Author: Mark J. Heinicke

Darkening Future for Protesters

Thanks to some  dogged sleuthing on the part of investigative journalists at The Intercept, we can hear the pitter-patter of little security-agent feet taking baby steps toward a police state in the good old land of the free and the home of the brave. See:

Police State Rising

As you read the article, you may find yourself wondering, who is better entitled to be paranoid—pipeline builders  and their private police forces or pipeline protestors? OK, that’s rhetorical question, but I say it to underscore the imbalance between the two forces. The language used by security agency “TigerSwan” would be comical if it were not so darkly ominous: protestors are likened to jihadists, and combating the “anti-DAPL [anti-Dakota Access Pipeline] diaspora” calls for “aggressive intelligence preparation of the battlefield.”

Continue reading “Mercenaries Track Pipeline Protesters”

It’s as Insane as It Looks

Most of us, after we have recovered from the initial shock and horror of a suicide bombing such as the recent atrocity in Manchester, ponder the mystery of the suicide bomber. What could be the motivation for something so horrific?  Here is a person who commits an act that he knows 99.9% of humanity will consider monstrous.  It is an act done for a cause which any rational person will conclude is doomed—if by “cause” we mean the creation of a worldwide caliphate ruled by psychopaths such as the leaders of the Islamic State.

It’s irrational, and a lot more irrational than the common wisdom supposes. We generally conceive of the suicide bomber as a self-identified martyr—s/he is not crazed any more than the first wave of soldiers to hit Omaha Beach on D-Day.

Are suicide bombers “sane?” Some say that self-destructive zealots are sane if their acts are based on a belief system made legitimate by authorities who purport to translate the Mind of God.

Continue reading “Suicide Bombers and Mental Illness”

Beyond Fake News: Hidden Persuaders Shifting the Ground beneath Our Feet

Fifty years ago, Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders drew attention to the methods by which advertisers manipulated the psyches of consumers to desire certain things—in part to gain advantage over competitors selling things people needed (food, medicine, soap), and in part to get people to desire what they did not desire until the advertiser influenced them to (Caribbean vacations, cars with enormous fins, hula-hoops).

The advertising game has not changed a lot since then, and many of the devices used to influence consumers have become so transparent you’d think most of us would simply laugh—making an association between a car and an ocean wave, a candy bar and a seduction.  But somebody’s not laughing, otherwise sponsors would not be dishing out humongous gobs of money to keep the games going. (For now we leave aside the question of sponsors themselves  being duped, forking zillions over to ad agencies  for advertisements that don’t get proportional results.)

Continue reading “Goodby, Autonomy – Not That You’d Notice”

Keep your eyes open for Mad Magazine June issue with First Daughter and First Son-in-Law on the cover.

Kushner/Albert Hybrid Hits Mad Cover

Susan Collins, of All People, Engages in Double Speak: A Manifestation of Fear?

Maine Senator Susan Collins’s defense of the firing of James Comey was a very peculiar move—Collins being someone who is known for her willingness to buck the party line, in particular supporting the funding of Planned Parenthood (successfully), and voted (successfully! joined by McCain and Graham) against repeal of Obama administration regulations restricting methane emissions. (Whether Pruitt will enforce the regulation is, unfortunately another matter.)

So. . . what calls for explanation:

What’s most troubling is that an independent-minded Republican would resort to specious public statements in defense of Trump.

Continue reading “Cross Me, and I’ll Cut You Off at the Knees”