It has long been known in some circles that the CIA appropriated the term Conspiracy Theory (if it did not, in fact, invent it) to disparage and marginalize the critics of the Warren Commission Report.

The document 'educated' CIA employees on the 'correct' responses to criticisms of the Warren Commission Report and was an unabashed attempt to manipulate public opinion via the press (the CIA doesn't hold 'pressers', thus their information channels are usually through front companies and anonymous sources).

Regardless of the veracity of the Warren Commission Report, the document is emblematic of the culture of presumed superiority present in the government and intelligence communities during that era – after all, this is the same CIA that was conducting uncontrolled experiments on unsuspecting human subjects at the same they were touting their infallibility (is there any reason to believe things have changed?) The language of the CIA Dispatch dated 1 April 1967 (FOIA Document #1035-960) is clinical and dispassionate, but that has the inverse effect of contributing to the smugness of its message.

Skepticism is a vital tenet of a republican government and the inability to question a government's actions, motives, and processes is the hallmark of monarchies and dictatorships.

As it did with Instagram, Facebook is planning to remove the number of Likes on a post. (The Like function will remain in place, but it won't count them for you).

There's an old saying in marketing, "If you take something away, you must replace it with something." Facebook doesn't seem to be doing that, so how will people get their validation and quantify their self–worth?

Some people are all aflutter (aTwitter?) because Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez called the detention centers at the southern border "concentration camps" and they automatically jumped from concentration camp to "Nazi Death Camp".

Brittanica's definition of concentration camp: "… internment centre for political prisoners and members of national or minority groups who are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, or punishment, usually by executive decree or military order."

Gallup reports that 43% of Americans have a favorable view of socialism, with 58% affirmative for respondents aged eighteen to thirty-four.

Considering the outstanding models for socialism are human rights-challenged Saudi Arabia and civilization-challenged Venezuela, I would be curious to see the plans for a new and improved socialist model after centuries of failures.

Brazil's President Bolsonaro has become increasingly unpopular thus it appears that the powers that be have decided that he is responsible for the Amazon's annual fire cycle.

The fires have received excessive press coverage and even 'spurred' riots in London and even an agenda item at the G8 conference, but NASA reports the fires to be on par for the last fifteen years (Africa is also on fire, but nobody reports that), with above average activity in Amazonas and Rondônia.

Attorney General William Barr has accepted the finding of suicide as the manner of death for Jeffrey Epstein.

Henceforth, the inclination to accept a load of horse feathers as gospel truth shall be known as Epstein-Barr Syndrome.