and 29% saying that it happens but is not widespread. Just 14% of Americans believe the US government is not spying on citizens at all.

Asked about the influence of unelected officials on government policy, 6 in 10 said they have too much influence, while just 26% said there was an appropriate balance with elected leaders.

Monmouth also surveyed opinions on the "deep state" specifically, referred to in the poll as "a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy." Most Americans said they were unfamiliar with the term (63%), while about a quarter (24%) said they were somewhat familiar and just 13% said they were very familiar.

When given the above description of the "deep state" and asked whether such a group exists, 27% said definitely, 47% said probably and the remainder were unsure or skeptical.

In a curious example of cross-partisanship, the Monmouth poll found that belief in the existence of the "deep state" was highest among nonwhites and National Rifle Association members [....]